Backing up an entire system
 

Hello,

I'm wondering if there is any way to back up an entire system (Running windows) onto a Linux backup server?

Any ideas at all? Just brainstorming.

Thanks!

You could try Amanda: http://www.amanda.org/ (quick version: http://www.zmanda.com/quick-backup-setup.html )
Certainly does MS and any kind of Unix/Linux.
Not sure if it does 'entire system' (MS), may depend on your definition.

Another good tool is Bacula: http://www.bacula.org/

Here's another one though I haven't used it myself yet... http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_backuppc

By "Entire System", I mean the ability to pretty much ghost the M$ system and then archive it over to a storage server (Which is running a flavor of Linux).

Also, security is a issue, so I'm thinking samba's out? How to secure the process if samba must be used?

I use http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/
clones anything you give it. actually replaced the expensive ghost server at work with this and a simple ftp server.

Obviously, your ongoing objectives and strategy will affect your choice.

g4u looks pretty cool as a disaster recovery mechanism. But then there's the issue of daily backups and incrementals. Couple it with BackupPC? For a one-off system that might work. To automate and set up regular procedures you might go to one of the other recommendations.

For Amanda, I like the quick start link on the wiki at Zmanda better than the 15 minute guide linked by chrism01. They also have a native Windows client now. You can find links to both at http://www.linuxquestions.org/bookmarks/tags/backup