[BlueOnyx:15862] Re: new GUI

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Chuck,

>  From your descripition - that new utility does a great job of recreating a 
> vsite, the users, and their settings from a wrecked CODB on another machine.  
> But that doesn't address data.  No e-mails, no website, no personal files, 
> nothing besides the configuration to support all that data.  I don't see how 
> that could replace cmuExport/cmuImport.

No, it is not meant to replace CMU at all.

CMU requires that CODB is still working. Otherwise it won't export
anything. But we know, there are these odd once-in-a-while cases where
CODB goes totally bust. I get to handle such cases from BlueOnyx users
about 1-3 times a year. And as it usually goes: There are then no
backups (or outdated ones) or this or that other drama which make a
"straight" data recovery impossible. I hate to let people down, so in
the past I did a few "on foot" migrations from busted boxes. That's such
a tremendous amount of work that it ain't even remotely funny.

To make my life a bit easier (and to provide a way out even if CODB is
totally busted) I created this set of tools. It works, but is (and
always will be) less capable than CMU. Because it only exports the
"skeleton" like the settings, but not the "meat" (webpages, emails and
data). But in a bend - and when CMU is no longer an option - this is a
hell of a lot better than having nothing but a blinking input prompt and
your imagination.

So CMU is there to stay. It just gets company to handle the more
"complicated" usage cases. I hope it doesn't encourage people to skip
setting up good backup procedures, though. Like using CMU, RaQbackup,
the Backup software from the shop or the Aventurin{e} VPS backup. Or
whatever else.

Now the alternative to CMU could also be expanded in the future. We
would still use CMU to migrate between BlueOnyx. For the ease of usage
and the level of detail that it provides.

But there might be cases where someone would like to import websites and
users from something else. Like Plesk or Cpanel. It would not be that
complicated to allow at least a "skeleton" import via the new import
method. Maybe expand it later on to also allow it to import the "meat".
As we already have IMAP-Sync integrated in the new GUI, we could then
set up something that (after a Vsite and User import) runs an IMAP-Sync
for all users to fetch the mails from the old Please or Cpanel box. And
maybe fetch the Vsite contends as well via FTP, too.

Now these are just ideas so far and it will take some time to take shape
and form. But the import option for Cpanel, Plesk and maybe some others
is quite intriguing and should come eventually.

> During the last days of BlueQuartz (when a lot of machines were
> getting infected) - it wasn't unusual for me to cmuExport a server,
> wipe it, reload from scratch, and cmuImport overnight.
> Brand new, clean install running the next morning.

Indeed. CMU is a great tool and I'm really glad that we have it.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber