Craig Barratt
2001-Oct-01 11:40 UTC
BackupPC 1.01 released (backup to disk for WinXX/Linux using Samba)
BackupPC version 1.01 has been released on SourceForge, see
http://backuppc.sourceforge.net.
BackupPC a high-performance perl-based package for backing up
Linux and WinXX PCs and laptops to a server's disk. BackupPC is
highly configurable and easy to install and maintain. It uses
Samba's smbclient to extract files from clients, and uses Samba
on linux clients to serve up shares (no client s/w needed for WinXX).
Given the ever decreasing cost of disks and raid systems, it is now
practical and cost effective to backup a large number of machines onto
a server's local disk or network storage. This is what BackupPC does.
For some sites, this might be the complete backup solution. For other
sites, additional permanent archives could be created by periodically
backing up the server to tape. A variety of Open Source systems are
available for doing backup to tape.
Key features are pooling of identical files (big savings in server disk
space) and handling DHCP clients (eg, laptops that are intermittently
connected to the network and whose IP addresses change). Features
are summarized below.
BackupPC is free software distributed under a GNU GPL license.
Enjoy!
Craig Barratt
BackupPC features:
- A clever pooling scheme minimizes disk storage. Identical files
across multiple backups of the same or different PCs are stored only
once resulting in substantial savings in disk storage.
- One example of disk use: 65 latops with average 3.2GB each.
Storing one full backup and two incremental backups per laptop
is around 240GB of raw data. But pooling of identical files
requires only 87GB.
- No client-side software is needed on WinXX machines. The standard smb
protocol is used to extract backup data. On linux clients, the
industry-standard Samba package is used to provide smb shares
that are used for backup.
- A powerful http/cgi user interface allows administrators to view log
files, configuration, current status and allows users to initiate and
cancel backups and browse and restore files from backups.
- Supports mobile environments where laptops are only
intermittently connected to the network and have dynamic IP
addresses (DHCP).
- Flexible configuration parameters allow multiple backups to be performed
in parallel, specification of which shares to backup, which directories
to backup or not backup, various schedules for full and incremental
backups, schedules for email reminders to users and so on. Configuration
parameters can be set system-wide or also on a per-PC basis.
- Users are sent periodic email reminders if their PC has not
recently been backed up. Email content, timing and policies
are configurable.
- Tested on Linux and Solaris hosts, and Linux, Win95, Win98 and
Win2000 clients.
- Detailed documentation.
- Open Source hosted by SourceForge and freely available under GPL.