Back-up tool to restore Ubuntu system similar to Time Machine

Question

I need a similar backup-tool for Ubuntu (preferably also for XUbuntu) like Time Machine for Mac. I especially need the functionality to restore the whole system like Time Machine does:

When you get a new Mac, you can transfer all of your applications, files, settings, and other information from a Time Machine backup you've already made. When you start up your new Mac for the first time, the Setup Assistant asks you if you would like to restore from backup. If you've already set up your new Mac, you can use the Migration Assistant (located in Applications/Utilities) to do the same thing.

The tool itself should be:

• easy to use (such that I can not make errors, no CLI)
• make back-ups automatically and regularly
• restore the whole system (applications, files etc...)
• incremental back-ups (it should not make an image of the whole files for each back-up)
• it should be able to save to an external HDD

Answer 1

You may want to consider skipping the "install the OS" part and recover directly to an empty disk. For that you will need a complete backup of the whole system including all OS elements.

backintime can do that if you run it as root and take a bit time to configure it. And it was written because there was a lack of Time Machine on linux (see about page). I have personal experience with both backup with this program as well as recovering the data (see below)

Features:

• easy to use: 7/10 - No CLI necessary.
  • -1 You have to start it as root so it can backup /etc (where your configuration files are).
  • -2 You have to use cron to automate the backups
• automatic and regular backups: Yes (you have to use cron for this, have a look at gnome-schedule a graphic frontend for cron)
• restore the whole system: Yes. You need to run it as root for this.
• incremental back-ups: Yes.
• save to external HDD: Yes (keep in mind that the Filesystem on that HDD must support hardlinks. The ext Filesystems will do, NTFS and DOS-FAT won't.)
• template for whole system backup. If you start as root the default include / exclude settings are designed to make bakup easy.
• All backups are stored in a regular file format so you can use normal copy/paste functions for restore.

Downsides:

• see easy to use above
• No direct connection to cron, thous necessary to use external program.
• While recovery is not complicated, it doesn't integrate into the system as much as Time Machine does. You have to pull the stuff out yourself.
• Complete system recovery is not possible from running system (i.E. you need a live-cd or something to boot up your machine and then can copy from the backup directory to the newly installed system).
• Slow. To make a backup of my 40 gb home dir takes about one hour (I make home dir backups every one/ two months)

Conclusion:

Its designed to make backups as easy as possible and recovery as system-independent as possible. That has the cost that backups take time and the recovery needs (minimal) knowledge.

Personal:

I use Backintime for my desktop computer since about three years now (now three years after first posting this, I still use it). In this time I had several situations where I had the need to recover from the backups, most of the time because I switched computers once because I accidentally crashed by harddrive. The simple storage structure in files on my external Hard Drive made this easy to me. The approach I used is similar to what you describe in that I first installed a new system and then plugged in the external drive. No nice window did pop up asking me if I want to recover everything but I had to copy the content of the backed up directory into my new homedir. While I did this with the command line, I see no reason why this shouldn't work with a regular File Browser as well.

I also use Backintime to backup my business server over network. While I regularly check the integrity of the backup I had not yet the necessity to recover them. I do sometimes (every 6 months or so) backup the "whole system" from the root account but mostly I have specific backups covering the data sections of my applications (like the content of /var)

Answer 2

Déjà Dup backup tool can be set up to cover your needs. Backup utility Déjà Dup is graphical wrapper around the command line backup tool duplicity.

The backup tool is easy to use with simple and clear GUI. Déjà Dup makes incremental back-ups with occasional full backups.

It makes back-ups automatically and regularly, and it can be scheduled as per needs

Déjà Dup can restore specific file folder or the whole system (applications, files etc...)

thorough information on full system restore can be found here

Déjà Dup backup tool is able to save to different locations (e.g. an external HDD, web services like UbuntuOne or AmazonS3, ftp, WebDav, Local folders etc)

I'm using Déjà Dup on weekly basics for some years now, backing up my data to external HDD's and so far I had no any issues. In several occasions I restored backup on different PC too (even password protected and encrypted data)... Déjà Dup is an straightforward, great backup tool simple to set-up and simple to restore from.

List of Déjà Dup backup tool features can be found here