You can never have too many backups, and this is a simple way of backing up files from an Ubuntu server to the Amazon S3 cloud storage system.
For this, you will obviously need an Ubuntu server, an Internet connection, and of course, an Amazon AWS account.
First things first, you’ll need to generate Amazon AWS access keys, which you do from the AWS Security Credentials page (Access Keys section) in the AWS console.
Write these (both the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key) down somewhere safe, because you definitely don’t want to be losing them unnecessarily. (Maybe a Google Doc might be a good idea here?)
Now head over to the S3 Management page in the AWS console, where you will need to create the new bucket (or folder in an existing bucket) where you want to store your backed up files in.
With your bucket created, and your access details at hand, head into your Ubuntu server and install the super useful Amazon S3 targeted s3cmd package:
sudo apt-get install s3cmd
Next configure it by entering the requested information (your Access Key details will be needed here). Note, you do have the option to encrypt the files in transit, and if you choose to do so, it is probably worth your while to jot down the password in that previously mentioned Google Docs file of yours!
s3cmd --configure
Run the connection test and if everything passes, you should be good to go. You can check your current buckets by doing a directory listing with s3cmd:
s3cmd ls
You are pretty much just about there now. To do the file backup, we’ll use s3cmd’s built in sync command. To push files to Amazon S3, we declare the parameters in the order of local files then target directory. So for example, if we have a S3 bucket called server-backup, and want to back up our user account’s home directory to S3, the sync call would look like this:
s3cmd sync ~/* s3://server-backup
You can of course get all clever and target specific folders, exclude or include files and folders using wildcard characters, etc. (See the documentation for more). For example, here I exclude .svn folder files using:
If you are happy with the sync result, then all that is left is to throw the command into a short bash file, give it execute rights and add it to the cron scheduled tasks system. So for example, create the file cron_s3_backup.sh:
Donna Troy has been known to go under the names of Wonder Girl, Darkstar, Troia and just plain Donna Troy, which gives you a good indication that she’s had quite the convoluted comic book history over the years. Regardless of all that, she is probably easiest to remember as being quite similar to Wonder Woman in terms of abilities, i.e. enhanced strength, durability and flight, being an officially recognised Amazonian and all that, just with a whole lot of added cosmic knowledge, or rather, a knowledge of the entire DC multiverse!
This particular Amazon has of course been affliated with a number of groups over the years, including the Teen Titans, Darkstars, Titans of Myth, Challengers from Beyound and the Justice League.
And just in case you were wondering, this engaging, moody and beautiful rendition of Donna courtesy of artist Nemesi-Har-Aralis.
The Island of Themyscira, a mystical place populated by the strong Amazon warrior caste that shun all male contact and who have gone so far as to cut themselves off from the corrupt world of man entirely. However, one of their sisters has broken their rank and aided the escape of Ares, the fearsome God of War. Seeking the enslavement of man and revenge on the hated Amazon race, Ares now threatens everything that civilization has ever created on a global scale.
However, strong-willed and impetuous daughter of the queen, Warrior Princess Diana vows to leave the island and re-capture Ares, determined not to be stopped in her newfound mission no matter who might get in her way – including her very own mother! Together with the cocky fighter pilot Steve Trevor who managed to survive crashing his plane on their sacred island (thus becoming the first man to set foot on Themyscira in eons), Diana tracks Ares down to the United States, where she now prepares for a battle, the likes of which this world has yet to see!
Princess Diana of Themyscira, a.k.a. Wonder Woman!
The warrior princess, Wonder Woman is a 2009 direct to video animated film arising from the Warner Bros. Animation and DC Comics growing stable of comic-book related films. Written by Gail Simone and Michael Jelenic, Wonder Woman is directed by Lauren Montgomery who had previously directed the second act of Superman: Doomsday as well as being involved on the storyboards for Justice League: The New Frontier. As with almost all the current crop of DC Comics animated movies, legendary DC Comics animation veteran Bruce Timm casts his producer eye over the proceedings.
Taking us back to the roots of the Wonder Woman mythos and focussing on how Diana got to take up the mantle of the Amazon Princess, the story delves nicely into the motivations behind Themyscira’s isolation policy and the general attitudes of its inhabitants. Walking us nicely through the type of people that the Amazon sisterhood represents, it then continues to build up some tense steam by revealing the movie’s atagonist and setting in motion the events that will eventually see the headstrong young Diana leave her island and come to the world of man, where she’ll get to learn about us from her already narrowed mindset. This presents us with some great character development as the movie progresses and the interaction between Diana and the cocky fighter pilot Steve Trevor makes for a great dynamic that eventually takes us straight into the heart of the matter as to just why Diana eventually becomes the iconic Wonder Woman that we all know and love so.
As for the conflict, Ares proves to be a great foil to Diana and provides some fantastic tension which the story then cranks up and finally lets blow with one huge battle sequence at the end of what can only be described as quite the entertaining outing. Some great humour, good character development on the part of Diana, lots of action, and quite frankly, an excellent interpretation of Wonder Woman’s origin story.
As for the musical score and voice casting, the entire job do an absolutely sterling job. Also, apart from the usual bunch of voice actors like Tara Strong and John DiMaggio who always seem to have their hands in these particular projects, Wonder Woman manages to throw in some surprise inclusions in terms of the character voices, featuring for example Keri Russell as an excellent Princess Diana, Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor, Alfred Molina as Ares, Rosario Dawson as Artemis, Marg Helgenberger as Hera and even Oliver Platt as Hades! All of these recognisable TV and movie faces bring their best to the game and in the end we are left with an absolutely great sounding film that just happens to have the extra little boost in terms of star power.
Visually, Wonder Woman is absolutely slick. A sumptuous palette of vibrant colours and extremely detailed backgrounds lays the foundation on which some beautifully designed and realised characters find themselves acting out the film’s often intense scenes. There are a number of huge battle sequences and action-packed fight scenes and the animators seem eager not to take shortcuts and show everything in its full glory. Often violent, often bloody, there is some really great choreography to be had here, over and above the already smooth and detailed animation presented here.
In summary, Wonder Woman is an absolutely fantastic animated film that is well made, well presented and will be sure to please the most hardened of DC Comic book fans. There are a couple of gaping plot scratching head moments like the Amazons storming the beaches of America to join in the final battle, but if you can cast aside these worries about ‘realism’ for a bit, then you really should be enjoying this animated feature. It is faithful to its source character and examines the world exactly like she would and in the process, delivers some killer fight scenes, a great little story and plenty of animated bliss to absorb and enjoy! :)
Diana taking on Steve Trevor, who's bitten off slightly more than what he can chew!
The Amazon Warriors of Themyscira
Related Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Woman_(film)
