Re: [BackupPC-users] Initiate backup from client?

[Peter W. <pw...@it...>]

Meel Me wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I want to know if it's possible to initiate a backup from the client 
> machine, in a way that the clients connects to the backuppc server 
> over the internet to start the backup?
>
> *My (desired) situation*
> I've got a laptop. I'm abroad for many months once and a while. While 
> I'm abroad I want to be able to backup my laptop regularly and to 
> restore the data on my laptop if it crashes (or gets stolen).
>
> I want to place my backuppc server in a total other region than my 
> home is. So that a disaster like heavy earthquake, explosion, etc. 
> will never effect and my backuppc server and my laptop at once.
> The location where I can place my backuppc server is not in my local 
> area network. The backuppc server will only be available through the 
> internet.
>
>
> *Question*
> I've read the documentation of backuppc. There are several methods for 
> backing up laptops (smb, rsync, rsyncd, tar). All methods are 
> initiated from the backuppc server, so the backuppc server will set up 
> a connection to the client.
> If the client (my laptop) is not in the local area network, then the 
> backuppc server can't find the client and won't make a backup of it.
>
> In the situation I described above, my laptop will never be in the 
> local area network of the backuppc server. Therefor my laptop will 
> never be backuped.
>
> Is it possible to initiate a backup from the client machine, in a way 
> that the clients connects to the backuppc server over the internet to 
> start the backup? Instead of that the backuppc server makes a 
> connection to the client?
>
> If so, how?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Wim
>
>
I am working towards exactly the same idea, but for laptops that almost 
*never* come into the office. For example, you can kick off a full 
backup as follows:

BackupPC_serverMesg backup HOSTIP HOST USER FULL

I am working on (somehow) using cygwin on the Windows laptop to issue 
the *nix command, and I intend to use OpenVPN to establish the necessary 
network path whenever the laptop is connected to the internet. I will 
post when I have a working procedure, if someone else doesn't beat me to 
it first :-)

Peter