hello gurus and seniors,

i need guideline for replacement of windows machine by linux as backup machine. currently we are using 1 small range server windows 2003. i am planning to try test learn with linux way. kindly guide me

1) which linux is best as backup machine
2) the purpose to achive main is, all data on windows machine on network where we want to take backup on linux backup machine
3) suggest or purpose, how to achive say windows machine is open share like //192.168.1.1/windowsshare or //192.168.1.1/c$ etc
4) some says samba, but samba use to share linux drives linux machines to access from windows, my question is vice versa
5) is there any default features funtions or any software that is integrated with linux

all above is related to single linux back machine problem.

thanks kind regards
salim

Ok, the question about the best distribution is really nice.

Read something here:

http://www.tuxradar.com/content/how-...t-linux-distro

IMHO Fedora is actually the best one for Desktop but you need a server which will run for more than 2 years and not be reinstalled every 6 month, so Fedora is not your friend.

If you want to do it low budget take a look at CENTOS might be it.

We use SLES which unfortunattelly is not free but good.


What does that mean ? you save the data at the clients and now you want a server grab the data and store it local ?
Well ok, that would work without a problem with sambaclient. You create a share on the Window$ pc, grab the data from there and store it local.
You should think about rsync.

btw. better store the data on the server at once.


a) mount the drive with #mount -t cifs //192.168.1.1/windwosshare /mnt/windowsclient1 -o username=administrator, password=admin, uid=root
b) start rsync like # rsync -avz /mnt/windowsclient1 /backup/windowsclient1

(Not sure if every command is 100% correct)

Mount with cifs should do the job. If not, please post again we have 10 Linux-Servers mounting Window$ shares without a problem ( except the window$ problems ;-) )


"Default" dependes on the distribution. If you are thinking about a "real" backupsoftware which i would suggest, you`ll find a lot at "sourceforge".
We worked some time with arkaya ( not sure if that is written correct ).


I suggest:

a) Think about a appliance like qnap
b) think about a "real" backup software (which does not mean that this has to cost money)
c) Installing Linux is always a good think to start ;-)

The above mount + rsync would work.
for a more 'serious' backup soln. try Amanda/zmanda; http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/Main_Page http://www.amanda.org/
Here's an example howto setup Amanda in 15 mins http://www.zmanda.com/quick-backup-setup.html
You should be able to get all the SW you need from your repositories if you use eg Centos, which would make sense for a serious server like this. Fedora is too fast changing/bleeding edge. Not recommended for real work.

There are a lot of enterprise grade free and open source backup solutions for Linux. Which distribution to use is a sole personal choice but using Fedora or Ubuntu is not recommended as this will be used as your server which you would not prefer to install or upgrade every 6 months. For this purpose, CentOS5 or debian, or slackware should be better choices.
As for the backup solutions, there are Amanda, Bacula, Netvault.
You can find list of backup softwares Here.