NFS and Automount on a new client

• sudo apt install autofs
• sudo vi /etc/auto.master, then uncomment the /net line:

# NOTE: mounts done from a hosts map will be mounted with the
#    "nosuid" and "nodev" options unless the "suid" and "dev"
#    options are explicitly given.
#
/net    -hosts

• sudo mkdir /net
•  sudo systemctl restart autofs
• ls /net/server/home/user

Starting use of btrfs

So I had this "new" 200GB PATA disk to play with.  I started with some reading from howtoforge and created my first btrfs partition on it.  Initially I formatted the entire disk (/dev/sda) like this:

mkfs.btrfs /dev/sda

Then I changed my mind and recreated a partition table and a primary partition just for clarity.  It doesn't seem to help much but it also doesn't seem to be a problem and I reformatted using:

mkfs.btrfs /dev/sda1

So far so good.   186GB available.  I updated /etc/fstab to use the new btrfs partition for urBackup data and activating lzo compression on it:

UUID=5b775601-11bb-42d9-8b43-e106fb288c8e /var/backup/urBackup    btrfs compress=lzo 0 2

I moved the contents of my 300GB ext4 partition there after stopping the urBackup service:

sudo service urbackupsrv stop

Then restarted urBackup and checked it was running fine.  However I had to first change the permissions because urBackup runs as a normal user:

sudo chown urbackup:urbackup /var/backup/urBackup/

At this point the urBackup service seems to be happy from its new home:

sudo service urbackupsrv status
urbackupsrv.service - LSB: Server for doing backups
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/urbackupsrv; generated; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2018-01-20 12:15:56 CET; 14min ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 1131 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/urbackupsrv start (code=exited, status=0/S
    Tasks: 25 (limit: 4915)
   CGroup: /system.slice/urbackupsrv.service
           └─1301 /usr/bin/urbackupsrv run --config /etc/default/urbackupsrv --d

jan 20 12:15:50 kid2.lan systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Server for doing backups...
jan 20 12:15:56 kid2.lan systemd[1]: Started LSB: Server for doing backups.
jan 20 12:16:51 kid2.lan urbackupsrv[1301]: Login successful for admin from 192.
jan 20 12:19:52 kid2.lan urbackupsrv[1301]: Login successful for admin from 127.

From there I recycled my 300GB SATA hard disk and added it to the btrfs pool, thus making it a multivolume filesystem:

sudo btrfs device add -f /dev/sdb1 /var/backup/urBackup

 Pretty happy at this  point.  Even more available space:

sudo btrfs filesystem show

Label: none  uuid: 5b775601-11bb-42d9-8b43-e106fb288c8e
    Total devices 2 FS bytes used 43.80GiB
    devid    1 size 186.31GiB used 2.01GiB path /dev/sda1
    devid    2 size 298.09GiB used 43.00GiB path /dev/sdb1

Or else:

df -h /dev/sda1
Sys. de fichiers Taille Utilisé Dispo Uti% Monté sur
/dev/sda1          485G     44G  440G  10% /var/backup/urBackup

The space above is shown after I had let urBackup run and soon after I had my backups done from the two Windows clients that are defined.  Can't wait now to add a third, bigger hard disk to this filesystem...

New disks

Received an Amaz0n order for a 2TB Hitachi disk. Never worked (I/O errors). Sent it back without investigating too long, waiting for the refund.

Yesterday I found a used 200GB (also Hitachi) PATA drive in a thrift store, for 5€ -40% sales = 3€. Not large enough for backups but might be a good idea as playground while experimenting with btrfs, LVM and such. So got it and testing it currently. So far so good. Had to re-create the GPT however, seems like there wasn't any partition table initially but the reformatting went fine. Here's the results of f3write & f3read:

Data OK: 182.31 GB (382329456 sectors)
Data LOST: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
        Corrupted: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
 Slightly changed: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
      Overwritten: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
Average reading speed: 58.11 MB/s

Contemplating buying another 2TB SATA from same source or a used one from local classifieds. In both cases around 60€ or so.

Tested a "2TB USB stick" from China. Obviously it was a fake but I got most of my money back. Just a confirmation of what I thought already, these things don't exist, or at least not at the prices they're selling for.

On a side note I also received my PCI Express USB3.0 interface card and installed it. It needs a MOLEX power cable and I have only one in that box (kid2) so now I need 3 of those (2 PATA drives + the USB3 card). So I ordered a 3-way splitter and in the meantime I can test these devices one-by-one. The USB3 card seems to work (at least with a mouse) but I'd need to check with a real USB 3.0 HDD to be sure.

urBackup episode 4

So again after a few more weeks of testing, urBackup has the lead for backing up Windows boxes, even those that don't stay online for very long periods (so far).  Linux boxes also work fine too.

During the same period, BackupPC took many backups of Linux hosts, but only managed 50% of the (currently in-house) Windows 10 hosts.  Even when I intentionally leave one online all night long, the backup still seems to hang.

So as a conclusion, I'm buying another 2TB drive soon and will install it on kid2 to roll out more urBackup clients.  If that can handle the load then I'll also transfer the crontab/flickr email script that still runs on base.  Then migrate the existing 2TB from base to kid2 and decommission base.

Agenda/Time reporting/Invoicing/Bookkeeping project

New project for my putative business and for my wife's current operations as a speech therapist.

Requirements

1. Easy data entry
2. Possibly, google calendar as the main data input for mobile and office usage
3. If Google Calendar used, needs good integration/export capability
4. Needs to identify separate customers/projects for later invoicing/reporting
5. Must support French language
6. Regardless of data entry/storage : must provide export to local readable files for archive/backup purposes

Nice to Have

1. Nice if invoices can be produced from the time reports/agenda
2. Invoicing must support non-VAT (speech therapist) or VAT (my business) invoicing
3. For VAT, Belgian regulations and fees must be supported
4. For invoices, sending via email/Zoomit/Paypal or other modern services should be available
5. For accounts receivables, invoice tracking and payment reconciliation is a plus.  Integration with local (Belgian) bank systems is a definite plus
6. For further bookkeeping, full accounts payable module is another bonus

 INCWO

Looks like it's a french company.  Nice feature list, recurrent payment depending on activated modules, starts at 49€ / year.  So far seems to match R1-2, R4-5, N2, possibly N4-6.  Definitely not N5 for Belgian banks but I have opened a ticket to ask this very question.  The jury's out.

GTimeReport

Free! but limited to R1-4, R6.  R5 limited support (help pages via Google Translate).  So it kind of ticks all required boxes and is free.