Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

skew · Jun 12, 2007, 05:04 AM

Hi there all. Recovered from an underwhelming WWDC Stevenote yet?

I posted a while back on server, network and storage options for my design studio. I got amazing help from the users of MACNN. I was wondering if I could prevail upon you again for your experiences.

I now need to to implement a backup solution for the network.

I have seven macs wired together with giga Ethernet. Connected to the slowest mac is a 1T Ultramax Drive. Everyone uses this as shared storage and this network is working really well for us.

Now I’d like to do the following:

1. Have all the macs backup their home folders to the 1T Ultramax over the network.
2. Have the ultramax back up to another 1T dive for one week and then to another 1T the next week and then reverse.

Here’s the rub, I can’t find a solution since Retrospect went “abandonware” on us that can handle rotating backup sets. I need rotating sets so I can keep one off site. That way even if the place burns down I only ever loose a weeks worth of data.

I’ve been demoing SynkPro and it has been great but doesn’t support rotating sets.

Any ideas?

Maybe I'm looking at this all wrong?

SKEW

skew · Jun 21, 2007, 10:33 AM

Hi all, I'm unashamedly replying to my own post to get this back up the heap.

I'm hoping that this got lost in the post WWDC frenzy, the alternative is that there really is no solution since the demise of Retrospect.

Really, if anyone can offer anything for me to follow up on I'd be most grateful.

Thanks,

Skew.

besson3c · Jun 21, 2007, 10:40 AM

skew,

I would honestly recommend against point and clicky backup solutions in this case. It is better to really use a flexible hands-on system based on open protocols that will allow you to monitor exactly what is going on, and make the precise corrections necessary to optimize for your situation rather than fish around and try out a gazillion different GUIs that may or may not fulfill your need (and then pay the shareware fee once their trials expire).

We use rsync here at work to backup over 6 terrabytes, and this works quite well. We receive notification when these scheduled incremental backups fail, and by using SSH public/private key pairs we can push or pull data from any machines on our network securely.

The downside to rsync on OS X is that Apple's version that caters to Apple metadata is apparently buggy (although I don't use it myself). If you don't care about file metadata, I would recommend a stock rsync. Many companies use it heavily because it works well, isn't terribly complex, and is extremely flexible.

rsync -av /source/dir username@remoteserver:/destination/dir

setup mail notifications, create your public/private SSH key pair, schedule the job to run via cron or anacron, and call it a day. If you want to see exactly when it is running, you can wrap your scripts in a Platypus GUI in mere seconds.

skew · Jun 21, 2007, 12:45 PM

I spotted this thread but still no joy on a solution. So far I've demoed Chronosync and Synk6 and am about to try out Smart Backup.

http://forums.macnn.com/82/applicati...k-up-software/

Originally Posted by besson3c

skew,
rather than fish around and try out a gazillion different GUIs that may or may not fulfill your need (and then pay the shareware fee once their trials expire).

Wow, aint that the truth, thanks for the post Besson. Yeh that does seem to hit the nail on the head of what I'm currently going through. Unfortunately, no matter how good your solution is, it's not good for me because I don't understand it.

I'm command line phobic and it reads like Greek to me. I'm going to try and do some background reading on your suggestion but ideally I'm looking for an off the shelf (semi?) pro solution that's GUI based and approachable by a mere mortal such as myself. Retrospect did this for me in spades, shame it's being neglected.

Thanks again,

SKEW.

besson3c · Jun 21, 2007, 12:47 PM

skew,

There are a ton of rsync tutorials out there, but I'm also happy to give you a walkthrough here... It is not that hard to wrap your head around conceptually with a walkthough that I'd be happy to provide.

skew · Jun 21, 2007, 01:12 PM

Thanks a lot. I really appreciate that. I'll do some back ground before I bother you with a run through, at least then I'll have done some homework on the terminology and the like.

I'm looking at Data Backup3 right now and it's seeming positive. Multiple back up sets - check. Ability to schedule individual dates - check. I'll post links to all the options I looked at when I'm done and try and save others this research.

SKEW