help figuring outr how to back up computers to a server

[jamerslong]

I am wondering if anyone could give me a tad bit of insight on this.

I would like to backup my house of 2 Desktops, 1 MAC, 3 Laptops to a server on my network it would run Linux or Windows 2000.

2 of the computers dual boot windows and linux.

I would like to do imaging style backups that would enable me to just reinstall from an image through the LAN.
Monthly Indexed backups would be nice with automatic backup(for the 2 desktops & mac only)

1 computer runs Leopard (the mac)
1 Laptop triple boots Macos\Linux\Windows (hackintosh)
1 Laptop runs Vista
1 Laptop is in OS Limbo
1 computer runs (windows 7 eventually)
1 computer dual boots Linux Xp\Vista (havent decided where this one is going to go)


anyone have a suggestion on how i could set this up? maybe as a remote harddrive that they can back up to?

[ideal-pc]

Take a look at this site: http://ping.windowsdream.com/

Its a free Linux based imaging program called P.I.N.G (Partimage Is Not Ghost). Its a fantastic imaging program which I use to create recovery DVD's if I sell a laptop. It will also back up to a SAMBA server on a network. It may take some fiddling around with to get it working to your specs but it does the job & its free too! The site has all the instructions you need to make it work your way.

[tom lightbody]

just guessing at HD sizes

2 Desktops 200
1 MAC 50
3 Laptops 150

400 GB disk space without compression

if you had a 500 GB disk on the server, then insofar as
your 6 computers run the *nix utility "tar" you could
set them to archive each its own file system,
compressing as they go-->upload to the server. I think
you can automate the upload with "nc"=="netcat"

[loyukfai]

I don't have a Mac, but think it should be just fine as long as you can map the server disk as a network drive on all 3 platforms.

I would prefer to run Linux on the server but Windows server should do just fine also. The Windows and Mac clients usually use the SMB protocol, and Linux can use both the SMB and NFS protocols to map the network drives.

Dual-boot presents another problem through. I guess with proper configurations and enough tinkering, a Linux box can be made to access the Windows and Mac partitions, and possibly vice versa.

Cheers.


For Linux:
http://www.google.com/search?q=linux+backup+nfs+rsync

For Windows Vista/7:
Use built-in backup utility
http://www.google.com/search?q=linux+samba+windows

For Mac:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1553
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
http://www.google.com/search?q=linux+time+capsule

[loyukfai]

Ooops... I forgot that you want image-based backups... So you may check these out for Linux...

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=35087
http://www.google.com/search?q=linux+image+dd

For Mac, check out the Disk Utility section of the Apple KB article.