Question A simple backup question

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n5tkn

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This is probably extremely simple, but I don't want to either make it too simple or overly complex.

I have an old single cpu G4 Xserve running 10.3. All it does is provide AFP and SMB access to approximately 150 gigs of printing artwork files ( we are a commerical printer). About once a month I put in a second drive sled, copy everything over from the other drive that is the "production" drive, and take it offsite. I have an external firewire drive that has a 500 gig capacity that is partitioned into 2 drives. What I'd like is the best way, scripted or otherwise, to once a week, copy everything from the file drive to this external drive, and right before doing that, on a different day probably, copy what is on this external drives first partition to the second partition, overwriting what is on the second partition, so I would always have 2 weeks plus the current week of backups of these files. Our biggest danger here besides a drive failure is deletion of something that it turns out we needed, or an accidental deletion.

Does that convey what I want to do? I would think it would be scriptable somehow, but I'm not versed at all in scripting, certainly don't mind learning it but also don't want to wipe a 150 gigs of data while learning either. I haven't upgraded the OS as this machine only does what I just described and so I've not see the need to upgrade it. If what I'm wanting to do can't be done on 10.3, I can look at upgrading, but if it can be done on the current OS I'd certainly like to do it.

Thanks very much.
 
You need to read up on rsync and cron.

cron will execute anything you want (maybe a rsync task... hint hint) at specified times of the day, days of the week, months, years, etc.

rsync will synchronize (or, "mirror") files from somewhere to somewhere else. This could either take place on the same machine or remotely–meaning to sync from one machine to another.

I think once you get a handle on these two simple technologies, you will begin to understand that anything you want to do is possible.

And in fact, get this, there will be no "scripting" involved in either setting up cron jobs or rsync for what you want to do.

Here's a good start. I know it says for Linux, but a lot of it (if not all of it) will apply to OS X (which is a BSD variant).

http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/

You also want to become familiar with making "incremental" backups rather than thinking you need to have several full backups. Why backup a file that hasn't changed in the last year or so?
 
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Well, I've since been given some help on another forum too, and as it turns out, rsync version in 10.3 (2.6.2 I think) doesn't cover extended attributes. So I've run into a stumbling block there.
 
If you are just looking to copy data from direct attached and internal drives, you could look at something like Carbon Copy Cloner. It's free, GUI based and easy to use. Unfortunately the synchronization portion of that utility is only for Tiger and Leopard. You can schedule these tasks through the CCC GUI.

Just another alternative for those who are a bit CLI squeamish. :)

Michael
 
n5tkn: First, when you do print jobs, do you have "job jackets" that you store papers and such in? If so, every time you complete a job, BURN A CD/DVD and stick it in the job jacket. If you wanna keep the job around on the server for convenience, fine. But at least you'll know that every completed job is backed up on disk if all else fails.

Now that we've addressed that, we still need to back up the working data on the server. CAUTION: It's very easy to think you've got it all cleverly schemed and then back away from monitoring it because ... Ooooh ... it's scripted and automatic! In the real world, things happen, drives break, software fails for one reason or another. Therefore the only real way to maintain a reliable backup is to be involved in the "maintaining" part of it. You need to check on it every day and make sure it's doing it's job, otherwise, you're at risk.

If you called me in to consult on your situation with the information that you have provided, I would suggest that you label each of your two drives "Backup A" & "Backup B". On A, you'll name your partitions 1 and 3. On drive B, you'll name your partitions 2 and 4. On your first week, you'll back up to the partition labeled "1" (drive A). On the second week, you'll back up to partition "2" (drive B), then on the third week partition "3" (drive A), then on the 4th week, partition 4 (drive B). This way, you're alternation drives each week and maximizing use of your partitions. You'll always know what week you're on because after partition "4", you'll start over again on "1".

Using this method, you don't have to "real quick move data from the first partition to the second partition" (as you suggested). Doing so would risk your data because it requires you to delete a backup BEFORE backing up again -- absurd!

To make it simple, get ChronoSync. Setup one backup schedule. Then each day/week when you swap drives, drag the appropriate partition into your target in the ChronoSync schedule you created.
 
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