Forums | MacLife

thumbprint · 2007-10-25 11:56 am

Hi, I don't know much about setting up servers, so I'm hoping I can get some advice smile

I want to buy and set up a file backup server for our design office. We have 4 Macs and 1 WinXP machine. The computers will connect via ethernet, but sometimes we will need to connect remotely via home internet connections. Basically, we just want to backup our project files (which are graphic design projects, so they will be very large groups of files). Software that catalogs all of these files is a must, too. IView Media Pro is our *greatly-preferred* software, so I'm hoping there is a "server version" of it.

Anyway, we simply want something where there's an additional drive icon on our desktop when we boot up in the morning. We just want to double click the drive icon and type in a password and that's it. Nothing complicated at all.

I don't even know if we really need an actual server to do this. We can buy a machine, but NO WINDOWS. Mac or Linux is fine.

Any answers, thoughts, ideas, suggestions, or whatever else is appreciated smile

Thanks!

user · 2007-10-29 2:46 pm

In our shop we use Retrospect to automatically make a nightly backup to a Firewire drive, including our XP PC. We manually place files in an archive folder and periodically run a script to copy the archive to DVDs. There's no need for a dedicated Mac for this, although it may be easier to run it on a less-used machine.

Last edited by user (2007-10-29 2:46 pm)

sturner · 2007-10-29 3:44 pm

If you want a Mac as the backup machine, something like a mac mini would suffice. You don't need more than a keyboard and a borrowed monitor to setup. Install Chicken of the VNC on it so you can manage it remotely. Use some software like Retrospect. Invest in a large external hardrive to hook on to it.

If you want a shared drive, you are talking about a slightly different animal. The above setup will work effectively for a workgroup backup. Note that your backup capacity is severly limited with a single harddrive.

Backups normally have a rolling series of tapes to write updates to with a weekly consolidation of the entire user harddrive. That allows you to rotate several tapes during a week giving you a weeks snapshot of backups.

Or you could do it more expensively with removable harddrives that hook to the mini.

sturner · 2007-10-29 3:45 pm

What exactly are your requirements because you can have several different solutions depending upon your needs.

thumbprint · 2007-10-30 11:32 am

Thanks for the input folks smile

Sturner, I guess I don't know enough about this stuff to have any more-exact requirements than what I listed above. The biggest thing is that we just want a drive icon to "just show up" on our desktops when we boot our computers, so the whole "Go/Connect to server/etc" should just happen automatically. If a window pops up when we boot, asking us to log in to the network, that's great. But anything less-automated than that will not work for the less computer savvy people here.

Anyway, what exactly is meant by a "shared drive"?

Basil · 2007-10-30 11:49 am

If you put an alias of the network drive (or some folder within) in the start-up items it will mount when you boot up, assuming it is powered up.

mrreet2001 · 2007-10-30 12:14 pm

Basil wrote:
If you put an alias of the network drive (or some folder within) in the start-up items it will mount when you boot up, assuming it is powered up.

if you use apple script you won't have to deal with the folder opening on boot.

thumbprint · 2007-10-30 12:38 pm

Basil wrote:
If you put an alias of the network drive (or some folder within) in the start-up items it will mount when you boot up, assuming it is powered up.

So basically, I can set a drive on a computer to be the network drive... and then access it from other computers on the network? How do I set a drive as a network drive?

Yeah, I'm kind of a networking half-noob smile

mrreet2001 · 2007-10-30 1:30 pm

you would have to set up a share point ... I would suggest sharepoints:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12512

then to automatically mount it on the desktop on login / boot:

create an apple script

Code:

tell application "Finder"
    mount volume "cifs://computer-name/sharename"
end tell

the syntax of mount is:
protocol://username:password@server/sharedvolume

save the script as an app

put the app in login items in -system prefs-accounts-

sturner · 2007-10-30 1:47 pm

Rereading your orginal post it seems you are asking not for a backup solution, but a network drive to be accessed by all members of your company. The words you use to describe what you want are important as they will point to different solutions. What you are talking about would be a shared network drive that can be accessed by everyone to place files. Backup is a specific process that usually isn't done manually.

You can do what you want with the equipment you have and possibly a large external drive. mreet and basil are pointing to the mechanics of it. I still would recommend that you get a dedicated machine to run the external harddrive.

For your other requirement, that it be accessible from offsite, well that opens other problems. One of which is security and internet access.

Do you have a broadband internet access point for your company? I assume that you do. If so then do you have a static IP address or is it a dynamic address? You can ask your internet service provider these questions. If it is dynamic you have to have a means to find it if it changes address, which it will, eventually. dyndns.com can help in this matter.

Setting up a VPN connection to your shared drive for external access would be the next step. To that end, you could do it yourself with openVPN or just hire someone to use an off-the-self solution to install a VPN server.

Last edited by sturner (2007-10-30 2:05 pm)

thumbprint · 2007-10-30 2:05 pm

Thanks sturner (and others). Yes I do want a network drive... and additionally a backup process... but let's stick to the network drive for now. Sorry if I'm not describing things clearly/correctly.

We would like a separate computer with at least one large HD. This (these) HD(s) would be network drives. I'll check out Sharepoints. So, I'm understanding that this separate computer does not have to be running any type of server software, correct?

Also, yes we do want the remote access, so I guess the VPN is the way to go. I will have a professional install this since I know very little about VPNs. Is there any software we would need to buy for this?

thumbprint · 2008-03-04 11:58 am

Ok some more questions:

We are talking with a company about having them install a VPN. They are recommending that we buy a VPN box called SonicWALL TZ 180 Internet Security Appliance.

What exactly is a VPN box.... and why do we need it? We already have a router/firewall. What is this "VPN box" going to do that our router/firewall can't?

They recommend VPN Tracker for Macintosh as our VPN client. Does anyone know if that is a decent package?

Thanks for your input smile

mrreet2001 · 2008-03-06 7:45 am

That would allow you to securely get to your files from an off location site. ie like at home or a coffee shop

thumbprint · 2008-05-16 5:05 pm

Ok, so I loaded Sharepoints and I can now copy files to and from this "backup" machine's shared drive.

But

When I copy a folder from the "backup" machine to my desktop, it changes the permissions to read only. The "backup" machine is Tiger and my desktop is Leopard.

So I go on the "backup" machine and change the folder's permissions to "Others: read/write" and then click the "apply to enclosed items" button. Ok, that seems to work just fine.

But isn't there some EASY way to just automatically set all permissions on all files on this friggin' drive so that nobody has to worry about this crap anymore? We need to be able to FREELY pass files back and forth between the 5 computers at our office without having to constantly worry about permissions.

Last edited by thumbprint (2008-05-16 5:07 pm)

thumbprint · 2008-05-16 5:53 pm

Heh, nevermind, I think I found my answer... the elusive "ignore ownership on this volume" checkbox sounds like it'll do the trick smile

Forums | MacLife

#1 2007-10-25 11:56 am

help with file backup server for small office

#2 2007-10-29 2:46 pm

Re: help with file backup server for small office

#3 2007-10-29 3:44 pm

Re: help with file backup server for small office

#4 2007-10-29 3:45 pm

Re: help with file backup server for small office

#5 2007-10-30 11:32 am

Re: help with file backup server for small office

#6 2007-10-30 11:49 am

Re: help with file backup server for small office

#7 2007-10-30 12:14 pm

Re: help with file backup server for small office

Basil wrote:

#8 2007-10-30 12:38 pm

Re: help with file backup server for small office

Basil wrote:

#9 2007-10-30 1:30 pm

Re: help with file backup server for small office

Code:

#10 2007-10-30 1:47 pm

Re: help with file backup server for small office

#11 2007-10-30 2:05 pm

Re: help with file backup server for small office

#12 2008-03-04 11:58 am

Re: help with file backup server for small office

#13 2008-03-06 7:45 am

Re: help with file backup server for small office

#14 2008-05-16 5:05 pm

Re: help with file backup server for small office

#15 2008-05-16 5:53 pm

Re: help with file backup server for small office

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