Open Source Cross-platform backup

[dharmabm]

I know a few of you are sysadmins in mixed environments, i wonder if any of you are using anything as in the title. I manage a small AD environment, but use linux servers to do monitoring, CCTV, etc and am currently looking at Bacula, Amanda and BackupPC to replace the built-in windows backup currently used. Anyone have any experience with these tools?

<edit> I should probably mention that I am looking to backup my DC, File server and a handful of windows clients, plus configs for my linux servers - nothing big, but I prefer something which I can easily browse the backup store for individual files/directories. So far it seems like Amanda may be best for that?</edit>

[dmsnsa]

I'm been using Amanda uncomfortably for about 10 years. The reason i say uncomfortably is the companies that I have been working for are always too cheap to buy a commercial grade product. Amanda does do a lot, & it is stable (in any form). It also has a commercially purchasable product if you are looking for relatively easier cataloging of your back sets. The thing about Amanda is it is well documented so with a few hours you can get it going. If you looking for bare metal recovery it is possible using a live disk though I would suggest starting w/ a base OS first.

[dharmabm]

I'm been using Amanda uncomfortably for about 10 years. The reason i say uncomfortably is the companies that I have been working for are always too cheap to buy a commercial grade product. Amanda does do a lot, & it is stable (in any form). It also has a commercially purchasable product if you are looking for relatively easier cataloging of your back sets. The thing about Amanda is it is well documented so with a few hours you can get it going. If you looking for bare metal recovery it is possible using a live disk though I would suggest starting w/ a base OS first.

Thanks for that, can you say why you chose Amanda over the other available options? I assume you may have done a comparison at some point? One other thing I should mention, I am hoping for something which has the ability to verify backup integrity, one of the things I dislike most about windows native backup. Also, I am not looking at open source because I am cheap (although I am!) but because I always prefer open source options when available.