On Wed, June 26, 2013 10:06, jo...@antarean.org wrote: > Grant <emailgr...@gmail.com> wrote: > >>>>>> I have several remote systems all pushing backups to my local >>laptop >>>>>> via rdiff-backup. Sometimes when on the road I find myself behind >>a >>>>>> router and the remote systems are unable to push. Is openvpn the >>>>>> right solution here? Should I run a separate openvpn server on >>each >>>>>> system to be backed up with my laptop as the client? >>>>> >>>>> If you can configure the router to forward the port used by the >>OpenVPN >>>>> server to your laptop, you can run the server on your laptop. >>>> >>>> I can't rely on being able to configure the router unfortunately, >>but >>>> I have to admit admin/admin does work a lot of the time. >>>> >>>>> But, as is more likely, when you can not configure the router, >>running >>>>> an >>>>> OpenVPN server on (at least one) remote system and having your >>laptop >>>>> connect to that, you can have the other systems push to your laptop >>over >>>>> the VPN-link. >>>>> Either directly (by establishing multiple VPN-links from your >>laptop >>>>> (one >>>>> to each server) or via one of the remote systems. >>>> >>>> So I'm sure I understand, I should run the openvpn server on one of >>my >>>> remote systems and connect to that with each of the other remote >>>> systems and the laptop. Then I can back up from any of the remote >>>> systems to the laptop and all the laptop needs to be able to do is >>>> make an outbound connection to the openvpn server? >>> >>> 2 options: >>> 1) OpenVPN on every remote system and have laptop connect to all >>remote >>> systems for the backup >>> >>> 2) OpenVPN on 1 remote system (configured as router for the >>VPN-links) >>> - laptop and other remote systems connect to this remote system >>> - backup are sent to laptop via this one remote system >> >>#2 sounds cooler. Is that what you'd do? >> >>- Grant > > Yes. > With the VPN server being at my home network.
Need to add to this: Option #2 has a few downsides: 1) The system running the VPN-server will have a lot more bandwidth utilisation. (Backups for other systems will go through the link this one has) 2) If that system is down, none of the other systems can be accessed via VPN. For me the downsides don't count as the server can be accessed really easily and I pay the same for my home internet connection when I use it or don't use it. -- Joost
