Before I go write something myself, I'm curious if anyone knows if this has 
already been done.

My questions are:
1) Has anyone seen anything like this done before? Even a part 
of it? 
2) Is there any interest in adding such functionality to BackupPC? If so, 
I would certainly be willing to submit this code to the BackupPC developers.

Short description: A "host discovery" action is kicked off at regular 
intervals. 
When a host is found that is not already in the hosts files and if it is not in 
an "ignore" file, it is added to the hosts file.

Longer description: The IP ranges defined in $Conf{DHCPAddressRanges} are 
scanned for active computers. The computer name is determined and if it does 
not 
exist in an "ignore host" file (like for routers, switches or personal 
computers), it would be added to the hosts file as an "inactive" host (if it 
does not already have an entry in the hosts file).

Functionality would have to be added to the hosts file code to implement an 
"enable" flag. Hosts added through the web interface would default to enabled. 
Hosts added via the discovery script would default to disabled.

A checkbox would need to be added to the "Edit hosts" screen for "enable". A 
separate screen would need to be added to manage the "ignore hosts" file.

Basically, here is my idea: A brand new BackupPC installation is created. Hosts 
could be added by hand, but you may not know the names. The discovery script 
would run and enter a bunch of disabled hosts. Some hosts like routers would be 
"ignored". The rest could be enabled.

If you have a reasonably configured collection of computers (like a bunch of 
Windows computers in a domain), all of them would be setup to back up very 
quickly.

At worst, you at least have a list of names now to investigate how to back them 
up.

Comments?


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