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Bacula Enterprise

Bacula Enterprise

Overview

What is Bacula Enterprise?

Bacula Enterprise is a data center backup, restore, and recovery solution from Swiss, Dracula-themed software company Bacula Systems.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Bacula Enterprise is a versatile backup tool widely used by businesses to ensure the safety and accessibility of their data. Users praise …
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TSM Convert

10 out of 10
July 06, 2023
I've recently started using Bacula Enterprise after switching from IBM's TSM. I wanted to do a proof on concept before …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

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  • Multiple backup destinations (44)
    10.0
    100%
  • Incremental backup identification (45)
    10.0
    100%
  • Platform support (46)
    10.0
    100%
  • Retention options (46)
    9.7
    97%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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What is Bacula Enterprise?

Bacula Enterprise is a data center backup, restore, and recovery solution from Swiss, Dracula-themed software company Bacula Systems.

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  • No setup fee

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  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Features

Data Center Backup

Data center backup tools send data to a secure storage location after encryption and de-duplication

9.3
Avg 8.1
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Product Details

What is Bacula Enterprise?

Bacula Enterprise is a modern backup, restore, and disaster recovery solution for medium and large enterprises that does not penalize you for data volume.

Bacula delivers a complete feature set to meet the needs of the most demanding data centers, MSPs and cloud providers. With a combination of reliability and functionality, it spans virtual, physical and cloud environments, all from one platform. The vendor says their product is designed with flexibility, scalability and high security in mind, and uses an industry standard SQL database, supports relational database catalogs, and has heterogeneous client support including Linux, OS X and Windows, as well as backup to disk, tape, virtual tape, robotic libraries, public and private Cloud.

According to the vendor, Bacula Systems works to deliver extremely high standards of support. Customers receive direct access to senior support engineers.

Bacula Enterprise Features

Data Center Backup Features

  • Supported: Instant recovery
  • Supported: Recovery verification
  • Supported: Multiple backup destinations
  • Supported: Incremental backup identification
  • Supported: Backup to the cloud
  • Supported: Deduplication and file compression
  • Supported: Snapshots
  • Supported: Flexible deployment
  • Supported: Management dashboard
  • Supported: Platform support
  • Supported: Retention options
  • Supported: Encryption

Bacula Enterprise Video

Bacula Enterprise Edition (www.baculasystems.com/products/bacula-enterprise) is the modern data backup, restore and disaster recovery solution that does not penalize you for data volume. Bacula Enterprise Edition is a subscription-based enterprise data backup solution which ...
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Bacula Enterprise Integrations

Bacula Enterprise Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac, Solaris, FreeBSD, AIX, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Red Hat, Suse, OpenSuse
Mobile ApplicationAndroid

Frequently Asked Questions

Bacula Enterprise is a data center backup, restore, and recovery solution from Swiss, Dracula-themed software company Bacula Systems.

Veeam Data Platform, Veritas Backup Exec, and Tivoli Business Service Manager (legacy) are common alternatives for Bacula Enterprise.

Reviewers rate Instant recovery and Recovery verification and Multiple backup destinations highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of Bacula Enterprise are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(56)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Bacula Enterprise is a versatile backup tool widely used by businesses to ensure the safety and accessibility of their data. Users praise the software's flexibility, power, and adaptability to accommodate ongoing changes and evolving needs. For example, the BGW Group relies on Bacula Enterprise to perform daily backups of their company servers, which consist of a mix of physical and virtual machines running different operating systems. The software's comprehensive backup solution supports plugins for MySQL, Postgres, LDAP, Docker, and S3, making it an ideal choice for universities like the Rectory, where it performs daily backups of critical systems. Similarly, CloudHQ values Bacula Enterprise for its reliability in backup and restore operations across their mixed Windows/Linux environment. The Brazilian Naval Supply System Command depends on Bacula Enterprise for efficient backup and restore of their database, taking advantage of its advanced features and ability to handle high volumes of data. Additionally, individuals and organizations use Bacula Enterprise as a cost-effective and flexible solution for data backup and restore needs. Government facilities employ the software to protect meteorological and hydrographic data while ensuring fast restoration capabilities, serving as their last line of defense against encryption attacks. With its value-for-money proposition and simple management interface, Bacula Enterprise is trusted by many companies to centralize backup solutions for heterogeneous systems. It provides compatibility with different environments and expertly handles monitoring, encryption, secure cloud support, and multi-platform compatibility. Municipalities such as Campinas rely on Bacula Enterprise as their primary backup tool for structured and unstructured data across various applications and operating systems. In the case of McLean Imaging Center, Bacula Enterprise backs up servers, databases, virtualized environments, applications, and shared files – delivering an effective backup framework for disaster recovery purposes. Furthermore, users leverage Bacula Enterprise's extreme security measures and fast data recovery capabilities for tasks such as restoring lost files or performing bare metal recoveries. The software's efficiency, compression, and storage reduction capabilities have garnered high regard from the data recovery industry. Bacula Enterprise is used in different scenarios, including by technical teams managing big projects, organizations performing file-based backups, and government facilities aiming to make backups accessible. Its centralized management features, user-friendly graphical interface, and support for various operating systems are highly appreciated by users across industries. With a focus on agility and security, Bacula Enterprise is the go-to backup solution for organizations with virtualized environments, physical servers, files, and databases. It caters to a wide range of backup needs, such as daily backup maintenance, data recovery from servers and databases, and compliance with legal agreements. Bacula Enterprise offers centralized management through a graphical interface, allowing multi-user access and providing solutions to various backup problems. The software's simple and efficient interface automates backup tasks and supports different operating systems. It is frequently used for backup and restore of virtual machines, file servers, email accounts, ACLS, active directory, and databases like Oracle and PostgreSQL. Users appreciate the optimization of backup workflows, resulting in faster routines and enhanced data security. Whether it's a department within an organization or the entire corporate technological environment, Bacula Enterprise is chosen as the backup solution for extensive information systems. From backing up physical servers, virtual machines, files, and databases to managing backups across multiple data centers, Bacula Enterprise proves its value with cost-effectiveness, efficient compression, and storage reduction capabilities. Users have reported positive experiences with the software's quick response times and helpful support from the support team. With its ease of administration and good cost-benefit ratio compared to traditional solutions, Bacula Enterprise is considered an effective choice for businesses seeking reliable data protection across a diverse range of systems.

Efficient Backup Process: Many users have found the backup process of Bacula to be efficient, allowing them to specify file size for backups and easily locate and restore their data. This pro has been mentioned by several reviewers, highlighting its effectiveness in streamlining the backup process.

Complex and Flexible Scheduling System: The complex and efficient scheduling system of Bacula has received praise from a number of users. They appreciate the customization options and flexibility it offers, allowing them to tailor their backup schedules according to their specific needs.

Data Deduplication Feature: Users have commended the data deduplication feature of Bacula, which helps optimize storage by eliminating duplicate data. This valuable feature has been mentioned by multiple reviewers as it contributes to more efficient use of storage resources.

Outdated Backup Storage Format: Some users have found the backup storage format in Bacula Enterprise to be outdated, lacking deduplication support. They feel that this hampers the efficiency and effectiveness of their backups.

Inconsistent Support for Filesystem Snapshots on Non-Windows Platforms: Several reviewers have complained about the inconsistent support for filesystem snapshots on non-Windows platforms in Bacula Enterprise. This limitation poses challenges for users who rely on these platforms for their backup processes.

Interface Needs Improvement: Users have expressed frustration with the interface of Bacula Enterprise, both graphical and CLI, stating that it still needs improvement. They find it unintuitive and not user-friendly, which can slow down their workflow and make it difficult to navigate the software effectively.

Users recommend Bacula for its data security, low cost, and guaranteed updates and support. They suggest that Bacula may not be the easiest backup software to work with, but it offers the capability to perform complex tasks. To maximize its potential, users advise taking the time to familiarize oneself with Bacula. They also recommend testing and evaluating Bacula among other backup solutions before making a purchase. Users emphasize the steep learning curve of Bacula and recommend taking Bacula Enterprise training. Bacula is praised for being a cost-effective and robust backup solution. Users mention the availability of a repository with all necessary packages and helpful documentation for specific use cases. The helpfulness of Bacula's support team is also highlighted by users. Finally, users consider Bacula as the option for backup, especially for disaster recovery purposes.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-9 of 9)
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July 06, 2023

TSM Convert

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I've recently started using Bacula Enterprise after switching from IBM's TSM. I wanted to do a proof on concept before pruchasing the product and Bacula helped with not only one proof of concept but also another one several months after the first trial. During this time I had Bacula helping set the system up and I also logged a few support calls to see what the ticket system was like. All tickets were picked up quickly and the support team were helpful. We purchased Bacula including a weeks training course. The course was great and explained Bacula clearly. So much so I was able to download the community edition at home on my NAS! Now we are using Bacula I've been able to see how support is after purchase and so far so good!<br>
  • Fast support
  • Great communication for pre sales and after sales
  • Admin 1 course explaned Bacula beautifully
  • Would love to have a upto date ARM version that can be run as a VM on ARM machines
For me, Bacula is well suited for backing up our on prem NAS system to AWS and tape. Bacula gives us a huge amount of control of how we do our backups and how long we retain data.
Bacula isn't suited for archiving. There is no archive function in Bacula so you'd need to find another product to handle archiving but I think Bacula has a function to set a backup to never delete.
August 22, 2022

The best

Eloi Cunha | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently, the Brazilian Naval Supply System Command uses Bacula Enterprise to backup and restore the database. As a result, we have advanced features and the ability to handle the high volume of data we need for daily life, performing snapshots, advanced deduplication, single-file restores efficiently and reliably. I can detail as pros & cons the following personal use cases. Pros: Data reliability and great cost-benefit. Cons: interface difficult to handle, demanding high study time.
  • Snapshots
  • data backup
  • data verification
  • Storage Daemon
  • Script BSys
  • Plugin Bacula MSSQL VDI
Bacula Enterprise is absolutely suitable for large database backup and advanced restore for companies that want to have a great backup system at an affordable price. The bacula enterprise becomes less accessible and difficult for companies that have employees with low professional qualifications because they need a qualified professional to operate the bacula.
Davilson Aguiar | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Here at Prodap, we have been struggling for a long time to access a Backup software that was good and cheap, we found Bacula as the best value for money. Right from the start, it solved our compression problem because the others we used weren't very efficient about it. It made us take up less storage.
  • Data compression
  • Deduplication
  • Support most storage devices
  • Nice Visual Management
  • Give to manage via command line
  • Making the transport of large volumes of data more transparent
  • Use XFS disks as they are faster for database
The use of Bacula is much more appropriate in our experience here in Prodap in full backup very fast to its compression. We like it for Baculaflexible and be used in various storage formats and not be tied to a single database, not to mention that we can use compression algorithms such as gzip open code.
Ednardo Barreto Lopes | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are a government facility and we generate and store meteorological and hydrographic data. All this big amount of data needs protection and availability even in case of failure. In this scenario, we have been using Bacula to cover our needs for a couple of years now and in our own experience performing a restore or a point-in-time backup has been really easy and fast. We use the tool mainly to manage our daily backup routines.
  • Good level of stability
  • Excellent technical support
  • Integration with plugins
  • Low cost
  • Initial setup could be easier
Bacula is well suited for companies that need to configure and manage several jobs and schedules for backups. And it is still good even if your system is growing in both data and servers. The tool has provided us with a fast and reliable way to restore and recover our data. The downside was that at first, our team had a hard time with the initial setup since they had only basic knowledge of the command line, but this was overcome after a while.
Carlos Costa | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Bacula to perform backups of our entire data infrastructure, with it we are able to restore data whenever one of our users requests lost files from days and months prior to their accidental alteration or deletion. This is everyday usage, but the usage strategy goes much further, with Bacula backups being our last line of defense against file and server encryption attacks.
  • Bacula has great plugins that work very accurately
  • Bacula is very simple to use, with a user-friendly web interface that facilitates operation.
  • Bacula performs the backups very accurately which is clearly noticed when a restore is performed
  • Its ease of use helps in training new support team members
  • Maybe some sort of client deploy
  • Maybe some automatic endpoint distribution
  • Maybe an integration with inventory software
Bacula is extremely reliable for storing our company's data, it brings a lot of peace of mind to the IT team because we are sure that at the necessary moment we can count on the data that has been saved. We use it to backup the entire infrastructure, database, virtual machines, active directory, file servers, and more.It works perfectly well with tape backups and also in storage spaces dedicated to faster restores.
Daniel Drucker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are the McLean Imaging Center--the neuroimaging center at McLean Hospital. McLean maintains the world's largest neuroscientific and psychiatric research program in a private hospital. It is the largest psychiatric facility of Harvard Medical School, an affiliate of Massachusetts General Hospital, and part of Mass General Brigham. The Imaging Center is primarily research, with some clinical duties as well. At the Center we back up ~50 clients and ~1.5 PB to a mix of disk and LTO7 tape. Our primary workload is research neuroimaging data.
  • Hyper-competent support staff
  • Extreme configurability
  • Extensive logging and reporting
  • Command line and GUI interface
  • Backups storage format is outdated--treats everything, even disk, as if it were a tape.
  • No deduplication support in base product.
  • Inconsistent support for filesystem snapshots on non-Windows platforms
  • Steep learning curve--but rewards learning!
Bacula Enterprise is not the easiest backup software to work with--you are expected to be competent at the command line and editing complex configuration files, even if you mostly use the web GUI for day-to-day operations. However, study is rewarded--you can do many very complex things. Easy things may not always be easy, but very hard things are possible (unlike many competitors that make easy things easy and hard things impossible).

I would not recommend Bacula to someone who just wants a quick plug and play solution; but in my opinion your backups and disaster recovery system shouldn't be plug and play - that's a great way to feel good about a solution that won't actually work for you when it's needed!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Bacula Enterprise is being used by one department within the organization. It supports our need to have regular and reliable backups of our data to protect against system failure and user error. We use it to back up data from around 50 systems, both physical and virtual, to disk storage and then to tape for offsite storage.
  • The support services provided by Bacula Systems are superb. They usually respond extremely quickly and have clear and useful answers upfront, which is a welcome change. Their support enabled us to get Bacula Enterprise up and running quickly and well configured, in a relatively short period of time. In addition, they also offer proactive support on a yearly basis. This involves sending an automatically generated report on your system configuration and status from which they provide advice on any issues or configuration problems that they find. I haven't seen this level of proactive support from another company.
  • The configuration is extremely powerful and flexible. If you're used to dealing with text-based configuration files then you'll find this system familiar. It also fits well with configuration management tools - in our case, Puppet - allowing the configuration across the whole system to be managed centrally. The flexibility of the system allowed us to have backups running exactly when and how we wanted, performing staging to tape via disk, and with various admin, tasks to automate the handling of tapes within our tape library.
  • The command-line console tool allows all operations to be done from the command line. In an emergency situation, or stuck in a datacentre with only a dumb console, being able to do everything via the command line is an important feature to have.
  • Bweb is an optional extra that provides a web-based interface for both management and configuration. If you don't want to edit text files and use the command line console tool then Bweb is the best interface to use. We don't use it for configuration (favoring external tools for managing the text-based configuration), but we do use it to monitor backups and perform restores. It provides an excellent overview of what's happening with the system.
  • The manuals, whitepapers, and additional documentation cover everything in detail. The whitepapers give a good overview of the installation, concepts, and specific scenarios, whilst the manuals cover in more depth how specific areas work and how the configuration is handled. It's very easy to find out what a particular option means and does.
  • The software can run on and is supported on, a wide variety of operating systems, including Ubuntu which is what we use. This is a level of flexibility that was important to us after being tied to RHEL for our previous backup system.
  • The configuration can be hard to get started with. It took some time and reading of the documentation to understand how to get Bacula Enterprise to do what we wanted. This can be a hurdle when initially getting started.
  • Although the documentation is good, there's a lot of it and it isn't always structured in the best way. When you know what you're looking for it's fine, but when getting started it can be overwhelming.
  • Bweb is an optional extra, so without it, you're stuck with text files and command-line tools. This could likely be a turn off for sysadmins who prefer to work in a graphical environment.
  • It could do more to support hardware-based LTO encryption. With some web searching it's not too hard to figure out the changes needed to load encryption keys into the drives, but it'd be nice if Bacula Enterprise handled this by itself given it's a fairly fundamental part of tape backup.
  • Scripting actions using bconsole is ugly. More could be done to making scripting easier.
Bacula Enterprise fits a certain type of market. The Unix-based sysadmin who has a diverse range of systems to back up and is happy to get their hands dirty with command-line tools and text-based configuration files. They have a large range of plugins to back up specific systems (eg. databases, VMs, and lots more) making it a truly flexible product in a single package. Addons like B web further improve on the already well-equipped product.

However, this approach may not suit everyone, so I'd be hesitant recommending it in all situations.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using Bacula for our backup jobs across our platforms for a big project. It is being solely used by our technical team to manage, administer and check backups.
  • It's very quick and efficient.
  • It has a very easy to use CLI (command line interface).
  • It's very powerful in a few areas of recovery and customization.
  • VM Ware based image backups on-cloud technology.
Bacula has got excellent customer support and they have always answered and resolved issues promptly.
Nick Bebout | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Bacula Enterprise is being used by our Information Technology department to manage backups for servers supporting our whole University. We have almost 200 backup jobs configured using the Bacula Enterprise software which is backing up servers supporting both the Academic and Administrative areas of the University. We needed a solution that is economical but reliable, and Bacula Enterprises fills that role for us.
  • Bacula Enterprise is very configurable. If there is something you want to do, there is most likely a way to do it with Bacula Enterprise.
  • Bacula support is very good and fast. It is nice to count on having a support engineer to help you with any problems you may experience.
  • Bweb is very useful for people who prefer a web-based interface to manage jobs and manage configuration. You can do pretty much anything in Bweb. Now that we have started using Bweb, I only occasionally configure anything from the command line.
  • I recently attended the Bacula Systems Admin I training and found it very helpful.
  • I would like to see a few changes to how you manage tapes (volumes). Currently, I regularly do a Postgres query to show all the tapes in the changer that are full. It'd be nice if bconsole would have an easy way to show this.
  • Some configuration options could be a little clearer as to what is expected (i.e. I thought MediaType had to be the type of the tape, such as LTO6, but it doesn't, and in fact, has to be different for each storage daemon if you have multiple storage daemons controlled by the same director).
I think Bacula Enterprise is good for an organization that wants an economical, but yet reliable product.
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