Backing Up Macintosh Files on a NetWare Server

Jill Johnson
Technical Support Engineer
Novell Walnut Chreek

Abstract:
This AppNote addresses the issues involved in backing up Macintosh files 
stored on a NetWare file server. It covers Novell's backup products as they 
relate to Macintosh files, and looks at some third#party solutions as well.

Disclaimer

Novell, Inc. makes no representations or warranties with respect to the 
contents or use of these Application Notes (AppNotes) or of any of the 
third#party products discussed in the AppNotes. Novell reserves the right to 
revise these AppNotes and to make changes in their content at any time, 
without obligation to notify any person or entity of such revisions or 
changes. These AppNotes do not constitute an endorsement of the third#party 
product or products that were tested. Configuration(s) tested or described 
may or may not be the only available solution. Any test is not a 
determination of product quality or correctness, nor does it ensure 
compliance with any federal, state or local requirements. Novell does not 
warranty products except as stated in applicable Novell product warranties or 
license agreements.

Copyright { 1991 by Novell, Inc., Provo, Utah. All rights reserved.

As a means of promoting NetWare AppNotes, Novell grants you without charge 
the right to reproduce, distribute and use copies of the AppNotes, provided 
you do not receive any payment, commercial benefit or other consideration for 
the reproduction or distribution, or change any copyright notices appearing 
on or in the document.

Contents

Introduction		41

Structure of Macintosh Files		41

Macintosh File Backup Issues		42

Losing the Resource Fork		42

Hidden Files and Directories		43

Using ResEdit to Recover Damaged Files		44

Novell's Macintosh#Aware Backup Solutions		45

MACBACK		45

Streaming Tape Backup VAP		45

NBACKUP		46

SBACKUP		47

Third#Party Backup Solutions		48

Emerald Systems		49

Mountain Computer		49

Cheyenne Software		49

Conclusion		50

Bibliography		50

Acknowledgments		50

Introduction

Recently, Novell Systems Research published an extensive report entitled 
#Network Backup" that covered many of the issues involved in backing up 
NetWare networks. This Application Note is an addition to that report. It 
shows how Macintosh files saved to a NetWare file server fit into the world 
of backups. This information should clear up the confusion some Novell 
customers have experienced in backing up NetWare file servers that include 
Macintosh support. 

Structure of Macintosh Files 

Macintosh files require special consideration during a backup of a NetWare 
file server because they are structured differently than DOS files. Each 
Macintosh file may have a data fork and a resource fork. A DOS file, by 
contrast, has only a data fork (see ). The data fork is an unstructured, 
finite sequence of data bytes. The resource fork of a Macintosh file, which 
differentiates it from a DOS file, is accessible through the Macintosh 
Resource Manager. The resource fork contains specialized data used by an 
application, such as menus, fonts, icons, application code for an application 
file, drivers, and the data structures for mapping them within the fork. 
While AFP (AppleTalk Filing Protocol) is designed to consider both forks as 
finite#length byte sequences, it includes no special rules relating to the 
structure of the resource fork.

: Structure of a Macintosh File 
      

Either or both forks of a given Macintosh file can be empty. Non#Macintosh 
clients (such as DOS, OS/2, or Windows machines) that consider a file to have 
only one fork use the Macintosh file's data fork. By contrast, files created 
by a DOS workstation and used by a Macintosh client will have an empty 
resource fork supplied by the Macintosh Resource Manager, because a resource 
fork, though unintelligible to DOS, is required by the Macintosh operating 
system. As a result, a DOS workstation that has gained access to a file 
created by a Macintosh may not be aware of the existence of the file's 
resource fork and will probably not use the resource fork.

Macintosh File Backup Issues 

Losing the Resource Fork 

If you back up a NetWare file server without taking Macintosh issues into 
consideration, your backup will include only the data fork portions of the 
Macintosh files on the server. If you then restore files from this backup to 
the file server, all the Macintosh files will be visible to all the clients 
but inaccessible to the Macintosh clients. In fact, those Macintosh files 
will appear as DOS files displayed with the icons for DOS files (see  and ). 
This occurs because the resource fork and Finder information of the Macintosh 
files are lost.                      

: Macintosh Files Before Backup 

: Macintosh Files Appear as DOS Files After Bad Backup 

If you try to launch a Macintosh application or access a Macintosh file after 
a faulty backup, you will receive an error message (see ).

: Error Message Received When Trying to Access a Macintosh File After Bad 
Backup                               

Hidden Files and Directories 

When you are backing up Macintosh files, you should also consider the many 
hidden files and directories created on the NetWare server when NetWare for 
Macintosh is installed. If these files and directories are corrupted or not 
backed up properly, both the Macintosh files and the NetWare for Macintosh 
system files may be lost. 

One such hidden directory created on the NetWare file server is the Desktop 
directory. Each Macintosh client maintains a hidden Desktop file that 
contains information for use by the Macintosh Finder. For file server volumes 
(as opposed to client volumes), AFP provides an interface that replaces the 
Macintosh Finder's direct use of the Desktop file. This interface is 
necessary because the Desktop file is designed for a single#user, stand#alone 
environment. The AFP interface to the Desktop database can be used 
transparently for both local and remote volumes and can be shared by multiple 
users. 

The Desktop database on a file server holds information that the Finder 
specifically needs to build its unique user interface, in which icons 
represent objects on a disk volume. The Desktop also associates applications 
with particular icons, stores the icons' bitmaps, locates the corresponding 
application when a user opens a document, and holds text comments associated 
with files and directories. 

Macintosh applications usually contain not only an icon that is displayed for 
the application itself but also other icons displayed for the documents that 
the application creates. These icons are stored in the application's resource 
fork and in the Desktop database. The Desktop database associates these icons 
with each file's creator and type, which are stored in part of the file's 
Finder information. 

Using ResEdit to Recover Damaged Files 

As you can see, if the resource fork information is lost, the Macintosh file 
itself is lost. Data files can sometimes be recovered using a program from 
Apple Computer called ResEdit. ResEdit is a graphics#based application for 
manipulating the various resources in a Macintosh file. Be forewarned, 
however, that manipulating files incorrectly with ResEdit can damage files 
irreversibly. Using ResEdit to get data files back is a time#consuming 
process. ResEdit by no means provides a supported or workable solution for 
all instances of lost resource forks on all of your Macintosh files on the 
NetWare file server. You can not use ResEdit to restore application files, 
only document files. 

Keeping in mind all these provisos, here is a procedure for recovering a lost 
resource fork from a damaged Macintosh data file using ResEdit: 

1.	Make a blank file using the application with which your original 
damaged file was created. 

2.	Copy the damaged original file from your server to your Macintosh 
workstation. 

3.	Launch ResEdit, and open both the new blank file and the damaged 
original file. When you open the damaged file, ResEdit will ask if you want 
to create a resource fork for the file. Choose #OK." 

4.	Copy the resources from the blank file to the damaged file. 

5.	Choose #Get Info" in the File menu for each of the opened files and 
change the damaged file's TYPE and CREATOR fields to match those of the blank 
file. 

6.	Save all the changes and quit ResEdit.

7.	Open your application and then open the originally damaged file. You 
should now see a restored Macintosh file.

Novell's Macintosh#Aware Backup Solutions 

Novell offers four different solutions for backing up Macintosh files on a 
NetWare server:

w	MACBACK (no longer shipping) 

w	Streaming Tape Backup VAP 

w	NBACKUP 

w	SBACKUP 

MACBACK 

The MACBACK utility was Novell's first solution for backing up Macintosh 
files on NetWare file servers. MACBACK was a NetWare command line utility 
that archived and restored only Macintosh files to network disks or local 
drives. MACBACK archived and restored only Macintosh files stored on a 
NetWare v2.15 file server. To do a complete system backup, you had to use 
NARCHIVE for the DOS files in addition to MACBACK.

MACBACK was a first attempt to resolve the problems of backing up Macintosh 
files, but it was not very reliable. It also forced system administrators to 
back up their file servers twice, once for the Macintosh files and once for 
the DOS files. MACBACK's most noticeable difficulty occurred when you backed 
up any Macintosh applications resident on the file server. A Macintosh 
application has a 0#byte data fork, and MACBACK couldn't restore files with 
0#byte data forks. 

Streaming Tape Backup VAP 

The Streaming Tape Backup VAP will back up and restore all files from a 
v2.12, v2.15C, or v2.2 file server. The VAP runs on either a file server or a 
bridge and can back up or restore to any server on the internetwork running 
the versions of NetWare listed above. This product uses console command line 
options at the file server or bridge to back up and restore. One major 
restriction is this product works only with a PC#36 controller board. Many 
people aren't aware of this product due to this restriction. 

When restoring Macintosh files, you will have to rebuild the Desktop after 
running RESTORE if both of the following are true: 

w	You have restored AFP files to a different volume than they were 
backed up from.

w	The volume to which the files were restored does not contain the 
application that uses the restored files. 

These conditions would also cause you to lose the comments associated with 
each file. To rebuild the Desktop do the following: 

1.	Restart the Macintosh workstation using the Finder (not MultiFinder). 


2.	Log in as Supervisor from this Macintosh client.

3.	When you mount the server's volume(s), hold down the Command#Option 
keys on the Macintosh keyboard.

4.	You will be prompted to confirm that you wish to rebuild the Desktop 
on the server's volume(s). Answer #Yes." 

The Finder will then traverse the file system on the file server's volumes 
and update the contents of each Desktop directory (at the root of each 
volume) with the current location and document icon for each Macintosh 
application. 

NBACKUP 

NBACKUP was developed to resolve MACBACK problems and to make backups a 
one#step process. NBACKUP backs up and restores both Macintosh and DOS files 
from NetWare v2.15, v2.2, and v3.x file servers. You must run NBACKUP from a 
DOS workstation and adhere to certain procedures in order to get the desired 
results. Some NBACKUP issues are covered here, but you should check your 
NetWare manuals for further details. 

With NBACKUP, you can only restore a backup of a server's files to the same 
type of NetWare system from which you made the backup. For example, if you 
back up a NetWare v2.15C system with Macintosh VAPs v2.0, it must be restored 
to a NetWare v2.15C system with Macintosh VAPs v2.0. 

NBACKUP backs up your NetWare file server primarily to DOS devices, but it 
does support a few non# DOS devices. The table shown in  lists the most 
current available drivers. More third#party companies will undoubtedly 
introduce drivers to support NBACKUP.                            

: Backup Devices Supported by NBACKUP     

Multiple versions of NBACKUP exist. Each version supports different drivers 
as well as different NetWare versions. NBACKUP is included with the NetWare 
operating system and should be used only with the version of NetWare with 
which it is shipped. 

NBACKUP's interface uses the standard NetWare menu structure. NBACKUP does 
not allow you to restore files and directories to a different location from 
where they were backed up. 

SBACKUP 

SBACKUP is Novell's newest solution for backing up NetWare file servers. 
SBACKUP is a NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) for a NetWare v3.11 file server. 
SBACKUP allows you to back up files using DOS, Macintosh, OS/2, and NFS name 
spaces. SBACKUP includes more drivers for tape drive units than NBACKUP does, 
supports two additional types of name spaces (OS/2 and NFS), and can be run 
from the server console while still accessing other servers on the network. 
New device drivers, developed for Novell by Cheyenne Software, Inc., are 
included with NetWare v3.11, supporting more than 50 third#party hardware 
backup devices. For backing up Macintosh files, these devices include 
Adaptec, Future Domain, and Bustek controllers. 

A second NLM is associated with SBACKUP. The TSA.NLM allows SBACKUP to access 
multiple servers, in addition to the server where SBACKUP resides. In , FS3 
is a NetWare v3.11 file server running the SBACKUP.NLM. Because the TSA.NLM 
is loaded on the other servers on the network, SBACKUP can back up servers 
FS1, FS2, and FS3 all from FS3's server console. The TSA.NLM is currently 
available only for NetWare v3.11 file servers. 

: Using TSA.NLM to Access Other Servers During Backup 

Currently, SBACKUP cannot redirect Macintosh files during a restore. If 
Macintosh files or directories are restored to a different directory or 
volume than the original backup source, the Macintosh files lose their 
Macintosh names and are displayed with the DOS name space convention of eight 
characters. The Macintosh files also lose the comments associated with the 
file in the #Get Info" field. The redirection feature will be included in 
future releases of SBACKUP. 

Third#Party Backup Solutions 

A number of vendors' software and hardware solutions provide an alternative 
to Novell's solutions. The vendors mentioned are by no means the only vendors 
that support backing up Macintosh files on a NetWare file server, nor are the 
product evaluations comprehensive. One thing to keep in mind is that these 
vendors' hardware solutions won't necessarily work with Novell's software 
backup solutions (for example, NBACKUP or SBACKUP). For this reason, when 
Novell releases a new operating system and you upgrade your file server(s), 
the third#party vendor may not immediately offer a backup solution compatible 
with the new NetWare release. If you need to use another vendors' hardware 
with Novell's NBACKUP or SBACKUP, you will have to obtain a driver from the 
vendor. In the case of SBACKUP, you will have to find out whether that 
vendor's hardware will work with the standard Cheyenne driver. These vendors' 
solutions were not evaluated with the new releases of NetWare v2.2 or v3.11 
operating systems. Please check with the vendor for those solutions. 

Another consideration is that many vendors' backup units and software are 
certified by Novell to work with NetWare. This certification may have 
restrictions. IMSP test procedures do not include backing up Macintosh files. 
Also, merely because a product is not officially #NetWare Certified" doesn't 
mean it won't work with NetWare. The best advice is for the buyer to beware. 
Make sure the vendor of the backup system understands the need to back up 
Macintosh files and the issues involved. Also, even if a vendor supports 
backups of Macintosh files on a NetWare server, not all versions of the 
vendor's products may include this support. 

Emerald Systems 

Emerald offers two versions of their software that will back up Macintosh 
files on a NetWare server: EmSAVE and EmQ. EmSAVE runs from a NetWare DOS 
client, while EmQ must be installed on a NetWare file server. EmSAVE has some 
of the limitations that NBACKUP has; EmSAVE v3.0 can't redirect AFP files, 
and will generate errors if you try. For example, the error #Cannot Redirect 
AFP directories or files [EM0246]" will be generated. The documentation for 
Emerald's product explains that this error means #Redirecting AFP file during 
a restore operation is not a supported function in this version of the 
Emerald Systems application."

Emerald's software has a Windows#type interface, which makes backing up and 
restoring the different files and directories intuitive and easy to carry 
out. 

Mountain Computer 

Mountain's FileSafe backup utility is another solution for backing up 
Macintosh and DOS files from a NetWare server. FileSafe allows you to 
redirect backed#up Macintosh files to different directories. Hidden files are 
also easily handled. FileSafe's interface is not Windows#like, but it is 
menu#driven and easily mastered. 

Be sure to note that not all Mountain hardware and software products work 
with Macintosh files. For example, Mountain's MM series software will not 
back up Macintosh files, but Mountain is currently developing a version that 
will. 

Cheyenne Software 

ARCserve is one of the few server#driven backup applications evaluated. The 
version for NetWare v2.15 with Macintosh VAPs is a bit awkward because the 
backup administrator must be able to work at the server console and on a 
workstation at the same time to make efficient use of the product. The 
version for NetWare v3.11 with NetWare for Macintosh v3.0 is more efficient 
because you can back up from the server console directly. 

ARCserve uses the NetWare menu style and, like FileSafe, can redirect 
Macintosh files to different subdirectories. 

Conclusion

The more types of workstations and operating systems are introduced to 
NetWare networks, the more complex backup issues will become. Hopefully this 
Application Note has cleared up some of the confusion surrounding Macintosh 
files and how these files are structured, along with how the operating system 
handles this structure. 

There are many books and reports available that can give more detailed 
information about the various topics touched on here. The Bibliography lists 
references for further information about network backups, Macintosh files and 
the Macintosh operating system, and other related topics.

Bibliography 

Inside Macintosh, Volumes I and II; available from Apple Computer, Inc. and 
Addison# Wesley Publishing Co., Inc. 

Inside AppleTalk by Gursharan S. Sidhu, Richard F. Andrews, and Alan B. 
Oppenheimer; available from Apple Computer, Inc. and Addison#Wesley 
Publishing Co., Inc. 

#Network Backup," available from Novell Systems Research through the Novell 
AppNotes Hotline (801) 429#7550. 

Acknowledgments 

We extend special thanks to the following vendors for loaning backup units 
and software for testing. 

Emerald Systems 
4757 Morena Boulevard 
San Diego, CA 92117 
(619) 673#2161 

Mountain Computer, Inc. 
360 El Pueblo Road 
Scotts Valley, CA 95066 
(800) 458#0300 

Cheyenne Software, Inc. 
55 Bryant Ave. 
Roslyn, NY 11576 
(516) 484#5110

Editor's Note: The author accepts written feedback at FAX (801) 429#5511.

