Backup Product

streamservice

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Dec 14, 2005
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The Netherlands
When there are at least 25 companies that want to pay something like 30 euro for a license we will create a full backup solution for DirectAdmin. Below you will find some notes about this option:
- You can buy a license for 5 servers (100 euro) or for 1 server (30 euro)
- You need an own backup server or have to take somewhere a backup storage (this will also be possible)
- Per server you need an FTP user on the backup server
- It will be possible to use this option as long as you have PHP in CGI mode
- It will be very usefull if you need to reinstall a server (after you've installed this script everything is restored with 2 clicks)
- A root user have to be able to login from the command line on the specified server (using su root)
- It will be first designed for Linux and after that for BSD
- Almost all options off 4PSA are included
- License on IP and user input
- It will be possible to run a simple cron to make backups automatically
- The root password will be needed for security reasons (you have to give it in the script when you access it)
- It will be ready within 2 months after we know there is a demand for this feature on at least 50 servers and in 25 companies

We will update the system after all DirectAdmin updates within 48 hours. We will also make a plugin for DirectAdmin for this feature (admin level).
 
streamservice said:
When there are at least 25 companies that want to pay something like 30 euro... .
It would be a monopoly, so that should be no problem at all.
streamservice said:
It will be possible to use this option as long as you have PHP in CGI mode...
AKA fast CGI? That would limit your market quite a bit.
Originally posted by streamservice It will be very usefull if you need to reinstall a server (after you've installed this script everything is restored with 2 clicks)...
That sounds interesting but of course that's not what people need 99% of the time. It's a certain domain that needs to be restored or files in it.
Originally posted by streamservice It will be first designed for Linux and after that for BSD...
I'm FreeBSD
Originally posted by streamservice Almost all options off 4PSA are included...
I have no idea what that means and I'm not going to read a book to find out. Does it do incremental backups to an off-site server and can admins, resellers, and users restore from these backus the files they need when they need them? Also, does it backup the user information and databases?
Originally posted by streamservice It will be ready within 2 months after we know there is a demand for this feature on at least 50 servers and in 25 companies...
Two months plus BSD time is too late for me. You should have talked to DA about a year ago. Maybe for their own future they will talk to you now.
Originally posted by streamservice We will update the system after all DirectAdmin updates within 48 hours. We will also make a plugin for DirectAdmin for this feature (admin level).
Sounds great!
 
We are also looking if it is possible using PHP in cli-mode, but we can't guarantee it yet.

Short feature list off 4PSA:
Short Features List

* Accessible to server administrator only
* Administrator can schedule backup sessions
* PHP interface, low level ANSI C backup engine for superior performance and minimum resources' utilization
* Multi volume backups supported
* Incremental archives capabilities
* Gzip and bzip2 compression tools support
* GPG Backup files encryption
* Backup cycle maintained by the server administrator
* Number of backups stored locally defined by administrator
* Automatically send alerts to server administrator
* Restore functions available
* Advanced logging features (file + database)
* Quality of Service settings
* Remote backup storage capabilities
o FTP or SSH protocol
o Automatic transfer of archives to remote servers
o Transfer integrity checks
o Automatic maintenance of remote backups
* Ability to automate psadump backups
* Ability to define exclude backup directories and include backup directories
* Debugging features
* Language packs capabilities

We will include all points above and a skin solution.

Our system will be ready within 2 months (probably around 15 feb 2007 for linux and 2 weeks after that date for BSD). The system will supports off-site backups (ssh and ftp).

We will first make it for admins so everyone can have a backup, after that we will make it possible to give clients the option to restore their data (files and databases). How it will work? Well we make a total backup every day and we automatically remove them after 1 week.

We will make an option to make incremental backups ones an hour. A part off the system is used for admin backups and restores and an other part is used for clients to get their own files back.
 
streamservice said:
We are also looking if it is possible using PHP in cli-mode, but we can't guarantee it yet... Short feature list off 4PSA:...We will first make it for admins so everyone can have a backup, after that we will make it possible to give clients the option to restore their data (files and databases).... How it will work? Well we make a total backup every day and we automatically remove them after 1 week....We will make an option to make incremental backups ones an hour. A part off the system is used for admin backups and restores and an other part is used for clients to get their own files back.
Sounds good. The only thing that I would suggest is a full backup once-a-week, and incrementals during the week. This would massively cut down the bandwidth and CPU time. You will run into the problem quite frequently where people cannot sustain a full backups every night due to the size of their storage and/or bandwidth limits.

The market that you speak of certainly exists. The question in their mind will be if you can deliver. They've heard this all before. This thread is a year old.
 
IT_Architect said:
Sounds good. The only thing that I would suggest is a full backup once-a-week, and incrementals during the week. This would massively cut down the bandwidth and CPU time. You will run into the problem quite frequently where people cannot sustain a full backups every night due to the size of their storage and/or bandwidth limits.

The market that you speak of certainly exists. The question in their mind will be if you can deliver. They've heard this all before. This thread is a year old.

Other dates/times for incremental and full backups will also be possible if there is enough requests for it. We know we will offer this because it is just a system that we need for our own servers.
 
streamservice said:
Other dates/times for incremental and full backups will also be possible if there is enough requests for it. We know we will offer this because it is just a system that we need for our own servers.
If I were you, I'd start a new thread/poll. I'm in for FreeBSD. It's a no-brainer. You have a monopoly since the DA has not been able to deliver. In the mean time, I'm not depending on you. My new clients are going on a different server with a different control panel. If you deliver, I'll start selling hosting on our DA server.

Thanks!
 
IT_Architect said:
That sounds interesting but of course that's not what people need 99% of the time. It's a certain domain that needs to be restored or files in it.
DA already includes that at the reseller level, and a beta version of the facility for the admin level is included in the latest versions of DA (versions 1.28.5 and above). We've never had a problem with using the DA backup and restore features.

My comments were concerning the system restore/backup. The way Plesk does it is untenable (they only offer a per-system backup; no way to break out individual users from the backup once you've got it.

The sysbk backup included with DA now works fine for backups and you can easily find specific files/services/domains to restore; we do it all the time as well. What we don't have is full automated restore.

The reason it's hard to do a full automated restore is simply because DA allows different you to pick and choose among the various versions of the various hosting-related programs and daemons. This can cause major problems when you're going from one DA server to another, unless both are running with same Distribution OS and OS version as well as the same DA version.

So we've always done restores from sysbk backups manually. This works well for us.

With all due respects to streamservice, and to anyone else who's working on this solution, I doubt they'll be very successful at full restores from bare-metal or from bare-metal plus OS. My guess is successful automated restore will require that the versions on both backup and restore server be the same.

That's what we felt people weren't willing to live with, and that's the main reason we cancelled our project.

It's that simple one-liner in the 4PSA spec as quoted by streamservice that bothers me a bit: Restore functions available. That leaves a lot open to interpretation.

The 4PSA page describing their Total Backup solution can be found here.

As far as pricing is concerned for the streamservice project, I'd want to know if it's a one-time fee, or if there are going to be any kind of required annual fees.

While I'm not willing to make a commitment to pay anything at all for a product until it's ready, until I can test it, I'm certainly interested, if they can do what they say they can do.

Jeff
 
Note that I've split the thread into two separate threads, as the streamservice product offering has nothing to do with the jmstacey service offering.

Jeff
 
jlasman said:
DA already includes that at the reseller level, and a beta version of the facility for the admin level is included in the latest versions of DA (versions 1.28.5 and above). We've never had a problem with using the DA backup and restore features....The sysbk backup included with DA now works fine for backups and you can easily find specific files/services/domains to restore; we do it all the time as well. What we don't have is full automated restore.
I think what is needed is automated incremental backups to an off-site server that can be restored easily if need be.

I would say that sometimes, as with hardware failures, you are restoring the same hardware, but you need to be able to migrate to new hardware relatively easily also. I think switching OSes is much less in demand.
 
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