detecting laptop online for backup
Hi all, I am setting up a backup system wich rsyncs with different desktops to copy the data across to another desktop with a very big hd, pretty simple. But I do not know how to go about laptops. People carry them around and they might be connected at anytime, as they might not, and the idea is that tthe backup be completely automatic, my boss does not want to press any button or do anything. How can I detect when a laptop (which has windows 2000 and a fixed IP, by the way) has got online in order to do the backup then? Any other ideas? Thanks all, Sergio
Op woensdag 13 april 2005 10:12, schreef Sergio Dominguez:
I am setting up a backup system wich rsyncs with different desktops to copy the data across to another desktop with a very big hd, pretty simple.
But I do not know how to go about laptops. People carry them around and they might be connected at anytime, as they might not, and the idea is that tthe backup be completely automatic, my boss does not want to press any button or do anything.
How can I detect when a laptop (which has windows 2000 and a fixed IP, by the way) has got online in order to do the backup then?
use 'ping -c 1 <ip address>' or use unisonfs. -- Richard Bos Without a home the journey is endless
On Thu, Apr 14, 2005 at 10:02:31AM +0100, Sergio Dominguez wrote:
use 'ping -c 1 <ip address>' or use unisonfs.
unisonfs? Never hearf of it. Google does not return anything? :? only www.unisonfs.com, which is down. Can you tell me what's it about?
Sergio
No, it is not just command line based, there is a GUI. If you are after a windoze version, it is at: http://www-stud.robinson.cam.ac.uk/~mob22/unison/ I tried it. It is a standalone GUI, and not integrated into the Windows explorer not exactly what you wanted). But it works pretty well, especially if you tend to sync the same pairs of directories, because it lets you create "profiles". Now that I've tried it, it will be a "keeper" for me for synchronizing My Documents on my standard-issue laptop with the Samba server. It does a two-way sync. There is no installation script, just run the program. The Windows GTK .DLL has to be in the same directory as the executable, or at least in your path.
I haven't used it, but how about "Unison"? http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
-- Richard
On Thu, 2005-04-14 at 10:02 +0100, Sergio Dominguez wrote:
use 'ping -c 1 <ip address>' or use unisonfs.
unisonfs? Never hearf of it. Google does not return anything? :? only www.unisonfs.com, which is down. Can you tell me what's it about?
Sergio
Search google again but use unison instead, the fifth hit will get you more info. -- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998 "The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge
Search google again but use unison instead, the fifth hit will get you more info.
This is my fifth link :) Scottish trade union. http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/ Guess it depends on the region. Got it though, thanks for the info. Sergio
-- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998
"The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge
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Hi Sergio, Sergio Dominguez wrote:
Hi all,
I am setting up a backup system wich rsyncs with different desktops to copy the data across to another desktop with a very big hd, pretty simple.
But I do not know how to go about laptops. People carry them around and they might be connected at anytime, as they might not, and the idea is that tthe backup be completely automatic, my boss does not want to press any button or do anything.
How can I detect when a laptop (which has windows 2000 and a fixed IP, by the way) has got online in order to do the backup then?
Any other ideas? Although I have not done it, I immediately thought of a script solution ie When a laptop user logs off, have his username call the script that will ask the user if they would like to backup. The script could be called from within the users home directory when they shutdown and thus be removed or added as the users progress through the organization.
If they select 'Yes' it would start the rsync backup process and possibly give the end user a read out of the time remaining for backing up their laptop(based on the amount of data and the network transfer rate. If they select 'No' they are disconnected from the network and have none of their work backed up. Each laptop user should be asked to sign some form of indemnity, where, if they do not regularly backup, they will lose all their new work since the last backup. Hope it helps -- ======================================================================== Hylton Conacher - Linux user # 229959 at http://counter.li.org Currently using SuSE 9.0 Professional with KDE 3.1 ========================================================================
participants (5)
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Hylton Conacher (ZR1HPC)
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Ken Schneider
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radoeka
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Richard Bos
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Sergio Dominguez