About_TimeDicer

Features

Server_Setup

VM_Server_Setup

Making_a_Backup

Recovering_Files

Updating_Server

Mirror_Server_Setup

Server_Space

Security

Additional_Notes

Links

My_Other_Sites

My_Programs

Comments

Date last modified: Sat May 25 2013 5:32 AM

About

TimeDicer is a free file backup and recovery solution (using rdiff-backup) for Windows (Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2008 R2, Windows 2008, Windows 2003 - for 32-bit x86 and 64-bit x64). It allows you to backup and then later recover your files. Even if you have subsequently altered or deleted files, and backed up your erroneous changes with TimeDicer, you can still recover versions that you previously backed up.

Under development since 2008-11-23 and with latest version dated 2012-12-13, TimeDicer backs up files to your own TimeDicer Server (which can be real or virtual), and is normally run as an automated daily routine for one or more computers located on the same local network (though it can be used in other configurations). TimeDicer is not in itself a system recovery tool, but if your system has been lost - and you have previously been using TimeDicer to backup your data - it will enable you to recover your data into a repaired or new system. It also works easily for recovering earlier versions of individual files.

TimeDicer carries out a push backup - that is, the backup is started by the source machine (the client) and data is pushed to the destination (the server). TimeDicer allows you to revert to different 'timeslices'. You could say it was dicing (that is, chopping or slicing) time - hence the name.

Not only does it give a backup which is a snapshot of files as they were at one time, but also earlier versions of these files, and files that were long ago deleted from your operating computer; so it adds the 4th dimension (time) to a backup archive, and does so elegantly, optimising both transfer (for speed) and storage (for space).

TimeDicer consists of:

1. TimeDicer Client: a Windows command script (batch file) which can be run as a regular (daily) Scheduled Task to backup data from one or many Windows computers to the primary backup server. It allows backup of locked files. The latest version of TimeDicer Client is 2.1213 (dated 2012-12-13), available here (changelog here). TimeDicer Client can backup to any Linux machine which has rdiff-backup, but for best integration we recommend a dedicated TimeDicer Server. Instructions for installing and configuring TimeDicer Client are found below.
2. TimeDicer Server: based on Ubuntu Server OS, for onsite backup - simple setup instructions below. It can be a virtual machine.
3. TimeDicer Mirror Server: an optional machine like the TimeDicer Server, but offering secondary (e.g. offsite) backup

Feature List

• No cloud services - all data remains on your own machines under your ownership and control
• All backup actions use secure encryption for data transfer
• Window's Volume Shadow Services - backup from a snapshot, no locked file issues
• Backups are stored on your own standalone TimeDicer Server - independent of your operational machine(s)
• Easy to implement for multiple machines, each with independent secure repositories on your TimeDicer Server
• TimeDicer Client has no TSR - consumes zero system resources when not in use
• TimeDicer Server uses LVM, hence easy to expand and easy to backup/mirror
• TimeDicer Server can be a virtual machine, minimizing power and hardware requirements
• TimeDicer Mirror Server (mirrored from Primary) provides a very robust offsite backup solution

TimeDicer is based on and uses a number of open source and free projects and software, in particular rdiff-backup, my thanks to all the brilliant people who made and make these possible. Please send any questions about TimeDicer to dominic@timedicer.co.uk.

Server Setup: Installation & Configuration

TimeDicer Client can backup to any suitably configured GNU/Linux-based machine (i.e. server) which has rdiff-backup installed - the server can be virtual or physical. However the supported configuration uses a single-purpose TimeDicer Server running Ubuntu 12.04LTS Server (64-bit or 32-bit), obtainable here, and created as described below. Earlier versions of Ubuntu Server back to 10.04LTS should work fine, too.

We recommend that your Primary TimeDicer Server (which can be a virtual machine - see VM Server Setup) should be located on your local area network (LAN), not at an offsite or remote (internet) location. In order to back up to an offsite location you can create a Mirror TimeDicer Server (see below).

Having a single-purpose TimeDicer Server, rather than using a machine which has other functions, is strongly recommended because it makes it easy to duplicate. You can create a secondary ‘mirror’ server offsite, have this machine synchronized daily with the primary server and then, if the primary server was lost, you could easily recreate it and then mirror the data back to it from the secondary.

Running this setup will take about 20 minutes. See the separate section below if you are setting up TimeDicer Server as a VMware® virtual machine.

1. Install Ubuntu Server 12.04LTS: Boot your machine with the Ubuntu Server CD. For installation choose to install Ubuntu Server, and except as specified here follow the default settings:
   1. For hostname we recommend 'timedicer1' [for your primary server, or 'timedicer2' for your secondary or mirror server] [a minute or two may now elapse]
   2. 'Full name for the new user' - e.g. 'timedicer'
   3. 'Username for your account' - e.g. 'timedicer'
   4. 'Choose a password for the new user' - specify your own, don't forget it! [a minute or two may now elapse]
   5. 'Encrypt your home directory?' - we strongly recommend <No>
   6. For partitioning method select 'Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM'
   7. 'Write the changes to disks and configure LVM' - select <Yes>
   8. 'Amount of volume group to use for guided partitioning' - we strongly recommend you select less than the full disk, say 80% - you can expand it later, and leaving some spare gives you future flexibility
   9. 'Write the changes to disks?' - select <Yes> [after this the base system is installed - takes say 4 minutes]
   10. 'HTTP proxy information' - usually blank [after this packages are downloaded and configured - takes a minute or two]
   11. 'How do you want to manage upgrades on this system?' - we recommend 'Install security updates automatically'
   12. 'Choose software to install' - select: OpenSSH server [package configuration continues - takes say 6 minutes]
   13. 'Install the GRUB boot loader to master boot record' - usually <Yes>
   14. 'Installation complete' - <Continue> for reboot
2. First Boot of TimeDicer Server: You can find the IP address of the machine by logging in at the local console and doing ifconfig, or by examining your local router's admin web page; once you have this then you can log in to the machine remotely with putty from Windows or with ssh from Linux. A big advantage of remote login is that you can copy and paste from here.
3. Download and run timedicer-server-setup.sh: Substituting your own email address for the one given in the 4th line below, and enterin only the text after the '$' signs, do:
   timedicer@timedicer1:~$ cd /opt
   timedicer@timedicer1:/opt$ sudo wget -O timedicer-server-setup.sh http://www.timedicer.co.uk/server/timedicer-server-setup.sh
   timedicer@timedicer1:/opt$ sudo chmod 744 ./timedicer-server-setup.sh
   timedicer@timedicer1:/opt$ sudo ./timedicer-server-setup.sh -f my@emailaddress.com
   You may have to answer some questions about your timezone and about postfix (email) configuration:
   • 'General type of mail configuration' - select Internet Site
   • 'System mail name' - this is the domain name part of the source email address for emails sent by your TimeDicer Server (e.g. mydomain.com in timedicer@mydomain.com) - use your real domain name or at least a name that appears to be a real domain name e.g. mytimedicer.org
   How long timedicer-server-setup.sh takes will depend mostly on the number of updates to the Ubuntu operating system. Some information about what it does can be seen here.
4. Check for email: the system should have sent you an email to report that it is up and running; if you don't receive this check the syslog with tail -n 100 /var/log/syslog|grep postfix - if there are problems check the section below about Email Relaying.
5. Reboot the computer: because of the many updates that may have been introduced to the machine, it is advisable to reboot now by typing
   sudo reboot
6. Test your webserver: you should now be able to reach your new TimeDicer Server's web page from any other computer located on your lan, by using a browser and pointing it at the TimeDicer Server's ip address e.g. http://192.168.100.35.
7. Secure your webserver: there is also a web interface at http://[ip-address]:8080 which is used by rdiffWeb (see below). You should log in here with your username and change the default password from 'password'.

Setup TimeDicer Server as Virtual Machine

You can create TimeDicer Server as a virtual machine (aka ‘Virtual Appliance’). This is especially appropriate if you will also (as advised) establish a secondary mirror backup server which will be in a different physical machine and location. You could even create a VM while still installing TimeDicer Server on its own hard disk so that you retain the option to move it later to a physical installation.

The instructions below are for VMware® Player and with a few adaptations should work for other VMware products. Other virtual configurations are possible but presently unsupported - for instance we know of success with OpenVZ.

The approach below allows the automated Ubuntu/Vmware Tools installation to proceed on a relatively small virtual drive without LVM, and then adds a second drive which becomes your 'home' under LVM and the storage point for your backups. If you later fill up this second drive you can use the power of LVM to add drives (real or virtual) to make more space - easily.

1. If you haven't already done so, download and install your preferred VMware® product, instructions here are for the free VMware® Player (this may require a reboot).
2. Obtain and place in a suitable location ubuntu-12.04[.n]-server-i386.iso or ubuntu-12.04[.n]-server-amd64.iso which you can download here.
3. From the VMWare® Player window:
   1. choose to 'Create a New Virtual Machine'
   2. point the installer disc image file at the ubuntu-server iso file, click 'Next'
   3. supply the primary user’s Full name 'TimeDicer', User name 'timedicer', Password (and password again under Confirm) & click 'Next'
   4. call the VM 'TimeDicer1' (or if it is a mirror machine, 'TimeDicer2'), and select the location for the VM files, click 'Next'
   5. set Maximum disk size to 20GB (this is to allow plenty of room for expansion of the /tmp directory but in practice the vmdk disk file is unlikely ever to get anywhere near this size) and store as a single file, click 'Next'
   6. click on 'Customize Hardware...', alter 'Network Adapter'/'Network Connection' to 'Bridged', click 'OK', then 'Finish' and let the new machine start up
4. The automated Ubuntu setup runs, and then the VMware Easy Install. Eventually, but without any user intervention, the machine returns to a screen showing 'ubuntu login:' prompt. Login!
5. Alter the internal name of the TimeDicer Server to something more suitable than 'ubuntu', such as 'timedicer1' for instance, and then to get the change to take full effect, logout and log back in again:
   sudo hostname timedicer1
   sudo sed -i 's/ubuntu/timedicer1/' /etc/hostname /etc/hosts
   logout
6. Run timedicer-server-setup.sh as shown above.
7. sudo poweroff to shutdown the machine, then open it, unstarted, in VMware® Player and from the top bar choose 'Virtual Machine / Virtual Machine Settings'; in the 'Hardware' tab choose 'Add..' and add a second Hard Disk of whatever size you like (this is the big one that will hold your data). (This disk can be real or virtual according to your taste.)
8. Start up ('Play') the TimeDicer virtual machine and login with Putty or ssh, so that you can copy/paste commands from here.
9. You can find the new 2nd disk with sudo fdisk -l - it will probably be /dev/sdb
10. Configure the new 2nd disk (say /dev/sdb) to create a single LVM partition. Instructions for fdisk (italics are purely descriptive) are: sudo fdisk /dev/sdb, then: n[enter] (new partition), p[enter] (primary type), 1[enter] (partition 1), [enter] (default start), [enter] (default end), t[enter] (partition type), 8e[enter] (Linux LVM type), w[enter] (write and save configuration, then exit fdisk)
11. Run a script to create your 'home' LVM logical volume and map it to '/home' (alter the partition from sdb1 if required): sudo /opt/make-home-lv.sh /dev/sdb1 - reboot as requested at the end.
12. After rebooting, sudo df -H should show that you have lots of space in /home, which can now be used for your TimeDicer backups.

Making a Backup: Using Client

You create backups from your Windows machine(s) by running the TimeDicer Client. The latest version is 2.1213 (dated 2012-12-13), and it can be downloaded here (changelog here, man page here):

1. Download the timedicer.zip file (link above), extract the contents to a temporary location, then run install.bat with administrative privileges (e.g. in Vista or Windows 7, right-click on install.bat and choose 'Run as Administrator'). Enter the ip address of your TimeDicer Server when requested.
2. Use Puttygen which is started by the install routine (or you can find in the TimeDicer folder) to generate a new public/private key pair. Under 'Parameters' you should have 'SSH-2 RSA' selected and 'Number of bits in a generated key' set to 1024. Click 'Generate' and move your mouse around a bit as advised. Save the private key as privatekey.ppk at %APPDATA%\TimeDicer (despite the warning message, don't set a 'Key passphrase'), and install the public key into your TimeDicer Server by visiting its website: to do this, select and copy all the text from Puttygen's 'Public key' box (beginning 'ssh-rsa') and paste it in to the webpage - and follow the instructions on the Server website.
3. On your TimeDicer Server's website you also specify a password, this is not required to make a backup but it will be needed later when you use rdiffWeb to recover files.
4. Check and if necessary modify your configuration file %APPDATA%\TimeDicer\timedicer.txt, which has been created and is opened automatically by the install routine, as required. This could be as simple as these lines:
   SET server=192.168.1.35
   SET excludelist=%APPDATA%\TimeDicer\exclude-filelist.txt
   %USERPROFILE%,userbase
   This tells TimeDicer Client that the TimeDicer Server is at 192.168.1.35, to exclude files based on the names listed in exclude-filelist.txt, and to backup your userbase (%USERPROFILE%, which contains your Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music etc) to an archive on the Server called 'userbase'.
5. Now is a good time to consider what you really want to backup! Your first backup might take a long time to complete and you want to avoid backing up unnecessary data. Have a look at the usage of your hard disk with a program like SpaceMonger. TimeDicer Client should be configured according to the instructions that you can can see here. Set the line(s) in your TimeDicer configuration file, and in your excludelist, accordingly.
6. Run TimeDicer Client from your start menu.
7. When it has completed, have a look at the log file (also available from your start menu), and also visit your TimeDicer Server's rdiffWeb webpage and login as user for this machine (see Recovering Files with TimeDicer); here you can see and recover backed up files from the server.
8. If errors have occurred the log file will be automatically displayed and you can also take a look at the output in the TimeDicer command prompt window which will pause at the end of the run (only if there is an error - to prevent pausing use /x switch). If you can't solve the problem, post a message at the bottom of this page.
9. Once you are happy with your backup, add it to Task Scheduler to run (say) daily; use /x switch to prevent TimeDicer from pausing on error (log file will still be automatically displayed).
10. Note that to run TimeDicer using Volume Shadow Services (which is the best and default behaviour) it will require administrative privileges. If these are not available to you, disable VSS by adding the command 'SET vss=n' to your configuration file.
11. If at a later time you want to remove TimeDicer from your client machine, just delete the 2 folders that it uses - one at %ProgramFiles% or %ProgramFiles(x86)%, and the other at %APPDATA%.

You can also make backups from your Linux, Mac or FreeBSD computers to TimeDicer Server by running rdiff-backup. If you need help with this, send an email.

Recovering Files with

There are two ways to view or recover files, including earlier versions:

1. rdiffWeb - for everyday purposes this is the recommended way to recover files because it works easily through a web interface. You login in to rdiffWeb at http://timedicer_server_ip:8080, supplying the username and the password that was set when this user was set up via your TimeDicer Server's web page. The first time that you login to rdiffWeb as this user, you need to update the Backup Locations by clicking on 'Preferences', then on 'Find and Update Backup Locations', and then on 'rdiffWeb'.
2. rdiff-backup command line (--restore option) - this is the more powerful but less user-friendly way to recover files. Study the rdiff-backup manual.

Updating Server

It’s a good idea to update TimeDicer Server regularly because new features might be added or bugs fixed. The easy way to do this is to rerun the setup script without the 'force' option, substituting your own email address for the one given here:

Just press enter to skip all questions except the first two:

• Download and extract key scripts from www.timedicer.co.uk - y
• Download and install latest updates for distro - y

Setup Mirror Server

Having a second or mirror TimeDicer Server is optional but strongly recommended. Your Primary TimeDicer Server needs to be on your local LAN, so that your source machines can reach it easily, fast, and with a stable connection; but this means it probably has the same physical vulnerability as the source machines. Having a remote off-site mirror protects against a catastrophe (earthquake or whatever) that might affect both the source machines and your Primary TimeDicer Server. The mirror is essentially a copy of the Primary TimeDicer Server, updated regularly.

Why, you might wonder, does the Primary Timedicer Server have to be on the LAN? The overriding reason is that rdiff-backup, which is used by TimeDicer Client to communicate with the primary server, requires a stable network - if the connection breaks during a backup session, the data on the server can be damaged. Although rdiff-backup should correct this on the next run, repeated instability might result in irrecoverable damage to the backup archives. By contrast, rsync - used (by timedicer-mirror.sh) to synchronize data between the Primary and Mirror TimeDicer Servers - copes well with the breaks in a session which can occur when sending data over the internet.

To create a mirror TimeDicer Server, you follow the same procedure as above, except call it 'timedicer2' instead of 'timedicer1'. The mirroring of the setup and data from your Primary TimeDicer Server is handled by the timedicer-mirror.sh program (located in your Primary's /opt folder). Before running this for the first time, you need to add the public key of the root user of your primary machine to the list of authorised users on your mirror (secondary) machine. To do this, log in to your primary machine with putty, show the root public key sudo cat /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub (this was created by the timedicer setup program), highlight this to copy it, then log in to your mirror machine with putty and do sudo nano /root/.ssh/authorized_keys and then right-click in this window to paste into here, then CTRL+X and answer 'y' to save this change.

Then run, on your primary server, /opt/timedicer-mirror.sh to mirror its contents to the secondary machine. If supplied with the optional mac address of the secondary server, the program can wake it up and then put it 'to sleep' after completion (though this may not work over the internet if your mirror is behind a remote router because the router may refuse to admit broadcast packets such as wake-on-lan magic packets, please contact me if you have problems with this).

The first time the program is run it will take a long time as all the data has to be transferred, so it is best done with the secondary machine on the local lan, but subsequent runs are much quicker and so the secondary machine can be placed at a remote location and the backup done over the internet. (It is quite secure because it uses ssh.) Typically it is run at night when plenty of bandwidth is available.

We suggest that you first run /opt/timedicer-mirror.sh with -tn, which tests all connections without transferring data, then try it with -fn option which does everything except mirroring /home (and is pretty fast), and when this is working fine, run with -l which does a full backup and provides verbose live feedback - this might take a long time (many hours even). Once it is running smoothly add it, without -l option, to /etc/crontab to run each night. For more details about timedicer-mirror.sh, run it (from a Linux shell) with -h.

The timedicer-mirror.sh program mirrors directories /opt and /home, and the file /etc/rdiffweb/rdw.db, from the primary to the mirror. It also creates a copy of /etc/crontab and saves this in /opt on both the primary and mirror machines, and it creates users and groups on the mirror to match those on the primary, except for the root user (UID=0) and the primary user (UID=1000) which are not altered. Warning: because of the major changes which it makes to the destination machine, you should not run timedicer-mirror.sh to a machine which has any other purpose than being a mirror for your primary.

Managing And Adding Space On Server

• Managing space on TimeDicer Server is easy! You will be emailed if space is running low or you can check anytime as shown below. Login to the server with putty and:
  1. Refer to the email or do sudo /opt/lvm-usage.sh and look at the 'Free' space for your PV(s), to make sure you have sufficient physical storage space in the volume group. If you are short of physical space, add some as described below under 'Adding space to TimeDicer Server'.
  2. Refer again to the email to check the name of your logical volume (LV) e.g. /dev/timedicer/home.
  3. Here is a one-line example to use when you have at least 20G showing as 'Free' in your PV and in your VG. This will extend a /dev/timedicer1/root LV by 20G and then resize the partition inside it to fill the new space, assuming ext4 or ext3 or ext2 formatting. The LV name appears twice (here '/dev/timedicer1/root') and may be different in your case. (Note that making LVM volumes smaller is not so easy):
     sudo lvextend -L+20G /dev/timedicer1/root && sudo resize2fs /dev/timedicer1/root
• Adding space to TimeDicer Server is easy too! If you are running out of physical storage space:
  1. Add a physical hard disk to your system (or if you are using a VM you can add a new virtual disk).
  2. Login in to the server with putty. sudo pvs shows drive partition(s) (in 'PV' column) that is/are already part of your LVM system and the name of your volumegroup or VG (in 'VG' column). Now find the new disk by listing all your disks and partitions with sudo fdisk -l - the new disk will not have appeared in the pvs list. Let’s assume here that the new disk is /dev/sdb...
  3. Partition the new disk with sudo cfdisk /dev/sdb. Create 1 primary partition for the whole disk and set this as type Linux LVM [8E], leaving it not bootable, and then write the changes.
  4. Add the new drive partition (same name as the new disk, with a '1' at the end) to your existing VG with vgextend. Assuming your existing VG is 'timedicer1', for example: sudo vgextend timedicer1 /dev/sdb1
  5. The new drive is now part of your Volume Group (VG) as an additional Physical Volume (PV) (you can confirm this with sudo pvs). To make it available to your filesystem just follow the instructions above on 'Managing space on TimeDicer Server'

Security

1. In principle each user's backup on your TimeDicer Server cannot be accessed by other users, so that one person's backed-up documents cannot be read by another person. This is because all backups are done by restricted users who do not have rights to view documents in others users' directories. But:
   • rdiffWeb provides a way round this if one user knows the rdiffWeb username and password of a different user.
   • The administrator can gain such access using sudo, and it is also easy for her to log in as any of the restricted users (by adding her public key to their authorized_keys files).
   So TimeDicer Server is not a suitable solution if users cannot trust the TimeDicer Server administrator. However:
   • It is possible to backup securely from the TimeDicer Server to an untrusted location by using encfs; at the cost of more than doubling the space consumed on the Primary TimeDicer Server you could copy the contents of /home to an encfs-protected mountpoint and then you could copy (using rsync) the underlying encrypted directory to the insecure destination.
   • A slightly different approach though still using encfs can be seen here.
   • Using the ecryptfs system for backups (bundled with Ubuntu) might protect against someone with physical access to the data but without administrative user rights, but not against a malicious administrator.
2. TimeDicer Client communicates with TimeDicer Server using ssh with a private/public key pair and this is extremely secure, provided you keep the private key safe. Rdiffweb however does not use secure communication and so the possibility of man-in-the-middle interception while recovering data using the rdiffWeb interface cannot be excluded. You could remove this security risk by recovering data using the command line program rdiff-backup.exe.
3. Lastly, please note that neither TimeDicer Client nor TimeDicer Server 'phone home', so no information about your installation (not even that it exists) is passed back to us at TimeDicer or indeed to any outside party.

Additional Notes

1. Verifying backups: The utility timedicer-verify.sh is provided in the TimeDicer Server's /opt directory, see the help information here.
2. What username should I have? When you 'Add New TimeDicer User' from the TimeDicer Server's homepage, the Server creates a Linux user, and normally you should (as advised on the homepage) set the username to the Windows machine's own 'username'-'domain', which in Windows parlance is %USERNAME%-%USERPROFILE%, in lower case and with any spaces stripped out; for instance jimjones-widgetoffice. You can download a little batch file from the homepage to give you this so you don't have to work it out. If you choose to set something different you should also set 'user' appropriately in the TimeDicer configuration file.
3. Backing up from more than one local partition: TimeDicer (currently) takes a snapshot of only one local partition, usually C:. This means that if you specify a range of datasets covering more than one local partition (e.g. C: and E:), then only one of them will be backed up from a snapshot and the other(s) will be backed up directly from an active drive, with possible file-locking issues. If you need to backup from snapshots of each local drive, create separate configuration files for each local drive and do separate runs of TimeDicer for each configuration file.
4. Foreign Language Characters: If you are backing up files with unusual characters (letters) in the filenames, it is necessary that Windows fully supports these characters from the command line. If they can't be viewed correctly from the command line then they can't be backed up correctly by TimeDicer. The solution is to add the relevant language for 'non-Unicode programs' (e.g. Chinese) under the Administrative tab in Region and Language setting of Control Panel (for Windows 7, this is found under 'Clock, Language, and Region').
5. Where are backups stored? Each dataset (or 'repository'), such as 'userbase', is stored in /home/'username'-'domain' - in the example case above this would be /home/jimones-widgetoffice. If you specify a 'basearchive' in your configuration file then this introduces an additional level (or levels) to the repository storage - for instance if basearchive is set to 'archives' then the datasets will be found at /home/jimjones-widgetoffice/archives/. For each dataset, there is a sub-directory 'rdiff-backup-data' which holds, in complex and compressed form, all the data about previous versions of files. You should never normally need to look here and if you change anything you might break your dataset.
6. Relaying Emails with Postfix with/without authentication: If you need to relay your emails through an open smtp mail server (for instance, to prevent outgoing emails being blocked as spam by other mail servers) just add the line relayhost = mail.ispserver.com to /etc/postfix/main.cf, then do sudo postfix reload. But if the relaying server requires authentication for your outgoing emails then it is a bit more complicated:
   • install cyrus SASL with sudo apt-get install sasl2-bin
   • edit /etc/default/saslauthd to set START=yes
   • start SASL with /etc/init.d/saslauthd start
   • Type sudo nano /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd to set up a passwords file as follows:
     mail.ispserver.com username:password
     (substituting your own relayhost, username and password, of course), exit (CTRL+X) and save the file (y)
   • Type sudo chown root:root /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd; sudo chmod 600 /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd to change the ownership and permissions on this file
   • Type sudo postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd to load the password information from this file into the database
   • Do sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf and add or change lines as follows:
     relayhost = mail.ispserver.com (i.e. your relayhost)
     smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
     smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
     smtp_sasl_security_options =
   • Now exit and save the file, then type sudo postfix reload
   • Test e.g. echo This is a test|sendmail me@myemailaddress
7. Permissions / ACLs: There are unconfirmed reports that rdiff-backup 1.2.8, the engine upon which TimeDicer is based, is unable successfully to backup, or at least to restore, Windows ACLs. You are therefore advised to use the option setting --no-acls (set automatically for new Timedicer installations since 1 Oct 2012). This means that advanced file permissions will not be recoverable from a backup. For most users this will not be a problem for data files.
8. Changing a username: If you reconfigure a source machine (for instance, system upgrade) you may have a different %USERNAME%-%USERPROFILE% than previously. To continue using the same backup identity you could add a line beginning 'SET user=' to the configuration file, but as an alternative you can change the name on the TimeDicer Server using the rename-user script. If you are using a TimeDicer Mirror Server you must also run the same script there, and it does not update the username for rdiffWeb - after running rename-user you need to log into rdiffWeb on the Server (only on the primary), delete the old user and manually create a new one.
9. Networking: If you move your TimeDicer Server to different hardware, or from a virtual to a real platform, the network configuration will probably not work 'out of the box'. Type ifconfig -a, the interface that is not working (e.g. 'eth1') will have no 'inet addr:' line. This is probably because the old network interface is eth0 (for instance) and the new interface is eth1 which is not configured. To fix this, do sudo rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules; sudo udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=net; sudo udevadm settle; sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart. Now do ifconfig and hopefully it will show an external inet addr beginning with 192.168.
10. Why LVM? Really the only non-standard aspect of the setup of TimeDicer Server is the use of LVM for storage. LVM permits easy expansion of the backup area by adding disks, and allows snapshots for copying data to the Mirror Server. For an introduction to LVM see here.
11. EFS: Files on EFS encrypted file system (available in Professional versions of Windows) cannot be backed up using VSS. The workaround is to disable use of VSS by TimeDicer.

Links

• rdiff-backup - the underlying backup technology used in TimeDicer
• Ascot Hotel - boutique hotel on the sunny island of Buyukada just off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey
• Ascot House - superb holiday apartments in Sultanahmet, Istanbul
• Thalia Villa - elegant 3-bedroom villa in Coral Bay, Cyprus
• Villa Chez Max - luxurious 4-bedroom villa in the Peyia Hills, Cyprus

My Other Sites

• Free'n'Easy Windows File Server - using Devil-Linux with Samba for network storage
• Finding a 4D Backup Solution
• Web Scraping How To - extracting data from web sites
• Free Virtualisation Solutions - about virtual machines (VMs)

My Programs

Here is a selection of some (other) programs I have written, most of which are freely available and can be obtained by clicking on the links. Email me if you have problems or questions, or if you think I could help with a programming requirement.

Backup Utilities

• rdiff-backup-install - GNU/Linux script to install rdiff-backup. [GNU/Linux: 2012]
• rdiffweb-install - GNU/Linux script to install rdiffWeb, fixing various bugs that otherwise prevent it working correctly. [GNU/Linux: 2011-12]
• rdiff-backup-regress - GNU/Linux script to regress a rdiff-backup repository. [GNU/Linux: 2012]

Kernel, Boot and Device Utilities

• remove-kernel - Lists the installed GNU/Linux kernels in a Debian-based distro (e.g. Ubuntu), and can be used to remove an unwanted kernel and related packages, updating grub appropriately. (Ubuntu Tweak can do the same but remove-kernel.sh is a command-line script so does not require GUI.) [GNU/Linux-Debian/Ubuntu: 2010]
• add-hostname-to-hosts - GNU/Linux script to check and if necessary add to /etc/hosts - useful for Samba in some circumstances. [GNU/Linux: 2010]
• fix-grub2 - GNU/Linux script to fix grub2 so that the last boot choice is remembered and used by default next time. [GNU/Linux: 2010]
• disk-wiper - GNU/Linux script to wipe a disk drive comprehensively, especially one connected by USB, and also check it for bad blocks. For use on a surplus drive before passing to a third party. [GNU/Linux: 2011]

LVM Utilities

• lvm-usage - GNU/Linux script primarily for a machine where LVM (Logical Volume Management) is used (though runs happily without LVM). Checks available space and shows how space is used; run as cron job to warn if usage is above a set percentage. [GNU/Linux-Debian/Ubuntu: 2012]
• lvm-delete-snapshot - GNU/Linux script for a machine where LVM (Logical Volume Management) is used. Removes a snapshot that has been left over by another process. [GNU/Linux-Debian/Ubuntu: 2012]

Dellmont/Vodafone/Asterisk - VoIP and Phone Account Utilities

• dellmont-credit-checker - GNU/Linux script to check credit balance on Dellmont/Finarea/Betamax portals such as voicetrading.com and voipdiscount.com. [GNU/Linux: 2008-12]
• get-vt-cdrs - GNU/Linux script to download CDRs (call detail records) from Dellmont’s voicetrading.com. [GNU/Linux: 2010-12]
• saynoto0870 - For people in UK, a GNU/Linux script which performs automated lookup of the www.saynoto0870.com database, finding cheap or free geographic number replacements for expensive non-geographic (087* or 084*) numbers. [GNU/Linux: 2012]
• vodafone-compile-bills - GNU/Linux script which reprocesses downloaded call record 'csv' files from vodafone.co.uk so that they can be easily analysed via spreadsheet - including analysis of bundled minutes which even Vodafone do not seem able to perform! [GNU/Linux: 2012]
• kill-hung-call - GNU/Linux bash script for a system running asterisk (open source IP PBX) to check for, and if necessary terminate, long-running (i.e. hung) calls which are using an outside (FXO) line [GNU/Linux: 2012]

Miscellaneous Programs

• sleepwalker - Windows© program which can be run from a remote machine to 'wake up' a Windows© machine behind a router, wait for it to start and then initiate Remote Desktop session. [MS Windows©: 2008-13]
• wake-thru-vigor - GNU/Linux script to wake up a machine behind a remote Draytek Vigor router. [GNU/Linux: 2012]
• huawei-fix-wol - GNU/Linux and Windows (Cygwin) script to fix Huawei HG532 router (e.g. from TalkTalk) so you can send WOL/wakeonlan packets from internet to a machine behind the router. [GNU/Linux & MS Windows©: 2012-13]
• websites-live-checker - GNU/Linux program to test webpages (including password-protected) or remote machines to check they are live; use as a cron job for your own websites, for hardware presenting a webpage, or for any machines with a presence on your local LAN or on the internet. [GNU/Linux: 2009-2013]
• dutree - GNU/Linux program to show a tree-style list of files and directories at the specified location and greater than the specified size (default 1GB). [GNU/Linux: 2012]
• man2text - GNU/Linux one-liner program to convert man page output to straightforward text. [GNU/Linux: 2012]
• photo-list.sh - GNU/Linux program which creates rss files to show image (photo) galleries on a website, for viewing with Cooliris or Slideshow Pro. Particularly powerful when used with Cooliris to display a chronologically-named sequence of photos (i.e. "yyyy-mm-dd text description.jpg") [GNU/Linux: 2009-2012]
• Accounts - Multi-business multi-currency accounting software, uses Access [MS Windows©: 1996-2013]
• Rents Program - Residential lettings/landlord front office program, with many special features for UK market [MS Windows©: 1991-2013]

TimeDicer concept, implementation and documentation by Dominic dominic@timedicer.co.uk.