Backup of personal computers or servers is
always important to prevent permanent data loss. Therefore getting to know
different backup tools is very important especially for System Administrators who work with large amounts of
enterprise level data and even on personal computers.
In this article, we shall take a look at top
10 outstanding backup tools that you can use on Linux servers or systems.
1. Rsync
It is a command line
backup tool popular among Linux users especially System Administrators. It
feature rich including incremental backups, update whole directory tree and
file system, both local and remote backups, preserve file permissions,
ownership, links and many more.
It also has a
graphical user interface called Grsync but one
advantage with the rsync is that backups can be automated using scripts when
used by experienced System Administrators on the command line.
2. Fwbackups
It is free and open source software which is cross platform and
feature rich and users can contribute to it’s development or just participate
in testing it. It has an intuitive interface that allows users to do backups
easily.
It has features such
as:
Simple interface
Flexibility in backup
configuration
Remote backups
Backup entire file
system
Exclude files and directories
plus many more
3. Bacula
It is open source data
backup, recovery and verification software that is designed to be enterprise
ready with certain complexities, though these complexities actually define it’s
powerful features such as backup configurations, remote backups plus many more
.
It is network based
and is made up of the following programs:
A director : program that supervises all operations
of Bacula.
A console : program that allows a user to
communicate with the Bacula director above.
A file: program that is installed on the machine to be backed up.
Storage: program that is used to read and write to your storage space.
Catalog: program responsible for the databases used.
Monitor: program that keeps track of all events
happening in different parts of Bacula.
4. Backupninja
It is powerful backup
tool that allows users to design backup activity configuration files that can
be drooped in /etc/backup.d/ directory. It helps to perform secure,
remote and also incremental backups over a network.
It has got the following features:
Easy to read ini style
configuration files.
Use
scripts to handle new types of backups on your system.
Schedule
backups
Users
can choose when status report emails are mailed to them.
Easily create backup
action configuration file with console-based wizard (ninjahelper).
Works
with Linux-Vservers.
5. Simple Backup Suite
(sbackup)
It is backup solution
for Gnome desktop where users can access all configuration via Gnome interface.
Users can use regex to specify file and directory paths during the backup
process.
It has the following features:
Creates compressed and
uncompressed backups.
Supports
multiple backup profiles.
Allows
logging, email notifications.
Scheduled
backups and manual backups.
Split
uncompressed backups into several chunks.
Supports
local and remote backups.
6. Kbackup
It is an an easy to
use backup tool for Unix operating system and can be used on Linux. It can
create archives and compress them using tar and gzip utilities respectively.
Kbackup has got the following features:
User friendly and menu
driven interface.
Support for
compression, encryption and double buffering.
Automated unattended
backups.
High reliability.
Support for full or
incremental backups.
Remote backup across
networks.
Portable and extensive
documentation among others.
7. BackupPC
It is a cross platform
backup software that can run on Unix/Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. It is
designed to for enterprise level use with high performance measure. BackupPC
can be used on servers, desktop and laptop computers.
It has some of the
following features:
File compression to
reduce disk space usage.
No need for client
side software.
Flexibility during
backup restoration
Flexibility in
configuring through different parameters.
User notifications
about need for backups and so on.
8. Amanda
Amanda is an open source software that works on Unix/GNU Linux
and Windows. It supports native backup utilities and formats such as GNU tar
for backups on Unix/Linux. And for backups on Windows machine, it uses native
Windows client. Users can setup a single backup server to store backups from
several machines on a network.
9. Back In Time
It is simple and easy to use backup tool for Linux operating
system and works by taking snapshots of specified directories and backing them
up.
It has features such
as configuring:
Storage location to
save snapshots.
Manual or automatic
backups.
Directories to backup.
10. Mondorescue
This is a free backup and rescue software which is reliable and
all features-inclusive. It can perform backups from personal computers, work
stations or servers to hard disk partitions, tapes, NFS, CD-[R|W], DVD-R[W],
DVD+R[W] and many more.
It also has data rescue and recovery abilities during backup
process in case of any destructive events.
11. Box Backup Tool
It is an open source backup tool and can be configured to work
automatically.
It has features such
as:
Online backups.
Backup daemon for
automated backups.
Storage of backups in
files.
Data compression and
encryption.
Tape like behavior.
Choice of backup
behavior plus many others.
12. Luckybackup
It is a free powerful,
quick, reliable and easy to use backup and sync tool that is powered by the
rsync backup tool.
It is feature-rich with features such as:
Preserve ownership and
file permissions.
Create multiple backup
snapshots.
Advanced options files
and directories.
Exclude options and
use rsync options and many more.
13. Areca
It is an open source
backup tool that is intended for personal use and it allows a user to select a
set of files or directories to backup and select the backup method and storage
location.
It has features such as:
Email notifications
about backup process.
Simplicity in use in
terms of configurations.
Browse archives and
many more.
14. Bareos Data
Protection
It is an open source
set of programs that allows users to backup, recover and protect data on Linux
systems. It is an idea forked from the Bacula backup tool project and works on
a network in a client/server architecture.
The basic
functionalities are free but payment is required to use professional backup
features. It has features of Bacula backup tool.
-15. BorgBackup
BorgBackup is a free open source, efficient as well
as secure command-line based DE duplicating archive/backup tool with support
for compression and authenticated encryption. It can be used to perform daily
backups and only changes in files since last backup are archived, using the DE
duplicating approach.
The following are some its key features:
It is easy to install
and use.
Supports encryption of
all data.
Uses authenticated
encryption technique to ensure secure backups.
It is also very fast.
Supports space efficient
storage.
Also supports optional
compression of data.
Supports remote
backups over SSH.
Supports mounting
backups in the same way as file systems.
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