Sorry, I forgot to post the scripts. I'm a meathead electrical engineer so I don't use GIT or anything so here is the code dump. To summarize the setup's software:

• cron to run the script that turns the ethernet on and runs rsync to pull data from the server. I have 12 cron entries for the various months/dates/times to run.
• python script to monitor the button presses for manually running a backup or turning the ethernet port back on
• bash script that runs the rsync job to pull data from the primary server

The backup script is fairly boring, just runs rsync and pushes the rsync log files back to the primary server. If it fails it sends me an email before turning the ethernet back off and going black.

#So here is my python code that runs the button press:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import subprocess
import time
from multiprocessing import Process


#when this script first runs, at boot, disable ethernet
time.sleep(5) #wait 5 seconds for system to boot, then try and disable ethernet.
subprocess.call(['/home/pi/ethernet_updown.sh'], shell=False)

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setup(3, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)
GPIO.setup(22, GPIO.OUT) #controls TFT display backlight
GPIO.setup(23, GPIO.IN) #pull up or down is optional, the TFT display buttons have a hardware 10k pull up. Measure low tranisitions 
GPIO.setup(24, GPIO.IN)


#watches the button mounted above the USB port, in the Pi's case. 
def case_button_watch():
    while True:
        GPIO.wait_for_edge(3, GPIO.FALLING)
        #wait 100ms then check if its still low, debounce timer
        time.sleep(.100)
        if GPIO.input(3) == GPIO.LOW:
            #do something as it's a button press
            print('Button is pressed!')
            time.sleep(.900)
            if GPIO.input(3) == GPIO.LOW:
                #if the button is pressed for over 1 second its a long press. Run the backup script
                print('Button long press (greater than 1 second), running an unscheduled backup')
                subprocess.call(['/home/pi/backup.sh'], shell=False)
            else:
                #the press was greater than 100mS but less than 1000mS, just toggle the ethernet
                print('Button short press (less than 1 second), toggling the ethernet')
                subprocess.call(['/home/pi/ethernet_updown.sh'], shell=False)
        else:
            #do nothing as its interference
            print('GPIO3 debounce failed, it was noise')

#watches the buttons in the TFT display 
def TFT_display_button1():
    while True:
        GPIO.wait_for_edge(23, GPIO.FALLING)
        #wait 100ms then check if its still low, debounce timer
        time.sleep(.100)
        if GPIO.input(23) == GPIO.LOW:
            #do something as it's a button press
            print('Button GPIO23 is pressed!')
            GPIO.output(22, GPIO.HIGH) #turn the backlight ON
        else:
            #do nothing as its interference
            print('GPIO23 debounce failed, it was noise')

#watches the buttons in the TFT display
def TFT_display_button2():
    while True:
        GPIO.wait_for_edge(24, GPIO.FALLING)
        #wait 100ms then check if its still low, debounce timer
        time.sleep(.100)
        if GPIO.input(24) == GPIO.LOW:
            #do something as it's a button press
            print('Button GPIO24 is pressed!')
            GPIO.output(22, GPIO.LOW) #turn the backlight OFF
        else:
            #do nothing as its interference
            print('GPIO24 debounce failed, it was noise')

if __name__ == '__main__':

    #run three parallel processes to watch all three buttons with software debounce
    proc1 = Process(target=case_button_watch)
    proc1.start()

    proc2 = Process(target=TFT_display_button1)
    proc2.start()

    proc3 = Process(target=TFT_display_button2)
    proc3.start()

#bash script that toggles the ethernet - if its on, it turns it off. if its off, it turns it on:

#!/bin/bash

if sudo ifconfig | grep 'eth0' | grep 'RUNNING' > /dev/null; 
then 
    wall -n "$(date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S"):Ethernet going down"
    sudo ifconfig eth0 down	
else 
    wall -n "$(date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S"):Ethernet going up"
    sudo ifconfig eth0 up
fi

That's a cool idea for an automated offline backup. My equivalent is an external hard drive connected to a mechanical timer plug. Every day it turns on for 30 minutes, that triggers a script that mounts the drive, syncs my files, then unmounts the drive. Then the plug turns off the drive until tomorrow.

I like this better though. I've got an old pi1 somewhere, might have to try it.

Does anyone see the attatched mp4 video? If not here is an imgur link.

Thanks for posting this! Really interesting idea! Don't forget to give us the good stuff - the details on how to implement this :-)

Have you posted about this previously (outside of Lemmy)? I swear I have seen this, or something else implementing a similar concept, before.

Thanks for posting this! Really interesting idea! Don't forget to give us the good stuff - the details on how to implement this :-)

I had a longer reply typed, then Lemmy froze or something, but it seems you answered my questions so I'll just leave it at this - really cool solution you set up.

Mine is to just plug an external HDD into my server every few months and run a backup script. I may copy this down the road.

What software did you use to manage the backups? This seems like a really neat idea!

Thanks for posting this! Really interesting idea! Don't forget to give us the good stuff - the details on how to implement this :-)

Thanks for posting this! Really interesting idea! Don't forget to give us the good stuff - the details on how to implement this :-)

Thanks for posting this! Really interesting idea! Don't forget to give us the good stuff - the details on how to implement this :-)