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Backup/Copy, not quite and add-in, but... RRS feed

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    I just thought I would share this with you. It's really not an add-in, but it does a few things that people seem interested in.

     

    This post is for Clients as well as the server.

     

    Client side:

    On the client side I installed the free version of Syncback located here: http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html#freeware

     

    It's a pretty neat program that will copy (and compress if you want) files from almost any location to almost any location including an FTP server.  I have it copy my documents to the user shared folder. 

     

    Why do I do this instead of just backing up the client?

    • Suposedly you can lose your backups, especially if you have to reinstall WHS
    • The backups are not duplicated
    • No easy remote access to the files without RDPing to the client
    • Although, this program only keeps one copy (it doesn't keep multiple versions), VSS will do that for you. So, you can go back several version of a file that may have changed. You can do this with the backup, but the file is much more accessible

    It seems to work very nice.

     

    Server side:

    I decided to install in on the server as well.  Why?

    • It can basically do what the copyexternal add-in that everyone is looking for (I think).  I have a USB drive attached but not added to the pool.  This program can copy all the shares to the external drive on a scheduled basis.  So I can get an external backup of the shares.
    • Using the program launcher add-in, you can launch it from the console and run it manually (and remotely)
    • Since shares have been known to get corrupted, this is a good way to back them up.

    In the end, I have the data in 4 places. Overkill, but since I have the space why not?

    1. On the client
    2. In the backup that runs nightly
    3. On the share
    4. On the external USB drive attached to the server 

     

    Please let me know what you think.

    Thanks.

    Wednesday, October 24, 2007 3:38 PM

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     Rice wrote:

     

    I just thought I would share this with you. It's really not an add-in, but it does a few things that people seem interested in.

     

    This post is for Clients as well as the server.

     

    Client side:

    On the client side I installed the free version of Syncback located here: http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html#freeware

     

    It's a pretty neat program that will copy (and compress if you want) files from almost any location to almost any location including an FTP server.  I have it copy my documents to the user shared folder. 

     

    Why do I do this instead of just backing up the client?

    • Suposedly you can lose your backups, especially if you have to reinstall WHS
    • The backups are not duplicated
    • No easy remote access to the files without RDPing to the client
    • Although, this program only keeps one copy (it doesn't keep multiple versions), VSS will do that for you. So, you can go back several version of a file that may have changed. You can do this with the backup, but the file is much more accessible

    It seems to work very nice.

     

    Server side:

    I decided to install in on the server as well.  Why?

    • It can basically do what the copyexternal add-in that everyone is looking for (I think).  I have a USB drive attached but not added to the pool.  This program can copy all the shares to the external drive on a scheduled basis.  So I can get an external backup of the shares.
    • Using the program launcher add-in, you can launch it from the console and run it manually (and remotely)
    • Since shares have been known to get corrupted, this is a good way to back them up.

    In the end, I have the data in 4 places. Overkill, but since I have the space why not?

    1. On the client
    2. In the backup that runs nightly
    3. On the share
    4. On the external USB drive attached to the server 

     

    Please let me know what you think.

    Thanks.

     

     

    I will give this a try, seems promising.

     

    Thanks

    Wednesday, October 24, 2007 4:39 PM
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    well in my opinion you can never have too many backups

     

    Andrew

     

    Wednesday, October 24, 2007 4:40 PM
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    I have the paid for verison of SyncBackSE and have used it for years and love it.  I receintly used it for WHS and have been having troubles with getting a lot of "invalid file handle" errors.  It seems to be once I use SyncBackSE and get those errors I can not longer copy any of those files.  If you get it to work or have the same trouble and I do please let us know if there is a fix for this.
    Thanks
    Wednesday, October 24, 2007 5:18 PM
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    I haven't had any problems using the free version on the client.

     

    I did have one problem on the server.  The first time I used it and did a simulated run, it didn't want to end.  I think it might had to do with the fact that I hadn't checked "Skip the differences window" in preferences.  I was running under the console using the program launcher add-in.

     

    I copied data to the external USB twice so far. don't have the server side scheduled.  I do it manually. The reason why is that if there is corruption on the share, I don't want it to automatically spread to the external drive. So every once in a while, I'll run it manually.

     

    Syncback is a really nice program isn't it?

     

    I'll let you know if I have any trouble.

     

    Thanks

     

    Rice

    Wednesday, October 24, 2007 5:24 PM
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    Rice,

    I suggested and posted a similar solution some months back, but with limited interest...it seems.

    I like the idea of manually firing your solution up via the Program Launcher add-in. I went one step further and set my backup program up as a WHS service. You could do the same with your open source solution too.

    Anyway, I'm about options. So, here is a link to Phil Churchills blog where he posted my "How To" on installing and setting up a backup program as a service and to back up via FTP, network drive, etc. Maybe parts of it may help others doing something similar...

    You'll find the comments posted by backup software competitors quite funny....Watch out for Carbonite and alike. They get wind of this post..... they'll be all over it to discredit it's viability...LOL

    Nice option..especially since it's free. ....thanks for posting it.....

    Oh, on the error issues.  Seems there are some backup programs that have problems with the "call" of files on NTFS drives. Basically, if you look at the properties of a file...the file size is say 1 mb, but it's size on the disk is only 10 kb. Some backup programs don't "Call" the whole file when making the backup..they only copy the 10 kb reparse point. Which is not the whole file..Just be sure to copy from the correct drive when doing your backup.... \\Servername\foldername NOT D\\Shares  or you may have corruptions no matter what software you use to backup.

    Been using my backup program for over a year on a client pc and now on WHS....no issues at all.

    Monday, October 29, 2007 2:57 AM
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    Judgeschambers

     

    Thanks for the comments and the link to your how-to. There seems to be lots if different software out there, but the procedure's pretty much the same.

     

    Right now, I'm only backing up to an external drive.  I  haven't bothered with the any remote backups yet.

     

    The one thing I like about Syncback (it can be a liability too), it only copies files that have changed.  After the initial backup, it only takes a couple of minutes to do a new backup.

     

    By the way, nice website.  I"m going to take a closer look at it later. 

     

    Rice

    Monday, October 29, 2007 12:33 PM