The CNBS server is a backup solution that can perform both selective online backups of workstations and servers, as well as bare metal restores of offline systems based on various operating systems like Linux, Windows, MacOS, and BSD. It supports backing up multiple filesystems, only saving used blocks to increase efficiency. Almost all steps can be done via commands and options, and it supports features like multicast, mass cloning, and automatic changing of hostnames and SIDs for Windows clients. However, it has some limitations like not supporting differential or incremental backups for offline backups, requiring equal or larger disks for restores, and potential network issues corrupting backups.