I like the idea of Carbonite(tm) http://www.carbonite.com/ and similar web storage for my low-tech family but I hate to use a storage service that I don't control. I have an in-house linux server that I want to enable to do the web storage and online backup for my family. Does anyone know of linux open source parts that enable this sort of service?

I know there are all sorts of backup packages with all sorts of features. I hope to find something that will work as a client and daemon on both win-doze and linux workstations with a linux server back end. I already move server backup and archive files off site over the net.

My preferred linux is Ubuntu. My win-dose infection is XP, Vista Home,
Win7 Home and Win7 Ultimate. My LAN is N-wifi and gig-wire.

Thanks,
~~~ 0;-Dan

I think that Backula and Amanda have fairly decent windows clients. I don't know of anything off hand that has a web front end... really good backup solutions need root access, so that you can back up files which only root has read access to, that means that there's only so much that a web front end can do (unless you're running your web browser as root, which is a bad idea in and of its self).

Here's a decent comparison of backup solutions for Linux (aimed at personal backups, not enterprise)

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=895

I'm looking for something where the end-user can ask for things like, "these are files and folders that I care about" and (1) "make a checkpoint archive on this schedule" or (2) "make a backup on this schedule" or (3) "do ... continuously"

I would expect that the client would create work orders, the daemon would crank to create "save sets", and then interact with the server to move the sets onto the lan resources. The daemon could also use the net and directly make the save set remotely. In some cases the save sets might be tar-balls or other archive or repository. In other cases they might be ordinary folder-trees from rsync or similar.

If there is a tool that behaves like this, then my end-user might be someone without much access or permission or it might be root.

Thanks,
~~~ 0;-Dan

PS/ There seem to be plenty of ways to search for application packages by name. I'd love to find a way to search "I want these features ..." and get a list of packages. Hmmm?

What I did at my house was back up local folders using rsync over samba, then cron'd it. I tried a couple other things that ended up baffling the wife, so I went with the simple solution. If something is important all they have to do is remember to save it in the " my documents " folder, and voila.

- Z

amanda/zmanda is pretty comprehensive if you want options & solid, but given a low-tech userbase (family) the above post #4 makes a good point.
Just tell them which dirs will be backed-up (& how often).