Backup to a remote site

[costasppc]

Hello

I need to setup a backup system to backup data from a MacOS X Server to a remote site via a WAN link.

 

Is it something that Retrospect for Mac can do?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Kostas Backas

[rhwalker]

Yes, for Retrospect 6.1 (FTP backup to remote site). No, for Retrospect 8.x.

 

Russ

[costasppc]

Is Retrospect 6.1 compatible with Snow Leopard? Should I implement that solution?

 

Thanks

Kostas

[rhwalker]

Is Retrospect 6.1 compatible with Snow Leopard?

No, and it never will be. Neither is Retrospect 8 right now, but an update to Retrospect 8 is expected "real soon now".

 

Should I implement that solution?

You haven't provided any specifics of your environmant, your backup policy, your needs, etc., so there is no way to answer that question.

 

Retrospect 8 has rough edges right now, is a bit unreliable in some configurations, is missing many needed features, and there is no User's Guide for Retrospect 8 either. As it matures and as missing features, reliability, and documentation are added, it would be the choice.

 

Note that Retrospect 8 also cannot read backup sets made by older versions of Retrospect (e.g., Retrospect 6 or older).

 

Russ

[costasppc]

Thanks for the answer.

 

The plan is to have a Snow Leopard Server with around 100 MB new data each day, to get backed up via WAN to a remote computer in another site overnight. The client doesnt wants to use tapes or Firewire disks.

 

Kostas

[rhwalker]

Ok. Because you will be running on a Snow Leopard Server, you can't run Retrospect 6.x.

 

I would suggest waiting until when (if) Retrospect 8 adds FTP support for remote backup destinations. There's a possibility that you could do it by mounting the remote volume, but that's not a good idea (could end up trashing the remote filesystem).

[Ramon88]

Why not use a VPN-connection instead?

[rhwalker]

The problem is not establishing the tunnel; the problem is a protocol that can reliably write to a remote filesystem.

 

Yes, a remote volume could be mounted locally and perhaps Retrospect 8 could back up to that. But the chance of having the connection be lost during the backup and mess up the remote filesystem isn't worth it.

 

With a protocol like FTP, the program at the destination has the file open and, if the connection becomes lost, the worst that happens is that the file becomes truncated.

 

Plus, the backup performance to a remotely mounted filesystem through a VPN tunnel would be horrible, even if only 100 MB per day, unless something like FTP were to be used. Right now, Retrospect 8 is just not the right tool for that job. Choose something like rsync (a modified version that preserves Macintosh metadata).

 

Russ

[Ramon88]

True enough, but It would depend a bit on how reliable the line is. We use a fiberoptic leased line with a VPN on top for encryption of the data stream. This works extremely well, but it is an expensive raw hardware power option. Plus it's very reliable with a guaranteed 99,9% uptime.

 

Using a WAN you always have the problem of a possible drop in connection, regardless of protocol used. Some protocols are more up to the job.

 

FTP doesn't seem an option. Setting up an VPN might. I'm not so sure you would mess up a file system when a connection drops. It's more robust than that. It just might be worth a shot. Testing wouldn't be too difficult (with the right knowledge about setting up VPN's).

 

Anyway, stumbled upon this a couple of days ago. If its only offsite backup you need, that might do the trick as well. I've no idea though if they are any good. I just kind of liked their storage riggs.