Save that gMail verification code
If you didn't get a chance to read Lifehacker yesterday, make sure you read Gina's post about Google's gMail account verification code. As a prolific user of Google gMail, Docs and Sites which use the same account login, I took her note to heart. If you ever get locked out of your gMail account, Google will ask you for your account verification code, which was sent to another of your email accounts when you signed up for your gMail account. If you didn't discard that email, then go back and find it, print it, print to a PDF and save/archive, store the account verification code in your password organizer; find some way to make sure you can find this again if you need it. If you're like me and have tons of documents on Google Docs, it would be no small disaster should you get locked out of your gMail account, so take Gina's advice and act now to save this information before you need it.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Open Source Backup
Server and PC backup using Open Source alternatives
Whether you need a desktop productivity suite, network and systems monitoring tools, database, web server or other core application in the datacenter there are plenty of open source alternatives. One option that doesn't get a great deal of attention is the availability of open source backup and recovery applications. While space and time don't allow me to cover all of them, let me hit a few highlights.
Amanda backup and recovery software from ZManda is by far one of the premier open source alternatives for backup. While the server portion of the application runs on Linux, it has agents for Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac, etc. Amanda even has an agent for MySQL. One of the primary advantages to Amanda is the fact this it uses no proprietary drivers to address backup devices, it leverages the operating system device drivers. Also, Amanda uses standard dump and tar for backups so you could restore even when you didn't have the software available. While not a replacement for a large enterprise solution, it gets you backups of your critical data into an easily recoverable format across multiple operating systems.
Restore-EE is another open source backup and recovery program that is available on SourceForge. It has an option to test using the downloadable ISO that has the Ubuntu boot from CD option. If you select to install you'll need a clean server environment, either base hardware, a multi-boot partition or a virtual machine, since it installs a base OS with all the application files.
Bacula is another application for backup and recovery the requires OpenSuSE Linux, FreeBSD, or Solaris operating systems as the server OS. Bacula is also pretty much a linux-focused program with little or no support for Windows platforms; but, if you're a Linux shop this is worth a look.
SnapBackup is an interesting option in that it's a java-based program and will run on most any desktop OS platform (Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac) that supports java. SnapBackup is intended for use as a backup and restore program for desktop PCs, not servers, so it's a great solution for use on your laptop or home PC.
If you're more technical and are looking for some real-time replication and file-based directory synchronization, there are programs like rSync for Linux and Unison, a more cross-platform option. My personal favorite for directory sync from a PC (or server) is Novell's open source iFolder, based on the Mono/.NET framework. Or, if you're a Microsoft shop then DFS (distributed file system) may be your cup of tea.
While file backups are great to have, don't forget to use something like SelfImage to create a bare metal recovery backup image of your hard disk(s) so you can get your PC or server back to a usable state quickly and then worry about file recovery. While not free and open source, an affordable honorable mention in this category is Acronis True Image Home for the low cost of $49.00.
You'll notice I haven't gone off into a hosted, backup software as a service rant yet. While there are plenty of options available out there like Carbonite, I'll save that for another post.
Whether you need a desktop productivity suite, network and systems monitoring tools, database, web server or other core application in the datacenter there are plenty of open source alternatives. One option that doesn't get a great deal of attention is the availability of open source backup and recovery applications. While space and time don't allow me to cover all of them, let me hit a few highlights.
Amanda backup and recovery software from ZManda is by far one of the premier open source alternatives for backup. While the server portion of the application runs on Linux, it has agents for Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac, etc. Amanda even has an agent for MySQL. One of the primary advantages to Amanda is the fact this it uses no proprietary drivers to address backup devices, it leverages the operating system device drivers. Also, Amanda uses standard dump and tar for backups so you could restore even when you didn't have the software available. While not a replacement for a large enterprise solution, it gets you backups of your critical data into an easily recoverable format across multiple operating systems.
Restore-EE is another open source backup and recovery program that is available on SourceForge. It has an option to test using the downloadable ISO that has the Ubuntu boot from CD option. If you select to install you'll need a clean server environment, either base hardware, a multi-boot partition or a virtual machine, since it installs a base OS with all the application files.
Bacula is another application for backup and recovery the requires OpenSuSE Linux, FreeBSD, or Solaris operating systems as the server OS. Bacula is also pretty much a linux-focused program with little or no support for Windows platforms; but, if you're a Linux shop this is worth a look.
SnapBackup is an interesting option in that it's a java-based program and will run on most any desktop OS platform (Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac) that supports java. SnapBackup is intended for use as a backup and restore program for desktop PCs, not servers, so it's a great solution for use on your laptop or home PC.
If you're more technical and are looking for some real-time replication and file-based directory synchronization, there are programs like rSync for Linux and Unison, a more cross-platform option. My personal favorite for directory sync from a PC (or server) is Novell's open source iFolder, based on the Mono/.NET framework. Or, if you're a Microsoft shop then DFS (distributed file system) may be your cup of tea.
While file backups are great to have, don't forget to use something like SelfImage to create a bare metal recovery backup image of your hard disk(s) so you can get your PC or server back to a usable state quickly and then worry about file recovery. While not free and open source, an affordable honorable mention in this category is Acronis True Image Home for the low cost of $49.00.
You'll notice I haven't gone off into a hosted, backup software as a service rant yet. While there are plenty of options available out there like Carbonite, I'll save that for another post.
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