5 best open source backup utilities for Linux

Data loss is a common threat that we all face today. A drive crash or other user errors can result in data loss. Data loss is more dangerous for a data center that stores a lot of information every day.

There are so many backup utilities available in the market, confusing you to choose the best one out of the many options. This article will help you choose the free backup utility that is best suited for Linux and suits your needs.

Amanda - A great backup utility

Amanda is the first option on the list. This is a great open source backup utility. Amanda uses Amazon's Internet cloud storage as well as traditional drive memory to back up data anytime.

Amanda also supports tape drives, has an easy-to-use, graphical interface that can be remotely accessed to perform backup operations. Amanda is a standard backup tool using the Linux GNU tar application.

Amanda is a cross-platform application, meaning you can back up your data in Linux and restore it in other operating systems. Anyone can use Amanda's simple interface without any problems.

1. Download Amanda for PC Linux : https://www.zmanda.com/downloads.html

Clonezilla - An excellent disk image backup utility

Clonezilla is a disk image creation tool. Clonezilla creates a backup of the entire drive by cloning it. This utility supports all major file systems in Linux such as fat16, fat 32, ext2, ext3, ext4 and many systems in other operating systems. It provides customizable boot parameters to create a controlled drive image, as well as AES 256 encryption support for data protection.

To use Clonezilla, you will need to boot it from the Live CD or via USB. Overall, this is a great backup utility but still has drawbacks. For example, you cannot restore an individual file from a backup. The feature of creating an online stored backup is not yet implemented.

1. Download Clonezilla : https://sourceforge.net/projects/clonezilla/files/

Bacula - Network based backup solution

Bacula is another great data backup utility for Linux users. This great network-based backup utility is used for remote data backup. It can backup MySQL, MSSQL, Oracle tools, SAAP ASE and other popular databases.

Bacula can back up data in parallel with the ongoing backup process to save time and resources. Bacula has its own software to store and recover data for a specific file from physical memory. However, this tool is difficult to set up and should be done by professionals only. If you are new to Linux then you might consider using the other backup utilities mentioned in this article

1. Download Bacula : https://www.bacula.org/source-download-center/

Backup Ninja - Backup utility for database server

Backup Ninja is a great backup utility for Linux database server. It is widely used by data centers to avoid data loss.

Backup Ninja can create backups of MySQL, PostgreSQL, Maildir and many other database servers.

There is a helpful setup wizard for first use. Backup Ninja installation files are easy to edit, making it easy to reconfigure the backup process. It also supports scripts. Just by putting a script in, Backup Ninja can handle backups easily.

Backup Ninja can also be configured to send status reports via e-mail. Overall, this is the best utility for backing up data locally or remotely.

1. Download Backup Ninja : https://redmine.tails.boum.org/code/attachments/download/124/backupninja-0.9.7.tar.gz

Kbackup - Simple backup utility user friendly

Kbackup is a user-friendly GUI-based backup utility for Linux. You can use different configurations to store data for different types of PCs or files. Backups can be stored on local drives as well as on network drives.

You can also run automatic backups with this utility. Kbackup has an open source backup tool provided under the GNU license.

1. Download Kbackup : https://www.linux-apps.com/p/1127679