system toolbox

http://serverfault.com/questions/49828/amanda-bacula-backuppc-which-has-a-reliable-windows-client

Pitanje:¶

I wish to setup an automated backup system for 3 windows XP machines in the same building to a Linux server out on the WAN. I visit each machine every few months and make a disk image for a bare metal recovery. I need a way to automatically backup user documents (including outlook's mailbox file). This is for a small daycare/preschool and therefore needs to be a low budget project.

There will be no qualified sysadmin on site daily to deal with problems. The backup needs to run without user intervention and without fail.

The file recovery needs to either be accomplished remotely (They call me; I push the recovered file back to their system), or simple enough for a non-techie to operate.

As I see it the candidate systems are Amanda, Bacula,BackupPC. Reading the docs I see that BackupPC is probably out of the running because it does not do VSS. What is your practical experience with these systems? Is there some other system that I should be considering?

odgovor:

Bacula has a Windows client (that can be either desktop or server clients) that handles backups quite well. It utilizes VSS to create hot images of whatever you're looking to backup (works fine with Outlook AFAIK). You can set the desktop clients to use different ports than the default (9101 I think?) and port forward requests from their WAN router to each individual computer. Something with a VPN would be preferable, but not always possible.

Amanda and BackupPC use samba shares to backup - not exactly ideal, especially over WAN.

Additionally, Bacula has a bartpe plugin to do bare-metal recoveries, something that I haven't found for Amanda or BackupPC. The problem is that bare-metal recoveries are going to be tough (read: not impossible) to do remotely. I'm thinking your best bet with that is to have the clients boot to PXE where you recover the files to the client PC, or something similar. Either way, it'll be tough to set up.

Currently I use Bacula to backup 2 servers, 8 Windows clients, and 3 Linux clients, and it works very well. It has a number of front ends, with a python based graphical tool coming soon.

Recoveries are done to a server's local directory, then you can copy/push files to the clients that need them.

For what you're looking for, I think this fits the bill.

Advantages Over Other Backup Programs¶

• Since there is a client for each machine, you can backup and restore clients of any type ensuring that all attributes of files are properly saved and restored. * It is also possible to backup clients without any client software by using NFS or Samba. However, if possible, we recommend running a Client File daemon on each machine to be backed up.
• Bacula handles multi-volume backups.
• A full comprehensive SQL standard database of all files backed up. This permits online viewing of files saved on any particular Volume.
• Automatic pruning of the database (removal of old records) thus simplifying database administration.
• Any SQL database engine can be used making Bacula very flexible. Drivers currently exist for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.
• The modular but integrated design makes Bacula very scalable.
• Since Bacula uses client file servers, any database or other application can be properly shutdown by Bacula using the native tools of the system, backed up, then restarted (all within a Bacula Job).
• Bacula has a built-in Job scheduler.
• The Volume format is documented and there are simple C programs to read/write it.
• Bacula uses well defined (IANA registered) TCP/IP ports -- no rpcs, no shared memory.
• Bacula installation and configuration is relatively simple compared to other comparable products.
• According to one user Bacula is as fast as the big major commercial applications.
• According to another user Bacula is four times as fast as another commercial application, probably because that application stores its catalog information in a large number of individual files rather than an SQL database as Bacula does.
• Aside from several GUI administrative interfaces, Bacula has a comprehensive shell administrative interface, which allows the administrator to use tools such as ssh to administrate any part of Bacula from anywhere (even from home).
• Bacula has a Rescue CD for Linux systems with the following features:
  • You build it on your own system from scratch with one simple command: make -- well, then make burn.
  • It uses your kernel
  • It captures your current disk parameters and builds scripts that allow you to automatically repartition a disk and format it to put it back to what you had before.
  • It has a script that will restart your networking (with the right IP address)
  • It has a script to automatically mount your hard disks.
  • It has a full Bacula FD statically linked
  • You can easily add additional data/programs, ... to the disk.

git://bacula.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/bacula/bacula

http://bridge.oldelvet.org.uk/bacula/BaculaDVDSetup.html

http://edin.no-ip.com/content/bacula-debian-sid-mini-howto

Bacula: backups that don't suck