How To Backup Data In your Ubuntu Machine - Sbackup

Sbackup is a very useful backup tool for ubuntu . There are a LOT of applications which provide backup in ubuntu , not all of them are great , not all of them have features like backing up on a network device via ssh etc. I did a lot of research when looking for a nice backup tool , using plain rsync or ssh commands has its own problems . So here's more on sbackup and how you could use it for your backup :

Step 1 : First we need to install sbackup , for this go to the Terminal(Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and type sudo apt-get install sbackup


Step 2 : NOw open sbackup by going to System->Aministration->SImple Backup Config
Step 3 : You would now see this page , you now have a choice between Recommended backup settings , Custom Backup settings and Manual Backups ONly . If you want to perform backups manually whenever you wish then choose manual backups only , if you want automatic backups every day or every week then choose custom backup settings. For this tutorial i will choose Custom Backup Settings

Step 4 : Under include , you can include all the directories you wish to include for backup , i personally prefer backing up just the home folder and not the whole ubuntu system , as most of my data is in the home folder


Step 5 : Under exclude , you can choose all the directories which you dont want backed up


Step 6 : Under Destination , you could choose where you want to place the backup , I always prefer placing it over the network on another machine or a NAS , but if you dont have such a setup , do try to atleast place it on a different hard drive . There is also an SSH option , which i feel is THE BEST option .


Step 7 : Under Time you could choose , at what time you want to perform the backup , i think this is pretty straight forward , the GUI makes it pretty easy to understand.

Step 8 : Under Purging , you could choose whether or not you wish to purge old backups or not. Some would prefer keeping backups for one month and then remove them with fresh backups of the current month . Some would like to keep only the latest backups , some would like to have all the backups.I feel the simple cutoff option is pretty decent , you can set a DAY LIMIT

Step 9 : Thats it , now click on SAVE configuration and everything would be saved.
Step 10 : If you want to perform a backup right now , then click on the Backup Now! button.

RESTORE YOUR DATA
When it comes to restoring your data , the applications comes with a restore tool under system->administration->Simple Backup Restore . Although i just prefer extracting the files.tgz file the application creates if i need the backup of it.Thats it , Happy backing up :)!!