Sentryx Specification

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Sentryx

Data protection, simplified.

Sentryx is a modular, open-source cloud backup and data protection system designed to provide secure, resilient, privacy-focused data protection for individuals, organizations, distributed storage environments, and enterprise infrastructure.

The specification defines Sentryx as a collection of independent core modules and optional plugin modules. Each module is designed to provide a distinct capability while communicating through defined interfaces and services. Modules should remain replaceable, independently scalable, and independently maintainable wherever practical.

Specification Goals

Sentryx is designed around the following goals:

Provide secure and reliable backup and recovery.
Encrypt user data before transmission whenever client-side encryption is enabled.
Minimize dependency on any single storage provider or infrastructure vendor.
Support personal, organizational, distributed, and enterprise deployments.
Provide strong authentication, authorization, auditing, and security controls.
Support local-first operation where practical.
Allow storage infrastructure to scale independently from application services.
Provide optional intelligent automation without requiring cloud-based AI services.
Maintain clear separation between backup, storage, identity, security, monitoring, and intelligence functions.
Support extensibility through independently developed plugins.
Provide transparent and auditable data protection operations.

Core Architecture

Sentryx shall use a modular architecture in which major system capabilities are implemented as independent modules.

Core modules provide the fundamental functionality required to operate Sentryx as a backup and data protection system.

Optional plugin modules extend functionality without requiring changes to the fundamental backup architecture.

Modules should communicate through defined interfaces rather than relying on tightly coupled internal implementations.

A deployment may enable or disable optional capabilities according to its requirements.

Core Backup Engine Module

The Core Backup Engine Module provides the fundamental backup and restore data model.

It shall support:

Incremental backups.
Full system snapshots.
Deduplication.
Compression.
Versioned backup chains.
Restore points.
Scheduled backups.
Manual backups.
File system change tracking.
Include and exclude rule management.
Backup integrity verification.
Cross-platform backup operations.
Backup metadata management.
Backup state tracking.
Backup failure detection.
Backup retry handling.

The module shall maintain a consistent relationship between source data, backup versions, metadata, and restore points.

Backup operations should be designed so that storage backends can be replaced without requiring changes to the core backup logic.

Encryption and Key Management Module

The Encryption and Key Management Module provides cryptographic protection for backup data and associated metadata.

It shall support:

End-to-end client-side encryption.
Zero-knowledge storage architecture.
Modern strong encryption standards.
Unique encryption keys for backups or snapshots.
Manual key rotation.
Automated key rotation.
Secure key derivation from user-controlled passphrases.
Optional hardware-backed key storage.
Encrypted backup metadata.
Optional file-name encryption.
Secure key lifecycle management.
Key recovery mechanisms.
Optional key escrow mechanisms.
Protection against unauthorized server-side decryption.

When configured for zero-knowledge operation, the storage service shall not require access to the keys necessary to decrypt user backup contents.

Storage Backend Module

The Storage Backend Module abstracts physical and logical backup storage from the rest of the system.

It shall support:

S3-compatible object storage.
Self-hosted object storage.
Distributed storage.
Multi-node storage.
Erasure coding.
Replication.
Cross-region replication.
Hot storage.
Warm storage.
Cold storage.
Immutable storage.
WORM storage modes.
Storage quotas.
Storage lifecycle policies.
Snapshot retention policies.
Storage health monitoring.
Storage capacity monitoring.

The module shall permit storage providers and storage architectures to be changed without requiring changes to backup clients or authentication services.

Client Agent Module

The Client Agent Module provides the local interface between user devices and Sentryx services.

It shall support:

Lightweight background operation.
Command-line operation.
Graphical user interfaces where available.
Local encryption before upload.
Offline backup queueing.
Bandwidth throttling.
Battery-aware scheduling.
Backup status reporting.
Restore workflows.
Device registration.
Multi-device account association.
Local backup state management.
Connection recovery.
Interrupted transfer recovery.

The client agent should continue managing queued operations when network connectivity is unavailable and resume operations when connectivity is restored.

Authentication and Identity Module

The Authentication and Identity Module manages users, organizations, devices, sessions, and permissions.

It shall support:

OAuth 2.0.
OpenID Connect.
Role-based access control.
Multi-tenant organizations.
Two-factor authentication.
TOTP authentication.
Device authorization.
Session tracking.
Session revocation.
Fine-grained permission scopes.
Organization-level access controls.
User-level access controls.
Authentication event logging.
Integration points for login anomaly detection.

Authentication and identity services shall remain separate from storage services so that storage systems do not inherently require access to user credentials.

API Gateway Module

The API Gateway Module provides controlled access to Sentryx services.

It shall support:

REST APIs.
Optional GraphQL APIs.
API versioning.
API key management.
Rate limiting.
Abuse protection.
Request validation.
Request logging.
Audit event generation.
Webhooks.
Backup event notifications.
Restore event notifications.
API access controls.

The API Gateway shall provide a consistent interface for external applications, administrative interfaces, client agents, and plugins.

Web Dashboard Module

The Web Dashboard Module provides an administrative and user-facing interface for Sentryx.

It shall support:

Backup status overview.
Restore point browsing.
Backup history.
One-click restore workflows.
Storage usage visualization.
Storage analytics.
Device management.
User management.
Security settings.
Two-factor authentication management.
Key management interfaces.
Session management.
Audit log viewing.
Role and permission management.
Organization management.
Multi-organization workspaces.

The dashboard shall consume system capabilities through defined services and APIs rather than directly depending on storage implementation details.

Monitoring and Observability Module

The Monitoring and Observability Module provides visibility into system health and backup operations.

It shall support:

Backup success tracking.
Backup failure tracking.
Restore operation tracking.
System health metrics.
Storage performance monitoring.
Storage health monitoring.
Resource utilization monitoring.
Alert generation.
Email notifications.
Webhook notifications.
Metrics export.
Structured logging.
Centralized logging integrations.
Anomaly detection interfaces.

Monitoring data should provide sufficient information to identify failed backups, degraded infrastructure, storage problems, authentication events, and operational anomalies.

Scheduling and Automation Module

The Scheduling and Automation Module manages automated backup and maintenance operations.

It shall support:

Cron-style schedules.
Event-driven backup triggers.
Automatic backup retries.
Automatic pruning.
Retention policies.
Scheduled maintenance.
Load-aware scheduling.
Device-aware scheduling.
Multi-device coordination.
Storage lifecycle automation.
Automated integrity verification.

Scheduling logic should remain independent from the underlying storage system and backup data model.

Disaster Recovery Module

The Disaster Recovery Module provides recovery capabilities for catastrophic data loss, infrastructure failure, corruption, and other recovery scenarios.

It shall support:

Full system restoration.
Partial restoration.
Granular file recovery.
Cross-device restoration.
Cross-system restoration.
Integrity verification.
Checksum verification.
Corruption detection.
Corruption recovery.
Multi-node failover.
Offline restoration.
Snapshot rollback.
Secure key recovery.
Optional key escrow recovery.
Disaster recovery orchestration.

Recovery workflows shall preserve backup integrity and provide clear verification of recovered data where practical.

Security and Hardening Module

The Security and Hardening Module provides system-wide security controls.

It shall support:

Zero-trust architectural principles.
Immutable backups.
Ransomware-resistant backup configurations.
Intrusion detection integration points.
IP allowlists.
IP denylists.
Optional geographic restrictions.
API abuse detection.
Tamper-resistant audit logging.
Suspicious activity detection.
Automatic session invalidation.
Security event reporting.
Administrative security policies.

Security controls should be independently configurable and should not require changes to the underlying backup storage model.

Deployment and Infrastructure Module

The Deployment and Infrastructure Module defines the mechanisms required to deploy, operate, scale, and maintain Sentryx.

It shall support:

Containerized deployment.
Self-hosted deployment.
Hybrid cloud deployment.
Distributed deployment.
Horizontal service scaling.
Horizontal storage scaling.
Load balancing.
Automated deployment workflows.
Environment-based configuration.
Infrastructure automation.
Configuration validation.
Service health checks.
Deployment health monitoring.

Infrastructure configuration shall remain separate from application logic wherever practical.

Storage Optimization and Efficiency Module

The Storage Optimization and Efficiency Module reduces storage consumption, transfer requirements, and operational overhead.

It shall support:

Adaptive deduplication.
Context-aware deduplication.
Delta-based storage.
Efficient storage of large files.
Efficient storage of databases.
Efficient storage of virtual machine images.
Bandwidth-aware synchronization.
Intelligent backup pruning.
Automatic cold-storage migration.
Predictive compression selection.
File-type-aware compression.
Storage footprint analytics.
Backup efficiency analysis.

Optimization mechanisms shall preserve the integrity and recoverability of backup data.

High-Assurance Enterprise Module

The High-Assurance Enterprise Module provides capabilities for environments requiring enhanced resilience, governance, auditing, and operational guarantees.

It shall support:

Multi-region failover.
High-availability clusters.
Configurable service objectives.
Backup service objectives.
Compliance-oriented operating modes.
Privacy controls.
Immutable forensic logging.
Hardware security module integration.
Air-gapped master key architectures.
Enterprise role-based access control.
Enterprise policy management.
Disaster recovery orchestration.
Audit exports.
Compliance reporting.
Administrative policy enforcement.

Enterprise capabilities should remain modular so that smaller deployments are not required to operate unnecessary enterprise services.

AI-Assisted Backup Intelligence Module

The AI-Assisted Backup Intelligence Module provides optional intelligence for backup prioritization, scheduling, anomaly detection, and recovery workflows.

It shall support:

Smart backup prioritization.
File importance detection.
Identification of documents, source code, media, configuration files, and other potentially important data.
Critical data prioritization under bandwidth constraints.
Behavioral scheduling.
Activity pattern analysis.
Ransomware detection assistance.
Suspicious file activity detection.
Predictive backup optimization.
Natural-language restore queries.
Intelligent backup recommendations.

AI processing should be local-first whenever practical.

AI functionality shall remain optional and Sentryx shall remain functional without a cloud-based AI dependency.

AI-generated recommendations shall not automatically override user-defined backup, security, retention, or deletion policies unless explicitly configured to do so.

Optional Plugin Modules

Sentryx shall provide a plugin architecture allowing additional functionality to be developed independently from the core modules.

Plugins should use documented interfaces and should not require modification of unrelated core modules.

Optional plugins may include the following capabilities.