DejaDup

Revision 16 as of 2011-04-21 20:36:18

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Summary

This specification discusses including Déjà Dup, a backup tool for non-technical users, by default.

Rationale

Providing an easy-to-use backup solution that's suitable for non-expert users is important. Expert users should install and/or use a more sophisticated backup system. Part of the rationale is to tell the user exactly what he has to do, rather than leave it for him to think up a backup schema.

Prior Art

Specs

  • 6.06: First backup spec

    • Includes some original design work for a new backup system

    • Beginning of HUBackup

  • 6.10: Second backup spec

    • HUBackup improvements (Today, HUBackup seems abandoned)

  • 9.04: Third backup spec

    • Reviewed state of art, found all wanting
    • I announced Déjà Dup here
    • No decision, though there are promising candidates

Community

User stories

(Collected from previous specs)

6.06 Spec

  • John is a new Ubuntu user. He has been using his system for a week now, managed to sort everything out by means of getting his favorite theme set up and desktop behavior. He has also already got quite a few important email messages and some other bits of information currently stored on his Desktop. John however, is a newcomer to Ubuntu and is not aware of the fact he has to do periodic backups. After using his machine for a week, a pop up dialog appears telling him "It has been a week since you installed your computer. In order to be able to restore it to the current state if data loss occurs, it's recommended that you do a backup. Would you like to do that now". Upon confirmation, he is asked to insert blank backup media and a backup is carried out. TODO: Déjà Dup does not notify like this.

  • Rob wants to refresh the backup set he had previously created. He opens the backup program, and is prompted to insert his old backup media if it's rewriteable (multi-sesion CD), or blank media (CDR) if not. Then, the backup program scans for changes and additions to Rob's home directory and backs up only the files that have changed. TODO: Déjà Dup does not support optical media, but does incremental backups.

  • Elaine is a concerned Ubuntu user. Using her machine for 3 days now, she wishes to backup her data in order to be able to restore it in case it goes bad. She goes to "System" --> "Administration" --> "Backup Now". She is then instructed to insert CD media for storing the data backup. After confirming that she has inserted a CD into the drive, all her personal data is backed up against it. When finished a pop up dialog instructs her "Please take out the CD, and label it 'Ubuntu Personal Backup data, dated 10-10-2006, 06:00am'". DONE: Déjà Dup has a "Back Up Now" feature.

6.10 Spec

See original spec for its user stories. They're arguably ignorable as they are written specifically to fit HUBackup, not the other way around.

9.04 Spec

  • Bob has an Ubuntu laptop. His hard disk died. With the recovery tool and a set of current backups he is able to restore most of his data. DONE: Déjà Dup can do this today.

  • While exploring the wonders of the command line Janet accidentally deleted her almost finished term paper. She is able to restore it. DONE: Déjà Dup can do this today.

Quick Sell

  • Déjà Dup has been a featured application from the get-go
  • It's been installed by default in Fedora 13 and up
  • It's based on command line backup tool duplicity, so that flavors (including Server) can share implementation
  • It's designed for non technical users

Room for Improvement

  • Optical Media
    • Do people really use this over external hard drives?
  • Discoverability
    • Notify after a week
    • Notify upon plugging in large external disk
  • System Backup
    • List of installed packages (could be done via apt-clone)
    • Whole disk backup
    • In scope?
    • Is U1 already handling package list?

Implementation

Current Status

  • Home page with releases and working code

  • Included in universe since Ubuntu 9.10.

Upstream Oneiric Cycle Changes

  • UI redesign to make interface more "invisible" and just a feature of the OS.

    • No more separate app with its two big restore/backup buttons. Instead, just a control center panel.
    • De-emphasize goofy name in favor of generic "Backup" descriptions.
  • Ubuntu One support by default if on Ubuntu.
  • Robustification focus by looking at duplicity bugs more.

Steps to Pull the Trigger

  • File MIRs for:
    • deja-dup
    • duplicity
    • librsync
    • python-rackspace-cloudfiles (optional)
  • Change desktop seed to Recommend deja-dup

Discussion Topics

  • Do we even want a backup system by default?
    • If so, do we want to commit to this data format?
  • What are must-have criteria for a default backup system?
    • Optical media support?
    • Restore installed packages?
    • Non-user data?
    • Accessibility
  • Other flavors
  • Size on CD
    • Pulls in duplicity, librsync1, python-boto, python-rackspace-cloudfiles, and deja-dup itself
    • Total extra CD space consumed would be 5.9 MB
    • Could get that down to 3.0 MB without boto (Amazon S3) and cloudfiles support
    • Those sizes already include dropping the deja-dup translation files (would be moved into langpacks)
  • Ubiquity integration (would require design input)

Notes from UDS

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Action Items

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