Features

NBackup’s capabilities, one page each. Each page explains what the feature does, why it works the way it does, and how to configure and use it.

Feature What it covers
Planning & scheduling Multilevel levels, the bump rule, automatic promotion, the two capacity limits, forecasting.
Cost forecasting $/month storage and egress estimates for cloud media — fully offline.
Archivers What produces the dump stream — GNU tar (default), live PostgreSQL clusters (17+ incremental base backups), and bring-your-own-command pipes.
Storage media Disk, tape (libraries & single drives), and cloud object stores.
Replication & tiered storage nb copy and nb sync — land fast, replicate offsite.
Encryption Source-tied gpg encryption that keeps copies interchangeable.
Verification & drills nb verify (integrity) and nb drill (proven recoverability — the 0 of 3-2-1-1-0).
Recovery Whole-DLE restore and interactive file-level recovery.
Pruning & retention Per-medium retention, the safety floor, and capacity reclamation.
Holding disk A fast scratch buffer that feeds a slow tape or cloud at disk speed.
Remote sources over SSH Back up remote hosts with no NBackup software on the client.
Monitoring & reporting nb status, nb report, and pluggable failure alerting.
Status website nb web — a read-only, mobile-friendly dashboard (overview, runs, media history, drills) that takes no lock.

New here? Read Concepts first for the vocabulary, then come back. Looking for a complete worked setup? See Scenarios.


Table of contents