[tlug] Backup sites with FTP access

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Dave M G writes:

 > online back up solution that is accessible by FTP? Or, alternately, is
 > there another protocol that is easy to implement via PHP?

Dunno about PHP, and from everything you've posted, I think I'll keep
it that way. :-)

 > If there are other ways of transferring files,

scp, rsync, and HTTP POST come immediately to mind.

git and friends.

Since you don't say what has been installed besides FTP (which is less
and less reliable these days, as many hosts don't bother with it),
it's hard to say what might be available.  However, I find it
impossible to believe that scp is unavailable on any of your hosts, so
I would say that's the way to go, even if it means getting a PHP
module installed.  Since you're shipping encrypted tarballs, you'll
get no leverage from rsync.

You could also store the backups on the individual servers, then pull
them somewhere else.  Sure there's a race condition, but it could be
as small as a few seconds if the "pull" process polls for a
sufficiently fresh tarball before grabbing it.  That would allow use
of HTTP GET.