Backing up OS X mail server database

[nbirnbaum]

Hey all,

I’m extremely happy to have found the script here on how to toggle AppleMailService off/on in order to back it up (https://www.afp548.com/Articles/Jaguar/ams-backup.html). Yay! However, I’m looking for more. As I understand the script, it’ll make a full copy of the entire mail database every time it runs. Since this will use up immense amounts of backup tape space over the long run, I’d prefer to do incremental backups. So, two questions:

1. Will incremental backups (via Retrospect) of the mail database files be restorable to a usable configuration?

2. If so, how can one jigger the script so that a. the Retrospect Event Handler calls one portion to turn off mail services, and b. then calls another portion to turn them back on after the incremental backup is complete? I realize this will probably be two shell scripts and some Applescripting. Can y’all help?

Many oodles of thanks,
Noam

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