Archive for November, 2009

The problem: backup important files.

The decent solutions:

  • Internal backup tape drive. Already installed. Tapes cost €80 a piece. Need 3 more tapes. Someone needs to change them daily or weekly… hell, even monthly would be nice. Point is, someone has to remember to change them consistently. Eh… too much hassle!
  • Online backup. Simple, automated. Runs nightly. Transparent to users. Costs €100 a month to backup the 100GB we need. Eh… too much money!

The preferred solution:

  • Online backup on the cheap. No hassle and not much money. There is a cheaper online backup solution but it’s intended only for non-commercial, home users. It only costs €5! Yeah, that’s the one we want! Never mind that we’re a middle-sized business with €500,000 in yearly revenue and a network of servers. We want it hassle free and we want it cheap!

The crooked path to the preferred solution:

  • OBSTRUCTION: The non-commercial version of the backup software checks the version of the OS and if it detects a Windows Server installation, it (understandably) suspects that this is not a home setting and refuses to perform the backup.
  1. So trick the program by running it in compatibility mode? Nope.
  2. So run the program in a debugger and trace the calls it’s making to check the OS version. Catch these and fool them! Nope.
  3. Install VMWare server with a Windows XP installation. Run the backup software there and mount the host machine’s drives as network shares that are added to the backup queue.
  • OBSTRUCTION: VMWare Server doesn’t like being run on Windows Server and warns you that it will destroy everything if you proceed with the install. Yikes!
  1. Install VirtualBox instead.
  2. Install Windows XP… with 10 million updates… all requiring a restart!
  3. Install the backup software. It detects an XP installation and can perform the backup. Yahoo! We’re almost there!
  4. Mount the network shares and finished… right?
  • OBSTRUCTION: The backup software only supports local drives. Shit! So, it can only backup from the local C and D drives.
  1. Map the network shares to drive letters. Nope.
  2. Create a symbolic link (like in Linux) to mount the network shares to a folder on the C drive? Nope. Windows don’t play that game. No symbolic links here, mister… or are there?
  3. Junction Link Magic. Nope. Only supports mounts from local drives.
  4. The Windows subst command. Nope. Ditto.
  5. Winbolic Link. Nope. Ditto.
  6. Use TrueCrypt to create a volume, place it on a network  share, then mount it, which tricks Windows into giving it a local drive letter and… wait… what? Create a new volume… and fill it with all the stuff from the server drives? Are you kidding? No thanks.
  7. NetDrive. It can mount FTP shares as local drives. Ahhh! So, start an FTP server on the host machine, connect with NetDrive, mount as local drives.
  8. Start backup software. It sees the drives and Presto!

So, let’s re-cap. How many layers do we have?

  1. Host machine running the show.
  2. VirtualBox.
  3. Windows XP.
  4. FTP connection doing the dirty work.
  5. Backup software.

Five layers of complexity. Five layers of memory and processor consumption. Five layers of sloooooooooow! But hey, we’re effectively saving €95 a month! Once again, economics trumps all other factors, including morality, practicality and common sense.

Posted by admin on 17 November 2009 at 7:43 pm under Blah.
2 Comments.