Remote file sync - Where to begin?
Caplet (5716) 2 posts |
Hi All I have zero experience with RISCOS and have been tasked with a project that requires a remote RISCOS raspi to work with files from a NAS on an internal network TL;DR – Our bookkeeper will soon need remote rw access to the accounts files. The accounts package we use is RISCOS based [Prophet3 – the boss has used it for decades and swears by it] How would be best to achieve this? Currently the raspi inside the network connects to the NAS over NFS using sunfish – But I cannot get the NFS export to be accessible from outside the NAT (I believe I have the ports forwarded correctly) – But the more I read about NFS over the internet the more I think I am barking up the wrong tree….. so…. My current train of thought is thus To have the remote RISCPi rsync over ssh to pull the files every morning, which would allow local editing, then rsync to push them back up at the end of the day – This has to be fully automated as our bookkeeper is not the most tech savvy one amongst us – but he is a bit of a terrier when it come to unpaid invoices!! (-: Is this achievable? is there a way to schedule the rsync transfers from the remote pi? (something like cron) I am pretty OK with linux [read that as not a total n00b!] – the NAS I want to use for this will be debian based [Openmediavault] on another raspi, so this can handle any ssh, ftp, rsync, openvpn, etc I am open to any suggestions – is there a remote file system that RISCOS will happily mount as if local? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer |
Will Ling (519) 98 posts |
Some very quick thoughts: If you have a capable router each end, you could set up a site to site vpn. That would require no particular RISC OS knowledge, sunfish should just work. |
Elesar (2416) 73 posts |
Coming at this from a slightly different angle (push rather than pull), since Prophet already has a facility to create both a current and backup copy whenever it saves, you could point the backup copy to a drive on CloudFS while leaving the main copy on your local drive. Then, the accountant could be granted permission to access your cloud account (via a PC, for example) and see the files you wrote (though note a PC wouldn’t be able to read the Prophet database directly). |
Andrew Rawnsley (492) 1405 posts |
As Will suggests, we achieve the very same job using draytek vigor routers at each end. These can create a hardware vpn between the locations and (with no knowledge of the client machines) share data and printers and so on between. We use Prophet ourselves, and this works a treat. We use LanManFS or LM98 to access our NAS devices. Another way would be using VRPC with dropbox or something similar. I’ve got RISCube customers doing that kind of thing regularly. However, I quite understand that cloud services may not be desirable due to security etc. Most “proper” NAS solutions (ie. from the main vendors) offer private cloud and/or vpn facilities built in (eg. Qnap have QVPN, Qsync and myqnapcloud). Could you do something like that with your debian solution? With a commercial hat on, we assist many companies who use/have used RISC OS, and provide products, services, consultancy to help them find the best solutions. I can’t help but feel this is probably something that could be most practically resolved with a discussion between the various folks (boss, bookkeeper, yourself etc) to find what’s going to be most comfortable for you all. Side comment – it sounds like you’re intending to use a pi as a NAS. I’m not sure I’d want to trust business-sensitive data to a NAS solution with a Pi’s limited IO capabilities (ie. no SATA RAID, only USB+sd cards). Whilst conceptually fun :) it sounds like it might be making problems for yourself down the line. |
Caplet (5716) 2 posts |
Thank you all for your input “If you have a capable router each end, you could set up a site to site vpn.” – no VPN capable routers – but this is a really good idea… it has set my cogs whirring down a similar path….. “Then, the accountant could be granted permission to access your cloud account (via a PC, for example) and see the files you wrote” – I did originally think of this kind of approach – but dismissed it as the bookkeeper would then have to transfer the files to the riscpi, edit them and transfer them back. I just thought that this was a little long winded and I was after something that just looks after itself. “…offer private cloud and/or vpn facilities built in ….. Could you do something like that with your debian solution?” – This is where my cogs are currently heading….. Have two debian pi’s sync (over vpn, ssh, rsync, etc…. I don’t know yet) and then have the riscPI’s at each end mount the smb/nfs share on the LAN…. “it sounds like you’re intending to use a pi as a NAS…..” – I fully understand your concerns – but weighing the cost vs risk, and the fact that they will only be syncing the Prophet files (a few kB’s at a time, and which are backed up elsewhere multiple times) I think it is a risk we can live with, also this is still a bit of a feasibility study at the mo’ we may put in a more robust system down the line Thanks again – I think debian-debian over VPN approach will side step the RISCOS and remote file systems problem (-: |
Andrew Rawnsley (492) 1405 posts |
You might want to find out what computer your accountant normally uses. I suspect injecting Pis into the equation may be over-complicating things. Also, you can get suitable NAS devices from about 150ukp upwards. In a business, your time may be worth more than that. |