Migrating to OxygenCloud

So, this last weekend I’ve decided that I needed to get a bit more secure and a bit more proactive in how data is handled at ProVMware. I’ve been a DropBox customer for years, and likely will stay that way, as it has some great features. However, for everything else, I’ve now got a private install of OxygenCloud.

Why Oxygen?

A few things really, but the biggest driver, is the data lives in a space where I control it. For public access, OxygenCloud tunnels the data back to my client (or from my client back to where the data lives). So, having my data, in a space where I am in control, and access to it is secure… I’m in a better place than I was with DropBox.

Why not Octopus (or similar)?

I’m still playing with options really. When Octopus comes out of beta, you will likely see a post about migrating to it as well. This is one of those spots where any number of tools could best solve the problem, so use the one that fits at a price point that is comfortable.

How To Set Up Private Storage with OxygenCloud

By default, when signing up with OxygenCloud, you get ~5GB space for free:

That first checkbox is the important one. To hook private storage in, I did the following:

1. Built a new Linux VM (Ubuntu 12.4 server) – https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/TechnicalOverview/Beta2
2. Added some packages:
   sudo apt-get install libapr1 libaprutil1 lynx build-essential
   (build-essential to get the VMware tools running, lynx you’ll see why in a moment or two)
3. Downloaded the 32bit Oxygen package:
   http://cdn.oxygencloud.com/connector/Oxygen-Storage-Connector_1.0-139_i386.deb
4. Installed it:
   sudo dpkg -i Oxygen-Storage-Connector-1.0-115_i386.deb
5. Started it:
   sudo start oxygenstorageconnector
6. Unlike the beautiful instructions here, I didn’t have a GUI installed, and the configuration service only appears to run on local host during install, so, I fired up lynx:
   lynx http://localhost:18888
7. The rest looks much like the instructions from here.
8. Installed the Mac client
9. Migrated some data & watched it sync.

Caveats / Issues

This process was not entirely seamless… for one, the config service required installing a browser on the server, which works in my lab, but may not work in all environments, so be aware.

Also, the space reporting is a bit off at this stage. My VM has only been assigned 16gb, yet:

The client also seems to find my local storage, but does not seem to connect directly to it while on the same subnet, forcing sync speeds to be slower than I’d like.

Disclaimer

@juliamak of Oxygen promised me a T-Shirt for trying out Oxygen. While T-Shirts are cool and such, I was already in the process of pulling down and evaluating the bits as she made the offer. Thus, free shirts did not influence this post (I don’t think).