May 25, '10 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: adrian.nier
Using the Time Machine preference pane, it is not possible to effectively exclude the data for the Software Update service from Time Machine backups on Mac OS X Server 10.6. A method is presented here which will do that.
By default the software downloaded from Apple’s servers necessary for the Software Update service is located at /private/var/db/swupd. When excluding this directory using the Time Machine preference pane the path is changed to /var/db/swupd (/var being a symbolic link to /private/var) and the data is still backed up. [crarko adds: This is for Snow Leopard Server only.]
To remove the Software Update service data from the backups, follow these steps using an administrative account:
- Exclude /private/var/db/swupd or /var/db/swupd in the Time Machine preference pane.
- Quit the System Preferences application.
- Open the Terminal application.
- Type the following commands:
- Press ctrl-W to switch to search mode in pico
- Type swupd and press enter
- Change the path /var/db/swupd to /private/var/db/swupd
- Press ctrl-X to leave pico
- Press y to confirm
- Type exit to leave the root shell
- Type exit to leave your terminal session
- Quit the Terminal application
sudo -s cd /Library/Preferences plutil -convert xml1 com.apple.TimeMachine.plist pico com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
[crarko adds: I haven't tested this one.]
