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Forum Discussion
Backup OS6
I am trying to setup backup jobs to pull files from my Mac OSx machine, from the User, Library, and Application folders, but Permissions are a real bear. The User Folder backup job fails regularly, ...
Thanks, Stephen B.
I am creating backup jobs on the ReadyNAS' network/IP interface, to pull files from the Mac to the 424.
As an aside, one of the main reasons for this project is because of Time Machine's habit of randomly deleting all its backups and starting over.
whartonw wrote:
I am creating backup jobs on the ReadyNAS' network/IP interface, to pull files from the Mac to the 424.
Are you using the MacOS admin credentials in the backup job?
One thing you might try instead is using backup software on the Mac that has an RN424 share as the destination. Something like FreeFileSync.
Hey, Steven
I can't see how to tell the NAS to tell the Mac that I am the Mac admin, but it occurs that I can tell the Mac that the NAS is a user and give it Read permission.
Did not know about FreeFileSync. I'll give it a shot.
Many thanks.
Stay safe.
w
Unless you have the NAS on a power-on time schedule, using backup software on the user side instead of the NAS typically works better, especially for system files. I'm not a Mac user, but I suspect that, like Windows, the OS has to "lock" some files, whjich will prevent an external backup job from copying them. But products that run on the user side instead of the NAS often have provisions to get around that (In Windows, it's a shadow copy).
If you do have the NAS on a time schedule, then that can be a problem. When runnig a backup job, the NAS will hold off powering down until it completes. But if it's being accessed by a user computer, it won't.
Sandshark, thank you for your note.
I don't have the NAS on a power timer.
I've scheduled the backup jobs to run during the wee hours.
I am trying to move to on-board NAS backups because I haven't found a backup-to-NAS application for Mac that I really like. Carbon Copy Cloner does a good job elsewhere, but it doesn't like the NAS. CCC usually gets to EOJ, but almost always has a long list of errors and warnings; I am spending all my time going through this.
The 424 NAS seems to drop offline frequently; even while I am working in the web interface, the NAS will refresh and put up the 'home page' (for lack of a better name -- the page that's essentially blank-white with only the version of the OS in the center of the page.). I believe that this dropping offline is what upsets CCC. Lot's of the messages say, Destination disappeared.
The onboard-NAS jobs not only remove the computing load from the computer, but they also are tolerant of this 'refreshing'.
You are right about the Mac protecting its system files. If the NAS backup job setup had a way to avoid backing up certain file types, I think I would be home free, but I can't find a way to do that.
Stay safe.
whartonw wrote:
I can't see how to tell the NAS to tell the Mac that I am the Mac admin,
Note the login and password fields in the backup job :smileywink:
Those are the login/password the NAS presents to the Mac. They should probably be set to use the Mac admin account.
Though personally I find it works out better to run backup software on the PCs. I use Acronis TrueImage for that, but I use Windows - not MacOS.
I agree with Sandshark that you shouldn't be seeing connection drops, so that should also be investigated. You could download the full log zip file (system->logs; there's a download control on the right), and look in network_settings.log. You'll see something like this:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr e8:fc:af:e7:25:82 inet addr:10.0.0.15 Bcast:10.0.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST DYNAMIC MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:757127735 errors:0 dropped:2638 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1595902139 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:558015525692 (519.6 GiB) TX bytes:2048108922359 (1.8 TiB)It's normal to see a few dropped packets on the RX side(as you can see above). But you shouldn't see very many. Frame and carrier errors indicate that something is physically wrong with the ethernet.
Stephen B & Sandshark, good afternoon.
I will look at the switches; there are two involved, a 4-port to which I have 4 NAS units connected, and the 'house' switch which is a 32-port device. There maybe some TrendNet Green somewhere. I'll get out my ladder and see!
My diagnosis, such as it is, has run something like this: were I using the web intrface to look at, say, the Backup Jobs page, and there was a switch hiccup, I thought I'd see a flicker of that page, and the same page would come back. The fact that the page I am seeing goes to the initialization page indicates to me that the NAS is doing some sort of a reset, not a full re-boot, obviously, as opposed to a switch-glitch. It's not obvious to me why a switch-glitch would cause the NAS to 'transmit' a different page. But I'll check it out. Sounds like good place to look.
(Also, I think somewhere I have seen a post that referred to this particular unit randomly dropping off line, but I may have dreamed that up.)
Stephen, my comment about whom the NAS is logging in as was a non-thiinking reply to you. I apologize for wasting your time. After I wrote that, I looked at the job settings page, the page to which you referred in your response, and saw that the NAS is logging in as me; I am an/the administrator on the Mac.
Re: the network settings log. New information for me. Thanks. I assume you are talking about a log on the Mac, since you describe Rx errors, not Tx.
You both are extremely generous with your time, and your willingness to give knowledgable help, and patience, are very rare. I appreciate all of that more than you can know.
Thank you.
ww
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