Home server for automated backups

OS and backup software for mutiple OS clients

[smallcompany]

I've been using WHS (Windows Home Server, older version, not 2011) on HP EX495 box for quite some time. As I'm looking into replacing my existing Windows 7 box with an iMac machine (waiting for new one later this year), I had an idea of configuring my PC as a new better home server that does automated backups of all clients, firstly OS X, then Windows, and possibly of mobile clients like iOS and Android. I would also want to be able to use it as a media server as well, although that would not be of much of importance, backup thing is #1 priority.

I'm looking into open source solutions for both OS and backup software. I saw that FreeNAS has come a long way, and I also saw a plenty of other ideas.

I wonder what WebmasterWorld members are using for this purpose.

Thanks

[graeme_p]

For OSX (I think including iOS) and Android you could use rsync. If you want incremental backups you can use rdiff backup or similar on MacOS, or run it on the backup server to incrementally backup the backup (although the latter greatly increases space required).

You could do the same with Windows using cwRsync.

All you would need on the server is any OS you can install rsync on. Any Linux distro with a server install (so you can avoid the overhead of installing a windowing system on a headless server) - personally I would use Debian, but there are other alternatives and Ubuntu may be easier to install.

There are several Linux media servers, but I have never used them, so I cannot make any recommendations.

[bill]

When Microsoft dropped the old Home Server I used Clark Connect for a few years. Looking at their website now it seems they have morphed to clearOS. I used Clark Connect as a server and router. My old PC had a couple of ethernet cards added and it hooked directly to my ISP's modem. I used it as a file server and firewall. I have no experience with the new system, but the old one was quite functional. I only dumped it because I needed wireless and switched to a router. It was a good replacement for the good old Windows Home Server.

[graeme_p]

clearOS seems good, but does a lot more than asked for.

Another possibility is a lightweight Linux with a media server etc. installed. What is best depends on a lot of factors - for example, if you need to run it headless clearOS admin can be done through a web interface.

[bill]

Well, you don't necessarily have to use all of the tools in ClearOS. It can do a lot, but I only used a fraction of its potential. It does cover a lot of what Windows Home Server did though.

A lighter Linux distro would probably do the job as well, but there's going to be a lot more study and setup time required to tweak the thing the way you want it. An out-of-the-box distro that does all of the server functions of Windows Home Server might be an easier path.

[graeme_p]

@Bill, agreed, but a more popular distro would be better documented whereas ClearOS will probably work better out of the box, especially headless.

One advantage of ClearOS is that it pretty much picks all the software for you, whereas if you use a general purpose distro, each tutorial will recommend different software