nitrc:NITRC Tool/Resource Backup and Offline Access Instructions

From NITRC Wiki

Contents 1 NITRC Backups 1.1 About Backups 1.2 Frequency of Backups 1.3 Contents of Backups 2 One Click Backup 2.1 Enable One Click Backup 2.2 Name of Backup 2.3 Downloading the Backup via SFTP 3 Downloading and Configuring the Virtual Machine 3.1 VM Network Configuration for Windows 3.2 VM Network Configuration for MAC (VMware Fusion) 3.3 VM Network Configuration for Linux 4 Installing the NITRC Virtual Machine 4.1 VM Root Account 4.2 Verify the VM is HTTP accessible 5 Upload NITRC Export 5.1 Upload NITRC Export Page 5.2 Post Import Log 5.3 Offline NITRC Administrator Account 5.4 Offline NITRC with Sample Import 6 Database Access 6.1 PostgreSQL Account

NITRC Backups

About Backups

Although the NITRC system is fully backed up every night, it can be useful and give peace of mind to an administrator to have access to a download of all of the contents of his NITRC tool or resource. NITRC provides "one click backups" as an easy way for administrators to export their tool/resource contents. An administrator may instruct NITRC to prepare a nightly backup, which can then be downloaded using SFTP or rsync over SSH. The downloaded backup can be viewed on a virtual machine that acts as a local offline-NITRC. The offline-NITRC offers the same layout and navigation as the online version, but only provides access to the contents of the downloaded backup.

Frequency of Backups

Backups occur daily starting at 3 am EST.

Contents of Backups

All tool/resource data is backed up for any group that has enabled the “one click backup.” This includes all documents, files, forums, mailing lists, news, the entire SCM root, surveys, tasks, trackers, and wiki entries.

One Click Backup

Enable One Click Backup

As an administrator, use your tool/resource menu to navigate to the Admin page and select the Edit Public Info menu option. You will see a screen similar to the one shown below:

Enabling One Click Backup for Your Tool or Resource

Enable the Use One Click Backup feature by placing a tick in the associated checkmark box and pressing the update button. Now, NITRC will create a backup of your tool or resource at 3am EST each morning as long as this feature is enabled.

Name of Backup

The contents of a backup are zipped into one file: nitrc_<tool/resource unix name>_backup_<date>.tar.gz

Downloading the Backup via SFTP

Due to the size of the backup, the files are only available via SFTP. If you do not already have an SFTP client, we recommend the open-source project FileZilla client because it is easy to use and provides download restarts. Use your NITRC account and an SFTP client to connect to www.nitrc.org. (Host=www.nitrc.org, Username=< NITRC username >, Password=< NITRC password >, Port=22) Change to the /home/groups directory, and then open the folder with your tool/resource Unix name. Transfer the file, nitrc_<tool/resource unix name>_backup_<date>.tar.gz, from the host server to your machine. (Please note that only the primary administrator, the one who registered the tool or resource with NITRC, can transfer the file.)

Downloading and Configuring the Virtual Machine

In order to view your backup, you must use a virtual machine. The virtual machine acts as a Web server, visible only to the real machine on which it is running. This Web server provides a limited copy of the NITRC system that will host your tool/resource backup.

If you do not have a VMware License, the VMware Player is available for free from the VMware Website.

VM Network Configuration for Windows

Before you can use your virtual machine, you must first configure the VM Private Network. Run vmnetcfg.exe, which is located in the VMware install folder. (If you are running Windows Vista, right click on vmnetcfg.exe and select “Run as administrator.”) On the Host Virtual Network Mapping tab, click the arrow for VMNet8 and select Subnet.

VMware Network Mapping

Change the subnet IP address to 192.168.174.0. Click OK on the pop-up window. Click Apply on the Virtual Network Editor window.

VMware Networking Subnet

On the NAT tab, make sure VMnet8 is the VMnet host. Click the Edit button. Change the Gateway IP address to 192.168.174.1. Click OK on the pop-up window. Click Restart on the NAT tab. Click Apply on the Virtual Network Editor. Your network should now be configured for the NITRC virtual machine.

VMware Networking NAT

VM Network Configuration for MAC (VMware Fusion)

In the VM settings, configure Network 2 to "Share this host's internet connection (NAT)"

VMware Fusion Network Configuration Dialog

In /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/:

edit file "locations" to read:

answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.174.1
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0

edit file "vmnet8/nat.conf" to read:

ip = 192.168.174.1

then run:

./boot.sh --restart

VM Network Configuration for Linux

Use the configuration script vmware-config.pl to configure the vmplayer network under Linux. Configure the network vmnet8 as a NAT network. Instruct the script not to probe for an unused private subnet for vmnet8, and set the IP address of the host on the private network to be 192.168.174.1 and the netmask to be 255.255.255.0.

Installing the NITRC Virtual Machine

Using SFTP and your NITRC username and password, download NITRC_tool_download-vm.zip from www.nitrc.org. This is a 2+GB file, but it is a one-time download to get this version of the NITRC virtual machine. (Please note that new versions of this file may be released as the virtual machine is updated to new versions of NITRC.) Unzip this file. (If you need an unzip utility for Windows, look at WinZip and WinRar. For command line tar and gzip utilities, please look at GNUWin32.) Locate Rocks.vmx in your unzip folder, and open this file on your virtual machine player, such as VMware Player. Use the root account below to log into the NITRC virtual machine.

VM Root Account

To log onto the NITRC VM through the VMware terminal console, please use the following account:

username: root

password: nitrcpassword

Verify the VM is HTTP accessible

After configuring the VM network adapter and installing the NITRC VM, verify the VM is HTTP accessible by navigating to http://192.168.174.3/ in a Web browser on the host machine. The IP address belongs to a list of IP addresses designated to be used locally. In particular, the virtual machine is configured to be accessible locally from the host machine only. This means that computers in your office will not have access to the virtual machine until the network adapter is reconfigured for public access.

Upload NITRC Export

If you have been following the steps above, your NITRC VM should be running. If you downloaded and configured your NITRC VM in the past, please make sure your NITRC VM is running by starting the VMware Player and selecting NITRC-VM from the Recent Virtual Machines section of the startup page for VMware Player.

Upload NITRC Export Page

To import a NITRC backup, navigate to http://192.168.174.3/upload_export.php in your host machine Web browser. Upload the most recent backup that you downloaded from www.nitrc.org.

VM Upload NITRC Export Page

Post Import Log

You will be presented with the log file after the import is run. If the log contains no errors, navigate to the root URL http://192.168.174.3/ to access the contents of your backup.

VM Post Import Log

Offline NITRC Administrator Account

To view your backup as an administrator, log into the offline NITRC with the following account:

username: nitrcadmin

password: nitrcpassword

Offline NITRC with Sample Import

Below is an example of a successful tool/resource import on the NITRC virtual machine.

VM with FSL Import

Database Access

For advanced users who may need direct access to the raw data, the PostgreSQL database can be access with the account below.

PostgreSQL Account

The PostgreSQL database is call gforge and may be accessed as PostgreSQL user gforge:

psql –U gforge gforge