[Box Backup] How to move store to new machine

Ben Summers boxbackup@fluffy.co.uk
Tue, 16 May 2006 19:47:59 +0100


On 16 May 2006, at 18:00, Chris Wilson wrote:

> Hi Pete,
>
>> Sorry, I'm still not sure what you're getting at re the _bbstored =20
>> user.
>>  Can you paste the lines that you think are odd?
>
> OK, I missed the fact that you were running the commands on =20
> different servers. On the old server, _bbstored has uid 1003, and =20
> on the new one 1005. It shouldn't matter, but make sure that your =20
> restored tarball has the correct permissions to allow the _bbstored =20=

> user on new to write to it.

That's rather important! I missed that one. :-)

>
> It may not matter either if you're decommissioning the server, but =20
> this worries me:
>
>> user@old:~$ su _bbstored
>> su: User not known to the underlying authentication module
>> user@old:~$ grep bb /etc/passwd
>> _bbstored:x:1003:100::/home/_bbstored:
>
> This implies that your PAM setup is broken on the old machine. I =20
> hope this works on the new machine?

The long process to su to that user worried me, which was the "odd" =20
thing I was referring to.

>
> Did you already try fixing the store on the old machine before =20
> copying? If not, please try that.
>
>> (Do I recall reading somewhere that you start it as root, then =20
>> _bbstored takes over, or was that some other project that I'm =20
>> thinking about?)
>
> I'm not sure. There is a "user" option in the server config, but I =20
> haven't used it, so I don't know if it works.

This is how it works=10. Start as root, and it changes user to the user =20=

specified. However, this is optional, and you can start it as any =20
other user whatever way you want.

>
>> Sorry, a little off-topic, but your massive contribution to box =20
>> backup
>
> Thanks, but I hardly made a "massive contribution", especially in =20
> comparison to what the others have done. I just cleaned up Nick's =20
> port a bit, got it merged into the tree, and now I'm helping out =20
> with a bit of tech support when I have time.

I second Martin's comment about you underestimating your contribution.

>
>> Re http://www.loband.org/loband/main, I don't really have a need =20
>> for it (yet), but it was interesting to see how fast it was, how =20
>> clean the output looked, and how it might be used for rich-country =20=

>> limited bandwidth situations like PDAs, cell phones, dial-up, etc.
>
> Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. It's not really designed for mobile =20
> phones, but some people have reported using it successfully with =20
> them. And it worked pretty well on my Treo, before that had a heart =20=

> attack one day.
>
> And it is sometimes useful in developing countries. Here in Ghana, =20
> Sourceforge pages take forever to load; it's about three times =20
> faster through Loband.

Maybe I'm missing something, but you don't appear to be gzipping your =20=

responses. I assume the computers at the other end are capable of =20
decompressing faster than receiving the extra data, and anyway, it is =20=

a negotiated thing rather than an all or nothing. It could be as =20
simple as enabling mod_gzip.

Ben