Can I backup two computers to different backup sets with one script?

[denke]

Can I backup two computers to different backup sets with one script? They're all networked.

 

I’d been using Retrospect Express to back up my Mac and my wife’s Mac to my Maxtor OneTouch II. This required switching the Maxtor back and forth between the computers. I put the Backup Sets for the two computers on separate partitions of the Maxtor.

 

I just upgraded to Retrospect Desktop, so that I could do it all from my Mac and automate it. But I don’t see how to make one script that will backup my Mac to my backup set and then backup my wife’s Mac to her backup set. How do I do that?

 

Actually, I'll want to backup my Windows computer too, preferably to its own backup set.

[Hanz]

Hi,

 

That's possible, just check on www.dantz.com/tutorials

 

Regards,

[hmseiden]

There are any number of ways to do this. You should probably explore some alternatives, particularly due to:

 

• Your frequency of backup.

 

• Desires for backup integrity.

 

• The capabilities of the software you have (probably more current than mine).

 

• Your networking arrangement.

 

• Your equipment, and your method of using that equipment.

 

 

 

It is not my purpose to tell you exactly how to do this, rather I will point you to a solution based on what I have done and hopefully you'll come up with a method that fits your particular situation.

 

 

 

My set up (2 Mac machines, and one Windows), using Retro 5.1 Desktop for my PPC G3/400 and two Retro version 6.0.138 Clients (both laptops). What I do is to automatically (via scripts), at 1AM each morning begin to backup my desktop daily (where the most important data is stored), and all machines weekly. Machines not plugged into the network or "visible" are skipped.

 

 

 

I use two 120GB FW disk drives for the two sets- Daily backup and Network Backup. They alternate backup drives weekly. I disconnect one drive from my system and so at any time, I'll have one week of safely archived data plus a few days of quickly restorable, on-line backup. Network backups reside on the drive also, making those files a two week archive also. The Macs all have OS X, 10.3.8 and the Win computer uses XP Pro, SP2.

 

 

 

I also use AIT-2 tape (two, 50GB four tape sets) to make a copy of this data onto tape which resides off-line. Right now this is a manual process, since 5.1 for Mac does not provide scripting for this function. I am phasing out tape... probably.

 

 

 

How is this done? I use two scripts Daily and Network. Daily is very straightforward doing exactly that for my destop machine only. It runs about three hours. It is a Normal backup and recycles every six weeks on Thursday using Recycle backup. I have about 30GB of FW HD in use for that backup. I alternate Daily Backup weekly as discussed. The script automatically looks for the appropriate drive so the only intervention involved is to plug in the correct drive Sunday. I am set up to receive an email reminder and / or warning if this goes awry.

 

 

 

Network backs up the other two machines beginning after the Daily Backup is completes each Saturday early morning. It also is a Normal backup and uses Recycle Backup every six weeks. I chose different days for the Recycle of Network than the Daily backup by default. There is about 85GB of data on the two Client computers and use hard wired 100BT connections (even though wireless is available @54MB/s, I choose the faster and safer approach). Network runs all of Saturday (depending on Recycle), and the copy process described takes all of Sunday, sometimes skipping the Daily backup.

 

 

 

I try to replug the alternate FW drive no later than that- in time for Monday morning.

 

 

 

Good Luck,

 

 

 

Henry

 

 

 

[denke]

Thanks, Henry and Hanz, for your replies. I see that I did not express clearly what I wish to do.

 

I'm hoping to use only one scheduler for the three backups. What I want to do is say is "every day at xxxx hours, backup PowerMac to PM Backup Set, iMac to iMac Backup Set, and Dell to Dell Backup Set." I'd like to have all the backups done during a period when the computers are least likely to be in use by my wife or me--or by the Unix maintenance tasks that run automatically every night.

 

I gather that I could script a separate scheduler for each backup, but I don't necessarily know how long the backups will take, and I don't wish to stretch out the entire backup process needlessly. That is, I don't want to allow an hour between backups, when it might take only 15 minutes--or vice versa.

[Hanz]

Brillant.

[denke]

Well, it turns out that if two or more scripts are run at the same time, Retrospect executes them one at a time, in alphabetical order. So I just made a script for each computer I want to back up, set them to run at one-minute intervals, and named them A - etc., B - etc., C - etc. Works great.