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UISwitcher 1.4 by Hossy

Installation

Extract the contents of the 7z file directly to your CrashPlan install directory. For example: C:\Program Files\CrashPlan\UISwapper

Files:

  • .\CrashPlan (Local).lnk
  • .\CrashPlan (My PC).lnk
  • .\CrashPlan (SSH Tunnel).lnk
  • .\sed.exe
  • .\UISwapper.bat

There are three example shortcuts created:

  • CrashPlan (Local)
    • This launches CrashPlan to manage your local instance.
  • CrashPlan (My PC)
    • This launches CrashPlan to manage a computer named MYPC (see more info about direct connecting below).
  • CrashPlan (SSH Tunnel)
    • This launches a PuTTY session named "Putty Session Name Here" then launches CrashPlan and connects through that tunnel (see more info about SSH Tunnel below).

Background

CrashPlan uses the conf\ui.properties and %ProgramData%\CrashPlan\conf\ui_%USERNAME%.properties files to determine where it should connect and a key (guid from .ui_info) to authenticate that connection (as of CrashPlan 4.3). UISwapper.bat updates the .ui_info and ui_[USERNAME].properties files to redirect CrashPlan to another computer.

UISwapper.bat also monitors changes to the .identity file as a precaution. If this file substantially changes, it could mean that file changes outside what UISwapper.bat is monitoring will cause your local instance to stop working. Because of this and the newness of this new security system, I've built in a fail-safe to halt UISwapper.bat until you can manually verify connectivity and functionality of your local instance (and backup files as needed). This feature may go away in the future if I'm able to determine it really isn't needed.

IMPORTANT: The first time you run UISwapper.bat it will create ".local" versions of the four files mentioned above. BEFORE running UISwapper.bat for the first time, verify that these .local files do not exist and that your CrashPlan UI is connecting to your local instance without issue.

NOTE: The changes made by UISwapper.bat do not affect your CrashPlan Tray icon. That will always display information for your local instance.

CrashPlan Bug in 4.3.0

As I recently discovered (on 9/22/2015), there is a bug within CrashPlan if you change the listening port even under the supported procedure (e.g. Known Conflict Between The CrashPlan App And Juniper Network Connect On Windows). The bug is that when you change the listening port, the %ProgramData%\CrashPlan\conf\ui_%USERNAME%.properties file is not properly updated to reflect the change. While this doesn't break the CrashPlan service itself, it prevents the UI from connecting to the local instance.

I have written a procedure within UISwapper.bat that detects a port change and will fix the %ProgramData%\CrashPlan\conf\ui_%USERNAME%.properties file to keep the UI working on the local instance. As a precaution, this procedure will only run on specific versions of CrashPlan. My hope is that the next release of CrashPlan will fix this bug. If it isn't fixed, I will post a new version of the script to handle the updated version. For the foreseeable future, I plan on keeping the bug fix procedure version-specific to prevent future problems.

You can always fix the bug manually by editing the servicePort line in the %ProgramData%\CrashPlan\conf\ui_%USERNAME%.properties file and restarting the UI.

Enabling Remote Management of CrashPlan

By default, CrashPlan locks itself down to only be managed locally. This can be changed by editing the my.service.xml file. This must be done on every machine you intend to manage remotely.

WARNING: Doing this will cause CrashPlan to accept remote connections from anywhere. Be sure you understand what this means. It is HIGHLY recommended that you enable the option to require a password for the desktop application. To do this:

  1. Open CrashPlan.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. Choose the Security tab.
  4. Check the box for "Require account password to access CrashPlan desktop application" if it isn't already checked.
  5. Click Save.

For more information about securing CrashPlan, check out Security Settings Reference.

On Windows, the my.service.xml file is located at: %ProgramData%\CrashPlan\conf\my.service.xml

  1. Stop the CrashPlan Backup Service under Services.
    • You can also do this by running: net stop CrashPlanService
  2. Create a backup copy of your my.service.xml file.
  3. Open the my.service.xml file and locate the line: <serviceHost>127.0.0.1</serviceHost> or <serviceHost>localhost</serviceHost>. It should be under the <serviceUIConfig> section.
  4. Change 127.0.0.1 to 0.0.0.0.
    • Old line: <serviceHost>127.0.0.1</serviceHost>
    • Old line (new version): <serviceHost>localhost</serviceHost>
    • New line: <serviceHost>0.0.0.0</serviceHost>
  5. Save the file.
  6. Start the CrashPlan Backup Service.
    • You can also do this by running: net start CrashPlanService

That's it. Remote Management is now enabled. Now, let's actually use it.

Gathering the connection key (guid) from the remote computer

The connection key is located within the .ui_info file. The format of this file is <port>,<guid>,<target> -- you only need the <guid> portion.

.ui_info file locations:

  • Windows: %ProgramData%\CrashPlan\.ui_info
  • Linux: /var/lib/crashplan/.ui_info
  • Mac: /Library/Application Support/CrashPlan/.ui_info (need to have finder set to show hidden files)

Direct Connecting

Instructions

Use .\CrashPlan (My PC).lnk as a shortcut template for direct connections:

  1. Create a copy of the shortcut.
  2. Right-click the copy and choose Properties.
  3. In the Target field on the Shortcut tab:
    • Change "mypc" to be IP or hostname of the remote computer.
    • Replace the GUID after /uiinfoguid with the connection key from the remote computer.
  4. Click the General tab and rename your shortcut as needed.
  5. Click OK.

You're done. Double-click your shortcut and manage your remote CrashPlan instance.

Connecting Through an SSH Tunnel

References

Use the references above to create your PuTTY SSH Tunnel saved session. You will need the saved session name and the local port you chose. CrashPlan's documentation uses local port 4200.

Configure shortcut to connect to CrashPlan

Use .\CrashPlan (SSH Tunnel).lnk as a shortcut template for direct connections:

  1. Create a copy of the shortcut.
  2. Right-click the copy and choose Properties.
  3. In the Target field on the Shortcut tab:
    • Change "12345" (after /port) to the local port you specified in your SSH Tunnel config.
    • Change "Putty Session Name Here" (after /putty) to your PuTTY saved session (leave the double-quotes there).
    • Replace the GUID after /uiinfoguid with the connection key from the remote computer.
  4. Click the General tab and rename your shortcut as needed.
  5. Click OK.

You're done. Double-click your shortcut, establish your SSH tunnel when prompted, and manage your remote CrashPlan instance.

Troubleshooting

If you experience problems connecting to your local instance with UISwapper, please confirm against your two ".local" files that the port matches the servicePort defined in your my.service.xml file. If this still fails, try reinstalling the CrashPlan UI on your computer, run UISwapper.bat /resetlocal, check the port within .ui_info and your my.service.xml files, and try again.

Copyright

Copyright 2012,2014-2015 Hossy

UISwitcher is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

UISwitcher is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with UISwitcher. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Change Log

v1.4

  • Removed changes to the ui.properties file as it appears to be no longer used.
  • Removed unreachable code
  • Fixed Issue #1 - Modified ui.info file changes to accommodate new format.
  • Add version 4.4.1 to the bug fix code

v1.3

  • Added /resetlocal switch to allow manual cleanup/reset of the .local files.
  • Added monitor for .identity file as a precaution against potentially unmonitored changes.
  • Added check for CrashPlan listening port changes
  • Added procedure to fix CrashPlan 4.3.0 bug when changing the listening port
  • Fixed potential problem with regular expressions

v1.2

  • Updated UISwapper to handle new connection security feature in CrashPlan 4.3+.

v1.1

  • Fixed problem running on Windows 8

v1.0

  • Initial commit