File Backup Utility
When you want to run the file backups for individual files and regular syncing of files then these file backup tools are worth to look into as they make file backup easy.
- SBackup - Simple backup or sbackup is Gnome based backup tool that lets you quickly take backup of your files. If you're using ubuntu then this is the only backup app that you need for your general backup needs. It helps you take backup on regular interval. Like anything in linux you need to tweak it for taking backups, but it's easy to get started using sbackup.
- Crashplan - Crashplan free version allows you to take offline backups easily. They do have online backups at nominal monthly subscription. If you're using ubuntu or any other linux on more than one computer then online backups are useful.
- Areca - Areca is java based backup app that lets you backup files and also lets you encrypt, filter and compress the content. It's good app for those who wants to backup their desktop files and settings. It's not much of useful for those servers and home network where you save a lot of data.
- Bacula - Bacula is a bit complex app and is recommended only to users with some experience in managing backups. It is useful for both desktop and network backups. But considering the complexity, you should only use bacula if you know what you're doing.
File Synchronisation Utility
File sync and backup apps are helpful if you're taking incremental backups everyday. This is useful for artists, writers who manipulate a lot of data everyday and are in need of backup.
- rSnapshot- rsnapshot is rsync based tool that lets you filesystem snapshot on daily, weekly, monthly basis. You can also add-remove the parameters for excluding file versions in order to avoid incremental backup of files that doesn't change in it's original content. This helps you save more space during backup. You can invoke these snapshot by cronjob over ssh or per user configuration file. Users can run backup cronjob for their own files without the need of root permissions on their account.
Snapshot Backup Utility
Snapshot tools monitor the file size changes actively and take backup on scheduled period. This type of tools are useful for those who don't want to put much efforts into configurations and recovery of data.
- Time Vault - Time vault monitors the files on your hard drive and takes backup of changed files and newly added data. It is gnome based application but can work without glitch on other window managers. It supports multiple file systems and is pretty much file-system agnostic program. Once installed you'll find it integrated under nautilus. If you like automatic snapshot utility that monitors for file size change then this is what you need on ubuntu.
- Fly Back - Flyback looks similar to apple's time machine application. It makes use of cronjobs to take regular snapshot of the files. It monitors the files that remained unchanged and hardlinks between multiple backups. This saves backup space on your disk. It is python based with GUI interface that makes backup easy and users can easily recover their desktop with files using this utility.
Disk Recovery Tools
Disk recovery tools not only recover the date but also clone the disk image and can be used to run on fresh install.
- Ping- Ping makes use of program called partimage, that is used to take backup and restore on linux systems. It's not much rich into GUI as it's command line tool. It works similar to symantec ghost and it backs up the data and allows us many features that makes disk recovery more easy.
- Mondo Rescue- It is yet another program that works like symantech ghost, it has similar command line GUI. It can be used to recover desktop by taking the backup on disks, removable media and on another partition. It supports most of the file systems out there and has enough configurable options that lets you recover easily.
- Clonezilla - Clonezilla is much more efficient disk recovery and backup tool. It takes only the used part of the hard disk for backup and the transfers it to media or partition of your choice. Clonezilla also makes it easy for you to run recovery without much technical complexity. It support multiple file systems for backup and hosts the backup on server or removable media.
There are many ways to approach file backup issue. You can use GUI based or Command line tools. You'll find that there are tons of backup utilities available that you can use and at the end it all matters if your data is backed up and you're syncing it regularly without fail. Feel free to post your suggestion for the Linux backup programs in comments.
