FM7 on OS X - Backup on Network Drive - Valid Path

[Phil Cho]

Hi. I'm hoping someone can help us.

We're trying to use the FM7 Server Admin to backup our database onto a network drive. However, we can't figure out what the valid path name would be.

Valid path names to the local drive seems to be:

filemac:/Macintosh HD/etc..

But what would it be for a network drive?

Thanks for your help,

Phil

[skumancer]

you would use the /Network/... structure...just drag the volume (drive) to a terminal window and it will tell you the exact path of the volume!!

[Phil Cho]

Thanks, skumancer.

I tried it, but this is what Terminal came out with (let's say our network drive is called Ralph):

/Volumes/Ralph/

FileMaker still says this is an "invalid path." So I tried:

filemac:/Volumes/Ralph/

afp:/Volumes/Ralph/

afp:/10.0.1.6:548/

fmnet:/10.0.1.6:548/Ralph/

but I still get the "invalid path" message.

Is the "filemac:/" protocol specific to FM7 Server? Is there maybe a proprietary protocol or port number FM7 uses for network drives? Is it "fmnet:/"?

Thanks again for your help.

[dayhox]

I don't think it's possible to do what you're doing. I think your backup drive has to exist locally. We have an attached RAID so my detination looks like:

filemac://FMS-RAID/Data/backups

FMS doesn't like the standard Unix file paths for some reason, and that sucks.

You could try mounting your backup drive and then setting destination to:

filemac://Ralph/*

Good Luck,

d

[Phil Cho]

Thanks, dayhox.

I tried filemac://Ralph/* but FMS still doesn't see it as a valid path.

Why isn't there a "browse" button so I can just find the folder graphically? Then FMS can use whatever address scheme it wants. There must be a reason why they don't have one, right?

Anyhow, we can get by with workarounds, but thanks to everyone for donating their help.

Phil

[quark]

dayhox - I tried using a RAID volume but I'm getting the "Not a valid path" message.

What permissions do you have on that Volume?

I'm wondering if it has something to do with that.

OK

[lawaid]

As it says in the FileMaker Server 7 booklet that came with the CD, you cannot use FM Server to backup directly to attached external drives. You have to backup to a local drive, then copy the files to the external drive using some other scheduler program. Because of this limitation, I am doing my backups entirely using a shell script file. It looks something like this:

fmsadmin backup

ditto /Library/FileMaker Server 7/Data/Backups /Volumes/BUZZ/

I use a scheduler program called cron to automate the running of the script. Here's a tutorial--

http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2002/07/02/terminal_5.html?page=1

[dayhox]

One Xserve G5 - OS 10.3.5 Server - no services but Open Directory (connected to a Directory Server)

2 - 80GB drives -- #1 OS, #2 Live DBs

1 - Xserve RAID (RAID 5, 3 w/ a hot spare) -- Backups folder

For my both my live DB and Backups locations, I replicated the same folder structure as in the default Library settings. I don't know if this is mandatory, but mine is working.

Disk #2

True Path -- ./Volumes/Disk2/FileMaker Server 7/Data/Databases/blah.fm7

FMS Admin -- filemac:/Disk2/FileMaker Server 7/Data/Databases/blah.fm7

RAID

True Path -- ./Volumes/FMSRAID/FileMaker Server 7/Data/Backups/blahschedule/blah.fm7

FMS Admin -- filemac:/FMSRAID/FileMaker Server 7/Data/Backups/blahschedule/blah.fm7

For both Disk #2 and RAID 775 with fmsadmin as group as well as all enclosed folders.

Hope this helps,

d

[cosmun]

This valid path issue was also vexing me until earlier today. I have an Xserve G4 server with an Xserve RAID. I put my "backup" folder on the RAID, but couldn't get a valid path *until* I changed the owner of that folder to "fmserver" and the group to "fmsadmin". FM7 Server Admin then reported the path was valid.

So, in summary:

Default database folder = filemac:/Server HD/Library/FileMaker Server 7/Data/Databases/

Default backup folder = filemac:/RAID Data/FMProDatabases/Backups/

Everything is reported as "valid" on my setup.