Backing up several Windows machines to a Linux server

[Les Mikesell]

On Fri, 2005-01-21 at 16:49, 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.


I think backuppc (http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/) is excellent and
probably the best of the free ones.  It uses a clever scheme of
compression and hard links for identical files to greatly reduce
the disk space needed and gives you a nice web interface to browse
the archived files and do restores. In general it doesn't require
any client software.

>       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.

Backuppc can use either native windows file sharing, running smbtar
on the Linux side to collect the files or you can install the
Cygwin version of rsync on each windows box if you need the
extra efficiency.  If everything is on a local LAN it probably
doesn't matter.

> 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?

You are probably going to have the same issue with most free
software in that you can't restore a windows box from bare metal
and the "client's eye" view of the files does not maintain
ownerships or ACL's.  Having a copy of the data is a lot better
than nothing, though, and the web interface has a concept of
a machine 'owner' so you can let users access their own backup
files directly without being able to see other machines.
 
-- 
  Les Mikesell
   les at futuresource.com