Box Backup

Overview

Box Backup is an open source, completely automatic, on-line backup system. It has the following key features:

• The client software (included) runs on the computers to be backed up. Linux, Windows, MacOS and other Unixes are supported.

• The server software (also included) runs on a Unix server (Windows is highly not recommended), usually in a datacentre. (A client which does not require special server software is under development.)

• The clients usually run a backup daemon (background process) which detects changes to files, and encrypts and copies changes to the server, so backups are continuous and up-to-date (although traditional snapshot backups are possible too).

• All backed up data is stored on the server in files on a filesystem - no tape, archive or other special devices are required.

• The server is trusted only to make files available when they are required - all data is encrypted and can be decoded only by the original client. This makes it ideal for backing up over an untrusted network (such as the Internet), or where the server is in an uncontrolled environment.

• Only changes within files are sent to the server, just like rsync, minimising the bandwidth used between clients and server. This makes it particularly suitable for backing up between distant locations, or over the Internet.

• It behaves like tape - old file versions and deleted files are available.

• Old versions of files on the server are stored as changes from the current version, minimising the storage space required on the server. Files are the server are also compressed to minimise their size.

• Choice of backup behaviour - it can be optimised for document or server backup.

• It is designed to be easy and cheap to run a server. It has a portable implementation, and optional RAID implemented in userland for reliability without complex server setup or expensive hardware.

Box Backup is distributed under a mixed BSD/GPL license.

Project Status

Box Backup is stable (see the system requirements for the status for particular platforms), but is not yet feature-complete. All of the facilities to maintain reliable encrypted backups and to allow clients to recover data are, however, already implemented and stable.

Downloads and Installation

See the Installation page for instructions about how to download and install Box Backup for your platform.

Further documentation for server and client administrators are available from the site navigation box to the right.

Support

Support is available from the Box Backup mailing lists, and also via bug tracker tickets that can be raised on this site for any bugs encountered.

Box Backup Community

Box Backup is an open-source project and accepts contributions of both documentation and code.

The source code repository is read-only for public access, with commit access available to core developers. Contributions are welcome, especially via pull requests on GitHub, but also via the mailing lists.

This wiki is publically editable to anyone who has registered and logged on. To request a Trac account, which also allows you to create tickets, please send a request (including your preferred username) to the Box Backup list and one of the admins will contact you with your account details.

Project Name

The "official" name of the project is Box Backup, which includes a space between the two words.