Set Up a Backup Script


If you own Retrospect Express and therefore can't use the Backup Server script typeor if you simply prefer to have your backups run on a regular scheduleyou should set up a Backup script to perform additive incremental archives. The instructions are similar to those for the Backup Server script, just previously, except that you must specify an explicit schedule.

To set up a Backup script, follow these steps:

1.

Click the Automate tab, and then click the Scripts button. The Scripts window appears.

2.

Click New to create a new script, and choose Backup in the dialog that appears.

3.

Enter a name for your script (see Label Media and Files, page 162, for suggestions) and click OK. The Backup window appears.

4.

Click the Source button to display the Volume Selection window. To back up an entire volume, select it in this window. To back up just part of a volume, select the volume and click Subvolume. Navigate to a folder you'd like to back up (such as your home folder) and click Define. You can repeat this as many times as necessary. Each subvolume you define then appears as a folder in the Volume Selection window. (To select multiple volumes or subvolumes in this window, hold down Command while clicking.) When you're finished selecting sources, click OK.

5.

Click the Destination button. Two dialogs open: the Destinations dialog and, in front of that, the Backup Set Selection dialog. Ordinarily, you'll select just one backup set here (and then create an entirely new backup script for each additional destination drive). If you've already defined the backup set you want to use, select it here. If not, follow these steps:

  1. Click New to create a new backup set.

  2. Choose File (not Removable Disk!) from the Backup Set Type pop-up menu.

  3. If you want to encrypt the backup set, click the Secure button, select an encryption type, and enter a passphrase.

    Note

    You must decide whether to use encryption when you initially create a backup set. You can't change the encryption settings for a backup set after the fact.

  4. Give your backup set a descriptive name and click New.

  5. Select the volume (normally an external hard disk) where you want to store the backup set and click Save.

  6. Select the set you want to use and click OK.

When you've added your backup set to the script, click OK to dismiss the Destinations dialog.

6.

Optionally, click the Selecting button and make a selection from the pop-up menu to restrict which files are copied. You might, for example, choose All Files Except Cache Files or All Except Cache & Spotlight; these two choices will speed up the backup while omitting non-critical files. If you're using Retrospect Desktop, you can click More Choices to access more-sophisticated selectors. When you finish, click OK.

7.

Click the Options button. Make sure the Verification checkbox is selected, and if you want to turn on compression (a good idea), select the Backup Compression (In Software) checkbox. Click OK.

8.

Click the Schedule button and set your schedule. (For more details about setting up schedules, see Schedule Backups, just ahead.) When you finish, click OK.

9.

Close the Backup window, and click Save when prompted to do so.

Your Backup script is now ready to go, and will run on the schedule you seteven if you quit Retrospect. If you want to run it immediately, choose the script's name from the Run menu.

After testing your archive (see Test Your Archive, page 169), you can repeat this procedure to set up Backup scripts for additional hard disks or other media.

Note

Execution Errors. After Retrospect completes a backup, it may display a window saying there were execution errors. Don't worry about this. No, really: don't worry about it. Execution errors are common and don't necessarily indicate a problem. Most frequently, an "error" means that something didn't match between Retrospect's pre-backup scan and its post-backup verification, which will be the case if files (such as temporary system files) change while the backup is in progresswhich they often do.


Schedule Backups

You can schedule backups to occur as frequently or as seldom as you wish, but I suggest running them at least once a day. Better yet, use two or more hard drives and alternate your backups between them on a weekly basisdrive #1 every day one week, then drive #2 every day the following week, and so on. This sort of scheme enables you to keep one of the drives off-site at all times. In this example, I show how to schedule backups to run daily, alternating between two drives on a weekly basis. Feel free to alter these instructions to meet your needs if you're using a different number of drives or want to run duplicates at a different frequency.

To schedule your backups scripts, follow these steps:

1.

Select the Automate tab and click Scripts.

2.

Select your first Backup script, and then click Edit.

3.

Click the Schedule button, then the Add button.

4.

For the kind of schedule to add, choose Day of Week.

5.

Enter today's date as the start date.

6.

Select the days of the week on which you want the backup to occur, (usually all of them) and select a time.

7.

In the field labeled Weeks, enter 2 if you have two sets of media or 3 if you have three sets of media (Figure 19).

Figure 19. This Day of Week schedule in Retrospect runs every day for a week, in alternating weeks. To change it to alternate every 3 weeks (if you use three sets of backup media), enter 3 in the Weeks field.


8.

Choose Normal Backup from the Action pop-up menu.

9.

Confirm that the text at the top of the dialog matches your expectations, as in "Do Normal backup to Maggie Backup Set Every other week on SMTWTFS, starting 11/27/2004 at 10:00 PM." Then click OK.

10.

Select your next Backup script and repeat Steps 38, but in Step 4, choose a start date 1 week later.

Your selected scripts will now run daily, but alternate on a weekly basis.

Tip

If you have an old Mac (or, say, a Mac mini) that you'd like to turn into a dedicated backup server, read my article "Turn your old Mac into a backup server" in the September 2005 issue of Macworld: www.macworld.com/2005/08/features/oldmacnewtricks1/.




Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups. Industrial-Strength Techniques
Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups. Industrial-Strength Techniques
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2004
Pages: 144

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