A dependable backup tool is not a luxury – everyone needs to have one. But that doesn’t mean you need to spend a fortune to get the feature set that meets your needs. Jack Wallen, of TechRepublic, introduces some great Linux backup solutions, including a few that are cross platform.

1: fwbackups
This is, by far, the easiest of all the Linux backup solutions. It is cross platform, has a user-friendly interface, and can do single backups or recurring scheduled backups.

2: Bacula
Bacula is a powerful Linux backup solution, and it’s one of the few Linux open source backup solutions that’s truly enterprise ready.

3: Rsync
Rsync is one of the most widely used Linux backup solutions. With rsync, you can do flexible incremental backups, either locally or remotely. Rsync can update whole directory trees and file systems; preserve links, ownerships, permissions, and privileges; use rsh, ssh, or direct sockets for connection; and support anonymous connections.

4: Mondorescue
Mondorescue is one of those tools you have around for disaster recovery because one of its strengths is backing up an entire installation.

5: Simple Backup Solution
Simple Backup Solution is primarily targeted at desktop backup. It can back up files and directories and allows regular expressions to be used for exclusion purposes.

6: Amanda
Amanda allows an administrator to set up a single backup server and back up multiple hosts to it. It’s robust, reliable, and flexible. Amanda uses native Linux dump and/or tar to facilitate the backup process.

7: Arkeia
Arkeia is one of the big boys in the backup industry. If you are looking for enterprise-level backup-restore solutions (and even replication server solutions) and you don’t mind paying a premium, Arkeia is your tool.

8: Back In Time
Back In Time allows you to take snapshots of predefined directories and can do so on a schedule. This tool has an outstanding interface and integrates well with GNOME and KDE.

9: Box Backup
Box Backup is unique in that not only is it fully automated but it can use encryption to secure your backups. Box Backup uses both a client daemon and server daemon, as well as a restore utility.

10: Kbackup
Kbackup is a simple backup utility that backs up locally to any media (hard drive or mounted device) that can be written to. It’s designed to be a backup device that ANY user can take advantage of.

For a fuller review of these packages, plus links to their home pages and a PDF version of the full article go to 10 outstanding Linux backup utilities | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com

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