Install Script For Crashplan on Debian for ARM

For those who are interested, Crashplan is a backup service that can provide free encrypted peer-to-peer backup on a LAN or over the Internet and paid backup to "the cloud."

It is written in Java, but it depends on a somewhat obscure native library that isn't packaged for debian, and it isn't distributed with an ARM version. Fortunately, some people have tracked down the source for the library and created some patches, and its possible to run a headless Crashplan on a Pogoplug or Dockstar running debian and use it as a backup target, and or a backup client.

I've taken everyone else's good work and turned it into a crude but functional bash script which automates installing the prerequisites, downloading the library source, patching it, building it, and installing it. The script is linked from the bottom of this blog post: http://geekfun.com/2011/08/29/crashplan-install-script-for-arm-debian-on-pogoplugs-and-dockstars/

Thanks for putting script together.

I got a general question though:

What are the advantages of running crashplan server on dockstar vs just exporting a fileshare off the dockstar and setting up crashplan to do backup to that mounted share?

Main disadvantage with fileshare option is that my friends can't do backup to my box; Do I lost anything else? Thoughts?

Thanks again!

My dockstar is never asleep.

Bob Valiant Wrote:
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> My dockstar is never asleep.

Yup.
My two Kirkwood devices are on 24/7 for not much more than the standby power draw of my old A64x2 desktop.

My NSA320 (recently upgraded from a dockstar) is a file and application server, then I have a Dockstar that runs rsnapshot and crashplan. I use rsnapshot to make versioned backups of the files served by the NSA320, as well as files and MySQL on my Linode. Crashplan is available to receive files from friends/family 24/7. After I go to bed, Crashplan wakes up to send changes from the daily rsnapshot backup to Crashplan's cloud service.

Basically, it comes down to separation of concerns. Breaking functions up among systems reduces contention and compromises between the different functions. My server gets backed up whether or not my desktop or laptops are powered up and working. I don't have to put a lot of effort into tweaking the backup server to keep the backup software from eating up RAM and i/o on the file server, etc.

Thanks for your writeup.

Also, Crashplan doesn't natively support backup to mapped/shared drives, although there is an unoffical fix for that.