Review sought: Bacula

[Ken D'Ambrosio]

Travis Roy wrote:

>>    Is (has) anyone using Bacula for network backups?  If so, can you give
>>some feedback on what you think of the system?  TIA.
>>    
>>
>
>I tried it for a day or so, didn't like it, though it was to bloated for my
>needs. Ended up going with hdup:
>
>http://miek.nl/projects/hdup16/hdup16.html
>
>it works GREAT, it's small, and it's simple.
>  
>
BackupPC (http://backuppc.sourceforge.net) was the solution for me: the 
"PC" is a bit of a misnomer -- it'll back up most anything, and via a 
myriad of protocols, including the newly-added rsync.  In addition to 
that, it also has nifty stuff like LDAP authentication, a web-based 
front-end for restores (good for end users), a transparently-implemented 
"pool" of static files (eg. c:\cmd.exe, /bin/bash) so you're not backing 
up multiple copies of the same files, etc., etc., etc.  It DID take a 
fair bit of work to get it set up, but Lordy, it's nice.  The one place 
where it's really annoying to set up is for *doze clients with multiple 
drive letters; I've written a script to create the config files 
automatically, but it was a drag.

I guess the bottom line is that if you're trying to back up 'doze boxen, 
and want your end-users to be able to do their own restores, it's 
really, really good.  If you want to back up Unix boxes, it's pretty 
darn good.  Again, still a pain to configure, and the docs leave 
something to be desired, but the end result is worth the effort.

$.02,

-Ken