gpg: Signature made Tue Jan 12 03:19:10 2021 UTC
gpg: using DSA key 2099B64CBF15490B
gpg: Good signature from "Andy Smith <andy@strugglers.net>" [unknown]
gpg: aka "Andrew James Smith <andy@strugglers.net>" [unknown]
gpg: aka "Andy Smith (UKUUG) <andy.smith@ukuug.org>" [unknown]
gpg: aka "Andy Smith (BitFolk Ltd.) <andy@bitfolk.com>" [unknown]
gpg: aka "Andy Smith (Linux User Groups UK) <andy@lug.org.uk>" [unknown]
gpg: aka "Andy Smith (Cernio Technology Cooperative) <andy.smith@cernio.com>" [unknown]
Hello,
On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 08:59:50PM +0000, alexvojtkoproctor@??? wrote:
> In the situation that led to this discussion, I actually hadn't noticed
> that some of the directories I was trying to back up weren't readable
> by the backup user. Without notifications from monitoring, it would
> probably have taken me a little longer to realise that not everything I
> wanted was being included in my backups.
Yeah. There were also a few comments off-list that alerting on an
incomplete backup was still the right thing to do. So that's how it
will stay.
Options that people in this situation could explore:
- Give up and allow backup as root.
- Find the files that can't be read and allow the user to read them
through something like a filesystem ACL.
- Exclude such files from being backed up at all by using the
.bitfolk-rsync-filter file.
The main downside is that all that the customer will see is a "backup
age" alert, without knowing why. With no access to logs from rsync
they would have to try to work out what the issue is - permissions
on some files being only one possibility.
Still, that is clearly better than remaining blissfully unaware that
some things are not being backed up.
Realistically I expect most customers in this position would either
ignore it or else just open a support ticket to ask why. This will
result in us having to do extra work to investigate but that is
probably a fair outcome for not providing a better user interface.
Backup service is free and really only for people who want something
simple that they don't have to think about too much. There are
obviously much better ways to back things up if you want to spend
effort on it.
Cheers,
Andy
--
https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting
