System Backup

[JimBoCol]

I have been backing up my Windows systems, and when it came to Linux, I looked and found a couple of applications. They turned out to be, for the lack of a better description, totally useless. Why are my only options to back up to are floppies, CDs, or the local Hard Drive. some people have 1TB or more drives, and would go broke buying CDs and floppies. It does not even recognize the network at all. My server now has 8TB of space for the various workstations to use for backups. I have no intention of copy and pasting a backup, that is just idiotic and out of the question.

Does anyone know of a utility that actually works?

Thanks,
Jim.

[Irithori]

I run a installation of Bacula, the Open Source, Enterprise ready, Network Backup Tool for Linux, Unix, and Windows for our DCs

Currently, my overall statistic looks like this
Total Bytes Stored : 104,187,282,616,105
Total Number of Files: 88,422,137 |

ca 300 machines to backup,
solaris 9/10, freebsd, netbsd, linux, windows server, AIX.

The prefered backup medium is a tapelibray, but backup to a single tape drive or even files is also possible, if you wish.

Bacula *does* need some time to learn and master,
but I can recommend it as stable, fast and versatile.

[JimBoCol]

I run a installation of Bacula, the Open Source, Enterprise ready, Network Backup Tool for Linux, Unix, and Windows for our DCs

Currently, my overall statistic looks like this
Total Bytes Stored : 104,187,282,616,105
Total Number of Files: 88,422,137 |

ca 300 machines to backup,
solaris 9/10, freebsd, netbsd, linux, windows server, AIX.

The prefered backup medium is a tapelibray, but backup to a single tape drive or even files is also possible, if you wish.

Bacula *does* need some time to learn and master,
but I can recommend it as stable, fast and versatile.

I found it in package manager, it crashed a few times when trying to install it. I finally got it installed after the forth attempt. There is no way to run it. I did not realize that this is one of those invisible things that I just have to somehow schedule and wait until it runs and then try to catch it so I can tell it what to backup to where.

Other than the fact that this would be too far advanced for me, it is also not what I was looking for. I wanted an application that I can run at will, that will do my backup for me.

At least it was easier to remove than it was to install. No crashes or errors.

Thanks anyway,
Jim.

[ptkobe]

Why are my only options to back up to are floppies, CDs, or the local Hard Drive.

Why not hard disk, on a server (remote)? I use backuppc, and I like it. good mailing-list, also.

I have no intention of copy and pasting a backup, that is just idiotic and out of the question.

Didn't get it. I think I'm not understanding what are your needs. Please clarify.

Regards
Luis

[dale456654]

Why don't you mount a server to your hard drive?

sudo mount -t smbfs /networkserver/share /path/on/hdd

[JimBoCol]

Why not hard disk, on a server (remote)? I use backuppc, and I like it. good mailing-list, also.



Didn't get it. I think I'm not understanding what are your needs. Please clarify.

Regards
Luis

I want to select an entire volume, and back it up to my server. when I select my entire volume with either of the two backup applications that I have, My only destination choices are Floppy., CD, or Local Hard Disk.

My server is a Windows Network server, and does not show up on the available destinations. It is not set up as a remote FTP server.

Thanks,
Jim.

[ptkobe]

I want to select an entire volume, and back it up to my server [...] My server is a Windows Network server, [...]

Now you lost me again, Jim

backuppc (BackupPC Documentation) can be installed on a linux machine, and backup windows and linux machines it can connect to. It backups to its (the server) local disk (not the clients local disk), using compression and a hardlink technique to minimize space.

If you have a linux machine with a apache web server (backuppc uses a web interface for configuration, report/status and restores), and you think that it may serve you, give it a try.

Best regards
Luis

[JimBoCol]

Why don't you mount a server to your hard drive?

sudo mount -t smbfs /networkserver/share /path/on/hdd

Tried that. Even though I can see, and access the server on my disktop, and via Places, and Dolphin file manager, still, neither of the backup utilities can see it. File browser can not see it either, and that is what the two baclup packages use to browse for a destination.

Thanks,
Jim.

[Mudgen]

Tried that. Even though I can see, and access the server on my disktop, and via Places, and Dolphin file manager, still, neither of the backup utilities can see it. File browser can not see it either, and that is what the two baclup packages use to browse for a destination.

Thanks,
Jim.

What two backup packages do you mean? I'll look at this further if you like. File browser (presumably Nautilus) should show any mounted filesystems. I have RHEL5 servers with CIFS mounts from Windows 2003 servers at the shop, will have a look at whether Nautilus sees them when I'm back in the office Monday.

[oz]

You can find some backup & recovery alternatives here:

Backup & Recovery | Linux App Finder

Of course, it's usually best to install any of these with your default package tool whenever possible.

For my own backups, I prefer the system imaging method and use a Linux version of Acronis True Image that runs from a liveCD. It takes about 4 to 5 minutes to do a complete image of my current system and about the same length of time to restore the image should it be needed. There is also an option to do incremental backups as needed, but I rarely use that function.

Best of luck with your search.