Deploying BackupPC on SLES

Novell Cool Solutions: Tip
By Mike Petersen

Digg This - Slashdot This Posted: 28 Jun 2007

Problem:

Too many Small-Mid size networks have no backup or disaster recovery procedures, or their Administrators are simply too lazy to do proper backups.

Solution:

To alleviate this issue I wrote a "how-to" article on getting BackupPC running on Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 at: http://www.pcc-services.com/sles/backuppc.html

To show people how to at least have some sort of automated backup system in case of disaster.

• Introduction
• Installing and Configuring SLES for BackupPC
• Installing BackupPC
• Configuring Clients to Backup
• Linux Clients
• Windows Clients
• Working with the Web Interface
• Configuring BackupPC for Archiving Clients
• Finishing Up

Environment:

SLES10, BackupPC version 3.0.0, some perl modules - lots of disk space :-)

Excerpt:

Introduction

Over the years I have worked on hundreds of different networks across a wide variety of platforms and for the most part all of them have one thing in common - the lack of proper backups and emergency procedures.

It is amazing how much people rely on blind faith that their data will always be available whenever they need it. I cannot count the number of times I have seen companies deploy servers for mission critical applications using a single hard drive. I have lost numerous bids to competitors simply because I refuse to deploy a server without at least some sort of data redundancy in place. Unfortunately, I have also been on the receiving end of a few emergency calls from these same businesses asking if I can recover files on a malfunctioning drive.

Backing up Data is probably the most important task a Network Admin should do (apart from ensuring all of your RAID drives are functioning). Unfortunately, out of laziness or contentment, data backups are rarely done on a regular basis. To alleviate the risk of losing data, this guide will show you how to automate your backups using a stand-alone server (with lots of disk space) running BackupPC on Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10.

Note: Great care should be taken when configuring a backup procedure, including ensuring that no unauthorized access to the backups is allowed. This includes ensuring the BackupPC server is physically in a secure location and only authorized personnel are allowed access to the BackupPC server and it's Web Based interface.

• Read the article here.

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