Déjà Dup: a Simple Backup Solution for Linux

Déjà Dup is a simple, easy to use GNOME-based backup solution for Linux. Despite its simplicity, the software comes with some fine features such as encryption, off-site backup, and more. It is also bundled with several key functionalities such as integration with Amazon's EC2 and its capability to setup an automated backup to a remote Linux serverusing protocols such as SSH. Let's take a closer look at some of the features that Déjà Dup has to offer.

Installation:

If you are using Ubuntu Linux, the installation process is quite simple. You need to add a repository, refresh the sources, and begin the installation using apt-get.

Add the repository:

# sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deja-dup-team/ppa

Open the sources.list file...

# sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

then add the following entries at the bottom of the document:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/deja-dup-team/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/deja-dup-team/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

Now refresh your apt sources:

# sudo apt-get update

And then complete the installation with the following command:

# sudo apt-get install deja-dup

Although the repositories that you add will differ between versions of Ubuntu Linux, the process remains the same. Voila, your installation should now be complete.

If you are using a different flavor of Linux, you might need to look up the documentation related to it to see how you can get the latest version of Déjà Dup installed on your computer.

Launch Déjà Dup:

Once your installation is complete you can launch Déjà Dup from the Applications menu. It should usually be located under the Applications -> Accessories in your menu. Upon first launch, you will immediately notice a simple, clean user interface with just two buttons on it - Restore and Backup. This is something that I particularly like about this backup tool. As a user, having limited options in the main window make mistakes less likely.

The Setup:

If you click on Edit -> Preferences, you will be able to set up things such as your remote server or EC2 account. This will launch a wizard that guide you through the necessary steps as you go about setting up your backup procedure. Other than a local backup, the tool offers you a number of other backup options such as Amazon EC2, FTP, Windows shares, WebDAV, and SSH.

This range of options is very useful. Also, the simplicity with which it has been implemented and presented makes it easy to use for novice users. During this setup you can define which parts of your system you want backed up, which backup system you want to use, whether or not you want to use encryption, and more.

Bringing It All Back:

An important part of the backup tool Déjà Dup is the restore feature, which allows you to bring back data from your backups. This process is relatively simple. However, I have yet to come across a backup solution for Linux that allows users to restore backed up data with the ease of Time Machine on the Mac. One big drawback is that you can only restore entire backups, and not choose a certain portion of your backup that you want to revert to. I hope that the developers of this tool will introduce some more advanced features in the restore process, as they have in the backup process.

Verdict:

Overall, I think that Déjà Dup makes for a great backup solution for Linux. With a straightforward installation process, a very well designed user interface, which makes the software usable even for non-computer savvy Linux user, a host of well thought out backup storage options, and good security in the way of encryption, this software gets two thumbs up from me. The one issue is that the restore process needs much work. I hope that the developers of this fine tool will put in some more effort into it, which could help make Déjà Dup become the most popular backup solution for Linux.

Best Free/Open-source Backup Software for Linux

Backup Software for Linux: A computer application utilized to perform a complete backup by duplicating the original source of data is called backup software. Obviously, the main purpose of backup software is to create order out of chaos by recovering essential files in the event of a disaster. Some of the popular backup programs are sql, remote, and offsite backup software.

If you are using Linux, there are plenty of backup software to choose from. I have here a list of some of the best free and open source backup software that you may want to check out.

Time Vault
Time Vault is a GNOME-based Linux-equivalent to Time Machine from Apple. Like many backup utilities, it creates incremental backups of files that can be restored at a later date. Its snapshots are copies of a directory at a certain point in time. Snapshots use very little space for the files that haven't changed since the last snapshot was made. This is because instead of backing up the entire unchanged file, snapshots use hard links that point to the existing backup of the unchanged file.

Clonezilla

Clonezilla is an open source clone of Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition. It is based on DRBL, Partition Image, ntfsclone, partclone, and udpcast that will allow you to do bare metal backup and recovery. Two types of Clonezilla are available, Clonezilla live and Clonezilla SE (server edition). Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup and restore. While Clonezilla SE is for massive deployment, it can clone many computers simultaneously.

Duplicity

Duplicity backs directories by producing encrypted tar-format volumes and uploading them to a remote or local file server. Because duplicity uses librsync, the incremental archives are space efficient and only record the parts of files that have changed since the last backup. Because duplicity uses GnuPG to encrypt and/or sign these archives, they will be safe from spying and/or modification by the server.

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Bacula

Bacula is an open source, enterprise level computer backup system for heterogeneous networks. It is designed to automate tasks that had often required intervention from a systems administrator or computer operator. Bacula supports Linux, UNIX and Windows backup clients, and a range of professional backup devices including tape libraries. Administrators and operators can configure the system via a command line console, GUI or web interface; its back-end is a catalog of information stored by MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite.

AMANDA

AMANDA (Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver) is a backup system that allows the administrator to set up a single master backup server to back up multiple hosts over network to tape drives/changers or disks or optical media. Amanda uses native dump and/or GNU tar facilities and can back up a large number of workstations running multiple versions of Unix.

rsync

rsync is an open source utility that synchronizes files and directories from one location to another while minimizing data transfer using delta encoding when appropriate. An important feature of rsync not found in most similar programs/protocols is that the mirroring takes place with only one transmission in each direction. rsync can copy or display directory contents and copy files, optionally using compression and recursion.

FlyBack

FlyBack is based on rsync and modeled loosely after Apple's Time Machine. Like many rsync-based backup utilities, it creates incremental backups of files which can be restored at a later date. FlyBack presents a chronological view of a file system, allowing individual files or directories to be previewed or retrieved one at a time. FlyBack presents the user with a typical file manager style view of their file system, but with additional controls allowing the user to go forward or backward in time.