[Box Backup] Backuping inversely

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Pablo,

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008, Pablo Fernandez wrote:

> I would like to implement backups in the inverse fashion to box backup 
> normal behavior.
> 
> I would like to have a server that triggers the backups from clients and 
> disallow clients to trigger backups on their own. Instead of push I 
> would like to do a pull of the data. Is it possible to do this?

It's not supported at all at the moment. The general philosophy of Box 
Backup is that the server is "untrusted", and therefore that you wouldn't 
want to place the control of backup scheduling in its hands.

Having said that, there are a few ways that it could be implemented 
reasonably easily:

* Get the server to SSH to the client and run "bbackupctl sync".

* Have a "reverse connection" mode where the server can connect to the 
  client, which then logs in over the same connection.

* Have the client send a "SyncAllow"-type command to the server before 
  starting the backup, to which the server could respond "backup now" or 
  "wait X seconds".

The first does not require any changes to Box, so it's what I'd recommend 
that you try if you want this feature now. I can't see much use for the 
feature so I'm not really inclined to implement either of the other two 
options unless I see more people asking for it. (Especially not before 
releasing 0.11).

Cheers, Chris.
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