[rcfa]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: Clinton[/u][p]I have not tried this (on a server or client), and I’m only guessing, but:

1) What happens if you use the Migration Assistant and tell it to migrate data from the time machine backup?
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[b]In Mac OS X Server you can only use Migration Assistant during install time, not after; and during install it fails as I described in my original post.
[/b]
[QUOTE][u]Quote by: Clinton[/u][p]
2) It appears to me that all the files in your time machine backup are readily accessible and can be copied. I would try installing an OS with a version not exceeding that that you were running, and, while accessing the hard drive while the (virtual) computer is turned off, copy all files from the `Latest` subdirectory in your backup on top or you newly-setup OS. (As I understand it, this will copy everything that is the latest and greatest from your backup, by [url=”http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2007/10/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14#time-machine-internals”%5Dusing symlinks and hard links[/url] I believe you could copy it any way you like — from a root Finder, using ditto, rsync, or cp -rpV. [ [url=”http://www.bombich.com/mactips/image.html”%5DThis reference[/url], aimed at cloning entire disks, may be helpful. ]
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[b]I ended up having to install from scratch, then transferring the data into a subfolder with a buggy but still very useful tool called Back-in-Time.app
After that I could selectively move various sections into place while booted into single user mode, and then reboot. Took a lot of time and trial and error to make sure things migrate properly. PITA. Certainly this wasn’t in the “just works” category ;)[/b]

[rcfa]

I made some progress in this matter. Open Directory I could restore, because as it turns out, the disk image in the .ServerBackup folder subfolder for Open Directory is the same structure as the disk images created when one backs up Open Directory from within Server Admin. So I could extract that and use Server Admin to restore it.

There is however still some other screwy business going on. e.g. trying to do a repair permissions with Disk Utility gives me an error message that “Error: no installer packages can be found for this disk” even though they are clearly there in /var/db/receipts

Also, I still have no clue on how to restore the rest of the stuff that’s in that .ServerBackup folder (except for some of the subfolders which I guess can just be mv-ed into place.

I wish there were some documentation on these issues, particularly given how obviously fragile the whole migration process is, and this is migrating within the SAME VERSION of the OS, i.e. from a 10.6.3 machine to another, fresh 10.6.3 install…

[rcfa]

Well, my NetInfo infrastructure dates back to 1990, and has been migrated forward ever since, so I know all about the bad and great of NetInfo 😉

Turns out, besides the NetInfo/ServerAdmin matter, there are also general problems with the machine, an 800MHz iMac G4.
I know, not officially supported, but given that a 25MHz 040 NeXT with 64MB RAM was able to handle all my lilttle domain’s e-mail, DNS and web serving, one would hope that an 800MHz G4 with 1GB of RAM could do the same, despite not being officially supported.

But no such luck: something in the OS is written in such a way that the machine is constantly pegged at 100% CPU load, plus it crashes/freezes reliably within anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour after boot. First thought it is the less than clean upgrade, so I took a FW drive and did a clean install on that, same thing: crashes left and right.

At that point, I bit the bullet and restored 10.4.11 from backup. Would have replaced that machine a long time ago, if Apple would finally sell a Santa Rosa based MacMini that can take 4GB RAM and has 802.11draftN networking built-in. Took forever to even get a Core2Duo CPU in these machines, but without the 4GB RAM the upgrade isn’t worth it, because at that point I want to be able to run a virtualized Linux based VoIP PBX on the machine, too; and 2GGB RAM isn’t enough for that.

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