Hello, I am slightly familiar with how to implement cron (well...I
have a man page on how to set it up) but wanted some help regarding
how to setup a cron job on my Red Hat server at home to back up files
that are on two of my Mac Laptops running OSX. Considering that Mac
OSX has a Linux foundation I know this can be done. However the
complicated part is that the laptops are not connected via ethernet to
the Linux server, but rather wireless through a router.

Not looking at something complicated, just a simple cron job to back
up the documents folder on my macs.

Thanks for the help!
Starr

starr.corbin@gmail.com wrote:
> Hello, I am slightly familiar with how to implement cron (well...I
> have a man page on how to set it up) but wanted some help regarding
> how to setup a cron job on my Red Hat server at home to back up files
> that are on two of my Mac Laptops running OSX. Considering that Mac
> OSX has a Linux foundation

Free BSD actually., Quite different. And a lot of extras on top.


> I know this can be done. However the
> complicated part is that the laptops are not connected via ethernet to
> the Linux server, but rather wireless through a router.
>

Makes no difference.

> Not looking at something complicated, just a simple cron job to back
> up the documents folder on my macs.
>

Mmm. The cron part s easy enough, Use terminal and set up a crontab entry

see man crontab from terminal command line -

The more difficult bit is actually writing a bash script..it will depend
on what sort of services your server is running.

Or did you want to suck data off the macs rather than push it onto the
redhat?

If thats your game, best is to let the macs export the home dirs via SMB
shares, and get the redhat to mount the home dirs and tar them up into a
backup place.

You will have to leave the macs awake tho. MM. And maybe set them on
fixed IP addresses in the 'home' location..


Steps are broadly like this.

1/. Disable sleep stuff. Set macs to 'home' location on fixed IP addresses.
2/. Set macs up to 'share' home dirs.
3/. start script development: you need to use smbclient to mount the
macs. I forget the syntax.
4/ Once mounted use tar and Gzip to create archives of te munted volumes.
5/. Once that all works, make up a (root?) crontab entry and let it rip.






> Thanks for the help!
> Starr
>

The Natural Philosopher wrote:


>
> Mmm. The cron part s easy enough, Use terminal and set up a crontab entry

>
> Steps are broadly like this.
>
> 1/. Disable sleep stuff. Set macs to 'home' location on fixed IP
> addresses. 2/. Set macs up to 'share' home dirs.
> 3/. start script development: you need to use smbclient to mount the
> macs. I forget the syntax.

Does OS X support ftp>

> 4/ Once mounted use tar and Gzip to create archives of te munted volumes.
> 5/. Once that all works, make up a (root?) crontab entry and let it rip.

rsync would be another option. Perhaps set up one machine as an rsync
server or let rsync connect using ssh to save on setting up nfs exports /
shares?

Pete

--
http://www.petezilla.co.uk

Peter Chant wrote:
> The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>
>
>> Mmm. The cron part s easy enough, Use terminal and set up a crontab entry
>
>> Steps are broadly like this.
>>
>> 1/. Disable sleep stuff. Set macs to 'home' location on fixed IP
>> addresses. 2/. Set macs up to 'share' home dirs.
>> 3/. start script development: you need to use smbclient to mount the
>> macs. I forget the syntax.
>
> Does OS X support ftp>

Yup. If you turn it on..
>
>> 4/ Once mounted use tar and Gzip to create archives of te munted volumes.
>> 5/. Once that all works, make up a (root?) crontab entry and let it rip.
>
> rsync would be another option. Perhaps set up one machine as an rsync
> server or let rsync connect using ssh to save on setting up nfs exports /
> shares?
>

Not sure it supports that..what dos rsync run over?

> Pete
>

On Aug 10, 4:03 am, The Natural Philosopher <a...@b.c> wrote:
> Peter Chant wrote:
> > The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>
> >> Mmm. The cron part s easy enough, Use terminal and set up a crontab entry
>
> >> Steps are broadly like this.
>
> >> 1/. Disable sleep stuff. Set macs to 'home' location on fixed IP
> >> addresses. 2/. Set macs up to 'share' home dirs.
> >> 3/. start script development: you need to use smbclient to mount the
> >> macs. I forget the syntax.
>
> > Does OS X support ftp>
>
> Yup. If you turn it on..
>
>
>
> >> 4/ Once mounted use tar and Gzip to create archives of te munted volumes.
> >> 5/. Once that all works, make up a (root?) crontab entry and let it rip.
>
> > rsync would be another option. Perhaps set up one machine as an rsync
> > server or let rsync connect using ssh to save on setting up nfs exports /
> > shares?
>
> Not sure it supports that..what dos rsync run over?
>
> > Pete

Thank you all for your suggestions!!!

On 10 Aug, 01:23, The Natural Philosopher <a...@b.c> wrote:
> starr.cor...@gmail.com wrote:
> > Hello, I am slightly familiar with how to implement cron (well...I
> > have a man page on how to set it up) but wanted some help regarding
> > how to setup a cron job on my Red Hat server at home to back up files
> > that are on two of my Mac Laptops running OSX. Considering that Mac
> > OSX has a Linux foundation
>
> Free BSD actually., Quite different. And a lot of extras on top.
>
> > I know this can be done. However the
> > complicated part is that the laptops are not connected via ethernet to
> > the Linux server, but rather wireless through a router.
>
> Makes no difference.
>
> > Not looking at something complicated, just a simple cron job to back
> > up the documents folder on my macs.
>
> Mmm. The cron part s easy enough, Use terminal and set up a crontab entry
>
> see man crontab from terminal command line -
>
> The more difficult bit is actually writing a bash script..it will depend
> on what sort of services your server is running.
>
> Or did you want to suck data off the macs rather than push it onto the
> redhat?
>
> If thats your game, best is to let the macs export the home dirs via SMB
> shares, and get the redhat to mount the home dirs and tar them up into a
> backup place.
>
> You will have to leave the macs awake tho. MM. And maybe set them on
> fixed IP addresses in the 'home' location..
>
> Steps are broadly like this.
>
> 1/. Disable sleep stuff. Set macs to 'home' location on fixed IP addresses.
> 2/. Set macs up to 'share' home dirs.
> 3/. start script development: you need to use smbclient to mount the
> macs. I forget the syntax.
> 4/ Once mounted use tar and Gzip to create archives of te munted volumes.
> 5/. Once that all works, make up a (root?) crontab entry and let it rip.

No. No, no, no, no no. SMB, or CIFS cannot hope to preserve many of
the file types and ownership subtleties of a full backup.

Rsync annd rsync over SSH is a good approach, possibly coupled with
the rsnapshot tool. There are good ways to do this, depending on
whether you have a push or a pull environment, and how often you need
full backups.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> Peter Chant wrote:
>> The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Mmm. The cron part s easy enough, Use terminal and set up a crontab
>>> entry
>>
>>> Steps are broadly like this.
>>>
>>> 1/. Disable sleep stuff. Set macs to 'home' location on fixed IP
>>> addresses. 2/. Set macs up to 'share' home dirs.
>>> 3/. start script development: you need to use smbclient to mount the
>>> macs. I forget the syntax.
>>
>> Does OS X support ftp>
>
> Yup. If you turn it on..

Meant nfs!

>
> Not sure it supports that..what dos rsync run over?

Its own protocol, of ssh, of you could mount the directory using nfs or smb.

--
http://www.petezilla.co.uk