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Old 08-06-2007, 03:42 PM   #1
bdb4269
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What is a good, backup software for linux?


We have 3 linux (RedHat ES3) servers at my work.

I would just like to know what people think about the different options that are out there. We are thinking we want to go with a commercial software, but open source software is not out of the question.

I definitely want a central management interface, so I can schedule/backup/restore, from on single machine/tape drive.

I want something with DR bare-metal restore capabilities.

Ease of installation, and administration, is much much preferred -- If there are specific advantages (and really good documentation community support, like for a good OpenSource option), I might be willing to give a little "ease" up -- but for the most part we want something that wont take a lot a time to set up and maintain.

Not necessary but .. We might actually decide to use DVD DL media for our backups. If we did, it would be nice if the software had a windows interface for the management, so the discs could be burned from on the windows machine with the DVD DL drive.

Anyway -- interested to hear what people thing about the different options that are out there!!
 
Old 08-06-2007, 07:34 PM   #2
chrism01
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Have a look at Amanda: http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Syste...NDA-5191.shtml
 
Old 08-06-2007, 07:52 PM   #3
bdb4269
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chrism01
I've looked at it some. What do you think about it? Does it have a pretty easy to use command line interface? Is it relatively easy to get installed and set up? How easy is the restoration of files?
 
Old 08-07-2007, 02:18 AM   #4
chrism01
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I'm not a sysadmin. You'll have to google people's experience/do some reading I'm afraid.
If you do search here at LQ, you'll find a few other recommendations, it's a fairly popular qn.
 
Old 08-07-2007, 02:55 AM   #5
bdb4269
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chrism01
I'm not a sysadmin. You'll have to google people's experience/do some reading I'm afraid.
If you do search here at LQ, you'll find a few other recommendations, it's a fairly popular qn.
When I click the "find similar threads button, it came up with a few. The only one within the past 2 years, was this one -
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=531654

And the person just thought they needed backup software, and really wanted to be able to make their own distro. Didn't look at the threads over 2 years old, because I was hoping for opinions on what (and what versions) are available now.

Searching google for opinions, IMO, never seems to get me as candid opinions as I get in forums. The most candid opinions you find through google, generally are by reviewers, who review for a living, not run servers.

I mean -- I've read a lot about a lot of different backup options, including Amanda -- but was still hoping for candid opinions. I personally get a lot more direction from that, than reading the stuff I find on google.
 
Old 08-11-2007, 06:23 PM   #6
choogendyk
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I reviewed a lot of backup options over the last year or more before adopting amanda. I had written my own backup scripts that orchestrated everything across several servers. I have also used a few other backup programs in the past, some extensively and including commercial software. When we were able to get a tape library, I chose amanda for its flexibility, focus and philosophy. It's not cluttered with all kinds of other software that has to be installed to support it. All the command line requirements are there with good man pages. Recovery is easy.

If you want to see an example of why I like amanda, check out this post on the amanda users list (by me): <http://marc.info/?l=amanda-users&m=118194389528020&w=2> titled "amanda saved my butt this week".

If you have any specific questions about amanda, ask away . . .

(unfortunately, I'll be offline from 8/13 to 8/17, but before or after that I'd be glad to answer any questions)
 
Old 08-13-2007, 02:13 PM   #7
HowitZer
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Give a program called "FileBackup" a look. It's shareware, has a GUI, and does backups and restores. It does scheduled backups also. It also does incremental backups to save on space.

Here is a whole listing of Linux backup possibilities. FileBackup is on there with a link for download.

http://www.linux.org/apps/all/Admini...on/Backup.html
 
Old 08-13-2007, 10:07 PM   #8
tajamari
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Wink

Quote:
Originally Posted by bdb4269 View Post
We have 3 linux (RedHat ES3) servers at my work.

I would just like to know what people think about the different options that are out there. We are thinking we want to go with a commercial software, but open source software is not out of the question.

I definitely want a central management interface, so I can schedule/backup/restore, from on single machine/tape drive.

I want something with DR bare-metal restore capabilities.

Ease of installation, and administration, is much much preferred -- If there are specific advantages (and really good documentation community support, like for a good OpenSource option), I might be willing to give a little "ease" up -- but for the most part we want something that wont take a lot a time to set up and maintain.

Not necessary but .. We might actually decide to use DVD DL media for our backups. If we did, it would be nice if the software had a windows interface for the management, so the discs could be burned from on the windows machine with the DVD DL drive.

Anyway -- interested to hear what people thing about the different options that are out there!!
Linux backup is a broad thing. What specific things you want to backup, is it just a static data, or a dynamic contents? config files, or others, or the whole system itself?
 
Old 08-13-2007, 10:24 PM   #9
bdb4269
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tajamari View Post
Linux backup is a broad thing. What specific things you want to backup, is it just a static data, or a dynamic contents? config files, or others, or the whole system itself?
Pretty generic. As I mentioned I need bare-metal restore capability. So definitely the entire system.

The actual "important" non-system data itself is static at the time of backup.

I need the ability to backup all 3 servers onto a tape drive on one of the servers. And I want something that is easy to use, and not too expensive (relatively) or free.

More than a list of my options -- which I have looked at many -- I'm just looking for personal experience's here. Kind of a "I used X and it was great and easy to use" or "stay away from X I tried it and it was horrible because...."
 
Old 08-14-2007, 02:03 AM   #10
tajamari
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Smile

Quote:
Originally Posted by bdb4269 View Post
Pretty generic. As I mentioned I need bare-metal restore capability. So definitely the entire system.

The actual "important" non-system data itself is static at the time of backup.

I need the ability to backup all 3 servers onto a tape drive on one of the servers. And I want something that is easy to use, and not too expensive (relatively) or free.

More than a list of my options -- which I have looked at many -- I'm just looking for personal experience's here. Kind of a "I used X and it was great and easy to use" or "stay away from X I tried it and it was horrible because...."
try rdiff-backup or rsnapshot application. if am not mistaken it has the restore capability. im using rsync to transfer files to my lacie server which is mounted on another linux box for security reasons but does not have the restore capability.
 
  


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