How small and medium enterprises choose Linux backup tools

Article Title: How to choose a Linux backup tool for SMEs. Linux is a technology channel of the IT lab in China. Includes basic categories such as desktop applications, Linux system management, kernel research, embedded systems, and open source.

Many Linux data backup products are constantly adding new features and starting to become more mainstream in the enterprise. Currently, most major storage management vendors (such as HP and Symantec) have provided Linux for their storage management tools. In some Linux data backup software, manufacturers have been able to back up data to the cloud and process virtualization systems and data deduplication. Obviously, users seeking to back up Linux have more options and can enjoy more advanced features.

As cloud backup becomes more popular, Linux backup vendors such as Zmanda are adding Linux cloud backup to their products. Taking Zmanda as an example, Zmanda Enterprise Backup products allow you to back up data from Linux devices to Amazon's S3 (Simple Storage Service) cloud.

Similarly, the Linux data backup product also provides support for virtual machines. With the emergence of virtualized applications on various servers (including Linux servers), this capability has exploded over the past two years. Although a virtualized system can use any backup system (including shell scripts) for backup, there are many software that is most suitable for virtualization backup.

For example, Symantec Veritas NetBackup allows administrators to take a single snapshot of a physical server and capture all virtualized servers running on this server without taking a single snapshot of each virtual server.

Linux-based virtualization backup products usually restore everything from a single file on a virtualized application to the entire bare recovery to a physical or virtual Linux server. They can also clone existing instances of the virtual server to create another virtual server, which provides convenience for fast recovery.

Cluster support is increasingly common in Linux Backup products (such as NetVault: Backup from BakBone Software. This support includes the ability to manage clusters from a single screen on the console as a single device for backup and storage management.

NetVault represents another trend in the Linux backup software field. It provides continuous data protection (CDP) through a feature called NetVault: Replicator ). This feature copies byte-level data changes through the LAN or WAN.

Data deduplication is also implemented through Data Domain and other companies in the Linux backup function. These companies provide Data deduplication technology as part of their product features.

Of course, like any storage management feature, different vendors also have advantages and disadvantages in Linux backup. When selecting a Linux backup product, you must perform a test to ensure that the candidate products can meet your needs, rather than simply entering the check boxes on the feature list.

However, if users only seek some basic backup functions, there are also many Linux products on the market that can provide basic backup functions. Some of these products rely only on Linux utilities such as tar to process simple shell scripts for backup tasks. Others are more complex products like Bacula that provide more additional features.