On 04/07/2009, at 1:36 AM, David Haines wrote: On Jul 2, 2009, at 8:35 AM, Bryan Dulock wrote: On Jul 1, 2009, at 8:34 PM, Brian F. Opitz wrote: elusiv3 wrote: I have been using Time Machine as a backup on a few servers for about 6 months with no issues. It's very handy for restoring files to user homes. If a user deletes a file that was there an hour ago I can very easily get it back. Depending on your backup up needs and the services that your server is running I think Time Machine is a very good reliable option.
On 02/07/2009, at 12:30 AM, Steve Meredith wrote: I'm new to the list, please forgive me if this has been asked and answered! Our HP Tape backup failed, it can no longer read-write to tape. I was thinking a faster method would be to use TimeMachine as a server grade backup. Wondering about the reliability, rotation of media (two separate drives) etc. Thoughts Please. This has been discussed so many times before on this list that we don't need to hear it anymore. Time Machine is designed for the home user. Period. To use it in a mission-critical, production, environment is simply lunacy. Would you risk your paycheck on it? I know I wouldn't. As far as the server goes, Time Machine would not be suitable for the Mail service. A proper back up of the Mail service would require that service to be turned off during the backup.
For user data and other services, Time Machine is okay.
Quite possibly not so.
As Simon pointed out, for any Advanced setup, not. There's the db associated with Open Directory, various sqlite dbs connected to other services, and potentially MySQL dbs, that should not be externally "backed up" while in use.
Curious that people mention the presence of open databases as a reason for not using TM for backups. This caveat applies to ALL backup mechanisms. To make a sensible backup solution based on TM is the same as for other mechanisms: set the preferences to not backup active database files, create scripts to shutdown/backup/restart services which keep files open and backup those files to TM. Or something similar.
For the smaller network, making a full clone of a quiescent server "every now and then" and using TM to continuously backup shared documents may be a fine solution. Even if it's only part of a grander scheme, it's a nice user accessible system perfect for those moments of stupidity where you trash the wrong file/folder! |
