Backing up to a .DMG File on Server

[Marco_Polo]

I'm very frustrated over this.

How do I get SD to make automated backups onto an ordinary disk image file that's situated on a remote server?

Alternatively, how can I make SD wait nicely for the image file to be mounted when I use AppleScript? SD does not respect delays coded in the CopyJob.applescript file.

Details...

Due to issues with ever-growing .sparseimage files filling up my server, I decided to make regular backups to an ordinary .dmg file instead. The .dmg file is the same size as my hard drive and resides on a server volume.

SuperDuper won't mount the .dmg file for scheduled backups.

It won't do it from a scheduled backup when I select the .dmg file as the target in the main window and it won't do it from a scheduled backup when I select the mounted volume from the .dmg file as the target.

I thought that I'd just work around this problem using AppleScript to mount the server and disk image before the backup is run. I altered the CopyJob.applescript file. My first attempt looked like this...

on beforeRunningCopy()
tell application "Finder"
	mount volume "smb://192.168.n.n/BACKUP_VOLUME"
	open file "BACKUP_VOLUME:Backup.dmg"
end tell
end beforeRunningCopy

But SuperDuper's scheduled backup failed with this error:
The automatic copy aborted because SuperDuper! could not locate the Destination volume

It looked for the volume before it was mounted.

I figured that I could work around this problem with a delay to check for the existence of the mounted volume, so I revised my code...

on beforeRunningCopy()
tell application "Finder"
	mount volume "smb://192.168.n.n/BACKUP_VOLUME"
	open file "BACKUP_VOLUME:Backup.dmg"
set i to 0
repeat until (i = 1000)
     if not (exists "Boot HD:Volumes:Backup") then
          delay 15
          set i to 0
     else
          set i to 1000
          delay 30
     end if
end repeat
end tell
end beforeRunningCopy

SuperDuper's scheduled backup failed with the same error!

Watching it while it worked, I could see that SuperDuper completely ignored the delays in the AppleScript. It started the script going and then tried to find the volume right away without waiting for the script to complete.

How can I get SD to mount the disk image and WAIT for it to completely mount before starting the backup?

[dnanian]

It sounds to me like your code isn't running, or perhaps hasn't been compiled in: onBeforeRunningCopy is going to happen before SD! runs at all -- SD! hasn't even been launched yet.

Note, too: if your DMGs are the same size as the original volume, that's as large as the sparse image would ever grow (since the size of the original volume is the maximum size set). As such, you're not buying yourself any room at all...

[Marco_Polo]

It sounds to me like your code isn't running

Yes it is. It definitely is. You made me just paranoid enough that I edited the script to add some beeps to it. It's running.

SD is not waiting for the script to finish executing before it attempts the backup.

I can buy a short delay if I set it to repair permissions on the source volume first, but that doesn't buy me enough time for the image to mount.

Note, too: if your DMGs are the same size as the original volume, that's as large as the sparse image would ever grow

A .sparseimage backup of my 250GB startup drive containing roughly 180GB of files quickly swells to fill up my entire 320GB backup drive. The sparse image file just grows and grows uncontrollably.

See this earlier thread for more info on this problem.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=2103

[dnanian]

I just don't understand how this can be, Marco_Polo. I'm looking at the code here, and it calls the onBeforeRunningCopy before it runs the backup (which loads the settings). The only way I can see it doing otherwise is if the "default" settings (the configuration it'll start up with normally) references the same disk.

As far as the image goes, if your source volume is 250GB, the most the sparse image can grow to is 250GB, since that's set as it's maximum size...

[Marco_Polo]

I just don't understand how this can be, Marco_Polo.

Neither do I. That's why I'm asking. Running Mac OS X 10.4.9 and SD 2.1.4.

As far as the image goes, if your source volume is 250GB, the most the sparse image can grow to is 250GB, since that's set as it's maximum size...

Runaway growth of sparse image files is a fact. To the best of my ability, I have verified that there is no fix. Unless you have a fix, I'd prefer not to discuss it further.

What I want to know at the moment is how to get SuperDuper to wait until my disk image has mounted before it attempts its scheduled backup.

I just tried the "run shell script before copy starts" option using a shell script with a sleep delay in it and again, SD ignored the delay.

Same bloody error.

If it'd just hold off for another 30 seconds or so, the disk image would finish mounting and it could perform the backup.

[Marco_Polo]

Okay, I've got it figured out.

Since the script is being executed by CopyJob instead of SuperDuper, delays only affect CopyJob. So I told SuperDuper to delay 5 minutes. Here's the code:

on beforeRunningCopy()
tell application "Finder"
	mount volume "smb://192.168.n.n/BACKUP_VOLUME"
	open file "BACKUP_VOLUME:Backup.dmg"
end tell

tell application "SuperDuper"
delay 300
end tell
end beforeRunningCopy

It'd be nice if SD would make automatic backups to regular .dmg files on a server without all this fooling around... why doesn't it?

[dnanian]

I've just tested the images again here, and runaway image growth is not reproducible here. It just will not occur. The image grows to the maximum size set and no further...