8 bits

backup synology nas to amazon S3

Amazon S3 (http://aws.amazon.com/s3/) is storage for the Internet. It provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any developer access to the same highly scalable, reliable, secure, fast, inexpensive infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites. The service aims to maximize benefits of scale and to pass those benefits on to developers. In short: it's a nice remote place to store your precious backups !

First, install these packages on your NAS:
ipkg
python
sudo

More information about this:
http://stam.blogs.com/8bits/2011/11/ssh-tunnel-with-synology-nas.html
http://stam.blogs.com/8bits/2011/11/how-to-run-python-27-on-synology-nas.html

Download the latest S3cmd (http://s3tools.org/download) and copy it to the public or temp folder on the NAS. At the moment, the latest version of s3cmd is s3cmd-1.0.1.tar.gz

Log into the NAS using SSH.

Bash commands:

cd /volume1/public
tar -xzf s3cmd-0.9.9.tar.gz
rm s3cmd-0.9.9.tar.gz
mv s3cmd-0.9.9 s3cmd
cd s3cmd
sudo python2.7 ./s3cmd --configure

You'll need your Amazon S3 public and private keys (you can get them here: http://aws.amazon.com/s3/)

Now, to backup the data of your NAS, create a bucket (http://aws.amazon.com/s3/#getting-started) and create a folder inside that bucket. Then, use the command line on the NAS (login with SSH and you're good to go):

sudo python2.7 /volume1/public/s3cmd/s3cmd sync --delete-removed --exclude '@eaDir*' --exclude 'Thumbs.db' /volume1/backup/ s3://<bucketname>/<foldername>/

If it doesn't work, maybe you can use Python 2.5, like this:

sudo python2.5 /volume1/public/s3cmd/s3cmd sync --delete-removed --exclude '@eaDir*' --exclude 'Thumbs.db' /volume1/backup/ s3://<bucketname>/<foldername>/

The contents of the backup folder on the NAS will be uploaded (synced) to the S3 bucket.

Now, you can create a cronjob on the NAS to automate your backups.
More information about that: http://www.google.nl?q=synology+crontab

After editing /etc/crontab, use the following command to restart the crontab daemon:

sudo synoservice --restart crond
sudo /usr/syno/etc.defaults/rc.d/S??crond.sh stop
sudo /usr/syno/etc.defaults/rc.d/S??crond.sh start

Further reading:

http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_backup_the_Synology_Server_to_Amazon_S3

How to run Python 2.7 on Synology NAS

A simple walkthrough to install Python 2.7 on Synology NAS:

1) install ipkg

Read this blogposting for more information about installing ipkg:

http://setaoffice.com/2011/04/08/how-to-install-compiled-programs-on-a-synology-nas/

2) run 'ipkg update'

3) run 'ipkg install python27'
It will install Python and all dependencies

4) now, the command 'python2.7' will start the Python command line
print 'hello world';

There are many other packages which can be installed on the Synology NAS with Optware, take a look at this website:

http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Optware/HomePage

complete list: http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Optware/Packages

Why don't you install nano, sudo etc., it will definitely make your life easier!

SSH tunnel with Synology NAS

Here's my solution to create an SSH tunnel over Synology NAS, in order to browse the internet in a safe way.

Location based tweets

Unfortunately, there were some errors in my last posting about location based tweets. I fixed it with Google App Engine's 'urlfetch'.

Now, the feed with all location based tweets about 'beer' in the area around the Dam in Amsterdam:

http://geotwittsearch.appspot.com/?w=beer&nb=52.368674&el=4.890467&km=2

You can simply add the feed to Google Reader.

Use it with Google Maps like this:

http://maps.google.com/?q=http://geotwittsearch.appspot.com/?w=beer%26nb=52.368674%26el=4.890467%26km=2

Note:

if you don't want to search for a keyword and just want all available location based tweets in a specific area, you can use the * wildcard, for example:

http://maps.google.com/?q=http://geotwittsearch.appspot.com/?w=*%26nb=52.368674%26el=4.890467%26km=2

Realtime Twitter locations

read the new blogposting about location based tweets

I've created a script which parses Twitter (almost) realtime and shows the location of the Twitter user. Just change the keyword you want to look for ('w' variable) and use the GPS locations for the area you want to monitor ('nb' and 'el' variables).

If all works well (and the Twitter API is not down), you can open the feed in a standard RSS feedparser or you can use it with Google maps.

I'm updating my scripts almost daily, so if you want to know more or if you have any ideas about the practical use of Twitter, let me know !

Good online virusscanner

Microsoft Security Essentials has warned me about the fact that my Windows pc contained malware and that it had cleaned my system. Time to do a test with some online virusscanners. First, I've tried TrendMicro Housecall. Housecall found nothing and told me my system was safe and didn't contain malware. Then, I tried Eset Online scanner. Eset did find the specific malware on my Windows pc. This, while Microsoft Security Essentials told me it had deleted the malware and TrendMicro Housecall told me my system was safe. Well done Eset !!

How to create an XMPP bot

Thanks to the information in the book and on blogs like this one, I've just created my first XMPP bot.

Easy Google App Engine examples: DataStore

Google App Engine manages the scaling and maintenance of data storage automatically. GAE's abstraction for data is easy to understand, but it is not obvious how to best take advantage of it's features. In particular, it's suprisingly different from the relational database. Google doesn't call it a 'database', but a 'datastore'. It's best understood as an object database. An object in the datastore is known as an entity. 

Linux based security camera network

At home I'm designing a security camera network. I want to use a Linux based video server and I've stumbled upon ZoneMinder. I'll start with the virtual appliance (VMware) in order to see the ins and outs of this video software. More information is available here.

Mobile version of this weblog

I just discovered that this weblog has a mobile version: http://stam.blogs.com/.m