Building a Home Backup server

[Zatnikitelman]

Ok, I've had it, "antivirus vista 2010" ate a bit of my desktop today which rendered Vista's built-in backup capability useless. I'm right now trying...something which at the very least will let me retrieve the data I want, then reinstall Vista (yea, fun). I've got an older desktop that would be perfect for build a Linux-based backup server out of. It will have 2 160GB hard drives configured for RAID1, not impressive, but all I can do for now. The obvious OS is Ubuntu, but I figured I'd use either Knoppix, or even CentOS.

The OS however isn't my main concern. My main concern is the backup software. I've found some of what I want on both ends. I'd like script-run backup so I can have the computers back themselves up when they shutdown and/or at various times, and ability to back up to the server over a network of course, and use the backed-up image to restore the computer in its entirety. I'm just completely lost in this particular area of computers, I know what I want, but am not sure what exactly to search for.
Thanks for any help,
Zatnikitelman-Matt

 

[Bj]

Ok, I've had it, "antivirus vista 2010" ate a bit of my desktop today which rendered Vista's built-in backup capability useless

I never trusted those 'built in back up' from Windows. Too bad about the virus, I have had a few of those these last years.

So back to the point, backup software. There are a few things you can do.

1. Use simple CMD to copy all files in your (say My Documents) to the remote computer.

2. Use software (free or pay) to manage files and the backups

Best payware is acronis
Best Freeware (I can find) is Cobian Backup

3. Find an external HD, simply copy/past your files in there when you need to 'backup' (CMD method is more practical if you want 'auto backup' like that.)

good luck

 

[garyw]

I never trusted those 'built in back up' from Windows.

NTBackup is prefect for backing up the system state data. I've used it for several active directory state backups as well as other stuff. It's interesting to note that the BKF format is supported by Backup Exec.

Anyway, on to Zat's problem - you have two choices, onsite or offsite.

Onsite - Kept in the same location as the data, you lose that location (theft, fire, something else) you've lost the data. Works fine for temporary backups and all you need is a hard disk, a copy of robocopy or synctoy.

Offsite - Phyiscal seperation of data, obviously best for making sure your data is away from the source location. Personally I use and recommend Amazon's S3 cloud storage. it's a pain to find a decent client but when it works you have access to a lot of storage for very little cost.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Personally I use and recommend Amazon's S3 cloud storage. it's a pain to find a decent client but when it works you have access to a lot of storage for very little cost.

Isn't there a similar solution from Google, but gratis?

 

[garyw]

If there is I've not come across it. S3 allows for terabytes of data storage. I've got about 3GB there at the moment which is costing me $0.31 a month. Well worth it.

 

[matmat57]

Antivirus 2010 is a Virus! It tricks the user into paying for their sw to remove non existant threats. There are free removal tools available on the internet that will fix the problem. I would remove it before assuming anything is really damaged or missing. I had it pop up on my kids computer running XP the other day. I used I believe it was Malwearebytes Anti Malware removal tool and everything was fine. It kept popping up and saying the computer was under attack from some IP and would let you surf the internet at all. A fake Windows Security page would come up and tell you to download their software to remove the threat! Google it if you can from another computer and you will likely get all kinds of info. I had to download the removal sw on another pc to a flash drive and install it on the infected machine. Once I ran it and removed Antivirus 2010 avrything was fine.

 

[Hielor]

The other obvious option is to not download and install blatant viruses...

Also, I would recommend getting Win7 if you can (you're a student, right? There's a hefty student discount). Much better than vista.

 

[Bj]

NTBackup is prefect for backing up the system state data. I've used it for several active directory state backups as well as other stuff. It's interesting to note that the BKF format is supported by Backup Exec.

Uses primarily tape drives right? Actually I saw that on the servers at intern, but not really sure how effective they are for personal use. Are supposed to be really expensive? -drives anyway not tapes themselves

Offsite - Phyiscal seperation of data, obviously best for making sure your data is away from the source location. Personally I use and recommend Amazon's S3 cloud storage. it's a pain to find a decent client but when it works you have access to a lot of storage for very little cost.

I heard of mozy, also heard the first 2Gbyte is free.

 

[garyw]

Uses primarily tape drives right? Actually I saw that on the servers at intern, but not really sure how effective they are for personal use. Are supposed to be really expensive? -drives anyway not tapes themselves

Depends, DAT, DLT, Super-DLT, LTO? The newer tapes (LTO) are very expensive but then they have higher density. The drives would cost a small fortune.

These days every piece of backup software should be able to backup to a file. The common approach is D2D2T. (Disk to Disk to Tape).

I heard of mozy, also heard the first 2Gbyte is free.

Which may be enough disk space for some but for me I can easily generate over 2gb of data in a month.

 

[Suzy]

Are tape drives still used? Are they reliable for long-term storage?

I had my main hard drive (with my OS on it) fail today , so I spent a tedious afternoon reinstalling Windows XP onto another drive, along with all my programs. I had a previous HD failure only a few months ago! I have learned to keep my personal files on a separate HD (and backup that onto an external one). I just manually backup; don't use a program. (Edit: new hard drive didn't fix the problem - wasn't a HD failure...)

 

[garyw]

Are tape drives still used? Are they reliable for long-term storage?

Yes and yes. In fact, tapes are sometimes the only way to comply with certain legalities like Sabarnes-Oxley which requires backups of financial data for the past 7 years. It's not possible to keep that on local disk or even remote disk so your best option is to back up to another disk then onto tape for storage a remote location. Tape storage companies still do very good business.