SysProp: A Web-based Data Backup, Synchronization and System Administration

From the inception of computer based computing, preventing data loss or data corruption is considered as one of the difficult challenges. In early days, data reliability had been increased by replicating data in multiple disks, which were attached with the same system and later located inside the same network. Later, to avoid potential risk of single point of failure, the replicated data storage has been separated from the network from which the data has been originated. Thus, following the concept of peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, P2P storage system has been designed, where data has been replicated inside multiple remote peers’ redundant storages. With the advent of Cloud computing, a similar but more reliable Cloud-based storage system has been developed. Note that Cloud storages are expensive for small and medium enterprises. Moreover, users are often reluctant to store their sensitive data inside a third-party’s network that they do now own or control. In this paper, we design, develop and deploy a storage system that we named SysProp. Two widely used tools—Web applications and UNIX daemon—have been incorporated in the development process of SysProp. Our goal is to congregate benefits of different storage systems (e.g., networked, P2P and Cloud storages) in a single application. SysProp provides a remotely accessible, Web-based interface, where users have full control over their data and data is being transferred in encrypted form. Moreover, for data backup, a powerful UNIX tool, rsync has been used that synchronize data by transferring only the updated portion. Finally, SysProp is a successful demonstration of the concept that UNIX daemons can be remotely executed and controlled over the Web. Hence, this concept might be exploited to build many system administrative applications.