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Incremental Backup Solution for Small Business and Professionals

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kaevee:
Hi,

Recently one of my client's computers was hijacked by ransomware. I had to revamp their network security and file services. They wanted an easy-to-access backup system for their data as they don't have a dedicated administrator. I wrote a program to take incremental backups from Windows/Mac/Linux systems to NAS.

Key Features

* User defined backup intervals
* User defined backup rotations per interval
* Uses hard links to save space across backup intervals
* Cross Platform (Windows, Linux, MacOs, FreeBSD). Requires CygWin for windowsThe backups can be reviewed/access without any special tools.

Check out https://github.com/kaevee/NgBackup for more information.

Karel:
Why didn't you use something like rdiff-backup?

https://rdiff-backup.net/

kaevee:

--- Quote from: Karel on September 27, 2021, 02:48:36 pm ---Why didn't you use something like rdiff-backup?

https://rdiff-backup.net/

--- End quote ---

As I wrote in my initial post, the client does not have an in-house administrator. So, we needed an incremental backup system accessible to users as a shared drive. A typical tree will be

daily
--- 20092021
--- 21092021
--- 22092021
--- 23092021
--- 24092021
--- 25092021

Similarly, there will be an increments tree under hourly, weekly, monthly, and yearly folders.

if one wants to get a file as of 22092021, all they need to do is copy the file from the 22092021 folder.

Benta:
I'm running Linux, so I can't say anything about Mac or Win.

I split my backups in two:

One for system backups. This is only run just before or after system changes or updates. For this I use Timeshift. This is for the sysadm.

Another for user data (/home/user) backups. Here I use BackInTime and can let it run automatically on preset intervals.

Both are rsync-based incremental backups with hard links and are extremely stable. The main differences are the GUI front-ends and their setup. I have not been in a situation where recovery wasn't possible.

Splitting the two backups makes sense to me, but perhaps not to everyone.

kaevee:

--- Quote from: Benta on September 27, 2021, 05:02:55 pm ---I'm running Linux, so I can't say anything about Mac or Win.

I split my backups in two:

One for system backups. This is only run just before or after system changes or updates. For this I use Timeshift. This is for the sysadm.

Another for user data (/home/user) backups. Here I use BackInTime and can let it run automatically on preset intervals.

Both are Rsync-based incremental backups with hard links and are extremely stable. The main differences are the GUI front-ends and their setup. I have not been in a situation where recovery wasn't possible.

Splitting the two backups makes sense to me, but perhaps not to everyone.

--- End quote ---
I did explore many open-source tools and most of them are designed for mainstream users on Linux servers. TimeShift, BackInTime look very good and I am sure they will meet the needs of almost all users.

I am using TrueNAS Core based on FreeBSD. ZFS in NAS has a native snapshot feature. The hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly snapshots have been set up in NAS. I need to compliment the snapshots with an easy-to-use restore on their own feature where only a file or small subset of data is needed by users. Furthermore, I need to push some files directly from Windows system(s) as some data is stored locally.

With ZFS one needs an administrator to restore data. My approach will allow users to recover a file or directory on their own. If there is a need to recover the full data, ZFS snapshots will be used.

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