Installing sbackup in ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install sbackup

You can use synaptic also for this if you want to know how to search this software and install check here

Backup Your Data Using Sbackup

Once you completed the installation you can access sbackup using System—>Administration—>Simple Backup Config you can see this in the following screen:



Next screen is asking for root password enter password and click ok.



Once it opens the sbackup application you can see the following screen where you can configure your backup settings first tab is general options in this example i am choosing Use custom backup settings.



Sbackup can be operated in 3 different modes.

Recommended Backup:

If you are new Ubuntu user or aren’t sure what you should backup.This will perform a daily backup of your /home,system data held in /etc,/usr/local and /var.This will deliberately exclude any files over 100MB.By default this backup will be stored /var/backup.

Custom Backup:

This is same as the recommended backup and in this you can change the settings include,exclude files,you can change the schedule time.

Manual Backup:

If you want to backup some files from time to time this option is for you and you can click backup now button to manually perform a backup according to the settings on the other backup properties dialog box tabs.

Next you click on “Include” tab here you can include any file or directory you want to backup.



If you click on “Add file” button you should see the following screen where you can select your files.



If you click on “Add Directory” button you should see the following screen where you can select your Directory for backup.



Next option is “Exclude” here you can exclude files and folders you don’t want to backup.Here you can exclude Paths,File Types,Regular Expressions,Max file,folder size.


Next option is “Destination” here i am leaving the default location i.e /var/backup if you want to chnage the backup store location you can select the “Use Custom local Backup directory” and enter the location.




Now you can select “Time” option here you can schedule when do you want to run your backup.

Available options for backups you can see in the following screen you can select hourly,daily,weekly,monthly,custom options.



Next option is “Purging” here you can select old and incomplete backups and you set the no.of days you want to purge after completing all the settings you need to click on “Save” button to save your settings.



Now if you want to take backup just click on “Backup Now” or leave the schedule backup in this example i just clicked on “Backup Now” this is started a background process with process id.


Restore Your Data Using Sbackup:

If you want to restore backups or any files,folders go to System—>Administration—>Simple Backup Restore you can see this in the following screen.



Once it opens you should see the following screen here you can select the restore source folder and available backups from drop-down menu here you can choose files and folders you want to restore and click on “Restore” button.





In this example i have choosen to restore one .iso file and once you select your file and click on “Restore” it will ask for your confirmation click on yes this will restore the file in orginal location if you want to restore in different location you need to select “Restore As” option.

Note:- By default Restored Files and Directories are owned by root this is because of sbackup will runs with root.You need to chnage these files or folder permissions using chmod or just right click and select properties of the file or folder.

Backup Destination on Remote machine:

One more beauty about sbackup is you can store your backup on a remotemachine for this it will give the option of using SSH or FTP for this go to System—> Administration—> Simple Backup Config once it opens the application you need to click on destination tab here you can select “Use a remote Directory” option type ssh:// or ftp:// followed by the usernameassword, then @, then the remote host to connect to and the remote directory.




Final Tip:-

Sbackup doesn’t create a new backup file each time it runs and it creates an incremental backup.Which means that it updates the last backup with files that you changed or been created any files that haven’t been updated since the last backup are unchanged

Sbackup Configuration from command line:

If you want to configure sbackup you need to Edit /etc/sbackup.conf file

Restore Backup from command line

Run “sudo srestore.py /var/backup/2006-11-18_03 /home/myuser /home/myuser/old”. You can omit the last parameter to restore to the same directory.


Information gathered from UbuntuGeek.com.