Important data files

[ElgertS]

I am working with the backup software SuperDuper. It allows you to back up a drive in bootable form and has other nice features similar to CCC and others. What is has different is a Safety Clone feature. This allows you to make a bootable copy of a drive that shares (via linking) certain data that remains on the original drive. What this does is allow you to load software and if you blow up your install, you can boot back on the other drive and not lose any data.

I have set this up on my server in this fashion:

Two 40G drives mirrored as primary volume.
120G drive partitioned into 40G & 70G w/40G set as Safety Clone of primary volume. Last partition used for backup.

The Safety Clone is configured to “share” the Users Directory, mail, websites, & MySQL databases.

I am wondering if I am missing anything. Right away I can see I am forgetting the Open Directory data which means if I add new users I will not have them if I go back to the primary volume. Any other thoughts?

[ElgertS]

My concern is that if I do too many config files if the config file is what destroys my setup I will be out of luck and not able to go back again.

I see your point in having the data on another volume and believe that is inevitably the direction I will eventually head as something like that is probably required for clustering I would expect, something I one day hope to investigate.

So far, this setup has been the bomb for me. I feel no fears in doing crazy tests on a live server.

[ElgertS]

In case anyone else wants to try this I just want to point out how fantastic this has been for me. I have redone my configuration even further with the software, now using six volumes on my server:

1. Main volume is a “Mirror” of two 40G drives
2. “Safety Clone” is a partition of 40G using Super Duper’s Safety Clone feature which “shares” important data file (websites, mysql data, config files, email). This is what I normally am booting from.
3. “Mirror Backup” is a direct backup up my Mirror volume
4. “Safety Backup” is a direct backup of the Safety Clone volume
5. “ASR Images” is a drive that stores ASR images for faster restore

Since Super Duper has worked faster than CCC for me in tests and the script to backup just changes files will also remove new files that were added to the target to get them back in sync I have been able to make major changes to my Safety Clone, receive unsatisfactory results and boot off the Safety Backup to get the machine back online instantly and serving. Then use Super Duper to revert the Safety Clone volume back to what it last was in about 8 minutes of copy time.

Combining this with a reliable tape backup strategy has made me feel very comfortable with my server.

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