[PLUG] ZFS talk followup, other backup tools

[JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org>]

(Sorry about the latency here.  This refers the PLUG W meeting on 
2011-10-17.)

Thanks to Lee for an interesting, detailed and well attended talk on 
ZFS!  It was great.

We also discussed various other backup solutions.  I guess I should 
quote the excellent and *highly recommended* _Backup & Recovery_ book by 
Preston from O'Reilly: "No one cares if you can back up--only if you can 
recover."  I think we sometimes lose track of that...

I've been using BackupPC since at least 2007, probably right after I 
read _Backup & Recovery_ and it has saved my butt a number of times. 
Some old-ish but still good info: 
http://lists.netisland.net/archives/plug/plug-2007-09/msg00083.html

But I also wanted a more off-site solution.  I first researched this in 
2009 
(http://lists.netisland.net/archives/plug/plug-2009-12/msg00007.html), 
but didn't really implement anything until 2011-01, when I ended up 
choosing Box Backup.  I've never had to use Box Backup (though I've 
tested recovery) since that's my worst-case fail-safe.  I also wanted 
free, and *not* in the cloud, the combination of which eliminates quite 
a lot of candidates.

I picked and an very happy with:
--------------------------------

BackupPC: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
	"BackupPC is a high-performance, enterprise-grade system for backing up 
Linux, WinXX and MacOSX PCs and laptops to a server's disk. BackupPC is 
highly configurable and easy to install and maintain."
[It does data de-duplication at the *file* level, and all backups always 
look like "full" backups in the web GUI, even if they aren't.]


BoxBackup: http://www.boxbackup.org/
	"Box Backup is an open source, completely automatic, on-line backup 
system. It has the following key features:
[...encrypted, delta only (like rsync), past versions, low overhead, 
much more.]"


Others:
-------

Duplicity: http://duplicity.nongnu.org/
	"Duplicity backs directories by producing encrypted tar-format volumes 
and uploading them to a remote or local file server. Because duplicity 
uses librsync, the incremental archives are space efficient and only 
record the parts of files that have changed since the last backup. 
Because duplicity uses GnuPG to encrypt and/or sign these archives, they 
will be safe from spying and/or modification by the server."


Bacula: http://www.bacula.org/en/
	"Bacula is a set of Open Source, computer programs that permit you (or 
the system administrator) to manage backup, recovery, and verification 
of computer data across a network of computers of different kinds. 
Bacula is relatively easy to use and efficient, while offering many 
advanced storage management features that make it easy to find and 
recover lost or damaged files. In technical terms, it is an Open Source, 
network based backup program."


Amanda: http://www.amanda.org/
	"Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver, is a backup 
solution that allows the IT administrator to set up a single master 
backup server to back up multiple hosts over network to tape 
drives/changers or disks or optical media. Amanda uses native utilities 
and formats (e.g. dump and/or GNU tar) and can back up a large number of 
servers and workstations running multiple versions of Linux or Unix. 
Amanda uses a native Windows client to back up Microsoft Windows 
desktops and servers."


See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Free_backup_software

Later,
JP
----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
JP Vossen, CISSP            |:::======|      http://bashcookbook.com/
My Account, My Opinions     |=========|      http://www.jpsdomain.org/
----------------------------|=========|-------------------------------
"Microsoft Tax" = the additional hardware & yearly fees for the add-on
software required to protect Windows from its own poorly designed and
implemented self, while the overhead incidentally flattens Moore's Law.
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