tekman2000

Q: Full Server upgrade and permissions

Hello All,

 

I maintain a Mac Pro 3.2 Xeon file server running Lion 10.7.5 with eight IMac's connected to it and I have been getting a lot of "Permissions Differ ...... " error messages when I run the built in Disk Utility.

 

I would like to run a GUI or command line syntax that actually checks the physical surface of the mirrored RAID array like CHKDSK /r does for Windows because even the SMART status is "Not Supported" in Disk utility.

 

The ONLY application that is not Macintosh on this server is Carbon Copy Cloner ........ only because Time Machine only support the boot drive. I never install non-vetted third party software........ My Windows end-users do that enough to keep me eating steaks ....so I know better (LOL).

 

I perform scheduled backups to 2 swapped out external FireWire hard drives.

 

And no one but else touches "Wall-e"....... so there are no Trojans, spy ware or ad ware on it.

 

The other question I would like to ask is.........

 

If I upgrade this server to Mavericks 10.9 is there anything in particular that I need to watch out for?

 

Thanks in advance (smile)

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5), File server

Posted on May 7, 2014 11:04 AM

Close

Q: Full Server upgrade and permissions

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by jepping,

    jepping jepping May 8, 2014 11:52 AM in response to tekman2000
    Level 2 (430 points)
    May 8, 2014 11:52 AM in response to tekman2000

    Hi,

     

    Don't worry about those permissions differ errors when checking/repairing disk permissions.

    Apple has a nice kb article about it:

    http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1448

     

    There is no surface scan check, you might want to try drive genius, but running that software on a software RAID is not recommended. You can create a clone, destroy the RAID, run diskutility to erase and zero out the drive. If the drive survives the zero-ing process, all is good and then rebuild the RAID set. You can run drive genius after zero-ing the drive for testing purposes.

     

    An upgrade depends on what services you have running. Expect the worst, prepare for the worst. So create at least one clone, test that clone and consider a clean install. Migrations normally cause more issues than a clean install and then just copying userdata.

    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5381

    Goodluck!

     

    Jeffrey

    StarPine Support

  • by tekman101101,

    tekman101101 tekman101101 May 9, 2014 1:56 AM in response to jepping
    Level 1 (0 points)
    iPad
    May 9, 2014 1:56 AM in response to jepping

    Sir Jepping,

     

    Thank you VERY much for taking the time to reply (smile)

     

    What happened was one end users IMac froze (most likely because she had way too many resource hogging apps open at the same time) and she lost one page of an advertizing article she was working on.

     

    I am the systems administrator for that company (and about eight others) so it fell on me to keep her happy as she is the new team lead for that department.

     

    I'm going to hold off on updating the server to 10.9 as long as possible and go back to a versioned/full scheduled backup scheme on both the external hard drives. Fortunately I set this Mac server up with a total of three hard drives (one boot drives for the OS and Apps plus two RAID 1 drives for all the end users data files) so there is no need for a bootable clone.

     

    "Live long and prosper"

  • by jepping,

    jepping jepping May 10, 2014 1:45 AM in response to tekman101101
    Level 2 (430 points)
    May 10, 2014 1:45 AM in response to tekman101101

    Hi,

     

    You're welcome! Glad to see everything worked out fine.

    It would still recommend creating a bootable clone of your serverhd just in case.

    Better to be safe and prepared then empty handed after a drive failure.

    Goodluck!


    Jeffrey

    StarPine Support

    www.starpine.nl

  • by tekman101101,

    tekman101101 tekman101101 May 11, 2014 10:04 AM in response to jepping
    Level 1 (0 points)
    iPad
    May 11, 2014 10:04 AM in response to jepping

    Thank you Sir Jepping,

     

    I confirmed a valid scheduled clone on the file server RAID array, erased the other external HD and started the same using Data Backup 3. I swap them out to a fire resistant safe.

     

    It's a shame Time Machine only sees the Boot drive but Data Backup 3 works great.

     

    I just remembered that I have 2 one gigabyte FireWire external drives in the shop. I can use one of them for the boot drive clone. I'll wipe one of them and use time machine that way when I do the free update to 10.9 Mavericks ..... I will have a fall back position.

     

    Thank you once again (smile)

  • by jepping,

    jepping jepping May 11, 2014 10:26 AM in response to tekman101101
    Level 2 (430 points)
    May 11, 2014 10:26 AM in response to tekman101101

    Excellent! You're welcome!

     

    Usually TimeMachine does not include external drives, but under options in TimeMachine you can include them by deleting them from the list. Then Timemachine will backup additional drives.

     

    That fall back position hopefully will not be needed, but if problems occur you'll be glad to have it available.

    Goodluck!

     

    Jeffrey

  • by tekman101101,

    tekman101101 tekman101101 May 11, 2014 10:35 AM in response to jepping
    Level 1 (0 points)
    iPad
    May 11, 2014 10:35 AM in response to jepping

    I'll double check as soon as I get to that company again...... But I am pretty sure Time Machine only lists available "destinations" ..... And chooses the source (boot drive) automatically????

  • by jepping,

    jepping jepping May 11, 2014 11:00 AM in response to tekman101101
    Level 2 (430 points)
    May 11, 2014 11:00 AM in response to tekman101101

    Yes it does, but timemachine only creates a backup from the boot drive and will normally exclude large external drives connected via usb or firewire. You can change that behaviour and what is being backupped by timemachine by going to options in the Timemachine-SystemPreferences.