Feb 06, '12 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: digitalhippie
It happened to me yesterday that I applied the OS X 10.7.2 update to my Mac mini server without closing any apps. I just ran it. After the update it turned out, this was a big mistake. All calendar entries of the past three weeks and many contacts were lost.
I was not able to recover anything from time machine. Lion server keeps the CalDAV and CardDAV data in a PostgreSQL database which is apparently not backed up by TimeMachine. Also, the PostgreSQL uses transactions which need to be 'closed' before they end up being permanently written into the DB tables.
What I found from reviewing the postgres log file (/Library/Logs/PostgreSQL.log) is that the 10.7.2 server update will apply a whole bunch of database structure updates to PostgreSQL but without committing the latest transaction. Given that CalDAV entries a quite small, the transaction log may contain a lot of data which is then lost.
So, be aware to make sure you have your transaction log committed before you run the update. I assume a proper server shutdown (or reboot) and stopping of the server processes will do just this. Afterwards it should be safe to update.
Alternatively (and this is my weekend-fun-duty) have a client with all up to date calendars off-line and aside which servers as a backup.
[crarko adds: I haven't tested this one. In fact, I haven't had the chance to try Lion Server at all yet. I'd be interested to hear if others have experienced issues like the one described here.]
