Presenting TISBackup¶
The objective of TISbackup is to benefit from file backups and centralized alert feedback on “reasonable” data volumes (of the order of a few TB).
TISBackup allows:
to know if a recent backup exists;
to keep a history with deduplication at the file level (no duplicate backups);
to have an immediate view of the contents of a server or a server area for data restoration ;
to export the last backup to an external media in order to transfer it to a secure location;
to configure the backup cycle with a simple and readable .ini file;
to work with a module mechanism to extend the type of backups (https, rsync, postgres, mysql,) of virtual machines;
Satisfying these needs stems from the need for a tool to manage a vast pool of machines each hosting a multitude of different software or services (different editors, different hardware platforms and operating environments, etc.). Finally, as the backup procedures of a publisher changed without any warning, the remote backup mechanisms were regularly broken, which caused us some scares with the mechanisms we were using before.
Overview of existing solutions¶
Different open source solutions exist but did not meet our specifications.
Baccula¶
Baccula is a high-performance solution for full backups on tape and removable media. However, a restore can take a long time and the storage of a history can be voluminous. The backup is saved on a file system that is not readable by a Windows system. An uninitiated “backup manager” will not be able to check the contents of his backup from home.
r-snapshot¶
r-snapshot almost corresponds to the specifications but is complex to configure and any necessary modification would have been difficult to develop as an overlay of the existing one:
the backups are organized by date then by zone which is the opposite of what was desired;
it is not possible to configure different backup frequencies according to the criticality levels of the servers;
finally, the deletion of obsolete backups is done in the same process as the backups, which can be very long and can be problematic if there is a problem during the backup.
… and now TISbackup …