| |
2036
|
|
|
Written by stgraber the 28 Feb 08 at 12:10.
Category: System.
Related to:
Nothing/Others.
Status: New
|
|
|
Description
At the moment, if someone wants to backup his documents or prepare a migration from a computer to another there isn't much more than file-roller to create a backup.
Ideally, the user should be able to run a graphic software which would ask what the user wants to backup and where (tape/usb key/remote).
Then the same tool would be able to restore the backup.
It would be useful for both backups and migration from a computer to another.
Update : See duplicates ideas which contain even more great ideas about that idea.
Attachments
No attachments.
Duplicates
Comments
|
andrewsomething wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 14:22
| |
There are a few decent back up solutions for new users out there like sbackup, but they still need some polishing and don't come by default. I think that the first step in fixing this issue would be to get one of these programs into main. The more exposer a program gets the more bug reports and fixes it gets as well.
|
|
zarlino wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 14:33
| |
scp and rsync are already pretty useful. There is also a frontend to rsync named grsync.
|
 RainCT (Ubuntu Developer) wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 14:40
| |
I agree with Andrew, there are enough existing solutions, to just need some improvement and more publicity.
|
|
MagicFab wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 15:25
| |
Kubuntu users have a default backup app called "Keep".
|
|
greatbunzinni wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 15:30
| |
What's wrong with "copy to" ?
|
|
madman2k wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 16:01
| |
conduit might be an option too
|
|
ropiku wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 16:10
|
Is TimeVault alive ?
I haven't seen any progress lately.
|
|
Estesark wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 16:35
| |
I believe very strongly that there should be a back up & restore manager, with GUI, included with Ubuntu distributions by default, and easily accessible through the System>Administration menu. While there are already commands and third party applications that could be used to achieve this, including a properly integrated manager with GUI by default would be far easier and a lot more obvious to new and inexperienced users.
|
|
pofigster wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 00:05
|
I'm not a n00b, and I'm not a genius, but I do feel like I know a bit more about what's going on under the hood in Linux than a lot of converts.
Still, I've been trying to figure out a nice simple way of backing up my computer and what not. Having something integrated would make it a lot nicer and easier for a lot of people.
|
|
djs wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 00:14
|
The existing solutions, though some of them are quite good, only allow backup to files on another filesystem. What we really need is something like Bacula to be simplified for desktop/workgroup usage. It can do everything just about anyone needs, it just needs a front end that makes it:
easy to set up:
choose storage mediums (disk, tape, dvdr, etc.)
choose what to backup (full system or just /home, /var, /etc)
choose on what schedule (on-demand only or automated)
easy to verify that it's working
Bacula already can generate some reports
There's already a monitor applet
easy to integrate tape drives
LTO-1 tape drives and media are cheap and plentiful now that LTO-4 is coming out. We should all be buying them on e-Bay.
easy to integrate removable drives (USB, Firewire, eSATA)
This is what people are the most familiar with for now at least
easy to burn backup 'volume' files to DVDR media (if not integrated burning).
easy to label volumes (tape, DVDR)
What we have to keep in mind here is that most desktop/workgroup users are going to quickly run out of disk space for backups or have a hard time keeping track of the USB hard drives and what happens when you want to backup a whole workgroup of Ubuntu and Windows machines? I think that's why we need something with some power under the hood and the ability to use tape.
Furthermore, it seems like some of the client/server backup solutions like Bacula and Amanda are starting to languish. Many projects require so much work just to get working and to keep moving with bug fixes and new features that the polish and ease of use will always be a lower priority and thus they never reach the state required for adoption by non-technical sysadmin types.
So I see this as a call to arms for helping one of them, Bacula, thrive by bringing the necessary man power to bear on the usability factor.
If Windows NT 4.0 could include a 'does the job, nothing fancy' backup program in 1996, why can't Ubuntu in say 2009?
/djs
|
|
clickwir wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 01:32
| |
Program is called Keep. Look it up. Been around for a while, it's graphical and easy to use. It can even schedule things for you. This idea is solved. Next ;-)
|
|
Thomas_Hinkle wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 02:09
| |
Better yet, offer network backup as a (subscription?) service. I'd pay for this, I think, especially if it integrated seamlessly with my OS.
|
|
ToyKeeper wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 02:32
|
Ubuntu has quite a few backup solutions. However, there may be a shortage of "grandma-friendly" interfaces for them.
I don't mind setting up rsnapshot or some other solution, but many users probably won't bother doing any backups unless it's simplified to little more than a single "enable backups" checkbox.
|
|
thetictacaddict wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 02:36
| |
I believe Simple Backup is designed for this sort of thing. (the package name is simplebackup)
|
|
chubbstar wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 03:24
| |
I hate to say it but for amateur users having something like Leopard's Time Machine would be a big "selling point" for new users starting out in Ubuntu for the first time. I myself am a little envious of Time Machines clean look and ease of use (two things that Flyback and TimeVault arnt quite competitors in yet).
|
|
hackel wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 04:30
|
I agree that there are plenty of existing solutions for making backups, and that Ubuntu just needs to pick one to install by default, polish it up, etc.
What is missing is a simple option to make a kind of system-restore backup, one which will intelligently backup all (and only) the files which are necessary to re-create a working system during a reinstallation (e.g. /var/lib/dpkg/status, /etc, etc.). Then modify the installation routine to look for this backup (thinking CD or USB here) and automatically restore, installing all previously installed packages, copying settings that were in /etc, /var, etc., the previous home directory, but restoring the bulk of the system from the network/Ubuntu CD. Of course this would only work for packages currently part of the distribution, so it could perhaps also include an installation report that documented the non-ubuntu packages that were previously installed and could not be automatically re-installed. This would be very useful.
|
|
Niels Olson wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 05:04
| |
I've been quite pleased with Flyback over the last couple of months. I haven't figured out how to set up the chron job, and I haven't set up offsite ssh backups yet, but I do use it to back up my file server from another computer on the network, using NFS. My technical shortcomings are relatively minor compared to the enormously smart basic layout concept of being able to navigate the filesystem back through time. That is exactly what backup should be.
|
|
supermike wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 07:02
| |
And don't forget that it's fairly hard for newbies to backup one's Thunderbird mail and restore it on another system. That should be a lot easier as well.
|
|
esadie wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 09:42
|
I have a requirement for something like iFolder but built into Ubuntu server and desktop
http://www.ifolder.com
|
|
dullivan wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 09:59
| |
Do you've tried unison?
|
|
jelly1 wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 10:53
| |
I would like to see a better improvement of sbackup, it is a great program but you cannot backup to 2 locations and I haven't seen any new realeases yet. It would be great if a default backup app would come to ubuntu, where you could handle full backups and daily and a system backup like windows xp's system recovery.
|
|
gullcatcher wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 11:23
|
I'm looking super obvious and easy way of backing up my files. All these packages I've never heard of, I'll go and check out, thanks.
To add my feature requests, I'd like to be able to:
* backup my files, specifying which directory goes to where (my ~/media/audio directory goes somewhere different to ~/docs, and ~/workspaces doesn't get backed up. This should all happen transparently, and take into account of removable media, and preferably would not have to resort to looking at walking the directory tree on a timed basis (file events?). * Snapshots would be nice, but not essential.
* backup my UI configuration: Thunderbird plugins, accounts, Firefox plugins, settings etc; Tomboy wiki; keyring; wallpaper settings.
* backup my machine configuration: what packages I have installed; xorg.conf; passwd. Some of these will require small scripts to backup and restore, but that's ok. (see hackel's previous comment)
* create/discover new backup-plans for packages that aren't catered for out-the-box (e.g. eclipse plugins). These backup-plans, and my choice of them, should also be subject of a backup-plan.
* of course, encryption is built in, and on by default.
* of course, though "disk space is cheap", I don't want to be backing up stuff that is readily available from somewhere else, and I don't want to be backing up stuff that hasn't changed since the last backup.
Of course, I can restore some or all of a configuration/files from any particular time, all from the same gui. I may be prompted for sudo passwords, but only for things that need it - e.g. restoring packages.
And of course, it's drop dead obvious how to set it all up, and everything has a sensible default; but I should be able to customize the setup.
Dream tool? perhaps. That's what I like about writing feature requests.
Many thanks. Good idea for a feature request site.
|
|
Velvet Elvis wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 14:48
|
I'm a fan of keeping /home in subversion or other VCS. A streamlined way of setting this up could be handy.
KDE's Keep is a simple frontend to rdiff-backup. I wouldn't think it would be too hard to do something similar with (py)gtk.
http://jr.falleri.free.fr/keep/wiki/Screenshots
|
|
ntetreau wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 15:24
|
For those who like Simplebackup, check out Not So SimpleBackup. It is a fork of Sbackup and the developper has really improved on it. You get more feedback on the backup process, you can have multiple "Backup profiles", ftp, ssh, gzip or not, split files, etc.
https://launchpad.net/nssbackup
|
|
ecr959 wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 20:11
|
After reading most of the above comments, I agree that there are a couple of good, graphical solutions to the "easy backup" request. Lets tell Canonical to pick the best one, and we can all start supporting it.
BTW i think Brainstorm is a really great way to get things started. Get Canonical to listen to average users like me.
|
|
rawsausage wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 22:06
| |
Time Vault was my first thought as well. It is usable and understandable, and offers good base for building.
|
|
abinoam wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 23:06
|
rdiff-backup does all the job for me! It's perfect! But, it was very hard to find it. I mean, I've tested a lot of other tools without success till finding rdiff-backup.
So, I agree with the Velvet Elvis opnion. An rdiff-backup gui front-end!
|
|
JJRabbit wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 16:07
|
It would be great if this backup program's GUI closely resembled that of Time Machine.
Time Machine is popular because of it's simplicity.
Possible duplicate: idea #362: Linux Time Machine
|
|
pforhan wrote on the 13 Mar 08 at 21:01
| |
Flyback is simple, and works great as an entry in Admin. If it could get cleaned up a bit, I'd recommend it as default for everyone.
|
|
nalimilan wrote on the 16 Mar 08 at 14:32
|
Home User Backup (hubackup package in Ubuntu) should do the job when it's done. For now, the backup works, but restauration has to be done manually (open the archive and copy files).
See https://launchpad.net/hubackup/
|
|
uaneme wrote on the 5 Jun 08 at 03:53
|
A move /home utility that can pull /home data from an old drive to a new /home but also is able to migrate to a new /home drive (and keep the trashcan alive)
|
|
asaz989 wrote on the 2 Jul 08 at 01:14
| |
I'd like to second all the suggestions up top to clean up and improve Flyback.
|
Post your comment
|
|
