Backing up several Windows machines to a Linux server

[Dale Sykora]

Rodolfo J. Paiz wrote:

> Hi:
> 
> I am faced with what *must* be a very common task: to make backups of
> user files on several Windows machines to the hard disk of a Linux
> server. So far I've only been responsible for backing up the servers,
> and rsync/rsnapshot plus mondo do a beautiful job of that.
> 
> However, I am finding it a little difficult to find software that does
> this well. I do prefer to support open-source if at all possible, and I
> do prefer zero-cost as this is a small office; but I am able and willing
> to pay for software as long as the cost is reasonable.
> 
> Here's what I've done so far:
> 
> 	1. Amanda (http://www.amanda.org) only seems to do backups to tape,
> yuck! I definitely want to back up to a hard drive: much faster and much
> cheaper, and I can then replicate the data store and take it home on my
> notebook. :-) At most we will have 10GB or 20GB of backups, not
> terabytes or anything huge.
> 
> 	2. Given that the clients are Windows and I need to automate backups
> (else they'll never get done), I don't see how I can use rsync and/or
> similar tools since they don't run on that OS. It seems to me that I
> need some sort of a client app on Windows that will push the backups to
> the server. Happy to be corrected if wrong, of course.
> 
> 	3. Bacula (http://www.bacula.org) *looks* pretty complete, but it also
> looks pretty confusing and complex to set up. It also speaks of
> difficulties backing up Windows clients. Not very attractive at first
> sight... does anyone know if it gets easier/nicer later?
> 
> 	4. Arkeia (http://www.arkeia.com) seems to do the trick. Clients for a
> lot of operating systems, server runs on Linux, even has plug-ins for
> backing up LDAP, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and others. Waiting for a price
> quote from them now, hopefully it will be affordable.
> 
> Can I get some help/recommendations here? Any five-star products I've
> missed? Especially any really good, pretty cheap ones?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
Rodolfo,
	For rsync on win you might want to try cwrsync at
http://www.itefix.no/

	You might also want to look at backuppc at
http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/

I have used cwrsync on win file servers to allow easy rsyncing to linux 
servers.  I haven't played with backuppc much, but it is popular with 
some people on the K12LTSP list.

Thanks,

Dale