Backups are duplicate copies of key information, ideally stored in a location other than the one where the information is originally/currently stored.

Backups are the main emphasis in disaster recovery because it involves keeping backup copies of key data files, databases, applications, and paper records available for use in case of an unknown/known disaster.

Examples of critical files that should be backed up are:

Daily Applications

Appointment Files

Audit Files

Customer Lists

Database Files

Financial Data

Operating Systems

Transaction Files

User Files

User Information

You may even need to pull information from the backup copies for any number of reasons:

Accidental Deletion

Application Errors

Natural Disasters

Physical Attacks

Server Failure

Virus Infection

Workstation Failure

Types of storage mechanisms

The information you back up must be immediately available for use when needed. If a user loses a critical file, they won’t want to wait several days for the backed up data files.

Working Copies

sometimes referred to as shadow copies, are partial or full backups that are kept at the computer center for immediate recovery purposes

Working copies are typically the most recent backups that have been made.

Working copies are intended for immediate use and updated on a frequent basis

On-Site Storage

refers to a location on the site of the computer center that is used to store information locally.

On-site storage containers are available that allow computer cartridges, tapes, and other backup media to be stored in a reasonably protected environment in the building.

On-site storage containers are designed and rated for fire, moisture, and pressure resistance. These containers aren’t fire proof in most situations, but they are fire-rated.

Fire Proof containers are guaranteed to withstand damage regardless of the type of fire or temperature, whereas Fire-Rated specify that a container can protect the contents for a specific amount of time in a given situation.

Off-Site Storage

refers to a location away from the computer center where paper copies and backup media are kept, in the event the primary site suffers a catastrophe.

Example can be as simple as keeping a copy of the backup media at a remote office, or as complicated as keeping a copy in a underground nuclear-hardened high-security storage facility.

Scheduled Disk Maintenance

When files are written to a hard drive, they’re not always written contiguously (all the data located in a single location).

Over time file data can become spread out all over the disk. When this happens, you can defragment the file data.

Defragmenting is when you take all the file data that has been spread out over the disk and put them all in the same location. This decreases the time it takes to retrieve files.

The files systems on Linux and MacOS rarely, if ever, need to be defragmented. They all have “on-the-fly” methods of keeping the files all in one place on the disk (defragmentation).

If you’re running into problems with your drive, you can use the First Aid function within disk utility.

The First Aid function will examine your drive and make sure all the file permissions are set properly and ensure that the OS is able to operate properly using that particular drive.

MacOS uses the Disk Utility to perform any disk maintenance

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System Updates/App Store

MacOS centralizes system updates and patch management in the apple App Store for both the Mac computer + iOS devices

Turning on ‘Automatic Updates’ best keeps your macOS up to date with the latest security patches

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Patch Management

As a general rule: updates fix a lot of things, and patches fix a few. This is because multiple patches are rolled into updates

Patch management for Mac is handled in the app store.

You can’t always afford to wait for updates to be released, so you’re going to sometimes have to install security patches on your own time.

If all the latest security patches aren’t installed, then it leaves your PC open to weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

Patch management for Linux can be handled by running the apt-get command.

This command pulls the required patch from a repository Linux site and downloads them

Driver/Firmware updates

With any OS, it is essential to keep the Driver/Firmware up to date.

Always remember to create a backup of your firmware configurations right before you perform a firmware upgrade so you can have a fallback in case things go awry.

MacOS Driver/Firmware Updates

Driver configurations + Driver/Firmware updates in macOS are almost invisible to the end user

You can only view a list of the drivers in macOS.

In fact, drivers in general are almost invisible to the end user because apple wants the user to focus completely on the OS experience.

All Driver/Firmware updates are handled by software updates installed from the App store

Linux Driver/Firmware Updates

Updating the driver + firmware for Linux systems will vary significantly.

Many Linux vendors, such as Red Hat, include firmware updates in their software patches. But this is not universal and it varies greatly.

Antivirus/Anti-malware updates

It is gravely important to keep your system protected.

This protection comes in the form of definition files - files that are updated every hour with new malware and viruses. It’s important to keep this updated so you can stay on top of all the known viruses out in the wild.

MacOS Antivirus/Anti-Malware Updates

MacOS does not include any native anti-malware or antivirus software

You must download a 3rd-party software to help combat against malware.

There aren’t as many viruses on macOS when compared to Windows, but this gap in threats is closing by the day.

Automate your Virus signatures daily, so that no matter what, your system stays updated against the latest threats.

Tools

Backup/Time Machine

MacOS Scheduled Backups

Time Machine

Built-in program that is designed to give you a backup of your system every hour for the past 24 hours

Also includes daily backups for the last month + weekly backups from all previous months

You will need an external storage device to use Time Machine. It automatically starts deleting the oldest backups once the external storage device becomes too full.

It can also make backups of various types: (incremental, full, and so forth).

Access Time Machine by clicking Apple Menu → System Preferences → Time Machine

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Restore/Snapshot

Snapshots are archives of key files and settings as they exist at a moment in time.

It’s automatically put in use whenever you don’t have an external drive connected to the system. Time Machine only works when you have an external drive connected. It acts as a substitute to Time Machine whenever one is not connected.

These local snapshots allow you to restore files using the local filesystem. It is possible to take snapshots and restore them as needed.

Image Recovery

MacOS Image Recovery

In worst case scenarios, Time Machine can restore an entire image to a disk volume (the complete state of an operating system in any given point in time) using Image Recovery

As a general rule, Images are larger than snapshots.

The image file extension is (.dmg) and they can be easily created and mounted on any macOS system.

Disk Utility : a macOS image recovery tool, You can take a snapshot of a single project, and that snapshot will include all the files associated with the project - when compared to an image, which would include all the project files and all the files on the computer at that given time including applications, pics, music, folders, settings, etc.

Linux Image Recovery

Linux can use several open source tools to create an image of the OS.

The most common utility is the dd command

Disk Maintenance Utilities

macOS and Linux use the same disk maintenance utility commands

du : shows how much disk space is in use

df: shows how much free space is on the disk

fsck: checks and repairs disks

Disk Utility

a macOS Disk maintenance tool which manages the disk of a macOS system.

manages disks and images

verifies and repairs file systems

modifies partition details

erases whole disks

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Shell/Terminal

A shell/terminal provides an environment for users to interact with the operating systems. This interaction can be in the form of a command prompt that uses a command interpreter to process input.

Similar to the Command Line in windows OS in the way it looks and the way you have to enter in known commands for it to operate

You can run scripts and manage the files on your system

Linux Shell

The Most popular shell used by Linux is Bash

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macOS Terminal

Terminal: The macOS equivalent of the Command Line in windows OS

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Screen Sharing

This feature, built only into macOS, enables you to share your screen with others.

Very similar to remote desktop protocol.

While your screen is shared, the user of the other computer sees what you see, and they can open, move, and close files and reboot your computer.

It requires a Virtual Network Computing connection client.

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Force Quit

Sometimes an application will become unresponsive or get hung up. In this case you’d force quit, and close the application.

Press Option+Command+Esc or choose Force Quit from the apple menu in the upper left corner of the screen.

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macOS Features

Multiple desktops/Mission Control

It is possible to run a large number of things at one time, whether those things in question are apps or desktop.

Apple’s mission control is an easy way to see what is open and switch between applications.

All open windows and spaces (multiple desktops) are shown — grouped by app — and you can choose between them.

Access by swiping three fingers up — or — by Control + Up Arrow

Identical to Microsoft’s Task View feature

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Key Chain

the password management system for macOS.

Allows you to store passwords for websites, mail servers, wi-fi, and so forth.

values in keychain are always kept current and synced with any changes

iCloud Keychain

an iCloud variant of keychain that keeps such information as Safari usernames/passwords and credit card information.

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Spot Light

The search feature within macOS is Spotlight, it’s represented by a magnifying glass icon in the upper-right corner of the menu bar represents it. You can also press command + spacebar to access.

Spotlight can search for documents, images, apps, etc.

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iCloud

One of the best ways to always have access to the latest version of files, regardless of the device that you are using to access them, is to have them stored/accessed remotely.

iCloud is apple’s answer to remote storage.

You can configure your Apple devices to place files there automatically, or use it for backup.

This tool integrates all apple technologies: macOS, iOS, and apple watch.

Share documents, photos, files, music, etc. across all devices

Never lose data again because of the backup feature

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Gestures

With apple products, it is possible to scroll, tap, pinch, and swipe to interact with apple’s products.

Finder

The macOS equivalent of File explorer, it lets you browse through folders, find files, disks, apps, and so forth.

Apple’s file management system

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Remote Disc

This tool allows a macOS computer that does have an optical disk drive to share all the contents of the CD or DVD across the network to other macOS computers that don’t have a optical drive tray

Most PCs these days aren’t being made with optical CD drives, so having the ability to share the contents of it over the network is a neat feature.

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Dock

In macOS the Dock is the equivalent of the windows taskbar.

it’s a bar of icons that run along the bottom of your screen , it gives you easy access to key apps that come with the mac

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Boot Camp

As great as macOS is, there are times when you’ll need Windows for compatibility reasons with apps, legacy data, and many others.

You can use Boot Camp to install windows on a mac computer on a multiboot system and then choose between operating systems as you boot.

Requirements

the mac computer must be intel-based

Windows version type must be 64-bit

You need a min of 30GB free disk space.

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Basic Linux Commands

displays the contents of a directory in a list

grep

searches for text values in a text files

provides search capabilities in linux files

“change directory”

changes the current directory from the “present working directory” to whatever directory you choose

shutdown

shuts down Linux

pwd vs passwd

pwd (present working directory) has nothing to do with passwords, its actual purpose is to display the current or present working directory

passwd is the command that changes the password

“move”

renames the file and moves the file from one directory to another

“copy”

copies files

“remove”

deletes files

chmod

changes/modifies file permissions

chown

changes the file owner and group

iwconfig/ifconfig

ifconfig — this command’s use is identical to ipconfig, in the sense that it allows you to display and configure information related to a network interface card (NIC)

iwconfig — is similar to ‘ifconfig’ but it’s used for wireless configurations.

“Process Status”

displays the list of all the currently running processes and their “PID” number next to each process

su/sudo

su — allows you to change user accounts in Linux

su root is used to change to the super root user

sudo — runs a command as a super root user

apt-get

downloads files from a repository site

used to get any new updates for Linux

Starts the visual file editor, which is used to edit files

Tar

can be used to copy and backup data to drives in Linux

kill

terminates a process

killall -9 firefox — is the command in Linux for killing processes

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