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Ask Slashdot: Building a Personal FOSS Cloud?
An anonymous reader writes "Cloud-based personal data management is pretty cool... if you don't mind entrusting the entirety of your personal data to a gigantic corporation. Apart from the risks of their doing unseemly things with your data, also the security of your data is entirely in their unreliable hands. So, is it possible to build my own personal data repository, where for example, I can store my contacts and calendars to sync to multiple devices? This could be hosted on any third party hosting service assuming also that all of my data was encrypted at the data level. So even if the host wanted to look at my data, all they'd see is 1s and 0s. What are the options for the tinfoil hat wearing FOSS folks that want to participate in the cloud age?"
So even if the host wanted to look at my data, all they'd see is 1s and 0s.
That was the dumbest thing I read all day.
http://owncloud.org/
- Calendar
- Contacts
- dropbox like storage
EA David Gardner -"... but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun."
At what point does this involve a cloud? Renting a server(providing ftp, for example) is easy, and doesn't require anything from the "cloud age".
Also, building a server or buying one secondhand is cheap, if you want to DIY.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
You can write "The Cloud" on it with a Sharpie if you absolutely must.
https://github.com/wurp/Friendly-Backup
It works now, with some bugs. The first targeted usecase is distributed backup.
However, it can store arbitrary read-only content-addressed data as well as signed labels that point point to a particular piece of CBA data to emulate mutable data.
I have a whole slew of plans beyond backup for it, but backup seemed like the thing everyone needs and would most like to have for free on a federated data store.
OMFG, the cloud. I got to have or do the cloud. Magic Ponies in the cloud!!!!
Seriously, wtf do you really need the cloud for? Is it going to magically sync all your different data together so you can access it all the time?
No, seriously, do you think it's going to sync all your data so you can use it and access it anywhere?
No, it's not. Sure, you can access you data anywhere, but duder, we've been doing that for a couple of decades now, way to join the late train.
Unfortunately, the various corporations don't want to agree to standards, so having docs/apps/whatever working with everything isn't in the "rape as much money as we can" business plan. so nothing is going to change.
Now let's look at the Megaupload thingy. That was cloud storage, file lockers. It's not around now, is it? That is what happens to clouds, the winds blow them away. The wind? Oh ya, in this case, that's the good old USA Government, working for their Pimps, the Music/Movie Industry. You think that can't happen to any "cloud" servers? Think again. OMG, Terrorist used that server, Child porn was on that server, boom! You're data, which has nothing to do with those 2 things, is gone also. Hope you make a backup. Oh, wait, the cloud was magically supposed to back it up for you?
Cloud has been around for awhile, but we called it what it was, the internet.
Be seeing you...
What's in the cloud that is better?
slashdot ate my last comment, so just check out the link
coding is life
the safest storage is your own high speed server quality RAID 7 write-only drive
...omphaloskepsis often...
You want the above? That's easy. Access to email from anywhere, access to my contacts and my calendar, how about access to all my files? Yep got that. Though it doesn't have a fancy name like "cloud". If I were into marketing I'd call it a cloud, but right now I'll stick to calling it an "internet facing linux machine"
Yeah it's not as exciting, but it does everything the so called cloud has done and it has done it for many years before this mythical cloud has existed. My phone sees the same set of files and emails as my home desktop PC, and there's a web interface to access all the above too.
Seriously just google "Linux Groupware" and maybe "Linux Web Fileserver" and you'll have everything that the cloud has.
So do you propose a free cloud solution for starving kids in Africa? The food thingy might be a bit difficult to accomplish but if they can store their music safely at least the on line world is doing their bit to change the world.
Try the free open-source SparkleShare software and roll your your own cloud 100%. That would trump any cloud provider option if this is your concern, since all the disks and PCs are under your ownership and control.
SparkleShare is essentially a DropBox clone in terms of a GUI, which extends to recovering older versions with a right-click. It looks like DropBox, and it works like DropBox too. But it is just a scripted GIT environment. In fact if you already have a GIT Repo hosted on a server (or service) somewhere, SparkleShare is easily configured to wrk with it. Here's how you start from scratch, assuming you already have PGP keys shared with the server:
At the server, create a new, empty GIT repository:
git init --bare NEWREPOSITORY.git
At the workstation:
Normally, you might use something like the following commands to work with GIT. (these are not necessary if you use SparkleShare)
git clone ssh://user@example.com:port/home/user/NEWREPOSITORY.git
cd NEWREPOSITORY.git
git clone ssh://user@example.com:port/home/user/NEWREPOSITORY.git
The SparkleShare config:
Add Hosted Project...
Address:
ssh://user@example.com:port
Remote Path: /home/user/NEWREPOSITORY.git
This document explains how to add a layer of encryption, (which also works to secure services like DropBox btw: https://github.com/hbons/SparkleShare/wiki/Encrypting-your-files-before-transfer
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
I did misread this. When I think cloud computing, I am coming for a CS point of view, which is that cloud computing is the terms used to describe the efforts to make scalability of software as a service ubiquitous. Basically, the cloud is not a bunch of servers, it is the infrastructure that provides scalable services to an application layer like the web. Amazon pretty much built the best cloud and others are following their lead. So, I have been looking at OpenStack
If anyone actually thinks this question is in any way relevant, please let me know if there are other resources.
pull it out fo your phone and plop it into another device to import? If you're gonna pull all this retarded effort into the "cloud" why not just set up VNC and log into your computer at home and grab the contacts? You know something thats been available for over a decade.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
You save their music by providing food and shelter. You know, in some places people still listen to live music.
*snort* 27 posts so far and no one seems to really have addressed the poster's real question. (Instead, all I've read is basic suggestions like a file share, VNC/SSH, or OpenStack; all of which seem to ignore the main point: "is it possible to build my own personal data repository, where for example, I can store my contacts and calendars to sync to multiple devices?")
I've been looking for something like this for a while now, actually. From my research, I think the best way to solve this problem is to set up your own 'groupware' server on a hosted VM somewhere. You can custom-configure the VM to make sure that it stores your server-side data in an encrypted filesystem within the VM itself. [To make it that much harder for anyone from your hosting company to spy on you, naturally... ;-) ]
Then, you can use the open-source sync clients from the "Funambol" project to synchronize the contacts and calendar data on the phone with the data on the groupware server. The issue I've had is that I *also* want a non-shitty *Web* interface for calendar management... and so far, *that* has been hard to find. (I can't bring my personal smartphone into work, so I need something to be able to manage my calendar over the Internet and sync those appointments back to my phone).
So what server to use? Well, I set up an eGroupWare server a few years ago (before all this shit was called "cloud" everything :-P) and it seemed to have most of the features I wanted as far as calendar management goes. [I even locked everything down, moving the back-end database to an encrypted filesystem that wasn't auto-mounted...] Unfortunately, the default web interface kinda sucked. And the good Funambol 'web' client is only available on their own 3rd-party calendar hosting servers, which I wouldn't use because I wouldn't get to control my own data. (Again, the project only ships with a crappy text-based one out of the box :-P) So I stopped using that solution. Consequently, I never actually got all the way to the point of trying out the PalmOS(which I was using at the time)/Android/iOS Funambol clients to see how well they worked to synchronize contacts and calendar data.
Recently, I've been looking at SOGo, another open-source groupware server which apparently has a fancy Ajax-based web UI... and should also work with the Funambol open-source sync clients for all the major mobile OS devices. I haven't set it up yet, though.
Incidentally, I'd be *very* interested to hear from anyone else who's attempted to set up similar solutions about your problems and successes. Has anyone else actually tried this?
http://cloudi.org for BSD license open source project to avoid virtualization but receive fault-tolerance and scalability (along with efficiency). Includes integration with C/C++, Java, Python, Ruby, and Erlang along with various databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, memcached, couchdb, tokyotyrant) and ZeroMQ.
It runs linux, you can ssh into and install or compile whatever you want, comes in upto 4 gigs and i think they just got a dual drive one. Use the built in internet access to the twonky server or install some free cloud software.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
My Personal Cloud.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
Grab an old box, stick some hard drives in it with some sort of RAID, encrypt the partitions and use rsync or similar for backing things up. Want extra redundancy? Use a USB drive or buy a cheap old tape drive off ebay.
Forward SSH to it and you have "Cloud Storage". This really isn't a new concept.
What is the cost of a roll-your-own cloud solution? Most discussions about the cloud miss out on the most important element, which is the cost. People use Google because it is essentially free, and gives you very decent reliability. I know you can make your own home server super reliable, but in aggregate, if 1 million people were running their own servers, compared to 1 million on google, I would bet that the 1 million on Google's cloud would do better on uptime in aggregate. The cost of trying to get to Google levels of reliability is quite steep, and fairly prohibitive for all but the few hardcore geeks who are comfortable managing their own servers, and even then, only if they pretend their time is worthless.
"Had you provided an insightful comment maybe then AC would have been a sensible choice."
Point out how it's not an insightful comment. Just you stating so doesn't cut it.
"Your post gave me that feeling I get when I see an old laptop that has covers missing and has been stripped of its hard-drive and RAM."
That's awesome. Now shit or get off the pot.
Run your own fail safe data repository. Companies have been doing this for ages and it isn't that hard nor expensive to implement it at a smaller scale for your own needs. No cloud needed;-)
Just use rsync, and something similar to mysqldump and mysql replication along with 2-4 linux nodes ideally hosted on different network/providers. You can host the nodes in VMs connected to regular consumer grade DSL or cable modem connections. You could make peering agreements with friends and relatives, I host your node you host my node.
Optionally, throw in some DynDNS or alike, or better, run your own dyndns and you are pretty much done. if you do not want to run your own dns, you can also have the nodes publish their IPs on some free website hosting site. Machines can also find each other IP by exchanging emails through a third party provider like gmail.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Yea, those poverty-stricken, starving kids in Africa should keep their aircraft carriers, long-range bomber aircraft and unmanned drone fleets in their own fucking country!
most of us nerds have been doing cloud computing with our own *NIX on x86 boxes for years, running home servers with lamp + SSH.
then there is this pogo plug thingy which does the same thing but for newbs who don't want to do the setup, and for cheap.
I think he was talking about their population/resource imbalance.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Doesn't this question get asked here like every other week now?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Thanks, I'll add that to the list of definitions of "cloud" that I have heard from computer scientists. "Cloud computing" is an undefined term; at this point, people use it to mean whatever they want. Scalable infrastructure, computation as a utility, storing files on a server, whatever, it's all cloud at this point.
Palm trees and 8
Using the wikipedia definition:
"Cloud computing is the delivery of computing and storage capacity [1] as a service [2] to a community of end-recipients.".
The whole point of a cloud is to abstract a massive underlying infrastructure to deliver some type of computing service (PaaS, IaaS, SaaS, etc ad naseum) to a large group of users and to be able to scale that infrastructure seamlessly. A "personal cloud" is an oxymoron.
As a lawyer representing RIAA, I would like to announce our recent patent on live music. If you wish to sing a song you must either pay a licensing fee of $1,000 per tune, or cease and desist on penalty of being incarcerated in one of the private prisons we own and operate for profit on behalf of the government, thanks to the greased palms of some greedy Senators and Representatives. Our spies are everywhere, so just make sure that when you hum a tune or sing a song you have paid your licensing fee for that song, or else it must be atonal, random noise that does not infringe on RIAA's patent.
In a word ... Citadel. (Disclaimer: I am a developer on this project, and yes, I'm flogging it here.) Contacts, calendars, notes, documents, email, etc etc. One single installation without a zillion dependencies.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
I was thinking along the lines of going after public enemy #1, "Drought", by using things like Renewable Resouce Powered Water Purification devices.
So I wonder, "Why can't the U.S.Government send a billion dollars of aid to Texas in the form of Wind Turbines, and Solar Farms to power Desalination Plants?"
Maybe the troll could submit a comment about giving Soylent Green to the children?
If you're more of the DIY type, like myself, I'd suggest building your own from scratch. Remus is an excellent choice for a high-availability environment. Admittedly, it's still a relatively young project, but as of Xen 4.2 (currently the unstable branch), it's been largely stable and easy to work with. You can even use DRBD as the storage backend (currently it's using a modified DRBD with a new "protocol D" synchronization method, but prot D is going to be integrated into the main DRBD branch as of DRBD 9, hopefully later this year).
Basically, you set up a normal Xen virtualization environment, but you mirror the configuration across two (or more) Xen nodes. You have two storage nodes sharing out virtual block devices (AoE is good if you'll have all the nodes on a single switch, iSCSI is good if you'll need to route over an IP network), one Xen node connects to one or more storage nodes, then DRBD running on each Xen node joins the block devices into a DRBD volume (I like to share out the whole disk/array of each node as a single block device, then create an LVM2 logical volume on each block device, and join the LVs together with DRBD). Xen then uses the DRBD volumes as virtual disks for the VMs. Once that's set up, you just configure remus to start when the VM starts, and it will checkpoint the current machine state between the two Xen nodes at a rate you specify. If one node goes down, the other picks up running the VM, without dropping a packet.
I've currently converted all our internal systems at work over to running on this cluster, and it works great. Highly recommend you take a look.
Now I am intregued, a chat bot that can synthesise a paragraph! I wish the source were sited.
:(
I wish Linus would take a few weeks off to write a distributed backup system, but he just uses public FTP servers...
Of course, there're several projects that use git as a backend, like http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joeyh/git-annex-assistant-like-dropbox-but-with-your-own (already funded; he's also a Debian Developer).
Since git isn't a backup system, using it as one isn't as efficient as it could be, but it is powerful. Joey's project is an exciting potential Dropbox replacement. He knows what he's doing.
Obnam is also exciting: http://liw.fi/obnam/
Anyway, sorry, dude, I have had enough of Java VMs sucking up memory whether they use it or not, and taking a LONG time to start. One or two of those and you can't use the machine for much else. I wish people would leave Java for enterprise uses, if it's even good for that.
Of course you can do whatever you want. I'm just giving some feedback, because if you want users, I know there are many people who feel the same way I do.
"Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
This is what we are all waiting for, and it's already been funded! Just a matter of time until Joey finishes it: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joeyh/git-annex-assistant-like-dropbox-but-with-your-own
"Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
So do you propose a free cloud solution for starving kids in Africa?
Greetings from a least developed country;
Your words are so true! The absurdity of it all! After all, nobody ever used technology to improve their standard of living.
P.S. In case the sarcasm has escaped you so far: Fuck You.
Hugs,
The rest of the world.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
I'm surprised people still come here. I'm at work on a Sunday. That's my only reason for being on Slashdot anymore.
Put identity in the browser.
How do you know a node isn't lying about how much storage it has, or just deleting files and saying it has them so it can have the privilege of uploading backup data?
"Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."