Backup services

jmstacey

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Joined
Feb 12, 2004
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I am exploring the option of adding Backup services to our service product lineup.

Essentially, the backup service would work for anyone with FTP and RSYNC support.

Here's the fun part. Besides direct access using the two protocols mentioned above, a special plugin for DirectAdmin would be developed and made available to provide easier backup and restore tasks.
The goal would be faster and more streamlined backups and restores.

Here is what I've got in mind.

Admin level backup plugin similar to the reseller level backup options. It would automatically make incremental remote backups to our dedicated backup servers yet retain the integrity of the backups so that DA would still be able to restore them individually if desired.

Admin level restore option similar to the reseller level backup options. It would display a list of all available backups on the remote server with restore options.

Backups would be stored on our high data capacity servers and charged per gigabyte of storage used. A rough figure right now is $0.50/GB
Custom options would also be available in purchasing your own managed dedicated server.

This is just a general idea. I'd love to hear suggestions for the plugin and pricing. Anything that would make the service viable for your business.

I look forward to hearing your feedback.
 
I might be interested if it has the option to backup to my own backup servers located in my own rack.

I would be more interested if I could enable/disable remote backup on a per user basis.

Pricewise I would pay $ 0 for the backupserver solution and $30 - $50 per "client" server (the plugin).

Regards,
 
So what are the features you are most looking for in the plugin? At the moment the only major difference from the reseller level backups are ALL users in one place and incremental backups.
 
Restoring the user and reseller packages would be a bonus, restoring resellers as resellers would also be great :)
 
I agree with Onno that you should be able to backup within your own rack(s).

Will certainly gives this a thought later this day.
 
I have to agree with Onno. Being able to restore a reseller as a reseller would make it a must-have product.

Jeff
 
I'll have to agree that a backup solution to our own servers would be a fantastic plug-in.

Anthony
 
Hi. great idea. Check out 4PSA's total backup for a product that is currently being sold (for a different panel)..

http://www.4psa.com/products/4psatbackup.php

Personally, I'd like to see a backup (AND restore!) product that is designed for critical failures.

ie. I'd like to be able to go to my DC, pull the disc drive from the server, smash it to pieces with a hammer shouting at it. Then, calm down a little, put a new drive in, install a minimal linux OS with the same partition layout and then run the restore function from your product to have the server back up and running as it was before with as little fuss as possible.

This might be a bit of a dream, but consider that I really want backups for disaster recovery (and not a user deleted a file and wants it back - something I can handle with the DA backup system, or a simple cron that tars up the home directories).

Something like this would be perfect so I didn't forget anything in my backups, and would minimise downtime if my server did die on me.

I suppose 2 products - a client-orientated one for the user-deleted-file issue, and a server-oriented one for disaster recovery might be a good thing to consider.

Oh, and I'd want it to backup to a separate partition (so I could rsync it off regularly), or a straight ftp copy to my own backup server. I would not buy backup space that was tied to a given backup product, I might buy backup space separately though.
 
A product similar to the 4PSA product is on our production list. It will be priced similarly as well.

But I don't know how soon we can get to it; We're keeping very busy lately.

Jeff
 
jmstacey said:
I am exploring the option of adding Backup services to our service product lineup.
Not having an integrated incremental backup solution built into DA that meets those requirements will keep it forever a niche control panel. You won't find many resellers willing or able to roll their own.

More and more people are asking and being hosted on our servers. When people purchase hosting, there is an industry-wide expectation that they will be able to call for a get a restore if they need it. DA currently does not have a manageable backup system to meet base-line industry requirements.

Today we find ourselves asking the question, is DA the right control panel for us going forward? In the short term we are looking into having something custom setup for backup. For the long term, we are currently leasing reseller accounts at other hosting companies for the purpose of evaluating control panels for our own servers.
 
There seems to be a beta implementation of this feature in the latest version. I haven't had time to look at it extensively however, so check it out.
 
jmstacey said:
There seems to be a beta implementation of this feature in the latest version. I haven't had time to look at it extensively however, so check it out.
Thanks! Has anyone here tried it out or know its capabilities or know where I can learn about its capabilities?
 
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jlasman said:
A product similar to the 4PSA product is on our production list. It will be priced similarly as well.

But I don't know how soon we can get to it; We're keeping very busy lately.
Just a short note to add that we've decided to not create this product; making sure it would restore properly for every possible DA configuration was turning into a nightmare for us.

Jeff
 
jlasman said:
Just a short note to add that we've decided to not create this product; making sure it would restore properly for every possible DA configuration was turning into a nightmare for us. Jeff
That I could believe. Just setting up all the different OSs would be "fun" enough let alone learning all of them and the time it would take to jockey the license around to test them all.

The nightmare for me is the thought of running a hosting business without an automated and well thought out backup solution. It looks as though DA will only work for our own sites where we can recreate using our own knowledge. We are also hosting other companies now. We are forced to find something different it appears.
 
Licensing is never an issue. Except perhaps a financial one :) .

We host and manage hosting for lots of folk.

We have an automated backup system, sysbk.

We also have a restore system in place, but it's specifically for our configurations.

We suggest you create that for yourself. Then you're sure you can restore your servers.

And those you manage.

Jeff
 
We have an automated backup system, sysbk. We also have a restore system in place, but it's specifically for our configurations. We suggest you create that for yourself. Then you're sure you can restore your servers.
It looks like that's what we'll have to do.

Thanks!
 
This is for people to backup to your own servers only?

I would like to see a scp option for backups as well as the ability to choose scp port.
 
Both the sysbk systems backup and the user and reseller backups have an ftp option.

FTP is much faster than scp, though certainly not as secure. For scp to work users on the receiving end have to have shall permissions.

And scp moves compressed data much more slowly than does ftp.

Jeff
 
the main reason scp can be slower then ftp is not because of compression (unless its a 386 or something) but because it uses smaller tcp buffers which I fix by using the hpn patch when I compile sshd. I can often achieve 80mbit+ on a transfer going over scp and its easy to batch it and more secure.

I am going to email john about the DA backup feature able to choose scp port as it does support scp but only on default port 22 and also the possibility of key authentication as well.

Its not that hard to do so would be dissapointing if this wasnt present on a paid for commercial addon.

But I think I may have misunderstood this addon it looks like it may be to a specific backup location provided by jmstacey so the scp would be meaningless unless he adds that to his backup server.
 
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