Need a _very_ robust backup mechanism for large Mac OS X 10.5 client footprint

[zebrac]

Hi all,

As the subject implies, I am in the market (free or otherwise!) for a very robust, enterprise class backup mechanism for Mac OS X 10.5 client systems (desktop/laptop). At the moment, we are utilising Apple’s HomeSync technology as a backup mechanism to the users “network” located home directory on a large SAN system. Frankly – I’ve had enough of it.

Homesync is just an unreliable mechanism as a means of “backup” per se – in that it fails silently, doesn’t necessarily warn the user, nor does it warn the admin. In this respect, it is hard to construe it as a “backup” solution, I guess!

So, some requirements (which make it much harder):

1. It can’t be sparse-image or “volume” level. It needs to be at a file-by-file level. Ergo, I want to be able to back up in an individual-file-by-file way to a users home directory. I don’t want “glob” files that are generated by tools such as Retrospect or Amanda et al. It needs to be on a per file basis.

2. It needs adequate reporting capabilities! I want to know when a user hasn’t checked in for an extended period, or when a user’s machine is choking/failing on execution of a given script/daemon run instance

3. The tool needs to be able to point at network connected NFS or SMB as the storage target

Ideally, there will be a “Server” and a “client” part, with the server part simply running around and checking/executing things and the client daemon sync’ing data back to $homeOfUser on a network drive

Surely, some vendor or a bit of software can offer me something to this effect, as opposed to me sitting there and fiddling with rsync until my hands bleed?

Ta.

[b]z[/b]
[i]

[[email protected]]

take a look at archiware’s [url=http://www.archiware.com/index.php?hp=472]backup2go[/url]

[Author]

Posts