Simple Backup works to make the backup process simple. In this article I am going to show you how to install and use this handy Linux backup tool.

Installation

As you have grown to expect, sbackup is easy to install as it is included in the standard repositories. To install sbackup follow these steps:

1. Open up your Add/Remove Software tool.
2. Search for “sbackup” (no quotes).
3. Mark Simple Backup for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.

That’s it! You will now find two new entries in your System > Administration menu: Simple Backup Config and Simple Backup Restore. As you can probably guess, the former is used to set up and run your backups whereas the latter is used to restore your backups. Now, let’s see how simple it is to set up a scheduled backup.

Scheduling a backup

Figure 1

Click on System > Administration > Simple Backup Config which will open up the main sbackup config window (see Figure 1). In order to set up a fairly straight-forward backup make sure you hit these sections:

General: You can use this to do standard, automatic, or manual backups. Note: Standard backups will backup all user files, /etc, /usr/local, and /var. That’s a pretty good basic backup scheme.

Include: The particular directories you want to include in your backup.

Exclude: Any particular directories you want to exclude from your backup.

Destination: Where the backup will be stored. By default the backup is in /var/backup. You will probably want to go with an external drive for this. NOTE: You might want to check the box for “Abort backup if destination directory doe not exist”. This will keep the backup from running if you have forgotten to plug in your external drive.

Time: Here you can precisely schedule your backup.  What this actually does is create a cron job for your backup.

Purging: This is a very critical section as it will ensure your backup directory doesn’t get full. Here you can choose either Simple or Logarithmic purging. Simple allows you to just declare how old a backup can be before it is removed. Logarithmic uses an algorithm for keeping various backups. The Logarithmic backup is the recommended choice.

Once you have made all of your choices, click Save and then, if you want, you can run your backup immediately by pressing Backup Now! When you press Backup Now! the process will begin and remain in the background. If you have configured sbackup for a time, the first backup will run at the time you configured.

Restoring a backup

Because the restore is a part of Simple Backup, it will know where you have placed your backups. Until you have actually had a successful backup, there will be nothing to restore (so Simple Backup Restore will find nothing to restore). Once you do have a successful backup all you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Click System > Administration > Simple Backup Restore
2. From the Restore GUI, select which backup you want to restore.
3. Click Restore.

That’s it. Now the process of restoring your files will be begin!

Final thoughts

Between LuckyBackup and Simple Backup you will be hard pressed to find an easier, more reliable backup solution for the Linux desktop. But regardless of what backup solution you use, make sure you DO use a backup or else you stand to lose all of your precious data.

Backerupper not only does a good job of simple backups, it also adds an icon to the GNOME notification area for quick access. And with Backerupper offers enough features to satisfy the users who demand ease of use, as well as those who want a feature-rich tool.

Features

Speaking of features, Backerupper has them:

• Simple configuration.
• Simple installation.
• Profiles.
• Restore.
• Automated backups.
• Limit amount of backup copies stored.
• Quick access from notification area.
• Portable (run Backerupper from your thumb drive).

Now let’s get into the thick of things and install Backerupper.

Installation

Installing Backerupper is simple. You will not find this tool in your repositories so you’re going to have to download it from the

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/backerupper/backerupper/Backerupper-0.24/backerupper-0.24-32.tar.gz

The above command will download the latest (as of this writing) version of Backerupper. Now you need to unpack the tar file with the command (issued from within the directory you downloaded the file):

tar xvzf backerupper-0.24-32.tar.gz

This will create a new directory called backerupper-0.24-32. Change into that directory with the command cd backerupper-0.24-32 and you will find five files and one directory. If you want to install Backerupper issue the following command:

sudo ./install.sh

If you are not on a sudo-based distribution you will want to su to the root user and then issue the command ./install.sh. The install.sh file will copy the file backer to /usr/bin and will create the directory /usr/share/backerupper and then copy the doc directory to the newly created directory.

Once installed all you have to do is issue the command backer as a standard user.

Now if you want to have a portable Backerupper you can  just copy the backer file to your mounted thumb drive. When you run the backer command from your thumb drive you will get a warning that the online help system can not be found and the help system has been disabled. You will see this every time you run the command.

Usage

Figure 1

Now let’s see how Backerupper is used. When you issue the command backer the main window will appear (see Figure 1). As you can see there are no profiles created by default. In order to create a profile you need to click the New button. When you click this button a window will appear (see Figure 2) asking for the details of this profile. The details should be fairly obvious. You can create a profile for every backup you want to create. This window is also where you set up the

Figure 2

automation of the backup. You can also configure a destination directory as the default backup destination.

By default Backerupper will set your backup to happen every day. You might want to change this depending upon the frequency you require for your backup.

After you have created your profile that profile will appear in the Profiles drop down on the main page (see Figure 3).

Even though you have a backup setup for a specific time, you can automatically run that backup by selecting the profile you want to use from the drop down and then clicking the Backup Now button.

It should be pretty obvious that, in order for a backup to occur, Backerupper must be running. If you are one that logs out of your desktop, or shuts off your laptop, you have to remember to start up Backerupper. I would suggest adding Backerupper to your list of startup applications. To do this go to the Preferences sub-menu of the System menu and select Startup Applications. From this new window, click the Add button and fill out the necessary information. Once you have that done, Backerupper will start upon login and your backups will happen.

Restore

Figure 3

The restore process is very simple. Click on the Restore tab in the Backerupper main window (see Figure 3) and follow these steps:

1. Select the profile you want to restore.
2. If you have more than one archive of this directory click the Select Archive button and select which archive you want to restore.
3. Click the Restore button.

That’s it.

Final thoughts

Backerupper is one of the easiest (and fastest) desktop backup solutions I have found. And its portability makes it an even better solution for flexible Linux desktop backup.