Arachnifiler - Open Source (PHP) Backup
Posted: 28. Jun 2013, 18:04
All,
I have written and open source PHP based application that can backup VirtualBox machines while running. More details can be found at the website.
http://arachnifiler.com
I consider the software late alpha, perhaps early beta, and I am looking for folks to test it out if they are interested and let me know how it works. I have only tested it in my own environments so I have limited results to work with, but I feel that it does what a lot of people are looking for: quickly backs up a machine and allows you to get on with your work.
The application uses a psuedo deduplication process which should also help in speeding up backups and reducing backup disk space. You can backup to MySQL, FTP, or local / network storage.
The application can backup just about anything but has special code for VirtualBox, VMware Workstation and Windows VSS operations.
If you are ambitious, please check it out. I am open and willing to help, assist and answer questions as best I can.
I recently fixed some somewhat annoying bugs. I have uploaded the new builds to the site. However, I removed the download links becuase to date no one has downloaded the software at all. Please contact me if you would like a copy to try out and test.
Perhaps I need to make a video so that people can understand what it is I have created, what it can do, and why I believe in it? I didn't expect a huge response to this project, but I did expect at least one person...so far zero. Ouch. Is what it is.
Let me provide this written scenario (based on my real world) ---
I have an Ubuntu headless server running seven VirtualBox appliances. I also have my software installed on this server. My appliances are located on a RAID1 set, mounted in /data/ds160. I also have another RAID1 set mounted at /data/ds250 where I store my backups. For this example, we can focus on a virtual Ubuntu server appliance running mumble inside this space. This server occupies 4.2GB of disk space. I have created a backup job for this appliance that runs everyday at 1:15AM (using CRON, my application does not have a scheduler). This particular backup job is set to use the 'save state' method, becuase no one is using the server at that time and we can afford to pause it briefly. Otherwise, we would use the 'snapshot' method that allows the machine to stay up during the backup process. To backup the machine to the ds250 location took about 8 minutes for the first time backup. Each backup after that has taken around 1 minute and 30 seconds. The total space occupied by the backup data is actually 2.2GB, and that holds a 31 day revision history for the appliance. So I can restore the machine to any state in the last 31 days from today and I only occupy 3.2GB of space. Granted, the delta on this server each day is not very large. I then backup the ds250 using CrashPlan, and that backups rather quickly as well due to the fact that instead of combing over the entire VDI file, it only has to parse through my data backup sets.
Am I making any sense? I could go into greater detail for anyone interested. But I will try to make a video...
Thank you.
I have written and open source PHP based application that can backup VirtualBox machines while running. More details can be found at the website.
http://arachnifiler.com
I consider the software late alpha, perhaps early beta, and I am looking for folks to test it out if they are interested and let me know how it works. I have only tested it in my own environments so I have limited results to work with, but I feel that it does what a lot of people are looking for: quickly backs up a machine and allows you to get on with your work.
The application uses a psuedo deduplication process which should also help in speeding up backups and reducing backup disk space. You can backup to MySQL, FTP, or local / network storage.
The application can backup just about anything but has special code for VirtualBox, VMware Workstation and Windows VSS operations.
If you are ambitious, please check it out. I am open and willing to help, assist and answer questions as best I can.
I recently fixed some somewhat annoying bugs. I have uploaded the new builds to the site. However, I removed the download links becuase to date no one has downloaded the software at all. Please contact me if you would like a copy to try out and test.
Perhaps I need to make a video so that people can understand what it is I have created, what it can do, and why I believe in it? I didn't expect a huge response to this project, but I did expect at least one person...so far zero. Ouch. Is what it is.
Let me provide this written scenario (based on my real world) ---
I have an Ubuntu headless server running seven VirtualBox appliances. I also have my software installed on this server. My appliances are located on a RAID1 set, mounted in /data/ds160. I also have another RAID1 set mounted at /data/ds250 where I store my backups. For this example, we can focus on a virtual Ubuntu server appliance running mumble inside this space. This server occupies 4.2GB of disk space. I have created a backup job for this appliance that runs everyday at 1:15AM (using CRON, my application does not have a scheduler). This particular backup job is set to use the 'save state' method, becuase no one is using the server at that time and we can afford to pause it briefly. Otherwise, we would use the 'snapshot' method that allows the machine to stay up during the backup process. To backup the machine to the ds250 location took about 8 minutes for the first time backup. Each backup after that has taken around 1 minute and 30 seconds. The total space occupied by the backup data is actually 2.2GB, and that holds a 31 day revision history for the appliance. So I can restore the machine to any state in the last 31 days from today and I only occupy 3.2GB of space. Granted, the delta on this server each day is not very large. I then backup the ds250 using CrashPlan, and that backups rather quickly as well due to the fact that instead of combing over the entire VDI file, it only has to parse through my data backup sets.
Am I making any sense? I could go into greater detail for anyone interested. But I will try to make a video...
Thank you.