tobiasclarity Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 Hi Guys, Can anyone point me in the right direction of backing up a Mac server, i dont know if it comes with any in built features or if infact there is a better third party tool that can be used, to then move the backup to remote storage Many thanks
Rozzer Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 You can buy a nas drives which has time machine support. Once its enabled you can add the disk to time machine. Or you can use Carboon copy cloner and produce .DMG files which can be stored on a network drive. Both affordable options Ross 1
-Tim Posted October 10, 2012 Posted October 10, 2012 (edited) The built in (as of Leopard Server) backup utility Time Machine is by far your best solution. You can back up to any network share that is HFS+ J formatted. I like that you can browse through your backup disk to any date, then to the file you had at the time directly via finder. You don't have to go through any restore process as you do with some backup programs. Restoring the entire OS works great too. It's just a great "set it and forget it" solution that I use on an xServe, some client Macs, and my personal Macs. Edited October 10, 2012 by -Tim
tobiasclarity Posted October 11, 2012 Author Posted October 11, 2012 So will time machine enable us to take away a full image of the machine at its current state and reinstate that image at a later date should we need to, ideally we would like to be able to back up to one of our NAS drives which in turn will then be backed up to tape on Norton
Rozzer Posted October 11, 2012 Posted October 11, 2012 You can restore individual files by going back months but this depends on the storage capacity. You can also restore the whole OS by running your OSX Server install and under utilties you can restore from time machine. Ross
tobiasclarity Posted October 11, 2012 Author Posted October 11, 2012 Is it easy to setup timemachine to work across to a nas drive on a windows server?
Ashm Posted October 11, 2012 Posted October 11, 2012 I've been advised in the past that if you are running Open Directory on the Mac Server not to use Time Machine as it won't back up Open Directory correctly. I think if you do regular OD Archives you'd probably be okay though.
Rozzer Posted October 11, 2012 Posted October 11, 2012 There are a few scripts floating around online which will backup your OD on a scheduled bases. Ross
-Tim Posted October 11, 2012 Posted October 11, 2012 I've been advised in the past that if you are running Open Directory on the Mac Server not to use Time Machine as it won't back up Open Directory correctly. I think if you do regular OD Archives you'd probably be okay though. I have not heard of this issue. I will have to look into that because I am relying on Time Machine as my only backup for a Workgroup Manager server managing about 100 iMacs. Fortunately, I have not had to restore the database from a backup. So what would you recommend? Backing up only OD and rebuilding the server from scratch, then importing the OD database? Or could I still use Time Machine but import a separate backup of OD after the restore?
Ashm Posted October 12, 2012 Posted October 12, 2012 I have not heard of this issue. I will have to look into that because I am relying on Time Machine as my only backup for a Workgroup Manager server managing about 100 iMacs. Fortunately, I have not had to restore the database from a backup. So what would you recommend? Backing up only OD and rebuilding the server from scratch, then importing the OD database? Or could I still use Time Machine but import a separate backup of OD after the restore?I'd assume backing up via Time Machine and doing regular OD backups would be okay. A better a way would probably be use something like Carbon Copy Cloner and use the option to run a script before the backup to do an OD archive.
iSteve Posted October 12, 2012 Posted October 12, 2012 Are you running any other backup software on your network such as Retrospect? If so you can use this to backup your XServe to one of your backup sets.
tobiasclarity Posted October 12, 2012 Author Posted October 12, 2012 Are you running any other backup software on your network such as Retrospect? If so you can use this to backup your XServe to one of your backup sets. We are using Symantec Backup Exec for our main backups on the windows server side of things, i know we can get a plugin to run it over mac as well, i guess i am just trying to avoid costs! i think we may now look at this option however given the recent talk of time machine not touching open dir
kirchie Posted October 13, 2012 Posted October 13, 2012 IIRC the last time I did a restore using Time Machine on our Mac Mini server, it restored OD OK. But ours is a AD/OD mix, I don't know if that makes any odds. Best thing to do I guess would be to test Time Machine on your Xserve and see how it goes? Take a back up first though 1
mbrunt Posted October 18, 2012 Posted October 18, 2012 I have a small cheap (and old) netgear nas device that supports time machine, so I do hourly time machines to that nas. I then also use CCC to clone the entire disk to usb hard drive once in a while for extra piece of mind. Theres very little on our xserve so backups are fairly small.
tobiasclarity Posted October 19, 2012 Author Posted October 19, 2012 I have a small cheap (and old) netgear nas device that supports time machine, so I do hourly time machines to that nas. I then also use CCC to clone the entire disk to usb hard drive once in a while for extra piece of mind. Theres very little on our xserve so backups are fairly small. I dont know if there is a problem with our time machine or if someone can enlighten me but when i am using it or i try to 'enter timemachine' it just shows 2 pop up finder windows??
kirchie Posted October 19, 2012 Posted October 19, 2012 Anything like this, but with fewer windows? https://dl.dropbox.com/u/65710994/Screen%20Shot%202012-10-19%20at%202.53.18%20PM.png
tobiasclarity Posted October 19, 2012 Author Posted October 19, 2012 Anything like this, but with fewer windows? https://dl.dropbox.com/u/65710994/Screen%20Shot%202012-10-19%20at%202.53.18%20PM.png ha ha no no not at all, that is what time machine should look like, i probably didnt describe it very well. just literally 2 desktop windows pop up.
kirchie Posted October 19, 2012 Posted October 19, 2012 Well that just sounds like it's buggered then
tobiasclarity Posted October 19, 2012 Author Posted October 19, 2012 Well that just sounds like it's buggered then lol
DMcCoy Posted October 19, 2012 Posted October 19, 2012 I dont know if there is a problem with our time machine or if someone can enlighten me but when i am using it or i try to 'enter timemachine' it just shows 2 pop up finder windows?? It needs to be backing up to a HFS+ volume locally or via AFP. SMB is not going to do it. Also don't even think about using the Backup Exec agent, it's useless. As is retrospect, but in very different ways. Time machine actually works very well, if you choose the right items you can do a complete restore from the install dvd.
tobiasclarity Posted October 22, 2012 Author Posted October 22, 2012 It needs to be backing up to a HFS+ volume locally or via AFP. SMB is not going to do it. Also don't even think about using the Backup Exec agent, it's useless. As is retrospect, but in very different ways. Time machine actually works very well, if you choose the right items you can do a complete restore from the install dvd. Interesting you say that about backup exc for Mac i was going to be sourcing a quote for the plugin for mac, any particulars why it is rubbish? just curious now
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