Free backup software for linux

Backup project adds instant version control to any file on a Unix system.

Do you hate *.bak and *.20050101 and *.cjn (your initials here) and *.do.not.touch files as much as I do? They litter your filesystem any time someone (and were all guilty of it) needs to back-up a file theyre working on.

But who ever comes back and cleans the mess up? At what point is an old backed-up file no longer needed? And what about when you need that backup file only to discover that its missing, or you didnt capture one because you didnt want to add clutter? Backup is my answer to all that. It adds instantly available, reliable version control to every file in the filesystem.

Backup is a lightweight interface to the Subversion svn_fs library. It uses the powerful version control software as a backend to a simple and minimalistic (though effective) user interface. It is designed for use on Linux/Unix (including OS X) systems as a method of archiving configuration files that change semi-frequently, but do not necessarily warrent their own version control mechanism or repository. Things like "/etc/hosts" or "httpd.conf".

It can create a backup of any file without having to import it first, without worrying about setting up new repositories, and (because it speaks directly to the FS layer) without littering hidden ".svn" (or even worse, visable "CVS") directories all over the place. It does this by using a single global "archive," which contains a filesystem that mirrors your root as you add to it. You can view the archive and restore files, do diffs, and move things around as necessary. For more complex administration, the archive is a standard Subversion file system which can be administrated with any compatable client (including the svn command line tools).

The current version is knocked together in Perl. Its alpha, but it is pretty functional... at least for a proof of concept. Eventually I plan to re-write it in C... but we all know about "the best laid plans." In the mean while, the Perl version does work... mostly. The only real trick is that you need to compile and install the Subversion bindings for it Perl. There are some other modules you may need as well, but theyre all fairly standard.

Usage:

You probably shouldnt if you youre doing mission-critical work. Its still alpha code after-all. But if you do decide to give it a spin, dont blame me for any breakage (the only thing that should damage existing files is the combination of -r and -o, which will overwrite during a restore).

DYS Backup is just a small script to backup your system.
You can ajust it to your needs as you like. It is made for me, but you are free to use it in the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Enhancements:
- Backups can be rotated and timestamped.
- Self encryption with GPG can be done.
- Pre and post script functions can be used.
- Package data was added for Red Hat/Fedora.
- Conditional compression of encryption is used.
- The user may choose between bzip2 and gzip.

dbackup is a disk-based client-server backup system for Linux or other UNIX systems.
dbackup works on the principal that disks are cheaper and more reliable than tapes.
Backups are started by cron probably on a daily basis by the client. The client backs up individual filesystems / directories with tar and sends the result to the server, which stores them in a simple tree-based directory structure.
Restores are trivial, either by using the supplied restore client, or by simply copying the appropriate tar files off the server and uncompressing them.
Main features:
- Backup very large filesystems as long as you have the disk space
- Works with very large numbers of servers / filesystems
- No state is kept on the client, its all on the server
- Backup to multiple backup servers in round-robin
- Configuration can be global or per-server
- Authentication for client restores (optional)
- Trivial procedure for restores
- Daily / Full incremental backups
- Configurable number of days before old backup runs are deleted / archived to tape

backup.py is a simple way to do diff and complete backups for your servers.
Some days ago im looking for a simple way to do daily backups in my server. I found a lot of software BUT is too simple OR too complete for my needs.
So i decide to wrote a small python class to do that. And here is backup.py: it takes a list of directories and do diff backups on there.
At the end it send a mail report. Nothing more and nothing less.
Have fun, its GPLed software !
Enhancements:
- This release added support for filename mask matching.
- Error logs are now sent in report e-mails.
- Some bugs were fixed.

Backuper is a CD-R and DVD-R backup application.
Main features:
- Version 3.0 is completely rewritten in Perl (from scratch),
- recorded data integrity verification (using MD5 signatures),
- medium type and size autodetection,
- dumb mode support,
- CD-R/DVD-R media are supported,
- logging, notifying the administrator via mail,
- backup a specific directory (with subdirectories) _OR_ files and directories listed in specific file; excludes are also supported,
- no-disc, full-disc, damaged-disc autodetection,
- be warned when the medium is almost full (before the medium is actually full),

WiredBackup is a program which creates a backup over the net.

NetBackup makes an incremental tar backup, compresses it with b2zip, and symmetric encrypts it using gpg.

The changed backup data is then transfered to an ftp server.

This is useful for people who have too much Web space, and too few streamers.

ZetBackup is a backup system, able to take local and remote backups of a variety of systems, including Linux, Microsoft servers, MySQL Databases, Cisco Routers and NFS based servers. ZetBackups build in web-based administration interface makes the job of administration backup quick and easy.
The hierarchical log system, used by ZetBackup to log everything the backup server does, gives the administrator complete control with the status of the backup system. After each backup, ZetBackup sends a comprehensively email report, listing errors, warnings, backup status and time elapsed.
ZetBackup main strength is the external disk support. Using low cost Firewire/USB 2 external disks as the backup medium, ZetBackup gives the user a opportunity to scale the backup system, without big initial investments in expensive backup hardware.
ZetBackup is build around four type of objects: Source, Target, Scheduler and Target Manager. All these objects are configured by the administration GUI.
Source objects defines where the data resides. Currently Zetbackup supports the following source objects: SMB (Windows servers), Local disk, MySQL databases, SSH (Secure copy) and Cisco IOS based devices.
Target objects defines where the backup ed data are stored. Currently ZetBackup supports two types of target objects: Local and External. Targets can be grouped into Target Groups.
Scheduler objects connects source objects with target objects. A Scheduler defines when the backup is run. The Scheduler are responsible for running the backup and log events to the log system and report any abnormalities.
Management of external disks, are taken care of with the Target Manger. If the backup server is configured with several attached external disks simultaneously, the Target Manger will automatically select the right disk to store backup on. New disks are automatically formated and labeled (This feature is optional)
Main features:
- Firewire/USB External disk support
- Web administration, build on the Zild Application Server
- Takes backup of SMB servers, Local disks, MySQL databases, SSH copy, Cisco IOS
- Web based Restore utility
- Automatic Media management
- Logs are easily browsable in the administration GUI.
- Sends reports by email
- No client-side installation
- Supports differential backup

Simple Backup is a shell script to create basic backups using tar, grep, sed, and bash.

Simple Backup works by using a file that contains the folders to be backed up and a file that contains expressions to exclude certain folders/files.

Usage: backup.sh < backuplist > < excludelist >

Free to use at your own risk. The author cant be held responsible for any side effects
of using this software. Use at your own risk.