diff --git a/doc/ccollect.text b/doc/ccollect.text index 50d28d2..a7d420b 100644 --- a/doc/ccollect.text +++ b/doc/ccollect.text @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ ccollect - Installing, Configuring and Using ============================================ Nico Schottelius -0.4.0, for ccollect 0.4, Initial Version from 2006-01-13 +0.4.1, for ccollect 0.4-0.4.1, Initial Version from 2006-01-13 :Author Initials: NS (pseudo) incremental backup @@ -12,23 +12,36 @@ Introduction ------------ ccollect is a backup utility written in the sh-scripting language. It does not depend on a specific shell, only `/bin/sh` needs to be -bourne shell compatibel (like 'dash', 'ksh', 'zsh', 'bash', ...). +bourne shell compatible (like 'dash', 'ksh', 'zsh', 'bash', ...). -Why you can only backup TO localhost -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Why you cannot backup TO remote hosts (but FROM them!) +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While thinking about the design of ccollect, I thought about enabling backup to *remote* hosts. Though this sounds like a nice feature ('Backup my notebook to the server now.'), it is in my opinion a -bad idea to backup to a remote host, because you have to open -security at your backup host. Think of the following situation: You backup -your farm of webservers *to* a backup host somewhere else. One of -your webservers gets compromised, then your backup server will be compromised, -too. Think of it the other way round: The backup server (now behind a +bad idea to backup to a remote host. + +Reason +^^^^^^ +To backup *TO* a remote host, you have to open security on it. + +Think of the following situation: You backup your farm of webservers *TO* +a backup host somewhere else. +Now, one of your webservers, which has access to your backup host, gets +compromised. + +Then your backup server will be compromised, too. + +And all data from the other webservers are also know to the attacker. + +Doing it the secure way +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ +Think of it the other way round: The backup server (now behind a firewall using NAT and strong firewall rules) connects to the webservers and pulls the data *from* them. If someone gets access to one of the webservers, the person will perhaps not even see your machine. If -he/she sees that there are connections from a host to the compromised +the attacker sees that there are connections from a host to the compromised machine, he/she will not be able to login to the backup machine. All other backups are still secure. @@ -65,6 +78,7 @@ Installing ccollect ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For the installation, you need at least + - the latest ccollect package (http://unix.schottelius.org/ccollect/) - either `cp` and `chmod` or `install` - for more comfort: `make` - for rebuilding the generated documentation: additionally `asciidoc`