Section 5.1. BackupPC Features

5.1. BackupPC Features

BackupPC is an entirely disk-based backup and recovery system. It offers a number of advantages, some of which are available only with BackupPC:

Support for any client OS

By using standard tools that either come with the base distribution or can be easily added to the system, it is possible to support a wide range of clients. In addition, there is no need to install any client software beyond standard system utilities (tar, ssh, rsync). Adding new client operating systems becomes easy, especially if the client is a Unix derivation such as Mac OS X.

User control of and access to backups through web interface

Every major OS has a web browser, so using a web interface is another way to speed the process of supporting new operating systems. The web interface should be designed to give as much control to the client as possible and do it securely. A user should be able to request a restore without having to find the backup operator, and easily browse and restore individual files. However, the user should not be able to see another user's machine.

Support for DHCP and disconnected clients

Again, by using standard utilities, BackupPC supports DHCP clients as long as the client is registered with a name service such as DNS, Active Directory, or LDAP. The problem of hosts that roam from the network should be handled by testing for the client on the network and not raising an error until a set amount of time has passed.