Bareos News

Bareos Expert Session – Connect, Learn, Discuss

Join the upcoming Bareos Expert Session, an online event dedicated to knowledge exchange between Bareos users, customers, and experts. We’ll discuss practical use cases, explore key features in Bareos 24, and welcome Schlomo Schapiro from Relax-and-Recover (ReaR), who will share insights into fully automated Linux disaster recovery and bare metal restore integrated with Bareos.

• Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025
• Time: 17:00 CET / 16:00 GMT / 12:00 EDT (NY)
• Duration: 1 hour
• Location: Online, English

→ Register here

Spots are limited! Reserve your seat now and let us know any questions you’d like us to cover.

Bareos at Chemnitzer Linux Tage 2025

We’re excited to be part of Chemnitzer Linux Tage 2025, one of Germany’s top open-source events! As a proud sponsor, Bareos looks forward to connecting with the community, discussing backup and recovery best practices and sharing insights on open-source data protection.

📅 March 22-23, 2025 | 📍 Chemnitz, Germany

Come meet Bareos team!

How to Back Up VMware Virtual Machines: Best Practices and Challenges

Virtualization is now a key part of IT infrastructure, making backup strategies for virtual machines (VMs) critical. While traditional backup methods work, virtualization provides unique advantages for backups, including encapsulation, easy import/export and snapshots.

In this article, we’ll explore how VM backups work, the role of snapshots and how to integrate them into a backup system.

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How to Back Up VMware Virtual Machines: Best Practices and ChallengesRead More »

Backup Best Practices: How to Use Full, Incremental and Differential Backups Efficiently

Backup strategies are not just about choosing between full, incremental and differential backups. A well-planned backup strategy and restore strategy maximizes data protection and includes backup frequency, retention, automated backups, and resource management to ensure data availability.

This article first explains the differences between incremental and differential backups and then describes how to integrate them into a structured backup strategy.

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Backup Best Practices: How to Use Full, Incremental and Differential Backups EfficientlyRead More »

Bareos 24 Is Now Available!

We’re excited to announce that Bareos 24 is here, bringing a range of new features and improvements to make backups smarter and more efficient. This release includes support for deduplication, Just-In-Time Reservation, a new storage backend and much more.

To help you explore the new features, we’ve also published evaluation guides. These guides provide step-by-step instructions to test features like the Dedupable Storage Backend, the dplcompat Storage Backend and improved Python plugin handling, including gRPC.

Here’s a closer look at what’s new and how you can get started.

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Bareos 24 Is Now Available!Read More »

How Dedupable Storage Saves Your Resources

Data is growing at an incredible pace. The costs of storing them are constantly increasing. We wanted to optimize these processes from a backup perspective and in Bareos 24 we developed Dedupable Storage Backend.
Let’s take a look at how this feature works and why it’s so important for today’s IT infrastructures.

What Is Dedupable Storage?

Imagine this: you back up your systems daily and most of that data remains unchanged. Do you really need to save identical files over and over again? Of course not. Deduplication eliminates this redundancy by storing only one copy of each unique data block. It’s not just smart; it’s essential for efficient, scalable backup solutions.

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How Dedupable Storage Saves Your ResourcesRead More »

Bareos 23.1.0 is now available

We are pleased to announce Bareos 23.1.0,
a release featuring essential bug fixes, system improvements, and exciting new technical preview features:

New Features (Technical Previews):
• Dedupable Storage Backend to save space: This allows smart storages to deduplicate Bareos volumes.
• WORM-Tape Support for better resistance: Write Once, Read Many (WORM) support ensures that once data is written, it cannot be modified.
• Just-In-Time Device Reservation for fewer idle tape drives: Optimizes storage device use by reserving them only when data is ready to be written.

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Bareos 23.1.0 is now availableRead More »

Explained: How Cyber Insurance Works and Why Backups Are Crucial

Cybersecurity insurance is still a relatively new product for many companies, but that is rapidly changing. In the event of a cyber attack including ransomware and data breaches, the insurance assists organizations in recovering from the attack. The idea is simple: if a company is targeted by hackers, the insurance policy provides financial assistance to help the company with the expenses arising from such an event. And in order to be eligible for this protection, businesses must demonstrate their commitment to implementing robust security measures.

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Explained: How Cyber Insurance Works and Why Backups Are CrucialRead More »

Ensuring Compliance and Security with Supported Solutions

Let’s talk about open-source software, especially free (or community) versions like Bareos. Open-source software gives you a lot of flexibility and freedom – like they say, “Free as in free speech, not free beer.” But when you’re running a business, especially one dealing with sensitive data, just having freedom isn’t enough to protect you from data breaches, regulatory fines, or other compliance issues. Ensuring that your system is secure, reliable, and compliant with a range of cybersecurity regulations is not just a best practice – it’s essential.

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The Bareos 24 release plan has been finalized

Bareos 24 will be released in November 2024.
The following features are planned to be part of the release:

Dedupable Storage Backend

This new storage backend stores the backup data in a format optimized for deduplication. This allows Bareos volumes to be deduplicated by storages and filesystems with deduplication support (like ZFS, VDO, btrfs and others). The new command line tool bdedupestimate can estimate the deduplication potential of existing backup volumes, helping users optimize their storage use.

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The Bareos 24 release plan has been finalizedRead More »

Bareos at FrOSCon 2024 on August 17-18: Presentation of Bareos 23 and Outlook on Bareos 24

Bareos is excited to announce our participation in FrOSCon 2024, taking place on August 17-18 at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences in Sankt Augustin. Join us as Andreas presents the innovative features of Bareos 23 and provides an exclusive preview of the Bareos 24 roadmap. Alongside Jörg, we invite you to visit our booth for a chance to connect, exchange ideas, and engage in meaningful discussions. Don’t miss this opportunity to network with fellow open-source enthusiasts and explore the future of Bareos!

Modernizing the Bareos Integration in Relax-and-Recover (ReaR)

Overview of ReaR

Relax-and-Recover (ReaR) is an Open-Source disaster recovery and automated Linux bare metal restore solution that allows users to create a bootable rescue system and recovery media. It is highly adaptable and supports numerous backup solutions, ensuring that in the event of system failure, you can quickly and efficiently restore your data and system configurations.

Bareos: A Trusted Partner in ReaR

Bareos, an Open-Source backup solution, has been integrated into ReaR for many years. This partnership has proven its reliability, providing seamless backup and recovery operations. The continuous evolution of both ReaR and Bareos has made this integration indispensable for users who require robust disaster recovery strategies.

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Modernizing the Bareos Integration in Relax-and-Recover (ReaR)Read More »

Bareos: A Sustainable Backup Solution

When discussing backup solutions, environmental impact might not be the first thing that comes to mind. However, with data centers playing a crucial role in our digital infrastructure, it’s essential to recognize their significant environmental footprint. Datacenters contribute substantially to global energy consumption and carbon emissions, making sustainable practices in data management more critical than ever.

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The Guide to Data Backup Strategies for Businesses

The Guide to Data Backup Strategies for Businesses

In today’s digital age, data is the lifeblood of any business. Whether it’s customer information, financial records, or proprietary data, losing this information can be catastrophic. Implementing a robust data backup strategy is essential to safeguard your business against data loss, damage, and cyber threats. This guide will walk you through the key components of an effective backup strategy, with practical tips and insights to help you protect your critical data.

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Github Issues replaces Mantis


The Bareos project will use GitHub Issues (instead of Mantis).

In 2012, the Bareos project was launched with a commitment to fostering close integration with the community and leveraging advanced automation services. However, a span of 10 years provides ample opportunity for evolution and innovation. Over the course of this decade, we have continuously adapted and modernized our infrastructure.

Among other changes, we have made significant advancements in the following areas:

Code:
Since the beginning, we have relied on git and GitHub as our code repository. Initially, we accepted contributions in the form of emails and patches. However, for some time now, we have exclusively transitioned to using Pull Requests, automated tests, and a structured review process.

Package Building:
Originally, our package building process relied heavily on the powerful https://openbuildservice.org/ for Linux packages. However, we had to resort to different approaches for other platforms. Therefore we have transitioned to using Jenkins, Build-Worker, and Docker containers for all platforms. This transition has been seamless for end-users, but it allows us to create packages for all our platforms within the same streamlined process. Additionally, this optimized process tailored for Bareos operates much faster.

Bugtracker:
Since our inception in 2012, we have utilized Mantis as our bug tracker, and for the most part, we were satisfied with its performance. However, due to a tighter integration with our other processes, we have decided to migrate to Github Issues in April 2024. We anticipate that this transition will result in a better integration of error reporting, development, and pull requests.

Support:
In addition to our internal processes, we utilize https://zammad.org as a ticketing system for customers with support contracts.


Ransomware Protection: How to Safeguard Your Data with Advanced Backup Solutions

Discover essential strategies for ransomware protection. Learn how Bareos backup solutions fortify your defenses against digital threats, ensuring your data’s security and accessibility.

In an era dominated by digital threats, ransomware emerges as a formidable adversary. This malicious software encrypts your files, effectively holding them hostage until a ransom is fulfilled. The threat it poses to both individuals and organizations is profound. Yet, the battle is not lost. Armed with the right strategies and tools like Bareos, securing your valuable data against ransomware is within reach. Ransomware encrypts the victim’s files, rendering them inaccessible. The perpetrators then demand a ransom for data restoration. It commonly infiltrates systems through phishing emails, malicious websites, and software vulnerabilities.

Essential Ransomware Protection Strategies:

1. Cybersecurity Awareness: Empower your team with the knowledge to identify phishing attempts and malicious links. Regular cybersecurity training enhances your first line of defense.

2. Advanced Security Software: Deploy security solutions encompassing antivirus, anti-malware, and firewall protections to destroy ransomware attempts.

3. Reliable Backups: Keep updated backups of critical data. Bareos backup solutions provide automated, secure backups that are pivotal for business continuity post-ransomware.

4. Software Updates: Ransomware exploits outdated software. Consistently updating your systems and applications fortifies your defenses.

5. Access Control: Limit access to essential data, applying the principle of least privilege to reduce risk.

6. Disaster Recovery Planning: A disaster recovery plan is indispensable. It should detail response actions for ransomware incidents, including data isolation and restoration.

7. Network Segmentation: Dividing your network limits ransomware spread, safeguarding sensitive data across various segments.

8. Email Security: Implement email filtering to eliminate phishing threats, a primary ransomware conduit.

Among all strategies for combating ransomware, regular backup is paramount. It is the only method that guarantees data recovery after an attack. Other preventative measures aim to block attacks, but they do not guarantee data recovery in the event of a breach. Regular, secure backups, using solutions like Bareos, safeguard your data by preserving it in its pre-attack state and making it recoverable in all scenarios. This not only enhances your defense, but also effectively renders ransomware demands ineffective, demonstrating backups as the ultimate defense in your data protection strategy.

Bareos is Your Ally in Ransomware Protection

Bareos leads in data protection, offering an adept backup and recovery system designed to counter ransomware. It automates your data backups with features like data encryption and effortless recovery, positioning Bareos as an indispensable ally in ransomware protection.

Facing ransomware doesn’t mean conceding defeat. With proactive strategies and dependable tools like Bareos, you can shield your data from threats and ensure operational resilience. It’s more than a technical safeguard—it’s a strategic business imperative.

Implement these protective measures today and take control of your data security.

Are you interested in bolstering your defenses with Bareos? Reach out us now to explore how our backup and recovery solutions can secure your data against ransomware and other cyber threats.


World Unplugging Day! 🌿

In our always-on digital life, it’s refreshing to hit the pause button. Bareos keeps your data safe, giving you the perfect reason to unplug without worries. Spend your day reconnecting with the joys outside the digital sphere – nature, loved ones, or a good book. Embrace the peace of mind, knowing everything digital is secure back home with us. See you offline! #WorldUnpluggingDay #DigitalDetox #Bareos #Enterprise #Backup #OpenSource


Bareos expert circle Q1/2024

Dear customers and partners,

With organizations around the world adopting open source strategies Bareos delivers highly scalable backup & archiving solutions for SMB and enterprises. While trying to have an excellent documentation of our product, we’d like to offer an interactive Q&A session for you with our experts: founders, consultants, and support specialists on a variety of topics.

Topics include:
deployment use cases / best practises
infrastructure options (flash arrays, tape libraries and cloud)
availability & resilience
design automation / tool integration / deployments / monitoring

This online event takes place on Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 17:00 CET / 08:00 AM PT / 16:00 GMT.

To participate, please register with corporate email via link and provide specific topics you’re interested in, please include question(s) in our registration.


Bareos Applied as Mentoring Organization in Google Summer of Code 2024


Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and Mentor Organizations

GSoC, now in its 20th year, is a global, online program focused on bringing new contributors into open source software development. GSoC Contributors work with an open source organization on a 12+ week programming project under the guidance of mentors.

Bareos as a Mentoring Organization

In 2024, Bareos applied for the first time as mentoring organization for GSoC. Here’s why you should be excited:

  • Diverse Project Ideas: Bareos has curated a list of intriguing project ideas for GSoC 2024. From enhancing backup performance to improving user interfaces, there's something for everyone. Check out the project ideas list to explore the possibilities.
  • Welcoming Community: Bareos promotes a welcoming and inclusive community. The goal is to bring new contributors into the fold.

How to Get Involved

As Bareos steps into its role as a mentoring organization, we invite you to be part of this exciting journey. If you’re a student and an open-source enthusiast, GSoC 2024 is a great opportunity to develop various skills and get involved in an important open-source project.

The next step is to check our project ideas list at https://github.com/bareos/GSoC2024/. You can also propose your own project idea there.

Important Next Items on the GSoC 2024 Timeline

  • February 21 – 18:00 UTC: List of accepted mentoring organizations will be published
  • February 22 – March 18: Potential GSoC contributors discuss application ideas with mentoring organizations
  • March 18 – April 2: GSoC contributor application period

For more information about GSoC, visit https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/

Enhance security by hardening the Bareos filedaemon

The Bareos filedaemon (client) runs per default with administrator/root privileges in order to be able to backup all files. The Filedaemon also is able to execute scripts before and after the backups and restores. In order to perform restores, the filedaemon has the ability to overwrite all files on the client machine. While all of this is required for normal backup and restore operation, certain environments might have higher security requirements.
Bareos offers the following options are available to enhance the security and limit the power of the filedaemon:

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  • Limit the directories from where the filedaemon executes scripts. This can be achieved with the configuration directive Allowed Script Dir
  • Limit the Job Commands that the filedaemon accepts. The Allowed Job Command directive determines which of the existing job commands (backup, restore, verify, estimate and runscript) are allowed. By prohibiting the restore command, the filedaemon will not allow to do restores. Without the runscript command, no runscripts will be executed.
  • run the filedaemon as non-root user with the capabilities CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH. This uses the Linux capabilities mechanism to run as normal user but have the the right to read all files. Writing files will not be possible in this setup.

These security measures can prevent an attacker that gained control over the bareos director to alter the files of the machines being backed up.
However, when a restore is required, the filedaemon on the client needs to be reconfigured to allow restores and/or runscripts. Alternatively, a second bareos filedaemon can be started that has a configuration that allows restores.

Usually the amount of restores is much smaller than the backups, so these measures still can enhance the security with relatively little effort and inconvenience.

SILL List 2023: Bareos once again on French reference List

France has published an updated list of recommendations for Open Source software solutions. Bareos is again included (category sauvegarde, backup) and on the SILL list 2023.
The French Ministry of Education (“ministère de l’éducation nationale”) uses Bareos on thousands of servers (map). Those servers are samba3 and samba4 domain controllers and file servers in schools and administrations worldwide.

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Import and export tapes from your tape library with Bareos


Tape libraries usually offer an option to insert and remove tape cartridges. Therefore, the libraries have a number of dedicated slots (so called import/export slots or mail slots) that can be accessed from outside of the library without the danger of the operator to collide with the tape robot. Bareos supports this functionality with the bconsole commands import and export commands:

  • To import tapes into the library, just fill the import/export slots with the tapes and type import.
  • To export tapes from the library, use export volume=<volumename>
  • Tapes used by a job can be automatically exported with use of a runscript

For more details, please check the bconsole documentation about import and export console commands.

Bareos joins Open Invention Network

Bareos GmbH & Co. KG strengthens Commitment to Open Source Collaboration by Joining the Open Invention Network.

Bareos GmbH & Co. KG, a leading provider of open-source data backup and recovery solutions, proudly announces its membership in the Open Invention Network (OIN), underscoring the company’s dedication to fostering collaboration and innovation within the open-source community. The Open Invention Network is a shared defensive patent pool committed to protecting the open-source ecosystem. By joining this network, Bareos GmbH & Co. KG demonstrates its commitment to providing a secure and collaborative environment for developers, users, and partners.

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Bareos joins Open Invention NetworkRead More »

Bareos 22 released

We have just published a new major version of our Open Source backup solution. Among other things, the Bareos 22 release contains an enhanced VMware plugin, major performance improvements, and a technical preview of the new Checkpoints feature.

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Bareos 22 releasedRead More »

Bareos updates the Release Policy for Community Binaries

Bareos was founded ten years ago to continue the Open Source nature of this enterprise grade project for backup, archiving and recovery. We are strongly committed to continuing our work in the very same spirit, and working jointly with our community. Starting with the new release (Bareos 22), we’re updating our release policy to enhance user experience, and streamline project efforts.

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Bareos updates the Release Policy for Community BinariesRead More »

Graphical Interface: Bareos WebUI Modules

Bareos has a graphical tool for communicating with the Bareos Director. The WebUI is multilingual and provides detailed information about backup jobs, clients, FileSets, pools, volumes, and more. It’s also possible to start backup and restore jobs via the web interface. Our new blog series gives an introduction to the Bareos WebUI. In this second episode: introduction to the modules and their functionality.

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Bareos WebUI: Graphical Interface – Installation and Configuration

Bareos has a graphical tool for communicating with the Bareos Director. The WebUI is multilingual and provides detailed information about backup jobs, clients, FileSets, pools, volumes, and more. It’s also possible to start backup and restore jobs via the web interface. Our new blog series gives an introduction to the Bareos WebUI. In this first episode: installation and configuration.

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Bareos WebUI: Graphical Interface – Installation and ConfigurationRead More »

Bareos Administration, Part I and II – two Workshops coming up

Our training partner Dr. Stephan Rein offers two online workshops on Bareos administration (respectively “Bareos Part I” and “Bareos Part II”) in May (suitable for European and Asian time zones, and June (suitable for European and American east cost timezones) 2021. The first course will take place on May 7, 11, 12, and 16, for a full day. The second workshop is designed as a half-day course instead: Bareos Part I (May 31-June 4, 2021, Monday through Friday) and Bareos Part II (June 8-10, 2021, Tuesday through Thursday).

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