duplicity: Encrypted bandwidth-efficient backup using the rsync algorithm
September 9th, 2007 by anaEntry submitted by Vincent Fourmond. DPOTD needs your help, please contribute!
I’ve recently grown paranoid about my data, and I keep using rsync to keep backup of various files a bit everywhere. It works great for most of the things I use, but it lacks fundamental things you would want from a real backup system, such as the possibility to come back to an earlier state.
So I went looking for something else, and I found that duplicity shows somehow the same syntax and ease of use than rsync: there is no need to write a configuration file, and it uses a very similar way to specify sources and targets. It features among others:
- incremental backup
- uses librsync to backup only what is necessary
- distant scp-like access
- no need to install duplicity on remote machine, just a scp server should do
- GPG encryption and signature to protect data saved on a not-so-trusted host
To use it, just run something like:
duplicity data scp://vincent@server/saves
Or, for local file backup:
duplicity data file:///var/backup/data
The target directory must exist: duplicity does not create it for you. If you don’t plan to use GPG encryption, be sure to add –no-encryption to the command-line. Here is duplicity in full action:
11:58 vincent@server ~ duplicity --no-encryption Data file:///home/vincent/saves No signatures found, switching to full backup. --------------[ Backup Statistics ]-------------- StartTime 1187949557.65 (Fri Aug 24 11:59:17 2007) EndTime 1187949577.54 (Fri Aug 24 11:59:37 2007) ElapsedTime 19.88 (19.88 seconds) SourceFiles 3869 SourceFileSize 107865956 (103 MB) NewFiles 3869 NewFileSize 107865956 (103 MB) DeletedFiles 0 ChangedFiles 0 ChangedFileSize 0 (0 bytes) ChangedDeltaSize 0 (0 bytes) DeltaEntries 3869 RawDeltaSize 106836592 (102 MB) TotalDestinationSizeChange 26514785 (25.3 MB) Errors 0 -------------------------------------------------
duplicity was already part of Debian Sarge and Ubuntu Dapper. Development seems still alive, even though there are some bugs still at large.
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September 9th, 2007 at 7:35 am
[…] Read more at Debian Package of the Day […]
September 9th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Hi,
we use www.onlinebackupvault.com
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I used to use the “cheapy” guys but there is a real difference all around in a service such as onlinebackupvault and the 5 dollar guys. They have real person tech and customer service, their software and servers are designed to backup sql databases and excahnge databases not just 16 yr olds ipod mp3’s. They do offer a residential and buisnsess app however i do believe they are focusing on the small buisness client.
good luck!!
please let me know feedback on what u guys are doing
September 9th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Can anyone tell me how this differs from rdiff-backup?
September 9th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
I’d say the main interest is seamless GPG encryption/signing, so you can backup your data on untrusted hosts
September 9th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Duplicity has been sponsored by rsync.net and there have been a lot of bug fixes and patches been added.
The result was a new stable release 4.3, where most of the bugs should have been gone.
Version 0.4.3 is not yet available in Debian or Ubuntu.
September 9th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Another difference from rdiff-backup is probably the fact that duplicity can backup to ftp, webdav, s3, etc.
Look at the last feature:
http://duplicity.nongnu.org/features.html
September 9th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
How does this relate to rsyncrypto?
September 10th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Good article about Duplicity for a backup server at http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9174 - however, it turns out duplicity doesn’t support hard links so it’s a non-starter for full-OS backup, and some data directories.
I’m currently using DAR - has some nice features, including incremental or differential backups, per-file compression (so you can easily seek within file, and a single disk block error should mean you lose only one file, typically), and it has a handy GUI (KDAR for KDE) to help you get going.
With this, GPG and rsync I should have the equivalent of duplicity, with full hard links etc.
September 10th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
What advantages does duplicity provide over rsnapshot?
September 11th, 2007 at 7:28 am
[…] Debian Package of the Day » Blog Archive » duplicity: Encrypted bandwidth-efficient backup using the rsync algorithm (tags: debian synchronize backup rsync package) […]
September 11th, 2007 at 9:08 am
[…] Per i veri smanettoni, invece, c’è Duplicity (backup crittografato): la cosa bella è questa, secondo me: no need to install duplicity on remote machine, just a scp server should do. Posted by ubuntista Filed in backup, applications, ubuntu […]
September 11th, 2007 at 10:53 am
Online backup vault is an automated unattended solution. many of the other mentioned system are manual or ftp based sites..OBV requires no user intervention
September 16th, 2007 at 10:43 am
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September 16th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
the zoomgo thing looks cute…but i think its WAY to risky.. why would u put ur files on another users pc? what if their computer crashes?
what if their kid spills a can of coke??
i like www.onlinebackupvault.com or similiar services where data sits in a secure offsite location immune from 3rd party happenings…what do u guys think?
September 17th, 2007 at 12:21 am
Sorry for interruptinr all that spam with a real comment, but how does this compare to unison, which is also packaged in debian?
September 30th, 2007 at 10:41 am
[…] Visto | el paquete debian del dia Tambien te puede interesar: […]
September 30th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
there are many good options for online data backup / duplicating. there are some good peer to peer stuff.. my point earlier was as far as a remote offsite solution goes… there are alot of good options outthere… onlinebackupvault.com being one of them
October 7th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Thanks to the shameless spam by obv, I shall never even consider using their services. Too bad, was in the market for some tbytes of offsite backup, too.
October 21st, 2007 at 6:02 am
[…] Those forgotten packages can cost you. They might contain setuid binaries or running daemons that could compromise your security. Future upgrades take longer, and there will be more to download. Your backups have grown. You are doing backups, right? That’s what duplicity was for. […]
November 5th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Re Unison - this is quite similar to rsync but optimised for 2-way syncing, and generally better at doing that. Use rsync if you only need one way syncing.
Neither unison or rsync are backup packages really, in that they don’t let you return to previous version of the files backed up. Duplicity seems to be a nice layer on top of rsync that adds some useful backup features as well as encryption. DAR is a non-rsync-based backup tool that also has some nice features including incremental backup, encryption, single-file-compression (more resilient to bad blocks), etc.
What would be really good is a review of various open source backup and sync tools for Linux.