Topic: curl desktop backup to other machine. Help please.

[dhalliday]

Ok, I have finally gotten around to upgrading one of our production servers to 7.2 (it was real old before). and now I can no longer backup the machine using curl.

I used to do

curl -f -s -k -n -F function=backup -F state=perform https://mysme/server-manager/cgi-bin/backup > mybackupfile.tgz

(-n tells curl to use .netrc for passwords)

Now the new release requires a login via a web form this no longer works. What I get is a redirect to the login page...

No problem I think I can just pull the same trick for the login page first with

curl -f -s -k --cookie-jar /tmp/mycookies -F username=myusername -F password=mypassword https://mysme/server-common/cgi-bin/login

curl -f -s -k --cookie /tmp/mycookies -F function=backup -F state=perform https://mysme/server-manager/cgi-bin/backup > mybackupfile.tgz

The problem is the login curl does not do as I expect but gives be a 307 redirect to the login page again with no cookies updated.

Does anyone have any idea what I am missing here.

Thanks,

Dave.

[David Harper]

If you upgrade a little further, to 7.4, you have a number of other options:

1. Use the built in Backup with dar feature to send all your server data to a remote server/NAS device
2. Use Affa to dial in to the server from a remote machine and back up the server data

[janet]

David

2. Use Affa to dial in to the server from a remote machine and back up the server data

Might be better said as:

Use Affa to ssh into the server from a remote machine and back up the server data

[dhalliday]

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately the machine is behind three layers of firewalls and the only protocol I can use over those is http/https.

Dave.

[David Harper]

This is a little outside the norm in terms of backup options. Even though incoming might be restricted to ports 80 and 443, are there any additional ports open in the other direction? i.e. If the backup were initiated from the server end might some additional options become available to you?

[CharlieBrady]

Does anyone have any idea what I am missing here.

Yes, use -v on your curl line and you will see. Hint - you need to use -b on your cookie setting curl access.

Please write a howto when you are done. Excellent work!

[dhalliday]

Doh! I must have been tired on Friday!

Thanks Charlie.

I would be more than happy to write up a little HowTo, what is the best way to do that, It looks like the How To section is locked down. Should I just post something here?

Dave.

[CharlieBrady]

I would be more than happy to write up a little HowTo, what is the best way to do that, It looks like the How To section is locked down. Should I just post something here?

No. Open a bug in the website section of the bug tracker, and someone will make whatever change is necessary to allow you to add a HowTo.

[janet]

dhalliday & Charlie

Open a bug in the website section of the bug tracker, and someone will make whatever change is necessary to allow you to add a HowTo.

That procedure has changed.
Click on the Profile link at top of forums.
Then on the Modify Profile tab, select Group Memebership
Then alongside Wiki  & Docs team, click the Request Membership link, the rest should be obvious.

[dhalliday]

OK New HowTo Added.

Dave.

[cactus]

OK New HowTo Added.

Dave.

Perhaps a pointer to it for future readers would be nice. Thanks in advance.

[dhalliday]

This is now documented in a HowTo on the wiki.

http://wiki.contribs.org/Backup_SME_Server_Remotely_Using_cURL

Dave.

[CharlieBrady]

This is now documented in a HowTo on the wiki.

http://wiki.contribs.org/Backup_SME_Server_Remotely_Using_cURL

Please modify it so that the cookie files are saved somewhere where they cannot be read or modified by other users - /tmp is not a good place. You are giving away the keys to the kingdom

You should also use a protected file to hold the admin password, and use < in the -F argument, so that the password will not show in process listings.

I'd also suggest that you remove -f from the first curl invocation, and make the second conditional on the first succeeding, using:

curl ..... && curl ...

[dhalliday]

All good input, howto updated with section on improving security.

Dave.

[uniqsys]

All good input, howto updated with section on improving security.

Dave.

Nice work!
2 things I would add though as it could instruct me too.

1. In "other extensions" where would that be added in the script.  It could be clearer.
2.  What about restores?  No mention is made of them.

As you can see I don't know anything about cURL. But I am going to learn as it looks like a great tool to backup.  I use rsync on some sites now with my own scripts but this is definitely better.
Thanks for your efforts!