[ale] Minor challenges seeking answers

[Jeff Hubbs]

Thompson Freeman wrote:

> Problem two: I should run backups on the children's Mac system, and the
> only tape I have is on the Linux box. Is there an open source (or really
> cheap) backup solution for backing up Mac systems on tape hosted by intel
> linux? Or do I need to learn more about the Mac so I can script something
> together?
>

Let me make a suggestion regarding this particular challenge.

Can you find a cheap way to make Macs mount an NFS volume?  If so, you could
have your Mac mount a volume on your Linux system, which could then make
backup tapes of the exported tree.  I don't know what kind of issues you might
run into regarding crossing file systems, but this
is the first thing I'd try if it were me.  For all I know, Linux might be able
to Mac-format a partition.

My idea probably isn't going to help you backup the ENTIRE Mac, but if you
stored all of your apps and data on the NFS share you'd be in better shape
than you were.  By the same token and if you feel like going this far with it,
you could implement software RAID in Linux and get some failure-hardening,
then use Linux for file storage for ALL your systems...

- Jeff



- Jeff