- Backs up via SMB, NFS, rsync, etc. I use rsync, and it rocks.
- Allows for LDAP authentication, which permits end users to restore their own files.
- "Pools" identical files (verified via checksum) with hard links, so that our
60-odd W2K computers don't comprise 60-odd copies of c:\winnt.
- Has all sorts of smarts -- with both good default values, but also the ability to
tweak. An example of this is that, if a machine has been up consistantly for
seven days, it will default it to nightly backups.
- Does full and incrementals.
- Has a web-based front-end that's really, really good.
- Restores can be accomplished via many different methods, including restoring via
the protocol that the backup was done with, and downloading a .zip or .tar of the
file(s) or director(ies|y) in question. The interface is very, very usable.
- Nag e-mails for systems that haven't backed up in N days.
- Global and per-client configs. [For simplicity's sake, I have individual config
files for my PCs that get auto-created on login to the domain; that way, if (say)
a hard drive gets added, I automatically re-configure to back it up.]
The documentation is a little rough, but the application, once installed, is just a joy to use. Backing up your disk-based backups are also not that well discussed, but it appears that (as per the damn info page and empirical data) GNU TAR supports hard links, so I'm just going to tar it to tape. Lastly, between the pooling and compression, we have almost 70 PCs (Windows 2000, '98 and Linux) backing up about 900 GB of data into 200 GB of disk.
No, I don't get kickbacks for writing this, but really good software deserves to be given free press, so here it is. Again, the install -- or, rather, the directions for the install -- are a bit rough, but it's worth the effort if this is a manner of backup that you might be considering. I'll be glad to share any of my config stuff with anyone who's interested.
$.02,
-Ken _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
