BackupPC
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
BackupPC is a free backup software suite with a web-based frontend. The cross-platform server will run on any Linux, Solaris, or UNIX based server. No client is necessary, as the server is itself a client for several protocols that are handled by other services native to the client OS.
For instance, BackupPC incorporates a Server Message Block (SMB) client that can be used to backup network shares of computers running Windows. Paradoxically, under such a setup the BackupPC server can be located behind a NAT'd firewall while the Windows machine operates over a public IP address. While this may not be advisable for SMB traffic, it is more useful for web servers running SSH with GNU tar and rsync available, as it allows the the BackupPC server to be stored in a subnet seperate from the web server's DMZ. It is published under the GNU General Public License.
[edit] Protocol choice
Only minimal configuration on client machines is required when backing up systems that have SSH, available natively. On Windows, third party implementations of tar, rsync, and SSH (such as Cygwin) are required to utilize those protocols. The choice between tar and rsync is dictated by the hardware and bandwidth available to the client. Clients backed up by rsync use considerably more CPU time than client machines using tar or SMB. Clients using SMB and tar use considerably more bandwidth than clients using rsync.
