5 best Open source backup Tools on Unix-like Bacula/amanda/backupninja/backuppc/urbackup

Here's a list of some software backup tools that are open source on Linux and Unix-like.

What do you consider when choosing a backup tool for an enterprise?

Make sure that the software you are deploying has the following characteristics

Open source software-you have to choose the software that the source code can be obtained for free and can be modified. Be sure you can recover your data, even if the software vendor/project stops maintaining the software, or refuses to continue to provide patches to the software.
Cross-platform support – Determine that backup software can run a variety of desktop operating systems and server systems that need to be deployed.
Data format – An Open data format allows you to recover data, even if the vendor or project stops supporting the software.
Automatic conversion – automatic conversion would have been nothing, except for a variety of backup devices, including libraries, near-line storage and automatic loading, automatic conversion can automate some tasks, including loading, mounting, and labeling backups like tapes of these media devices.
Backup media – Make sure you can back up to tape, hard disk, DVD and cloud storage like AWS.
Encrypted data flow-determines that all client to server transmissions are encrypted to ensure the security of transmission in lan/wan/internet.
Database support – Determine that backup software can be backed up to a database, such as MySQL or Oracle.
Backups can span multiple volumes – backup software (when a dump file) can divide each backup file into several parts, allowing each part to exist in a different volume. This ensures that a large number of data backups (like 100TB files) can be stored in a single, smaller device, such as a hard disk and a disk volume.
VSS (shadow copy) – This is Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), which is backed up by creating a snapshot of the data. Identify the Ms-windows client/server for which the backup software supports VSS.
Duplicate Data deletion – this is a data compression technique used to eliminate duplicate copies of data (e.g., images).
Licenses and costs – determine what licenses you use for backup software and understand how they are used.
Business Support – Open source software can provide community support (such as mailing lists and forums) and professional support (such as distribution to provide additional paid support). You can use paid professional support to provide you with training and counseling.
Reports and warnings – Finally, you must be able to see the backup report, the current working status, and also be able to provide a warning when a backup error occurs.


bacula– A client server Backup tool that is applied to diverse heterogeneous networks

I personally use this software to manage backups and restore systems over the network, including Linux, OS X, and Windows. You can configure Bacula via CLI, GUI, or Web interface.



Operating system: Supports Cross-platform operation.
Backup level: Complete, differential, incremental, merged.
Data format: Support customization and fully open.
Automatic conversion: Support.
Backup media: Supports tapes, disks, and DVDs.
Encrypted data flow: support.
Database: Supports MSSQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle.
Cross-volume Backup: Support
VSS (shadow copy): supported.
License: Affero general public License v3.0.
Download Link: bacula.org

amanda– Another client server Backup tool

AMANDA is the abbreviation of Advanced Maryland Automatic network Disk archiver. It allows the system administrator to create a separate backup server to back up data from other hosts on the network to a tape drive, to a hard disk, or to an auto swap.

Operating system: Supports Cross-platform operation.
Backup level: Complete, differential, incremental, merged.
Data format: Open (can be recovered through tools such as tar).
Automatic conversion: Support.
Backup media: Supports tapes, disks, and DVDs.
Encrypted data flow: support.
Database: Support for MSSQL, Oracle.
Cross-volume Backup: Support.
VSS (shadow copy): supported.
License: GPL, LGPL, Apache, Amanda License.
Download Link: amanda.org

backupninja– Lightweight backup system

Backupninja is a simple and easy-to-use backup system. You can simply drag and drop a configuration file to the/etc/backup.d/directory to back up to multiple hosts.



Operating system: Supports Linux,unix.
Backup level: Support full, differential backup (rsync + hard link)
Data format: Open
Automatic conversion: N/A. (Note: n/a = not applicable).
Backup media: Disk, Dvd,cd,iso mirror.
Encrypted Data flow: Support (SSH) and remote encrypted backup via duplicity.
Database: Supports MYSQL,POSTGRESQL,OPENLDAP and Subversion or TRAC.
Cross-volume backup:??
VSS (shadow copy):??
License: GPL
Download Link: riseup.net

backuppc– Efficient client-server backup Tools

BACKUPPC can be used to back up the primary server hard disk based on Linux and Windows systems. It comes with an ingenious pool plan to minimize disk storage, disk I/O, and network I/O.



Operating system: Supports Linux,unix and Windows.
Backup level: Supports full and incremental backups (rsync +hard links and pooling plans)
Data format: Open.
Automatic conversion: N/A.
Backup media: Disk and disk arrays.
Encrypted data flow: support.
Database: Support (through shell scripts)
Cross-volume backup:??
VSS (shadow copy):??
License: GPL.
Download Link: backuppc.sourceforge.net

urbackup– The most easily configured client server system

Urbackup is a very easy to configure Open source client server backup system, through the combination of mirroring and file backup to complete the data security and rapid recovery. A disk volume backup can use a bootable CD or USB drive to recover your files (hard recovery) through the Web interface or Windows Explorer. A WEB interface makes it easy to configure your own backup services.



Operating system: Supports Linux,freebsd,unix,windows and a handful of NAS based Linux operating systems, and clients only support Linux and Windows operating systems.
Backup level: Supports full and incremental backups.
Data format: Open.
Automatic conversion: N/A.
Backup media: disks, disk arrays, and DVDs.
Encrypted data flow: support.
Database:??
Cross-volume backup:??
VSS (shadow copy):??
License: GPL v3+
Download Link: urbackup.org

Some of the most useful open source backup software for your consideration

Amanda,bacula and the software mentioned above are rich in functionality, but the configuration is more complex for small networks or individual servers. I suggest that you learn and use the following backup software:

rsnapshot– I recommend using this as a snapshot tool for both local and remote file systems. Take a look at how to set up and use this tool in Debian and Ubuntu Linux and Centos,rhel based operating systems.
rdiff-backup– another handy Unix-like remote incremental backup tool.
BURP–BURP is a network backup and recovery program. It uses Librsync to save network traffic and save space for each backup. It also uses VSS (Volume Shadow Copy service) to snapshot when backing up a Windows computer.
Duplicity– is a great encryption and efficient backup-class UNIX operating system. See how to install duplicity to encrypt a cloud backup to get more information.
Safekeep–safekeep is a centralized, easy-to-use backup application that combines the best features of mirroring and incremental backup.
Drebs–drebs is the tool for EBS periodic snapshots. It is designed to run on the EC2 host that the EBS snapshot is connected to.
Old UNIX programs, like rsync, tar, Cpio, MT and dump.

Conclusions

I hope you will find this useful article to back up your data. Don't forget to verify your backup and create multiple data backups. Note that the disk array is not a backup solution! Use any of the above mentioned programs to back up your servers, desktops, laptops, and private mobile devices. If you know any other open source backup software I didn't mention, please share in the comments.