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2.Bareos Client Install

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Below are practical instructions for installing Bareos Client (Bareos File Daemon, bareos-fd) on Windows and Linux. It is important to install the same major release as on the Bareos server. On Linux, the client only needs the bareos-filedaemon package; package bareos-client is a meta package that additionally supplies bareos-bconsole and offers bareos-traymonitor. If there is no native repository for your distribution, Bareos recommends the Universal Linux Client.

1) Installing Bareos Client on Windows

For Windows, Bareos is distributed as a regular .exe installer. Official Windows packages are located in the windows directory of the current Bareos release; By default, the binaries are placed in C:\Program Files\Bareos, and the configuration is in C:\ProgramData\Bareos. Bareos File Daemon runs as a Windows service.

Steps

  1. Download Windows installer Bareos from the official Windows catalog for your release.
  2. Run installer as administrator. For a regular client installation, the documentation recommends installing the client part, and the additional options usually include “Tray-Monitor” and “Open Firewall for Client”.
  3. During the installation wizard, specify:
    • Director name, for example bareos-dir;
    • name/FQDN or IP of the client itself.
  4. Complete the installation.

Post-installation check

If the built-in Windows Firewall is used, the installer itself opens the necessary ports. If a third party firewall is used, port 9102/TCP for Bareos File Daemon may need to be opened manually. You can check whether the client is listening on the port like this:

netstat -an | findstr 910[123]

Quiet installation

Bareos for Windows supports silent install. A useful minimal example from the documentation looks like this:

C:\winbareos.exe /S /CLIENTNAME=win11-fd /CLIENTPASSWORD="VerySecretPassword" /DIRECTORNAME=bareos-dir

If necessary, you can also pass /CLIENTADDRESS, /DIRECTORADDRESS, /DIRECTORPASSWORD and other parameters.

2) Installing Bareos Client on Linux

On Linux, the client is installed in the same way as the Bareos server part, but instead of the bareos meta-package you need to install bareos-filedaemon or bareos-client. To add a Bareos repository, the official way is to download and run the script add_bareos_repositories.sh suitable for the distribution. For Debian/Ubuntu, this script creates a keyring in /etc/apt/keyrings/ and a source file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bareos.sources. ###Option A: Debian/Ubuntu

The official process for Debian/Ubuntu is to run add_bareos_repositories.sh, then apt update, then install the package. For the client, set bareos-filedaemon, not bareos. The service on Debian/Ubuntu is called bareos-filedaemon.service.

sudo sh ./add_bareos_repositories.sh  
sudo apt update  
sudo apt install bareos-filedaemon  
sudo systemctl enable --now bareos-filedaemon.service

If you need not only FD, but also bconsole, set it like this:

sudo apt install bareos-client

Option B: RHEL / AlmaLinux / Rocky / CentOS Stream / Fedora

For the RPM family, Bareos also recommends running add_bareos_repositories.sh first. The official example uses yum install bareos; for a client installation, use bareos-filedaemon instead. On RPM systems the service is called bareos-fd.service.

sudo sh ./add_bareos_repositories.sh  
sudo yum install bareos-filedaemon  
sudo systemctl enable --now bareos-fd.service

Option C: openSUSE/SLES

For the SUSE family, the procedure is the same: add a repository using a script, then install the client package. For the RPM scheme, the service name is bareos-fd.service.

sudo sh ./add_bareos_repositories.sh  
sudo zypper install bareos-filedaemon  
sudo systemctl enable --now bareos-fd.service

If the distribution is not directly supported

In this case, Bareos offers the Universal Linux Client (ULC). It is designed for minimal dependencies, uses the host’s OpenSSL and supports regular backup/restore operations, but with limited plugin support.

3) Minimal client binding to Bareos Director

Installing the client itself is not enough: you also need to add the client on the Director side and agree on a username/password. Bareos suggests doing this via bconsole, the command creates a client resource and exports the required Director-resource for the File Daemon.

On the Bareos Director server

Example:

configure add client name=client2-fd address=192.168.0.2 password=secret

After this, Bareos creates:

  • /etc/bareos/bareos-dir.d/client/client2-fd.conf
  • /etc/bareos/bareos-dir-export/client/client2-fd/bareos-fd.d/director/bareos-dir.conf

For Linux, this exported file must be copied to the client in the directory:

/etc/bareos/bareos-fd.d/director/

Copy example:

scp /etc/bareos/bareos-dir-export/client/client2-fd/bareos-fd.d/director/bareos-dir.conf root@client2.example.com:/etc/bareos/bareos-fd.d/director/

If you configure it manually on Linux

On the client, Director’s primary access to FD is specified in the file director/bareos-dir.conf; a typical resource looks like this:

Director {  
  Name = "bareos-dir"  
  Password = "secret"  
}

The password here must match the client password on the Director side. After changing the configuration, you need to restart File Daemon. On Linux, the documentation shows restart as service bareos-fd restart; In a systemd environment, it is equivalent to convenient to use systemctl restart ....

4) Quick check that the client is available

After installation and configuration, Bareos recommends checking the client from bconsole with the command:

status client=client2-fd

By default, Bareos File Daemon listens on port 9102. If Director can’t connect, first check:

  • whether the bareos-fd service is running;
  • whether the client’s name, address and password are correct;
  • whether port 9102/TCP is open.

5) The shortest working option

Windows

  1. Download the Windows installer for the current release of Bareos.

  2. Run as administrator.

  3. Specify DIRECTORNAME, Director address and client name/IP.

  4. Check that 9102/TCP is listening. ###Linux

  5. Download add_bareos_repositories.sh for your distribution and Bareos release.

  6. Run the script.

  7. Set bareos-filedaemon.

  8. Start and enable the service.

  9. Add the client to Director and check via *status client=....

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