Can Time Machine be used to back up my server?

I've got 10.6 Server running on an Xserve.  I was told that Time Machine can't be used on a Server, but I do have the TM icon on my dock. Does TM work with server or not - are its backups flawed in some way for Server?

Michael
Whoever told you that you can't use Time Machine on OSX Server was not wholly wrong or wholly correct. As ever it all depends on what roles you want your Server to perform. It is not recommended to use Time Machine to back up OSX Server if it's an OD Master and/or a Mail Server and/or running a SQL Database. This is because those databases are more likely to be constantly changing - think about it. Most people would say the 'sensible' thing to do is to stop the Services - or curtail in some way access to those databases during the backup - effect the backup and then re-start the Services or allow access to the databases again. This is something Time Machine does not know how to do. As ever it's not so much backing up that's the problem. The problem generally arises if you have to recover data after a Server or Drive failure. More often than the recovered databases exhibit all sorts of problems and corruption. Probably because the databases were 'mangled' by Time Machine when they were backed up.
If all you want from your server is simple file sharing, iCal, iChat and Web Services then you can use Time Machine and safely recover from the backups. In my experience this works for me consistently well. As ever YMMV.
HTH?
Tony

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