Automatic cron Entourage DB backup

H

H Beinert

Hello,

I'd be grateful for some advice. I've done a fair amount of research, and
have found
quite a large volume of material on this general subject, yet none of it
really solves
the problem I'm trying to solve.

My typical s/w context: Mac OSX 10.4.8, Entourage 2004

I would like to set up an automated cron job which regularly backs up the
Entourage
identity files. The workstations in question could be in use at any time,
and Entourage
is almost always running. I would like to ensure ensure uncorrupted backups
and
preserve the transactional integrity of the mail database. This is made
more difficult by
the fact that some of the database files will potentially take longer to
copy than the mail
server polling interval, thereby ensuring that the database file will always
be modified
during a backup.

A rough outline of the steps might be as follows:
1. (Applescript) Tell Entourage to quit,
2. Pause briefly to allow Entourage to quiesce,
3. (Applescript) Tell the Database Daemon to quit,
4. Copy the relevant files,
5. (Applescript) Restart Entourage if it was originally active,
6. Compress the copied files and archive them appropriately

So far, this method would work, except for two possible snags:
1. What happens if a user is either in the midst of working, or a dialog
box is thown
when Entourage receives the "quit" (such as when a "compose" window is
open),
2. Since the Database Daemon is used by other MS Office applications, do
these
applications also need to be quit? If so, what about open documents,
etc, etc?

Is there perhaps an alternative way of accomplishing the same goal? For
example,
could one use Applescript to set Entourage into "offline" mode, then quit
the daemon
while leaving Entourage running, and only then take the snapshot? Or
perhaps some
other approach?

Surely there must be some provision for unattended backups which can result
in a
reliable copy of the mail database.

I would very much appreciate any advice or insight. TIA,

HB.
 
H

H Beinert

[Please forgive the previous messy article, I'm not used to this client]

Hello,

I'd be grateful for some advice. I've done a fair amount of research, and
have found quite a large volume of material on this general subject, yet
none of it really solves the problem I'm trying to address.

My typical s/w context: Mac OSX 10.4.8, Entourage 2004

I would like to set up an automated cron job which regularly backs up the
Entourage identity files. The workstations in question could be in use at
any time, and Entourage is almost always running. I would like to ensure
ensure uncorrupted backups and preserve the transactional integrity of the
mail database. This is made more difficult by the fact that some of the
database files will potentially take longer to copy than the mail server
polling interval, thereby ensuring that the database file will always be
modified during a backup.

A rough outline of the steps might be as follows:
1. (Applescript) Tell Entourage to quit,
2. Pause briefly to allow Entourage to quiesce,
3. (Applescript) Tell the Database Daemon to quit,
4. Copy the relevant files,
5. (Applescript) Restart Entourage if it was originally active,
6. Compress the copied files and archive them appropriately

So far, this method would work, except for two possible snags:
1. What happens if a user is either in the midst of working, or a dialog
box is thown when Entourage receives the "quit" (such as when a
"compose" window is open),
2. Since the Database Daemon is used by other MS Office applications, do
these applications also need to be quit? If so, what about open
documents, etc, etc?

Is there perhaps an alternative way of accomplishing the same goal? For
example, could one use Applescript to set Entourage into "offline" mode,
then quit the daemon while leaving Entourage running, and only then take
the snapshot? Or perhaps some other approach?

Surely there must be some provision for unattended backups which can result
in a reliable copy of the mail database.

I would very much appreciate any advice or insight. TIA,

HB.
 
D

Diane Ross

I would like to set up an automated cron job which regularly backs up the
Entourage identity files.
Click to expand...

Create cron job to back up:

Part 5 of Learning the Terminal series by Chris Stone outlines how to create
a simple cron job to back up your Entourage data folders regularly and
automatically.

<http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/07/02/terminal_5.html>

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
H

H Beinert

Thank you very much for your reply, Diane!

Diane Ross said:
Part 5 of Learning the Terminal series by Chris Stone outlines how to
create
a simple cron job to back up your Entourage data folders regularly and
automatically.
Click to expand...

I had come across this howto article, however it outlines a procedure to
copy the MUD files without any attempt at shutting down Entourage.
While I agree that this would be better than nothing, and apparently some
have been using this technique without obvious problems, it is nonetheless
suboptimal since it might result in a corrupted database.

Have you heard of anyone who has attempted a more robust solution to this
problem?

Thanks, again!

HB.
 
D

Diane Ross

I had come across this howto article, however it outlines a procedure to
copy the MUD files without any attempt at shutting down Entourage.
While I agree that this would be better than nothing, and apparently some
have been using this technique without obvious problems, it is nonetheless
suboptimal since it might result in a corrupted database.

Have you heard of anyone who has attempted a more robust solution to this
problem?
Click to expand...

Sorry,no. If you set the cron job to run at night and you quit Entourage and
the daemon each night, that should work.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
H

H Beinert

Diane Ross said:
Sorry,no. If you set the cron job to run at night and you quit Entourage
and
the daemon each night, that should work.
Click to expand...

Thank you, Diane, I appreciate your advice.

HB.
 
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