Help restoring iCal data on Lion server

[sirsimon]

Hello,

I need some help restoring a user's iCal data. Other users are working fine, and I can log in as this user and view the (now empty) calendar, create test items, etc.

I know the data is stored in Postgres, and that a nightly backup is made, but really need help with specific commands. Also, I'm unclear about the general process...I'm guessing something along these lines:

Backup current DB (manually, via command)
Restore the old DB from the PG 'dumpall' file
Log in as the user in question, export her calendar
Restore the current DB
Import the user's calendar back in (from .ics file)

Apple Enterprise support would not help, saying that restoring Postgres data was beyond their scope.

Any help you can provide is very much appreciated. I've searched around but not found any good documentation.

 

[matspekkie]

Hello,

I need some help restoring a user's iCal data. Other users are working fine, and I can log in as this user and view the (now empty) calendar, create test items, etc.

I know the data is stored in Postgres, and that a nightly backup is made, but really need help with specific commands. Also, I'm unclear about the general process...I'm guessing something along these lines:

Backup current DB (manually, via command)
Restore the old DB from the PG 'dumpall' file
Log in as the user in question, export her calendar
Restore the current DB
Import the user's calendar back in (from .ics file)

Apple Enterprise support would not help, saying that restoring Postgres data was beyond their scope.

Any help you can provide is very much appreciated. I've searched around but not found any good documentation.

The easiest way is if you have a working local copy on a client machine and make sure it does not sync yet disable networking will do. export the ical data form ical. then enable connection again or reset account and import the data within ical all should be fine again.

 

[sirsimon]

The easiest way is if you have a working local copy on a client machine and make sure it does not sync yet disable networking will do. export the ical data form ical. then enable connection again or reset account and import the data within ical all should be fine again.

I wish we did - she was using a Windows machine, and apparently just had a shortcut to her web calendar. As far as I know, she only had web access and her iPhone. I'm at a loss as to how the data disappeared...but that's something I'll have to look into after we get the data back.

 

[matspekkie]

I wish we did - she was using a Windows machine, and apparently just had a shortcut to her web calendar. As far as I know, she only had web access and her iPhone. I'm at a loss as to how the data disappeared...but that's something I'll have to look into after we get the data back.

actually calendar is is User/Library/Calendar if you have a time machine/or other backup of that folder you could try to restore that folder with a working one. and reboot after restore so ical can access it again. also it could be just an file permission issue have you tried to run disk aid??
Hope it helps

 

[sirsimon]

actually calendar is is User/Library/Calendar if you have a time machine/or other backup of that folder you could try to restore that folder with a working one. and reboot after restore so ical can access it again. also it could be just an file permission issue have you tried to run disk aid??
Hope it helps

Hello,

First off, thanks for your help - I appreciate it.

I don't have that path on the server...I of course have it on my local Mac, and you're right it exists.

On the server if I go to Users/<username>/Library there is not a calendar folder.

I haven't checked for permissions issues. I guess I was assuming that everything was OK since I can log into iCal/webcal as this user without errors. You are right, it would be worth double-checking.

In the "Lion Server Advanced Administration Guide" Apple says:

"You can back up server files automatically using Time Machine, a comprehensive backup solution.
<snip>
Time Machine automatically backs up data and settings for these services: Address Book, File Sharing, iCal, iChat, Mail, Podcast, Profile Manager, Time Machine, VPN, Web, and Wiki. "

I wanted to test this out, so I took a Mac Mini that was not being used today, imaged it, then did a full TM restore of the server (to a date before the data went missing). It was rather a disaster - the surrogate server was very slow (I think it has a bad DIMM), and I could not connect to _any_ iCal user's data, either locally (via the iCal app), the webcal, or connecting from my Mac. I had to give up after a couple hours and re-image the machine, as the user will be back tomorrow. I really hoped this would have been the answer, as I expected to be able to setup iCal with that user's credentials, export to .ics, and be home free. No such luck. The 'server' alternately timed out trying to connect to iCal, said 'there is no CalDAV server', or crashed iCal.

I'm nearly ready to give up.