upgrade from desktop to single server?

[markshe]

I am thinking of picking up mac mini server and getting a copy of single server retrospect to replace desktop version (8.1) of retrospect on a first generation mac mini intel computer on a home network.

 

I'm assuming all I gain is 20 clients and of course the ability to run backups from (and backup) the server. Can you protect server with a full back and restore like a OS X client (desktop)? Any particular problems with doing a full restore on a server? I have fooled around with 10.4 server and I expect to blow this server up a few times before I get it right. Can I use the desktop retrospect to restore server via a temporary OS X client booted on server? Or would Time Machine be a better fit to protect server?

 

I will be getting a windows server 2008, I realize I will need another license for it, anything but the usual windows problems backing up and restoring a 2008 server via retrospect?

 

any problems using the same backup sets and scripts as desktop version 8? I assume the single server Retrospect must be installed on the server it protects, correct?

[wdockery]

I have a similar, but more basic, question: What is the difference in functionality between the "single server" version of Retrospect and the desktop version, if one is already using the desktop version in client-server mode? Does "single server" refer to the Retrospect backup server (which also runs on the desktop version) or does it refer to the more general architecture of the customer's network? If the latter, what is it about having a server on one's network that requires Retrospect to do something different?

 

The practical issue for me is that I am about to start using a Mac Mini as a server for two different applications (Filemaker and dcm4chee, a medical application), and I'm wondering whether that means that I need to change my desktop version of Retrospect to a single (or multiple) server version.

 

Thanks.

[rhwalker]

What is the difference in functionality between the "single server" version of Retrospect and the desktop version, if one is already using the desktop version in client-server mode?

The difference is whether the machine running Retrospect is running Mac OS X Server or Mac OS X (non-server).

 

See the product blurb:

New! Retrospect for Mac 8

 

and the Datasheet:

Retrospect for Mac 8 Datasheet

 

Apparently there's also an added twist, such that, if any Mac OS X Server is running Retrospect Client, that machine counts as a "server" as well as the machine that is running Retrospect, regardless of whether the machine running Retrospect is running Mac OS X Server, so the Multi-Server version is required whenever any client is running Mac OS X Server.

 

I'm sure it's all explained in the manual. Oh, forgot, there is no manual.

 

Russ