Hello,

We are looking for a very complete all in one backup solution for our company.

We have 15 employees and half are rarely in the office, all use
laptops, we have access to 3 servers, a Linux Red Hat, Solaris 10 and
an X server.  We would like to store images of everyone?s hard drive
in case of drive failure and also upload incremental backups of their
files every day.  The big kicker here is that we would like an
incremental patching ability like fastbit from Novastor.  This allows
only the part of the changed file to be uploaded to the server and the
server blends it with their complete file.  So instead of uploading a
10 meg file when changing only 1k of it only 1k will need to be
uploaded.

The closest solution has been a product from www.novastor.com called
NovaNer-Web but they require all backup data to be sent to a Windows
server.



I  would like to know other companies that offer the same or better
solution than Novastor?s NovaNet-Web solution that we can use with our
Linux or Mac servers to receive their backuped files.

Here?s a link to their details about the software that could be
installed on the Windows server.
http://www.online-backup.com/datasheets/server.html

And here are the details for their client side software on laptops and desktops.
http://www.online-backup.com/datasheets/client.html




Here are some general requirements.

Simple to use 
One software for all needs (cloning and incremental backups)
Very little end user management
Cost < $200 per user
Able to clone incase of hard drive failure
Automatic backups
Incremental backups
	If  1 mb of a 100 mb file is changed only 1 mb will need to be uploaded
Compression
Encrypted
Past file revisions (version control)
Send to linux, Solaris or Max X server.
Restart interrupted uploads


Thanks,
Shane

What about rsync?  http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/

I believe it is doing something similar to FastBIT.  I can't find
technical information on FastBIT so I am not really sure how they
compare.

Are you looking for some service to host your backups?
What about http://www.ibackup.com/iblinux_new.htm
I am sure their are others.  In fact I am investigating providing such a service.

You will have to use something like stunnel, ssh, or IPsec to secure
the transfer.  Some cron tool to schedule it.

This page describes how to use rsync for remote backup and archiving
of old file versions.
http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/

I am not sure as far as cloning the laptops hard drives.  Are these
Windows machines?  If they run linux, you could use rsync to copy the
files off the system and if you need to restore, just copy the files
back making sure to preserve permissions in the process.

rsync is available for Windows:
http://optics.ph.unimelb.edu.au/help/rsync/rsync_pc1.html

and Mac:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16814

Thanks for your response.

I looked at a lot of rsync windows programs and all were not user
friendly, I wouldn't want any employees to deal with it and functions
were limited but it would get the job done.

Rsync won't do image backups since it doesn't transfer those hidden
files and I have not found any companies who offer byte backups with
cloning on one package.

The best I found so far is BrightStor ARCserve Backup for Laptops and Desktops.

http://www3.ca.com/smb/proddetailcontent.aspx?ID=5286

Still need to get a Windows Server to try it out.

I'm actually having the same issue. I'm planning on requesting an eval
of the Desktop & Laptop option for Veritas Netbackup specifically
because I believe the server runs on Linux as well as Windows. There's
also the same options for BackupExec but of course this runs on
windows as well.

The closest solution that I've found for small partial changed file
PST updates is www.mobiliti.com @work software.  No server side
software is needed for this feature.

Shane