[CentOS] Best backup software for linux

[Aleksandar Milivojevic]

Nathan wrote:
> We are running backup softwares for incrementals/differentials and full backups 
> with variouse softwares currently using dirvish scripts + amanda .. what is 
> everyones views on other opensourced backup software? is there anything better 
> or other options we have missed?  We are looking at backula as an option? any 
> thoughts?

I wanted to recommend you to take a look at Bacula, than I saw it is 
already on your list.  Bacula is very nice peace of software.  It can do 
almost everything that very expensive products from Veritas and Legato 
do.  The only thing it is missing is a nice GUI.  You'll need to 
configure it using your favorite text editor.  It can be a bit complex 
to configure, however it does come with good default configuration files 
that you can use to build on.  However, you should read documentation 
and really understand how Bacula works before deploying.  It is much 
more powerful and therefore also much more complex system than Amanda.

It is based on three separate components.  The center piece is Director. 
  This is basically backup server.  Other two pieces are Storage Daemon 
that handles the storage (you can have as many as you like, it can run 
on same machine as Director, or on dedicated machine, or even on the 
client) and File Daemon (this is basically the client).

The storage format isn't standard (so you can't simply take the tapes 
and run tar or restore commands on them, like you could with Amanda). 
It also needs SQL database (MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite are supported 
at the moment).  There's couple of utilities distributed with Bacula 
that allow you to read and extract data directly from tapes (in case you 
loose your backup server or SQL database), and/or recreate SQL database 
from content of the tapes.

Bacula also has some nice security features.  You can use SSL to encrypt 
communication between all three components (Director, Storage Daemon and 
File Daemon), so you don't have to worry of somebody sniffing your 
/etc/shadow while your network backup runs.

It also supports encryption of the backup on the client machine.  That 
means that the data is encrypted.  So even if somebody steals your 
tapes, he can't do anything with them.  He would need decryption key, 
which is normally stored on the client machine (this allows you to 
centrally backup several departments or clients that don't trust each 
other, or you).  Also, think offsite tapes stored in "trusted" location 
somewhere far away.

There are some very interesting features planned for the future.

All in all, very interesting project.  Something worth including into 
repository such as centosplus or Dag's.

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