How in the Tech

Bacula Open Source Cross Platform Backups

By Adam Myers ⋅ December 21, 2005 ⋅ Tags: Backup, System Administration

Recently, I have found a free, open-source backup program called Bacula (Ugh, how the hell do they expect poor IT managers to pitch the merits of a program whose name sounds like the punch line of a bad joke?!?).

It seems to have all the features of the commercial programs, including:

• centralized control, with remote Solaris, Linux, and Win32 agents (yes! The Win32 agent is what is missing from most open-source backup programs, which are primarily Linux-centric.)
• support for virtually any autoloader, via a modular design that lets you plug in whatever remote-control utilities that are required
• a GUI as well as command-line interface
• some support for Linux bare-metal restore
• secure SSH backups, so we can back up machines in the DMZ
• a SQL database to store the filename contents of tapes, to make restores much easier
• restore-from-tape, so you don’t need the entire program installed if you need to restore from it 10 years down the road.

I’ve been working with Bacula in production for three months now, and I’m impressed at how well it works and how flexible it is. In an effort to raise awareness for this fabulous project, here is my sales pitch for all those that will listen:

Bacula is well documented and relatively easy to deploy. Like most software these days, there are many more features than you will probably ever use, but whatever your needs, Bacula can play a vital role in your corporate IT infrastructure.

Flexibility breeds power. The scheduling capabilities allow you to decide when and how often a job will run. Bacula enjoys holidays as much as the rest of us, and it can accommodate those variances in its schedule. It can also handle machines that connect to the network infrequently — think laptops. If you need to run a script before or after the job, on the client or the server, it can be done. Windows clients? Yeah, Bacula has that covered too.

As backing-up the data is only half the problem, its a relief to know that restores are also well designed. You can restore to a point in time, using all relevant backups. Bacula lists the required tapes and you supply them; the process continues automagically. Need that one file from two weeks ago, you can browse the files from a navigation tree and decide which ones you want.

As with all open-source, there’s the usual drawbacks, such as lack of tech support and uncertainty about the lifetime of the project. However, it is a lively and very active development project, and if you’re used to dealing with mailing lists and discussion forums when there are problems, I wouldn’t see this as a major issue.

“Bacula – It comes by night and sucks the vital essence from your computers.”