<html>
<body>
OK Guys I Need your help.<br><br>
I own a small computer consulting firm and am struggling with the basic
sales and marketing issues. However, I think I have finally
stumbled onto a great "no brainer" idea: <br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>A Remote
Backup Service for Small businesses. <br><br>
Yes I know there are a bunch out their, but I am thinking of the Hundreds
of Businesses around my general geographic area who don't know how to
find them and who don't backup their data. I would charge a monthly
fee for a given amount of space used ( no more than 500 Meg) and provide
a software that would backup and restore their data.<br><br>
My dilemma is that my margins would be to small to make it affordable for
me to resale someone else's software. So....I would like to roll my
own. Python makes a lot of sense for many reasons that I don't need
to get into here.<br><br>
My struggle is that although I have been programming since the mid-70s, I
am new to Python and feel like a man groping around in the dark.
Also being new to Twisted it is like the room is full of chairs as
well. I did get some sample code to work over the weekend, but I
got a serious brain cramp trying to figure it all out.<br><br>
The basic architecture that I am thinking of is client/server.
There would be three basic applications running to make things
work. First, would be an Agent program that does most of the
work. The Agent would run as a service on each computer being
backed up. Second would be a GUI program running locally to control
the agents. Finally there would be a "Web Service" that
received backup sets from each agent or a designated master agent. The
Web Service would handle authentication and other house keeping
things.<br><br>
<b>Finally the Question!!!!<br>
</b>There are many other details that I have in mind as well (using
patches to reduce size, compression, encryption...), but right now I am
working on issues related to the communication between the GUI and
Agents. Assuming that I have one or more number of agents running
on a network I want to do a number of things. 1) Have the GUI
request that the agents identify themselves so I don't have to tell the
GUI where they are. 2) Transmit a catalog list of the file system
to the GUI so I can build a TreeView and pick which files to backup on
each computer. 3) Finally I may want to identify a
"Master" agent that collects all the backups on the network and
transmits them as one session to the Web Service. This would allow for
local "On Site" backups for fast restores due to normal
computer crashes and failures. <br><br>
1.<x-tab> </x-tab>What would you guys
suggest I do to I get the GUI to ask all the agents to identify
themselves?<br>
2.<x-tab> </x-tab>What would be the
best approach using twisted to transmit a file system catalog across the
local wire. I was playing with some remote procedure calls over the
weekend that seemed to work. I am thinking I could create a class
that would gather the local file system and send it over the wire as one
lump. <br>
3.<x-tab> </x-tab>If I am going to
transmit a backup file (<500meg) over the wire to another local
computer what is the best Twisted approach to take? Due to WinXP
security issues and the desire the run in a cross platform environment I
don't want to rely on normal file shares.<br><br>
There are a hundred other questions running though my mind right now, but
this will due for now,<br><br>
<br>
Thanks for any help you can give,<br><br>
David A. Leedom<br><br>
<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
The Hightower Group, Inc.<br>
Custom Software Solutions Designed To Fit Your Business Like A
Glove.<br>
165 West Airport Road/Lititz, PA 17543<br>
V:717-560-4002, 877-560-4002 x: 114<br>
F:717-560-2825<br>
<a href="http://www.hightowergroup.com/" eudora="autourl">www.hightowergroup.com</a>
</body>
</html>