Bacula - Network Backup Solution With Encryption
Monday March 23, 2009
Bacula is a solid open source backup software package, now in version 2.4.4. It is a set of programs for saving, restoring, and verifying data over a network of diverse computers, and includes the option to backup and store data in encrypted form.
Bacula has been under continuous development for over six years and provides a complete and easy to use backup solution for a variety of environments. Recently added features include improved support for removable volumes such as DVDs and USB drives, new disk seek code for fast restore from disks, and new man pages. Here is complete list of Bacula's functionality and features.
The system is available in console versions and various GUI versions. The complete documentation with user guide and tutorial can be found here.
“Easy to use?” Have you tried it? I’ve been a Linux sysadm for 10+ years. I road tested Bacula for six months and would personally conclude that it’s horrible to set up, maintain and operate.
For “easy to use”, try Webmin’s backup modules. Up and running in minutes and I didn’t even have to RTFM.
Just a follow up to the above comment:
Less than 12 hours after I posted my comment, the Jack Griffin, CEO of Bacula Systems contacted me (through my website) to discuss my view of Bacula. Bacula Sytems is Bacula’s commercial support company.
An excerpt from Jack’s first email reads, “I’d like to hear some specifics and offer to have one of our support team
give you a call.
We have a lot of happy users, and we take it a little (a lot) personally when
someone has a bad experience with Bacula!”
In our brief dialogue, I gained the impression that the team very much took these comments on board. It may well be that Bacula’s usability and documentation improves over the coming months. Whatever the case may be, I thought this was impressively proactive.
Of course, since Bacula Systems is a commercial entity, there are financial motiviations associated to providing support. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly suprised that they took such an interest in one (small) user’s experience.