Chapter 6. Bacula

Bacula is an open-source backup product designed to scale from single machines to enterprise networks. It is capable of backing up to any combination of disk, tape, or optical media. The server currently runs on a Linux or Unix host with clients available for a variety of Unix and Linux, post-Win95 SE Windows, and Mac OS X systems. A Windows-based server has been under active development. Bacula 1.40 marks its first release; as is the case with the initial release of any software, it is prudent to test it extensively before relying on it for production use.

This chapter was contributed by Adam Thornton. Adam has worked in system administration, analysis, and architecture since 1989. Besides backup systems, his other passions include retrocomputing, mixology, and packing and carting with his dogs.

Bacula was originally written by John Walker and Kern Sibbald in 2000. John left the project not very long after its inception, and Kern, now the primary Bacula maintainer, worked on it alone from mid-2000 until Bacula's initial public release in April 2002. Since then, other developers have contributed additional work, augmenting Kern's continued involvement.

Bacula is available under the terms of a modified version of the GNU Public License version 2. The additional restrictions added to the GPL are available in the file LICENSE in the top-level Bacula source directory.

The project's homepage is at http://www.bacula.org, and its downloadable files and CVS repository are hosted by SourceForge.