How to backup/clone Mac Mini from Terminal?

Question

Level 1

41 points

How to backup/clone Mac Mini from Terminal?

Hi,

I have a Mac Mini running OS X 10.7.4, it does not have display attached so everything is operated via SSH remotely. It is mainly used for some data calculations, using MySQL database, data files are around 40 GB, data files are daily increased.

I would like to find a backup/clone solution to backup or clone the whole disk on a daily basis, no need to keep previous versions, keeping one version is good enough.

1. must be installed, executed, scheduled from terminal.

2. easier to restore

I have a Time Capsule and WD NAS with enough spaces.

What is the best approach for such requirement? Use Time Machine or 3rd party app like SuperDuper? Do they support command line usages? Do they block MySQL when doing backup?

I don't need to compress backup data, no need to keep previous versions too, so I guess Time Machine is a bit wasted on spaces and CPU usage. It is just one way backup so even rsync may work but I am not too sure.

Any advice?

Thanks!

Posted on Jul 7, 2014 8:57 AM

Reply

Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Jul 7, 2014 10:07 AM in response to s2s

Hi,

http://forum.maccast.com/index.php?/topic/15167-clonebackup-hard-drive-with-2-co mmands-in-os-x/

Reply

Answer 2

s2s Author

Level 1

41 points

Jul 7, 2014 8:57 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for link.

It said it is possible to clone the internal hard drive without OS X DVD (I don't have that, my Mini does not even have display and keyboard so...), but backup process may take much longer since asr won't be able to use block copy.

Any idea what block copy actually means? If MySQL is running, are its data files treated as blocked by MySQL instance so asr won't work unless MySQL is killed?

Reply

Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,111 points

Jul 8, 2014 2:39 PM in response to s2s

I'm not sure on MySQL, but I suspect it will get backed up.

Block copy is a sector by sector copy, not what you'd want for most backups.

Reply

Answer 4

Jul 9, 2014 1:58 AM in response to s2s

For general file backup, you can use the UNIX utility rsync.

You can tailor make a backup scheme with this by creating a

script as well.

To get rsync commands and options, type man rsync in terminal.

You can also Google rsync to find all manner of examples.

You can create the scripts from a terminal on the machine via

pico, which is a very simple text editor.

Reply