For the Linux users who use the operating system as a work desk in your personal and group projects, a failure that jeopardizes the integrity of your progress is a constant risk.
To deal with this possible situation, Linux has a wide variety of tools that allow you to make various types of backups, both of specific data and in the entire operating system.
In the next few paragraphs, we will show you multiple software that will greatly facilitate the task of backing up your work, to keep it protected and available when required.
List of the best programs to make backup copies on your computer with Linux Operating System
The following list is a compilation of the best softwares that are present in most of the Linux distributions, which will allow you to make backup copies to any available storage medium.
Go for it:
Rsync
Is a data backup tool accessible via command terminal, and is used to remotely sync files and data stored in folders on a local machine. To activate this tool, you just have to type rsync [optional modifiers] [SRC] [DEST]
in command terminal. [optional modifiers]
indicates the actions to be carried out, that is to say, copy and move, among other. While [SRC]
is he source directory, Y [DEST]
is the destination folder or storage medium.
BorgBackup
It is a data backup tool that works by access through the terminal, although it is possible to install a GUI. Its objective is to facilitate the creation of data backup in an efficient and secure way. To back up through Borg, you need to create a repository first. For it, enter the command $ borg init --encryption=repokey /path/to/repo
Once the repository is created, you can start storing data, for which the order is $ borg create /path/to/repo::(Day) ~/src ~/(folder)
. The section (Day)
will be replaced by the day of the week where the backup takes place, while (folder)
change to the name of the folder or file to be backed up. You can make the necessary copies, since each new backup will only store the new data.
Rsnapshot
It is based on Rsync, and it works by making copies of data to local machines, as well as to remote storages through SSH connection. The code makes extensive use of hard links to reduce space disk storage if possible. The first step is install Rsnapshot using the command $ sudo apt-get rsnapshot
to download it from the application repository. Then it is need to edit the file /etc/rsnapshot.conf
that you get after the download is complete.
To do this, enter this script:
The next step is configure the folder where backups will be stored, through the configuration “Snapshot_root”.
If you want to configure storage on an external machine, set the variable “no_create_root” to “1”, so that the command would look like this:
The next thing is to tell the system how many copies to retain. Using the command retain daily 7
it will indicate that it will retain seven backups, so on the eighth day it will delete the oldest copy. Then, you must enter what actions you want to perform with the backups. Either full copies, of specific folders, files or databases.
An always necessary action, however, is to make copies of the equipment configuration (/ etc) using this command:
-
Backup /etc/ localhost/
.
Once this is done, you have to verify that the settings are correctly applied by means of the command $ sudo rsnapshot configtest
, if everything is ok, the result will be “Syntax OK”.
Then, we can make the first copy by entering the following line:
-
$ sudo rsnapshot daily
.
Kup
It is a data backup assistant intended to work with external storage units, although it can also be used to configure Backups on other partitions of the hard disk, or on local network servers or through the internet.
It has a graphical interface that, although it is not so striking, is simple and straight to the point, allowing you to adjust the backup parameters. Kup also has a background function, which automatically backs up data every time the external storage unit is connected.
DirSyncPro.org
It offers the user a graphical interface that allows managing multiple backup and synchronization tasks. It makes possible the create rolling backups, one-way or two-way directory synchronization, and perform both source and target scans. It also allows the unlimited inclusion of filters to add or exclude files or folders from synchronization. Y offers the user a function to adjust the time of backups, so that they are done every hour, every day, week or month.
Areca-Backup.org
It is open source software with a friendly graphical interface that allows you to make backup copies of files or folders. Offers a direct selection method to choose which files, folders and directories will be backed up, and what to do with them after the backup.
Includes data encryption while supporting file compression in ZIP Y ZIP64. It has an extensive search engine to locate our files and allows us to save them on hard disk partitions, external storage units or through FTP.
FwBackups
It is an open source data backup software, equipped with a graphical interface that greatly facilitates the creation of backup copies. Its most outstanding point is its great ease of use and allows for scheduled, local and remote backups. The installation process of FwBackups in systems like Ubuntu and Linux Mint it is relatively simple, although it requires a few command lines.
The first step is to install the corresponding dependencies with the following command:
sudo apt-get install gettext autotools-dev intltool python-crypto python-paramiko python-gtk2 python-glade2 python-notify cron
After, the list of commands to execute is as follows:
Once the process is done, we only have to run the program, which you will access from the application search bar of your terminal, or you can simply open it from the terminal with the following command:
fwbackups
UrBackup.org
It is an open source data warehousing client offering easy setup and a combination of image and file backup, which guarantees data security and a very short restoration time.
It has a web interface that shows customer data, your usage statistics and available space. It also includes an intelligent storage function that only saves new data and combines files stored with the same name, in order to save as much space as possible.
SyncBack
It is a multiplatform data backup service that works as a remote access bridge to the computer’s file system, in order to perform copying, restoring and synchronization of stored data. It is available for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Y Android, and allows the creation of a user profile, with which you can access the saved data from any device, and make backups in any terminal where it is installed
Clonezilla.org
Clonezilla is a software that allows you to copy the data from the hard disk completely, or from partitions of the same, so it can be used for backups, system deployment, and backup bare metal, with which we can recover the system from scratch. Your backup and restore parameters they are highly customizable, and it supports file systems like ext2, ext3, ext4, FAT12, FAT16, HFS, UFS, among many others.
These are the best programs and platforms for making cloud backups in Linux
In addition to all the programs available for local backup in Linux, It is possible to back up data in the cloud by purchasing hosting services.
Among the best available for Linux, we can find the following:
CrashPlan.com
It provides an easy-to-understand interface and a series of features that make it a very interesting backup program. Requires the creation of an account that will allow you to access your stored backups from any device.
CrashPlan provides excellent security, since it performs a complete encryption of all data before storing it. It allows you to create a secondary password for certain folders and files if necessary and offers the option of selecting the folders you want to save and which ones to exclude.
SpiderOak.com
It is a multiplatform cloud storage service that gives the user options to save, restore, synchronize, as well as the possibility of sharing data and folders, while providing a very high level of privacy. It is available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS, iOS Y Android. Its installation in Linux it is extremely simple, as you just need to download the DEB installer from its website.
IDrive.com
Provides an online data storage and backup service widely used by both individuals and companies. It has very good reviews, which makes it one of the best services available today.
Offers up to 5 TB of storage and it is possible to access your data, from the web, from the desktop client, or from iOS and Android mobile applications. Besides this, IDrive keeps up to 30 versions of your files stored, thus ensuring a more thorough protection of your data.
Duplicati.com
It is intended as an alternative to CrashPlan, and offers a stable and polished environment with a friendly, direct and simple graphical interface. with easy access to settings to modify backup parameters. Duplicati allows you to make your backups in a wide variety of destinations, including local storage units, remote machines, storage services such as Amazon Cloud Drive, Google Drive, and Dropbox, among others.