Backing up apple laptops on windows network
Hello experts.
we manage a server 2008 network domain with about 50 users all windows 7 workstations (mainly)
, however , there are 5 apple o/s laptop users and they have asked if there is any solution to automating their data backup onto the Microsoft network.
I have been told that this inst feasible as they are not truly on the domain and the only 2 solutions are either locally (external hard drive/ time machine) or i cloud.
Its mainly outlook details, files etc that need backing up.
They would like it automated if possible. SO if it cannot be done within the network is there some service to manage these users data in the cloud?
Does anyone have any more ideas? thanks
we manage a server 2008 network domain with about 50 users all windows 7 workstations (mainly)
, however , there are 5 apple o/s laptop users and they have asked if there is any solution to automating their data backup onto the Microsoft network.
I have been told that this inst feasible as they are not truly on the domain and the only 2 solutions are either locally (external hard drive/ time machine) or i cloud.
Its mainly outlook details, files etc that need backing up.
They would like it automated if possible. SO if it cannot be done within the network is there some service to manage these users data in the cloud?
Does anyone have any more ideas? thanks
strivoli
I would use your actual backup solution. For example: if you use Symantec's Backup Exec for backing up your Windows servers you can use Backups Exec's agent to backup the MACs.
Best solution for backing up Macs is Retrospect ,don't bother with BE.
http://www.retrospect.com/en/products/mac
http://www.retrospect.com/en/products/mac
There's no reason the Mac's couldn't be joined to the domain, but depending on the backup software you use that may still not make a difference.
Mac's come with Time Machine build in and you can backup to an internal or external source. Unless you have the new wireless TM backup device, typically that's a USB or Firewire connected device. You can also look at apps like SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner as these may have more options for backing up.
Mac's come with Time Machine build in and you can backup to an internal or external source. Unless you have the new wireless TM backup device, typically that's a USB or Firewire connected device. You can also look at apps like SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner as these may have more options for backing up.
Time machine as a local backup is a solution, but it is hard to maintain. A centralized backup via Time Machine over the network is not advisable since it will drain your network bandwidth.
SuperDuper and CarbonCopyCloner make copies of the disk, this is not a backup. I suggest working with crashplan enterprise. This offers a good and cost effective backup, you can backup to a backup server. If you want to go for tape backup use P5 from archiware, they backup pretty good over the network to a centralized backup system.
My 5 ¢
SuperDuper and CarbonCopyCloner make copies of the disk, this is not a backup. I suggest working with crashplan enterprise. This offers a good and cost effective backup, you can backup to a backup server. If you want to go for tape backup use P5 from archiware, they backup pretty good over the network to a centralized backup system.
My 5 ¢
PeterLbk is correct in that CCC and SD don't allow granular hits like a regular backup program does, but you can get more granular than just a whole disk. Still for what you want to do, There are a number of backups than can be used. Crashplan is one. I use iDrive that does a pretty good job of backing things up to their cloud service.
TM will back up everything on your disk and keep track of changes so that it is available to you. The wireless TM module, while not a real network backup, would allow you to backup with TM to a module not directly connected to your computer.
TM will back up everything on your disk and keep track of changes so that it is available to you. The wireless TM module, while not a real network backup, would allow you to backup with TM to a module not directly connected to your computer.
One possibility is to buy an Airport Extreme Router. Turn off the wifi. Connect it to your network by ethernet and turn off its DHCP server. You are not going to use it for its router or wifi capabilities (although you could set it to bridge mode and use it as a local WAP for your network if that were convenient).
The Airport Extreme has an USB port that you can hang a big drive on. Get a 2 TB drive and format it as a Mac drive using Disk Utility on one of the Macs. Correct format is Apple Extended Format (Journalled). The AE then will work as a server for Time Machine Backups
This will allow you to easily use the 2TB volume as a back up volume. You have to set it up using Airport Utility, which will be on the Macs.
If you set it up right, you can create separate disk images to back up each of your 5 Macs.
The initial backup will be slow as it has to back up the whole drive in each case and I would recommend that you do one computer at a time and allow an overnight backup. Make sure the computer is connected by ethernet for the initial backup as WIFI is too slow.
Once you have the initial backup, the incrementals can be done by wifi with no problem.
Time machine backs up computers hourly. It saves hourly backups for the last 24 hours. It then saves only daily backups for the past month. For any data that's older than a month, it saves weekly backups.
Time Machine works much like the Windows server Shadow Copies, and it is easy to retrieve older backed up versions of changed documents. Has saved my bacon more than once.
If you want to be super-safe, do a whole disk copy of the 2TB drive to another drive periodically.
Here are some helpful links:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
The Airport Extreme has an USB port that you can hang a big drive on. Get a 2 TB drive and format it as a Mac drive using Disk Utility on one of the Macs. Correct format is Apple Extended Format (Journalled). The AE then will work as a server for Time Machine Backups
This will allow you to easily use the 2TB volume as a back up volume. You have to set it up using Airport Utility, which will be on the Macs.
If you set it up right, you can create separate disk images to back up each of your 5 Macs.
The initial backup will be slow as it has to back up the whole drive in each case and I would recommend that you do one computer at a time and allow an overnight backup. Make sure the computer is connected by ethernet for the initial backup as WIFI is too slow.
Once you have the initial backup, the incrementals can be done by wifi with no problem.
Time machine backs up computers hourly. It saves hourly backups for the last 24 hours. It then saves only daily backups for the past month. For any data that's older than a month, it saves weekly backups.
Time Machine works much like the Windows server Shadow Copies, and it is easy to retrieve older backed up versions of changed documents. Has saved my bacon more than once.
If you want to be super-safe, do a whole disk copy of the 2TB drive to another drive periodically.
Here are some helpful links:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
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