Teamwork server selective backup

[Anonymous]

Hello

Just configured our BIMserver to backup everything daily. Seems to work nicely.

I just wonder is there any way to backup just those projects/libraries that have changed since last backup? Now when full backups are made daily, Time Machine of course thinks that they are all new. But for example libraries doesn't really change. This makes alot of extra backup data, which won't be needed. So is there any way to exclude libraries or projects with no changes with ServerBackupTooll?

[schagemann]

interesting question - however from what i gather you can not do this with the ServerBackupTool itself.

i suppose you could create your own shell script with rsync.

btw. an indication on what OS and AC version you are on, will greatly help your helpers.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

We are using SuperDuper on Mac to fully
clone the server to an external FireWire disk
nightly.
I think it only clones the changed information.
After a server disk failure or similar the server
is bootable from that external hard disk in matter
of minutes.

Regards, Juha

[Anonymous]

Backup is an interesting question so far as I'm concerned.
It is mandatory.... and it has to be totally automatic.. I'm just too undisciplined to push the button every night.. or whenever scheduled.

I work in a Mac environment and Automator is simply too complicated to sort out without days of research that I would use just the once, and then forget it until the next time it is needed.... at which time I have to research it all over again. Writing scripts ... I'm not an IT architect... you know?

So what's left?
The backup tool... I can just manage using Terminal... but I don't like having to figure out the paths and for some reason when I cd through the file path.. my mac gets stuck at the BIM folder saying folder not found.. when it is right there in front of me in the finder window. Nope.... that's for the birds... and then I would have to write a script to automate it? Seriously? You must be joking.

I put the BIM server in a RAID array... that's going to help.
Then superduper to firewire bootable disk. Firewire does clone and smart update the whole volume on which the BIM server resides.. so that's a start.... there's an automated backup process there without scripting.

It's not enough.... Off site storage... Now we're getting interesting. I sync the whole BIM server to a cloud host using Sugarsync. It seems to work seemlessly in the background with no noticeable degridation or timeslicing.

But that's not enough... incremental backup... There are ten backups of each project database within the BIM server itself... is that enough? I rely on Time Line for incremental project backups ~ these stored on a different volume on the firewire disk.

What is everyone else doing?

[Anonymous]

We are using the BimServerBackUpTool, which as far I am aware, is the only way of creating a usable backup. Simply copying the data the BimServer creates to an external drive is not sufficient. If you have a fire or theft you cannot transfer the data onto a new BimServer.

However, I recently tested our backup by restoring the data onto a spare computer running a BimServer. It failed. I contacted our tech support who are looking into the issue - they are also unable to restore backups the BimServerBackUpTool creates.

In the meantime we are having to create PLAs of teamwork jobs every day, otherwise we'd be screwed in the event of a total loss.

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I use Superduper to duplicate my entire mac server on a bootable firewire disk and it seems, I can boot from either firewire or the server hard-drive at liberty and in both instances the BIM server is up and running... no issues. I clone the drive every night... presently without stopping the BIM service.

I'm trying to avoid scripts.... that's because once I set them up, that knowledge goes right out of mind and when I need it next time I have to go through the whole learning process again.... that is, every time ther's an upgrade. That's just silly stuff and I have better things to think about.

I have up to the hour backups of each project using time machine... saved to a different partition on the Server Duplicate... these provide recoverable project files.. and once the server duplicate is up and running, can be recovered quickly... However, Time machine does not succesfully back up the BIM service.

I mirror the project files, project backups and all attachments off site using sugarsync just in case.... and then we have the client copies from which we can recover if we have to. Sugarsync does not provide a reliable BIM Server backup.

It would be rather nice, if the BIM server backup procedure was part and parcel of the BIM service Manager interface... wouldnt it. I've had no success at all using the Wiki scripts. They always return errors for me. Maybe that's just me... but your comment, a bit disturbing.... confirms my fears. I've been testing our backups to make sure the system works... and then I hope to let it work all by itself without any further consideration from lazy ol' me.

Gaz.

csparchitects wrote:
We are using the BimServerBackUpTool, which as far I am aware, is the only way of creating a usable backup. Simply copying the data the BimServer creates to an external drive is not sufficient. If you have a fire or theft you cannot transfer the data onto a new BimServer.

....
In the meantime we are having to create PLAs of teamwork jobs every day, otherwise we'd be screwed in the event of a total loss.

[Anonymous]

gazpacho40 wrote:
I use Superduper to duplicate my entire mac server on a bootable firewire disk and it seems, I can boot from either firewire or the server hard-drive at liberty and in both instances the BIM server is up and running... no issues. I clone the drive every night... presently without stopping the BIM service.

I assume that you can boot from your firewire disk on any MAC? We are on PC, do you (or does anyone else) know if we can do the same here?

gazpacho40 wrote:
It would be rather nice, if the BIM server backup procedure was part and parcel of the BIM service Manager interface... wouldnt it.

Quite! I have requested this on the ArchiCad Facebook page and Graphisoft have acknowledged the request.

[Anonymous]

I've quickly forgotten all my PC knowledge.... but in a PC environment is it possible to use HD Clone to clone your entire op system partition, BIM server and all to a bootable external drive? I suppose you would then enter your replacement computer's BIOS to select that disk to boot from if you find yourself in trouble.

On a Mac I've only ever tried to use the clone copy on a mac with similar specs. Apple hardware upgrades generally match system upgrades so you can't really use "any" mac... but you can use any mac of the similar vintage.

csparchitects wrote:

I assume that you can boot from your firewire disk on any MAC? We are on PC, do you (or does anyone else) know if we can do the same here?

........
Quite! I have requested this on the ArchiCad Facebook page and Graphisoft have acknowledged the request.

[Anonymous]

gazpacho40 wrote:
On a Mac I've only ever tried to use the clone copy on a mac with similar specs. Apple hardware upgrades generally match system upgrades so you can't really use "any" mac... but you can use any mac of the similar vintage.

OK, just curious - if you had a fire/theft you should be able to get going again from the ext hd?

Graphisoft are looking into the BimServerBackUpTool issue. We received a new script to run yesterday, unfortunately it's only backing up the Libraries!

[Anonymous]

You'll need off site storage to deal with fire/theft so simply cloning a disk every night will not help unless you store it off site.

That's why I also use Sugarsync. It syncs the entire bim server folder including auto backup files and project files- and therefore off site, and as it happens, now i do run a scripted nightly Bimserverbackup (I got a friend in to help me set it up yesterday). Mind you, I am in trouble again as soon as there is an upgrade of hardware or software. We shouldn't have to deal with scripts! The Bimserverbackup target folder is synced off site using Sugarsync so that it's automatic stored off site as well as locally.