'Best practices' question for a backup

[Dave Bour]

Madison,
I currently run a backup service and this issue has come up before.  My
stance has been this.

The owner of the computer (usually the company president) has to sign
off if a backup is requested by an individual.  In my case, all files in
the specified folders are backed up, regardless of permissions.  As
pointed out, there is an exposure of privledges during that period and
my users have accepted that (or at least acknowledged that).   

Conversely, in some cases, multiple users are using the same machine and
all are concerned their data remain private.  Again, the owner of the
computer has the authority to acknowledge that the backup occurs
regardless of the individual's desires, and everyone is advised
accordlingly.

This "heavy handed" approach has cost me one client over the past 5
years.  The balance have accepted it and some companies have even
changed their corporate policies such that the "company" has the rights
on the computer, rather than individual.  If the individual doesn't like
the policies, they are welcome to find other jobs, etc.

As long as it's documented and the users have acknowledged it, you
should be clear.

In my case, this was the easiest approach rather than trying to do it a
half dozen configurations to please each individual.  

D.

Dave Bour
Desktop Solution Center
905.381.0077
dcbour-Uj1Tbf34OBsy5HIR1wJiBuOEVfOsBSGQ at public.gmane.org
http://www.desktopsolutioncenter.ca
 
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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org [mailto:owner-tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org] On Behalf Of Madison
Kelly
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2005 2:12 PM
To: tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org
Subject: Re: [TLUG]: 'Best practices' question for a backup

James Knott wrote:
> Madison Kelly wrote:
> 
>>Hi all,
>>
>>  I've run into an ethical/best practices question that I wanted input

>>from as many people as I could get on. I have a backup program that is

>>aimed to be generally available to the public. That said, I need to be

>>careful how I tell the program to work. In this case though, either 
>>decision I think could upset someone. So....
> 
> 
> My take on backups, is that the person doing the backup should have 
> the appropriate rights to the file they're backing up.  Otherwise, a 
> backup could be used to violate permissions.  If other than user files

> are to be backed up, they should be done under root or other 
> appropriate permissions.

Thanks!

The actual 'rsync' call is performed as root so 'rsync' runs as root and
should, in turn, be able to backup anything 'root' has access to. This
still seems to skip directories and files though where global access is
not set to at least readable.

Madison
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