"We had to stay with Macs because we used software from [Harris &] Baseview that is available only for Mac," said Steve Olson, infrastructure manager for the Review Journal. "Also, our users didn't want to go to Windows."

Unfortunately, the decision created integration challenges for Olson. Out of 80 servers, 30 percent run Mac OS; the others run Windows and Unix. Most of the users have Macs.

One of the biggest challenges was the backup of 6 terabytes of Mac-based publishing and advertising data.

Click here to read about Apple's new dual-processor Macs.

When the company was running Mac OS 9, backup was decentralized, running Retrospect from Dantz Development Corp. EMC Corp. acquired Dantz last fall.

"Retrospect was limited in what it could do," said Olson. "It would just back up everything. We wanted to back up certain types of files at different times. I was [also] interested in automating everything we could."

Retrospect also lacked the drivers and tape libraries that the Review Journal needed. With the move to Mac OS X servers and workstations, the company decided to test other backup solutions.

"Our initial plan was to use EMC [Legato Networker] at our remote sites," said Olson, who had been using EMC at the main Las Vegas site to back up Windows. "The problem was that there was no stand-alone version for Mac servers." The Mac version could only be used with a Legato Windows server.

The company was also using Computer Associates Inc.'s BrightStor ArcServe Backup to back up some Sun servers in the main office, but BrightStor didn't support Macs at all.

Olson said the company then asked for recommendations from Apple Computer Inc. and from Overland Storage Inc., which makes the tape library systems the company was using. Both companies recommended BakBone Software Inc.'s NetVault, which supports Mac OS X servers and workstations as well as Windows, Unix and Linux.

Olson said that BakBone NetVault works well for remote sites, which are tied together with a wide area network, but which mostly don't have IT staff on site.

"It's fast, and completely automated. We can control all the backups from one location," Olson said. "It takes the responsibility out of the control of the local personnel, allowing us to have a single administrator." He added, "All the local staff has to do is to take last night's tape, pull it out and replace it. [NetVault] allowed us to reinforce our backup policy."

Olson also found NetVault easy to test. "Right off the bat, we were able to mimic the operation of a robotic tape library," Olson said. "We could test the features of a robotic tape system without having a robotic tape system [on the test machine]."

This is because of a feature called Virtual Disk Library, which can move data from disk to disk and also migrate off to tape.

"On a disk, you can emulate a tape environment with virtual slots and media devices," said Meaghan Kelly, Senior Director of OEM Alliances for BakBone.

Next Page: Commitment to Tiger is a plus. Another factor in the backup decision was BakBone's commitment to Mac OS X 10.4, aka Tiger, which Olson plans to migrate his Mac servers to. (BakBone announced support for Tiger last week.)

For BakBone, the biggest feature of Tiger is 64-bit support. "64-bit is a big deal because it allows you to run higher-performance, higher-end enterprise applications," Kelly said.

However, Olson said that 64-bit virtual memory is not the feature that most interests him in Mac OS X 10.4. For him, the big draw is Tiger's improved support of Microsoft's Active Directory.

"We're interested in the new Active Directory plug-ins," Olson said. "Right now, you're hooked into one AD server. Under 10.4, you can tie into a virtual entity, as in a cluster. Any [Active Directory] server can fail, and we can continue to operate."

However, a roadblock remains to adopting Tiger. Although BakBone NetVault is Tiger-compatible, the core Mac-based publishing software that the Las Vegas Review Journal uses is not.

"It's one of the biggest problems we have [with Tiger]," said Olson. "We use software from [Harris &] Baseview and Digital Technology International [DTI]. Neither company has certified for 10.4. DTI can't give us a firm date for Tiger certification. So, at this point, I might have to put my rollout on hold."

Apple, however, presents him with a Catch 22.

"We won't have a choice. When we buy new Macs, we will get 10.4, ready or not," said Olson. "With Apple, we don't have version control."

This situation occurs not only when Apple releases new versions of the Mac OS X, but also when it releases new versions of Mac hardware.

"New machines get slightly different versions of OS X," Olson said. "We were trying to get a standard version of the OS installed throughout, like we do with our PCs. But it didn't work with our new Mac laptops because of slight variations in the OS."

Overall, though, Olson said, he is happy with the transition to Mac OS X. He pointed to the increased flexibility of Mac OS X over OS 9, and increased centralization of services, and said, "It's been great so far. It's more standard, and more complex. There are more controls, things you can do behind the scenes."

Olson hasn't finished testing Tiger, but said he feels there is room for improvement.

"Apple is still a little behind in terms of redundancy," Olson said. "We'd like to see increased clustering capabilities, where you have two servers acting as one logical server. If one server fails, the entire operation fails. In Windows, if one machine in the cluster fails, the operation is still there."

Olson also said he feels that the networking compatibility features of Mac OS X have been slow in coming: "Sometimes it seems that Apple is so focused on consumer, they forget what we need in the enterprise."

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