WHS Shares - Backup
The backup regime of WHS strikes me as odd, as follows:
If you put a file on your local machine, it is backed up to the WHS box each night and depending on how you set the purging if you accidentally delete it / change it, you can get any version of it from the last day / week / month etc.
BUT
If you put the file on your WHS box, your only protection appears to be folder duplication, so if you delete it by accident you're knackered.
In other words, stuff stored on the WHS server shares is LESS secure than stuff dumped on local drives, which is the opposite of what intuition would tell you.
It would be sensible if the WHS box could back up its own shared folders each night according to the same backup policy, so you can always recover from user error on the shares as well as on local machines.
Seems very odd to me that this feature isn't included. Perhaps the guys that developed the product feature set could explain the rationale and whether or not this will ever be added?
Antworten
Actually, WHS already does what you suggest. It uses the Volume Shadow Copy feature to take a snapshot of the shared drives every 12 hours. If you ever accidentally delete a file from a share, you can recover it by right-clicking on the shared folder that contained the file and selecting "Previous Versions". This feature is available regardless of how many drives you have, or if you have folder duplication enabled.
Wow! Now that is cool - thanks for that Rick, I had no idea snapshots were available. I'll have a bit play around to see how things work, but the lack of these and the performance issues with DE were the only two things giving me concern about moving to WHS from my trusty old Linux server.
Maybe you've just solved one of them - cheers!
Alle Antworten
Actually, WHS already does what you suggest. It uses the Volume Shadow Copy feature to take a snapshot of the shared drives every 12 hours. If you ever accidentally delete a file from a share, you can recover it by right-clicking on the shared folder that contained the file and selecting "Previous Versions". This feature is available regardless of how many drives you have, or if you have folder duplication enabled.
Wow! Now that is cool - thanks for that Rick, I had no idea snapshots were available. I'll have a bit play around to see how things work, but the lack of these and the performance issues with DE were the only two things giving me concern about moving to WHS from my trusty old Linux server.
Maybe you've just solved one of them - cheers!
- Something else to consider: While backups can be used as a method to recover from user error, that's not really what they're for. Backups are for disaster recovery, and no matter how painful it is to delete a file accidentally, it's not a disaster. (Presumably the file can be reconstructed.) Restoring a file from a backup is a labor-intensive operation, even in WHS. The shadow copies that WHS takes are more likely to be a useful method of restoring your data after user error, assuming your users can be trained to store their data on WHS.
- The Shadow Copies facility sounds very useful but it is not enabled by default on my HP MediaSmart. Are there any risks to enabling it on the Data (D) volume via Remote Desktop? I presume the sooner this is done the better while there is relatively little data stored there.
On the broader question of backing up shares, there has to be some way of doing this to a remote NAS or similar device to guard against physical loss of the whole WHS device. I have been experimenting with the native Backup facility on WHS using Remote Desktop using a NAS device as the repository for the backups but I have yet to test the restore function to any great degree. An alternative is to do it online using KeepVault or Jungle Disk. Does anyone have experience of using these applications?
TIA for any advice.
Miles Hi Miles,
what lets you assume they are not enabled?
In drive properties you can see only, that there is no plan to do a next snapshot - in task scheduler. I assume, Windows Home Server components have their own mechanics, to trigger a volume snapshot.
So if you right click on one of your shares, select Properties/Previous Versions and there are shown previous versions of that share then you are ok.
Best greetings from Germany
Olaf
Hi,
The reason they are not enabled on the HP servers, is down to a decision by HP. They chose to ship their hardware set up this was, for some reason.
Personally, I wouldn't rely on the Shadow Copy service, as a method of ensuring previous copies of files, as it just is not that secure, the previous versions can disappear without trace.
Colin
Hi Colin,
thanks for the explanation. I never had an HP on my hands. As I wanted one, they have not been available here, and now I have my self built system.
Best greetings from Germany
Olaf
- We got served article
HP says that Microsoft took out VSS from the OEM WHS product.
My guess is that that they did it because there was a bug. I think it obvious that VSS should be there to protect user shares. My guess is that it does not work with the "non-RAID RAID" file system.
I wish the WHS team would fix it. The laughter of bearded penguin geeks is like acid in my ears.
"Dude, you mean, you can back up the user PC but not the server shares!!!
xJamesB - Saying that VSS is disabled by Microsoft is an oversimplification of the actual situation. It gets disabled in the process of prepping a server for duplication as the linked interview indicates. Though in hindsight, given that VSS has been bugged on WHS for two years now, disabling it would have been a good idea. :)To back up the server shares (assuming you have installed PP1, and if not, why not?):
- Connect an external drive large enough to hold one or all shares.
- In the console, start to add the drive.
- You will be asked if you want to use it in the storage pool, or as a backup drive. Select use as a backup drive.
- When done, go over to the computers tab in the console. Your server is now listed.
- Choose to back it up. When asked, indicate which share(s) you want to back up. continue through, and the backup will commence.
- When the backup finishes, go back to the storage tab and choose to remove the backup drive. You will be asked if you want to remove it temporarily or permanently. Choose temporarily.
- Disconnect the drive and take it off site.
Voila! You have just backed up your server shares. Feel free to LART your aquatic bird loving "friends".
I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
