Automatic Backup software for ubuntu server?

[jonneymendoza]

Hi, are there any good backup apps for running on a ubuntu server that can backup files across various different windows machines in my network and to back them up via a schedule that backs it up and gets the latest changes once a day and stores them in one my hdd's attached to my ubuntu server?

Thanks in advance. i am looking for the best and most reliable and easiest one i can configure where i can simply set the location where the files are on a particular windows pc, and backup its contents once a day to a location directory in my ubuntu server.

This app has to only get the latest changes from a windows machine, so first backup it should for instance retrieve all my music from say c:/music and then tomorrow, get only the latest music files i have added into c:/music instead of retrieving all of its content again. Like syncing a bit.

This has to be future proof a bit so that say if i change location of my music in c:/music to say c:/media/music. i still want it to retrieve latest files from their without wiping out the previous data backed up and stored in my ubuntu server. much like how itunes is used where if u sync with PC 1, and later connect it to PC 2. you can kiss goodbye all your music collects on your ipod.

 

[russ0r]

A cron job with rsync on cifs mounted fileshares would be how I'd do it. Not sure if there's a better dedicated app for it.

 

[jonneymendoza]

cron job?

 

[russ0r]

Yeah, a cron job is a scheduled task.

 

[JonJ678]

You should look at rsnapshot.

"best and most reliable and easiest" is not a very clear specification. You're not after a gui by any chance are you?

 

[russ0r]

You should look at rsnapshot.

"best and most reliable and easiest" is not a very clear specification. You're not after a gui by any chance are you?

When he said ubuntu server I just assumed a headless box.

grsync is worth a look if you're after a GUI.

 

[jonneymendoza]

Oops, I misread the problem, bit tired. Yeah, just smbmount each of the windows machines in say /clients/{machine1,machine2,...}, and a script like this will do the trick:

#!/bin/bash

for i in /clients/*; do
    rsync -a --delete /directory/to/sync ${i}/
done

you can add that script to a periodical cron job which will keep the client machines in sync with the server's files.

umm i thought i can only smbmount directories that are on the ubuntu server itself? so its possible to smbmount a directory thats shared on a seperate windows machine i.e my main pc called i7 with directory/folder C:/music enabled to be shared to anyone via right clicking that folder and going to its properties and followed by the share tab.

Yes, exactly. Well it's called mount.cifs now, it's literally a mount helper for mounting SMB shares on Linux's virtual filesystem.

There's also a package called fusesmb which will automatically update a chosen directory with a list of machines currently advertising itself on your Windows network, and list shares you have access to using the SMB username and password you supplied when starting it.

Plenty of options available.

Ok so with the given example above.

to start it off, i can mount this directory:

//MyI7WindowsPC/music which is the c:/music in my i7 windows pc?

And then after mounting that and giving it an appropriate smb name that represents it, i then write a script that syncs the data from this newly mounted directory and store/backup this directories contents from another directory located on my ubuntu server such as /user/me/i7Music ?

i might try the above

 

[vidda]

You can use crashplan if you want an easy option