Automated Syncing and Backups

selsine

Hi,

I'm looking to setup automated synchronization and backups of a shared zotero library on a separate computer. I've performed local backups of zotero before, but what I want to setup now is something that would happened automatically, and I was looking for recommendations and best practices.

In more detail:

1) I have a stand alone OS X server
2) The server does not have zotero installed
3) I would like to automatically download my zotero library to the server once a week (I assume there are tools or APIs that can enable this)
4) I would then like to compress the library and store it in a backup location

Does anyone have an experience with a situation like this? How do others handle automating backups of shared zotero libraries?

The most important part of this, for what we are doing, is automating the backup onto a centralized server. Relying on backup from individuals computers isn't really an option.

Any help or tool recommendations would be appreciated.

I'm technical so writing some code isn't a show stopper, but I would like to avoid it if possible.

Thanks,

mark.

adamsmith

I'd handle this just like an individual library, i.e. back up a copy of the entire Zotero data directory on any given local computer, making sure it's fully synced).
I'd have assumed Mac just has a server option built in with time machine, but if that's really not the case, you can use rsync (with chrome) for incremental backups to a server. rsync ships with *nix and
Personally I'd do daily, not weekly backups.

It sounds like what you envision is a backup from the Zotero server rather than a local machine? I'm not aware of anyone using that as a backup solution and it seems exceedingly complicated for your purposes. I don't think there's an option which wouldn't involve running significant Zotero code on your local server.

selsine

Thanks for the reply Adam, you are correct I was looking to backup directly from the zotero serves onto our centralized server rather than relying on local machines or users to do so. I'm surprised that no one else has wanted to do something like this for large group libraries.

Relying on local machines seems sub-optimal, but it's very possible that I'm looking at the problem incorrectly. (Full disclosure my experience is more technical than zotero)

Based on what you are saying it might make sense to setup a simple linux box, install zotero onto it, then use something like rsync to backup to the central server, and then create an archive from there.

Can we automate the syncing process on a local machine so that we know that it is always fully synced at a given time of day?

Thanks!

mark.

adamsmith

Yes, that'd work. Zotero checks the server for updates in relatively short intervals (15 or 30mins? or even shorter) when idle and syncs during startup when set to sync automatically.
So starting up Zotero with a cron job and then running rsync e.g. an hour later would be a good strategy. The one issue would be how to check for sync errors, because you obviously want to make sure that the library is actually synced and Zotero doesn't just try.
Dan may have advice on how to listen for that. Shouldn't be hard.

selsine

Thanks for the help Adam. I've finally found time today to setup a test linux machine and see if I can get this working. I've got zotero standalone installed and I'm about to try setting up the cron job.

I'm sure I'll be back on here asking some questions soon.

If anyone else has any suggestions about this I'd love to hear them.

Thanks!