leo@duttnph.tudelft.nl (Leo Breebaart) (12/13/89)
I would appreciate the net's help on the following: We have TOPS running on our Sun as well as on some of the Macintoshes. What I want to do is to buy HFS Backup 3.0, and backup the hard disks of these Macintoshes *automatically* to the Sun, i.e. every night at midnight or something like that. I would like to know a] if I have understood the documentation correctly, and this is indeed a possibility. b] whether anyone uses the same setup, and can recommend it or advice against it. c] if perhaps you use another great method to achieve the same effect of automatic backups from Macs to Suns via TOPS. My thanks in advance to all willing to help me out on this, Leo Breebaart (leo @ duttnph.tudelft.nl)
hallett@pet16.uucp (Jeff Hallett x5163 ) (12/14/89)
In article <1029@dutrun.UUCP> leo@duttnph.tudelft.nl (Leo Breebaart) writes: >I would appreciate the net's help on the following: >We have TOPS running on our Sun as well as on some of the Macintoshes. >What I want to do is to buy HFS Backup 3.0, and backup the hard disks >of these Macintoshes *automatically* to the Sun, i.e. every night at >midnight or something like that. >I would like to know It is a possiblity. I've used DiskFit to back up my Mac to a Sun directory. Of course, it is hindered by the speed of the network, but can't have everything. If you want automatic backups, you will needs something like AutoBack or Retrospect which has some timing and auto-reminder features. Heck, you could probably use QuickTimer as part of QuickKeys to do the backup for you, now that I think about it. -- Jeffrey A. Hallett, PET Software Engineering GE Medical Systems, W641, PO Box 414, Milwaukee, WI 53201 (414) 548-5163 : EMAIL - hallett@gemed.ge.com Est natura hominum novitatis avida
jim@qtc.UUCP (Jim Prouty) (12/16/89)
In article <1727@mrsvr.UUCP> hallett@gemed.ge.com (Jeffrey A. Hallett (414) 548-5163) writes: >In article <1029@dutrun.UUCP> leo@duttnph.tudelft.nl (Leo Breebaart) writes: >>I would appreciate the net's help on the following: >>We have TOPS running on our Sun as well as on some of the Macintoshes. >>What I want to do is to buy HFS Backup 3.0, and backup the hard disks >>of these Macintoshes *automatically* to the Sun, i.e. every night at >>midnight or something like that. >>I would like to know > >It is a possiblity. I've used DiskFit to back up my Mac to a Sun >directory. Of course, it is hindered by the speed of the network, but >can't have everything. > >If you want automatic backups, you will needs something like AutoBack >or Retrospect which has some timing and auto-reminder features. Heck, >you could probably use QuickTimer as part of QuickKeys to do the >backup for you, now that I think about it. HFS Backup provides the capability of backing up to "any" mounted volume. HFS Backup 3.0 comes with HFS Timer INIT for automatically launching backup sets. (A backup set is a file which describes the source folders and files to be backed up, and the destination volume on which the backup archive is to be stored.) I'm trying to use the timer with my Mac which is connected to a GatorBox, which has NFS to Appleshare protocol conversion. I have set up my Mac's Appleshare client software to automatically mount a directory on a Sun as my backup volume. The Sun directory thus appears to be an Appleshare volume mounted on my Mac's desktop. This arrangement works sometimes. However, HFS Backup uses a hokey algorithm to determine if the mounted volume is REALLY the same volume you configured the backup set to back up to. It compares at the creation date of the mounted volume to the creation date of the volume configured into the backup set. If they don't match, HFS Backup claims the volume is not mounted. (This in spite of the fact that the information about which server the mounted volume resides on is clearly available; GetInfo can display the information, so HFS Backup could certainly figure it out.) The HFS Backup algorithm is perhaps suitable for dealing with floppy disks which might easily have identical names, but the extra server information should be used to disambiguate amount mounted volumes when it is available. Unfortunately, the creation date of the Appleshare volume is often modified, either when the GatorBox is re-booted, or at other (seemingly random) times. The "fix" to this problem is to manually re-configure the Backup Set with the new creation date. This means that the backups I wanted to run unattended actually require careful monitoring to verify that they are not failing due to this problem. For me, I don't believe that messing with this problem is worth it. You might have better luck with TOPS-mounted volumes, since their creation dates don't seem to change so readily. I have recently had a problem with TOPS 2.08(beta) and HFS Timer Init, however (The TOPS DA wouldn't launch under MultiFinder). I suggest that if you try HFS Backup, you buy it from somewhere that you can return it to should it not work out. Jim Prouty Quantitative Technology Corporation "A man is not the sum of his possessions." 8700 SW Creekside Place Beaverton, Oregon 97005 (503)-626-3081 sequent!qtc!jim