@echo off

REM ================================================================
REM CONFIGURATION INFO
REM ================================================================
set CFGFILE=BackupList.txt
set DESTDIR=C:\Backups\

REM ================================================================
REM STOP CHANGING HERE OR YOU'LL BREAK SOMETHING
REM ================================================================
SET TIMESTAMP=%date:~-4,4%.%date:~-7,2%.%date:~-10,2%
for /F "tokens=1,2 delims=," %%A in (%CFGFILE%) do (
	IF NOT EXIST "%DESTDIR%%TIMESTAMP%" mkdir "%DESTDIR%%TIMESTAMP%" > NUL
	echo %%B
	tftp -i %%B GET config "%DESTDIR%%TIMESTAMP%\%%A.cfg" > NUL
)

In the same directory create a TXT file named BackupList.txt. Add phone systems to the file that should be backed up in Name,ip address format. A sample BackupList.txt file might look like:

London Phone System,192.168.1.1
New York phone System, 192.168.2.1

You’ll also need to download the following free TFTP client from Tandom Systems Ltd. Place it in the same directory as the other two files.

Then run Backup.bat to backup all your phone systems.

Using Andrew Fabrizi’s Dropbox Uploader script I cobbled together a quick BASH script to backup key directories to my Dropbox account.

#!/bin/bash
DROPBOX_USER="Your Dropbox username"
DROPBOX_PASS="Your Dropbox password"
DROPBOX_DIR="Directory in your dropbox account to store the backups, e.g. /backups"
BACKUP_SRC="/home /var/www /var/git /etc /root"
BACKUP_DST="/tmp"
MYSQL_SERVER="127.0.0.1"
MYSQL_USER="root"
MYSQL_PASS="Your MySQL password"

#
# Stop editing here.
NOW=$(date +"%Y.%m.%d")
DESTFILE="$BACKUP_DST/$NOW.tgz"

#
# Upload a file to Dropbox.
# $1 = Source file
# $2 = Destination file.
function dropboxUpload
{
	#
	# Code based on DropBox Uploader 0.6 from http://www.andreafabrizi.it/?dropbox_uploader
	LOGIN_URL="https://www.dropbox.com/login"
	HOME_URL="https://www.dropbox.com/home"
	UPLOAD_URL="https://dl-web.dropbox.com/upload"
	COOKIE_FILE="/tmp/du_cookie_$RANDOM"
	RESPONSE_FILE="/tmp/du_resp_$RANDOM"

    UPLOAD_FILE=$1
    DEST_FOLDER=$2

	# Login
	echo -ne " > Logging in..."
	curl -s -i -c $COOKIE_FILE -o $RESPONSE_FILE --data "login_email=$DROPBOX_USER&login_password=$DROPBOX_PASS&t=$TOKEN" "$LOGIN_URL"
	grep "location: /home" $RESPONSE_FILE > /dev/null

	if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
		echo -e " Failed!"
		rm -f "$COOKIE_FILE" "$RESPONSE_FILE"
		exit 1
	else
		echo -e " OK"
	fi

	# Load home page
	echo -ne " > Loading Home..."
	curl -s -i -b "$COOKIE_FILE" -o "$RESPONSE_FILE" "$HOME_URL"

	if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
		echo -e " Failed!"
		rm -f "$COOKIE_FILE" "$RESPONSE_FILE"
		exit 1
	else
		echo -e " OK"
	fi

	# Get token
	TOKEN=$(cat "$RESPONSE_FILE" | tr -d '\n' | sed 's/.*<form action="https:\/\/dl-web.dropbox.com\/upload"[^>]*>\s*<input type="hidden" name="t" value="\([a-z 0-9]*\)".*/\1/')

	# Upload file
	echo -ne " > Uploading '$UPLOAD_FILE' to 'DROPBOX$DEST_FOLDER/'..."
    curl -s -i -b $COOKIE_FILE -o $RESPONSE_FILE -F "plain=yes" -F "dest=$DEST_FOLDER" -F "t=$TOKEN" -F "file=@$UPLOAD_FILE"  "$UPLOAD_URL"
    grep "HTTP/1.1 302 FOUND" "$RESPONSE_FILE" > /dev/null

    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
        echo -e " Failed!"
		rm -f "$COOKIE_FILE" "$RESPONSE_FILE"
        exit 1
    else
        echo -e " OK"
		rm -f "$COOKIE_FILE" "$RESPONSE_FILE"
    fi
}

# Backup files.
mysqldump -u $MYSQL_USER -h $MYSQL_SERVER -p$MYSQL_PASS --all-databases > "$NOW-Databases.sql"
tar cfz "$DESTFILE" $BACKUP_SRC "$NOW-Databases.sql"

dropboxUpload "$DESTFILE" "$DROPBOX_DIR"

rm -f "$NOW-Databases.sql" "$DESTFILE"

Save the script as “DropboxBackup.sh”, chmod +x it and run. Maybe now’s a good time to update your crontab so that the backup runs once a month without intervention:

$ crontab -e
# m h  dom mon dow   command
0 0 1 * *       /bin/bash /root/DropboxBackup.sh

If you don’t have SSH access to your system, you can probably use your web control panel to execute a shell script. Sit back and smile whenever you get a notification of the backup.

@echo off
REM ================================================================
REM CONFIGURATION INFO
REM ================================================================
set USERNAME=backupAccount
set PASSWORD=superSecretPassword
set CFGFILE=BackupList.txt
set DESTDIR=C:\Backups\

REM ================================================================
REM STOP CHANGING HERE OR YOU'LL BREAK SOMETHING
REM ================================================================
SET TIMESTAMP=%date:~-4,4%.%date:~-7,2%.%date:~-10,2%
for /F "tokens=1,2 delims=," %%A in (%CFGFILE%) do (
	IF NOT EXIST "%DESTDIR%%TIMESTAMP%" mkdir "%DESTDIR%%TIMESTAMP%"
	pscp -q -scp -pw %PASSWORD% %USERNAME%@%%B:ns_sys_config "%DESTDIR%%TIMESTAMP%\%%A.cfg"
)

The above will read the details of the firewalls from a CSV file (BackupList.txt) in hostname,ip address format. PSCP is then used to SCP the configuration from the firewall to the location specified in DESTDIR.

You’ll need to make sure SSH + SCP is enabled on your firewalls and that pscp is in the same directory as the script. You can find the latest version of Putty and PSCP here.

I’d left it unplugged for a few weeks as I’d rewired some of the house and not had chance to sort out the connectivity to it. When I got around to turning it on the drive failure light started flashing and the device wasn’t exporting any of the smb shares or allowing access via http / telnet. “No problem” I thought and a few days later the replacement drive I ordered arrived.

With the drive replaced and the device booted up, the shares were still not visible. Thankfully I could get at the web interface so went ahead and restructured the array as instructed by the now working web interface.

12 hours later the device wasn’t even accessible from the network (other than intermittent ping responses). Ohh dear.

After a day or so of trying everything under the sun to get it working I’ve now got the drives hooked up to an old desktop and am trying to recover the data with UFS Explorer. Thankfully, I’ve managed to get back the majority of my financial documents. I had a copy of my music collection on my laptop (which I’d copied over a week earlier). However, all the photos I’ve taken with my Nikon D200 over the last 4 years are gone.

In a business environment we can back up all our data onto LTO4 media and be fairly confident we’re covered. What are we supposed to do at home though? – How is the consumer supposed to backup 1Tb of data?

Needless to say, I wont be buying a consumer NAS again. I’ll probably build my own Micro-ITX box and RAID1 two 1Tb drives. At least then I’ll be able to get access to the data on the device if one of the drives dies!

If anyone has any suggestions as to how to backup 1Tb of data, let me know!