netatalk, NFS, OS X and backup

[Shane Ambler]

Personally I use a combination of applescript and cli.

With applescript you create a script that mounts the remote afp volume.

Eg in script editor
On run
   try
     mount volume "afp://server/sharepoint" as user name "name" with
password "crypt"
   on error
    --
   end try
End run

Personally I put the mount command inside the try block to prevent error
dialogs coming up - that is why the -- (a comment line) is after on error -
it tricks the script into doing nothing on error.

As you might guess this is plain text - for security when you save it you
can save as application and tick the run only box - this prevents the file
being opened in the script editor and read - you can open and run it but not
see the source.

This will mount the specific share point - it shows up in
/volumes/sharepoint - which can then be copied to/from

I then use the cli to compress/copy files - personally I use stuffit deluxe
for compression as the deluxe version includes the cli tools and handles
resource forks / meta data etc.

#! /bin/sh
/usr/local/bin/stuff -f sitx -n /pathto/backupfile /pathto/filestobackup

cp /pathto/backupfile /volumes/sharepoint/backupfile


Of course you put the date/numbers into the filename as you prefer.

One gotcha to look out for is if the sharepoint doesn't mount for whatever
reason the cp step will create a folder in /volumes and will copy locally
instead of to the server. There is also the option of using scp to get the
files to the server.

There is a cli - mount_afp - when I tried it some time ago I had some
problem(can't remember what now) so I used the applescript instead.

You then setup cron to run the applescript and the shell script when you
want.

With the applescript it is a gui app so in cron you need
/usr/bin/open /pathto/applescript.app
Remember the .app is not shown in the finder but is needed for the cli,
easy to miss.


On 11/1/05 2:15 AM, "Martin Hepworth" <maxsec at gmail.com> wrote:

> have you looked at amanda? Uses it's daemons to transfer the data, and
> you can select where to comress (on client or server).
> 
> works well when used with hfstar on MacOS X ...
> 
> restores are normally done by the admin and currently its a cli...no
> plans AFAIK to make this a gui.
> 
> ---
> Martin
> 
> 
> On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 11:29:59 -0500, Alan Curtis <acurtis at ieee.org> wrote:
>> I need some advice about integrating my FreeBSD server with some Macs
>> running OS X.
>> 
>> I have a server running FreeBSD 5.3 with NFS and netatalk enabled, a
>> Powerbook G4 running OS X 10.3.7 and they are connected through a
>> wireless network. I used the Powerbook to administer the server using
>> ssh, which works well. I would also like to use the server to backup
>> files (for multiple users) from the Powerbook. I have played around
>> with both NFS and netatalk (afpd) and both seem to be working, in that
>> I can manually mount the shares on the Powerbook. I have got the NFS
>> share to automount on the Powerbook but not the afp share. I can copy
>> files to and from both the nfs and afp mounted shares, including
>> resource forks. I have played with various backup utilities including
>> rsync, psync and rdiff-backup with varying degrees of success.
>> 
>> Some observations/questions
>> 
>> 1. netatalk afp seems consistently and significantly faster than nfs.
>> Is this to be expected or might I have a problem with nfs? If so how do
>> I diagnose and fix it?
>> 
>> 2. I would prefer to use nfs, because I can automount it on the
>> Powerbook and run a cron (actually anacron) script to backup the
>> multiple users. I haven't yet worked out how (or if) I can do this with
>> afp (this is really a Mac question I know).
>> 
>> 3. I would like to use a backup scheme which is automatic, invisible to
>> the user, yet configured in a way that the archive can be navigated,
>> and files appear in folders on the Mac finder in a consistent way (with
>> resource forks set up correctly).
>> 
>> All of this seems almost possible, yet I don't seem to have got it just
>> right yet. Has anyone one any insight they can spread or experiences
>> they can share of a similar set up?
>> 
>> Alan
>> 
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-- 

Shane Ambler
Sales Department
007Marketing.com
Shane at 007Marketing.com