[Box Backup] Box Backup status

[Martin Ebourne]

On Mon, 2006-12-04 at 01:09 +0100, Dennis Speekenbrink wrote:
> Maybe I'm not familiar enough with the Box Backup setup, but if a 
> certain protocol is agreed upon (with dependencies, requirements, and 
> optionals) shouldn't any compatible client be able to communicate with 
> any compatible server?
> Then testing a client Y with a "protocol test", and testing a server Z 
> with a "protocol test" would guarantee that Y and Z would work together.
> 
> Combining this with a (minimal) test of the last, say 5, versions 
> against the newest server/client would greatly increase the chance of a 
> real-world client and server to be working correctly.

All sorts of lovely things are technically possible, but you need to
factor in the available time and resources when making suggestions. I
think what Chris and myself suggest is practicable, but the above is
probably not currently.

Of course, patches (or volunteers) are always very welcome (on the -dev
list please). :)

> Also, since my server listens to multiple IP's could I run a 0.10 
> bbstored on another IP and test my local 0.09 client against it?

Different protocol version, won't work.

Running a 0.10 server on a different IP addr does work and is the
current recommended route to upgrading in stages. Not everyone has two
IP addrs though.

> And, per Martin's suggestion, would multiple bbstored's be able to 
> access the same boxstores?  (They wouldn't access the same clientstore, 
> but the same raidfile, configuration file, temporary file(?), etc)

Unless I've missed something, this should work fine. Also 0.09 and 0.10
share the on disk store format, so you can upgrade and downgrade at
will.

> I'll be sure to look into this tomorrow, and also into port 
> configuration on the bbstored.

There's a #define for the base port, maybe in Box.h, I can't really
remember - just grep for 220[01]. That will let you do a phased upgrade
as already described. Of course, all of your upgraded clients will need
the same modification and hence will no longer be running the standard
sources.

Cheers,

Martin.