Backup strategy for developer-focused Apple environments?
- by ewwhite
It's interesting to see the technological split between structured corporate environments and more developer-driven/startup environments. Some of the Microsoft technologies I take for granted (VSS, Folder Redirection, etc.) simply are not available when managing the increasing number of Apple laptops I see in DevOps shops.
I'm interested in centralized and automated backup strategies for a group of 30-40 Apple laptops...
How is this typically done safely and securely, assuming these are company-owned machines (versus BYOD)?
While Apple has Time Machine, it's geared toward individual computer backups and doesn't seem to work reliably in a group setting. Another issue with these workstations is the presence of Vagrant/Virtual Box VMs on the developers' systems. Time Machine and virtual machines typically don't work well unless the VMs are excluded from the backup set.
I'd like a push-based backup process with some flexible scheduling options.
I know how to handle the backend storage, but I'm not sure on what needs to be presented to the client systems.
Due to the nature of the data here, cloud-based backup may not be a viable option.
Any suggestions about how you handle this in your environment would be appreciated.
Edit: The virtual machine backups are no longer important. They can be excluded from the process and planning.
