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TICKET ARCHIVE -> How to mirror two ethernet disks

ahuxta - Jul 1, 2008 - 7:18 am

I've got two Lacie Ethernet Big Disks which are connected via an ethernet switch between two macs both running 10.5.3. The disks are acting as a mini server - disk A being the read/write drive and disk B the back up.

I've had them a month and have backed up manually so far.. groan.. However, rather than a simple back solution up I'm trying to find a way to mirror the data with RAID 1 (I think?!) So if I write something to disk A it will automatically be saved onto disk B, without having to set up a back up every night/week...

I've looked at using Disk Utility as a solution but my first problem was that the disks didn't show up! Is this because DU doesn't recognise ethernet drives?

If there is any software out there or a simple way of doing this that anyone knows about? I would really appreciate some help!

Serenak - Jul 1, 2008 - 7:23 pm

Hello Abi

thanks for using macosx.com and I will try to advise and assist you as best I can.

OK let me be clear that you have a network and 2 LaCie "Big Drives" attached to the network and you are putting stuff on drive A and want A mirrored to B? Yes I know I may sound silly but sometimes what people appear to be asking is not what they actually mean...

RAID would seem to be the obvious answer but I am not sure if the simple "built in" RAID abilities of OS X Disk Utility includes ethernet/nas drives...

A quick fix (if not actually perfect) is to look at these 3 tools

1) LaCie SilverKeeper (probably came free with the drives and if not can be had free from the LaCie web pages...

2) CarbonCopyCloner free from here http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

3) SuperDuper! from here http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDup...scription.html not free but ludicrously cheap for the power it has

Other tools and solutions are available - I am starting on the premise of "home/SOHO" use and a small budget here - if you are talking about "serious" data or "professional" use then you may need more help than I can provide... or consider buying one of the now inexpensive SOHO RAID boxes sold by LaCie, Buffalo, etc. and hiving the ones you have now off to be dedicated Time Machine backups..

Oh yes - also check the documentation on the drives... you may find that you can schedule one to back up to another (or some drives allow this if you connect one to the network by ethernet and then B to A by USB) - or better keep the ethernet drives on the network and get a couple of USBs to back them up to - my Buffalo LinkStation Pro has this as a built in option IIRC...

Let me know what happens and I will try to advise you more

ahuxta - Jul 2, 2008 - 11:03 am

Hi there,

Thanks so much for your help. You are correct that I'd like the work on Drive A to be mirrored on Drive B. In an ideal world it would be great if when we saved something it was automatically saved to Drive B.. however if this isn't possible a back up every hour/day would also be ok - so if any files are updated they also get resaved..

I don't think the Disk Utility program does support the NAS drives - I was hoping you would know for sure as I can't seem to find anything on it. I do know the ethernet drives aren't visible with the other drives in the select volume part of the window which made me think they weren't supported!

So assuming Disk Utility is out I looked at the first two tools you mentioned, which unfortunately aren't looking that hopeful either.. Fingers crossed you can shed some light on things!

SilverKeeper was unsuccessful as it said on the first page of the website:

"Special note for people upgrading to Leopard:
v1.1.4 of SilverKeeper is not compatible with OS X 10.5.x, Leopard. LaCie does not recommend using SilverKeeper v1.1.4 with Leopard. A fix is being investigated."

Next on the list I looked at CarbonCopyCloner, which I had already, but assumed it didn't work because in the select target disk window the drives aren't visible.. Likewise with Disk Utility I guessed it was because they're ethernet drives..

I haven't tried SuperDuper quite yet but wanted to send this off to you and get your thoughts on CCC. I've actually written to them too, but am awaiting another response - I think the guy thought I hadn't read the notes, so I had to write back again..

I was also wondering if there is some code or something I can put in terminal to mirror the drives? I read something about using 'ditto', but after reading a page or two decided to give it a miss as I'm not a programmer!

Lastly - I'll have another look at the documentation about scheduling the back up drive B and connecting with USB. I don't think getting another drive (USB or otherwise) is an option as we are a very small office and already feel like we've invested quite a lot in the two Lacie 1TB disks and switch.. (bit of a jump from our previous old firewire drives!)

Sorry this is a bit of a long message...

Thanks again for your assistance.

Serenak - Jul 2, 2008 - 4:22 pm

Hello Abi

OK - as far as I can see DU doesn't support "indirect" drives - I wasn't sure but none of my ethernet or NAS drives show up in its window, which sort of verifies that assumption.

For what it is worth SilverKeeper seems to work ok here on 10.5.4 (dire warnings or no...) but I don't rely on it for anything critical... I do use it for important data at work but we are still on Tiger there.

CCC also works here for me with my NAS box if I treat it as a remote Mac and enter the IP address - but that is a true network aware HD - but as CCC is free you could always try it and see if you have any joy.

Terminal - well there are things that can be done using "ditto" and "rsync" I believe - but they are beyond me, I am no Command Line Hacker I am afraid - though you have to realise that CCC, SilverKeeper etc. are basically just friendly faces on the CLI commands - so really they just let you use a nice GUI to choose what you want to do and convert that to the cryptic "sudo rsync -a -r /Applications" stuff for you...

To be honest I think SuperDuper! is probably looking like your best bet... I rely on it all the time - and before Time Machine came along it was the closest thing to "set and forget" backups (well it still is, TM is good but it is not a bootable clone maker like SD!)- and it is STUPIDLY cheap for what it can do for you... honestly it is a truly amazing bit of kit for the money.

You message is not overly long, and more info is better than not enough I can assure you - I am not surprised that you don't want to expend more cash (I wouldn't want to either) and I can't say I blame you - tools are out there to achieve what you want and one will be able to help you out - SD! is looking like the best bet, but do investigate the abilities of the disks as I say - my NAS can do some self backups if either connected to another similar NAS or it has a USB drive/drives attached directly.