What makes crontab "right" and other approaches wrong?
V/R,
Wm. Cerniuk
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 20, 2008, at 17:40, David Haines <email@hidden> wrote:
On Apr 20, 2008, at 2:34 PM, John C. Welch wrote:
On 4/20/08 11:54 AM, "John Slaughter" <email@hidden>
wrote:
If you want, you can do this all visually from a central system
using
iCal and triggering AppleScript apps to execute at the servers
over
the network. Each server then is controlled from the centralized
calendar and performs its own backup leveraging multiple
processors
for multiple backups.
Um...no, and no. iCal is most DEFINITELY not the proper mechanism
to
manage
scheduled backups for servers. That's what things like cron and
launchd are
for. Ical's background scheduler only runs in user space, and you'd
have to
set up mechanisms for the AppleScript to run the backups on
multiple
machines.
This reeks of "not the way to do it" from a reliability standpoint.
I'm with Demetri when it comes to (at least) providing people with
options. How many people are running Filemaker Server with a user
already logged in? (Too many, but still.) It may not be an
option
to you, but it may be an option for some.
I've seen too many people crushed by "but Cron was supposed to be
backing up daily." It has it's problems too.
There are two mechanisms to use here that are specifically designed
for
this: cron and launchd. The fact that neither are absolutely
perfect does
not mean that they should be ignored in favor of a method that is
not even
close to designed for this purpose.
What happens if the machine running iCal reboots for some reason?
Your timed
job doesn't run. Cron and launchd, not *having* to run from a user
login
don't have that particular problem
As a test method for the SuperDuper parts, sure, iCal's a good
test. As a
method I want backing up my SERVERS???
Um...no
Couldn't agree more.
Doing things the wrong way - no matter how much easier it might seem
or feel - is never a good choice.
If the issue is (perhaps) not wanting to deal with the very non-
click-and-point aspects of cron and launchd, that's about as poor a
reason for failing to use them as it gets.
There are many available tutorials on Cron and some fine articles on
launchd at afp548.com.
But if you really must, there's Cronnix (for cron) and Lingon (for
launchd) - I never ever use the former and only rarely use the latter.
What problems with cron ? There was a bug very early in 10.4 that's
long since gone. I hope you're not running 10.4.0 on anything : )
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