Backing up WHS Server/DrivePool

Jay_Z

Quite fortunately, so far, everything is working just great with my install of DrivePool - so, I wanted to see if I could get help with this question here.

I
have Windows Home Server 2011 with DrivePool - 4x2TB drives, with about 6.5 GB of data total in my DrivePool (my largest folder is 4.5TB)

Now, I need to figure out how I can backup this DrivePool ... I have a 4TB and a 3TB drive for my initial backup (hoping to rotate another series of drives - 4TB, 2TB, 1TBs).  Although, I understand there is a 2TB folder limit with
WHS2011.

Any suggestions for the best way to backup this server/DrivePool based on these details??

lee1978

Hi bud

I use crash plan I have over 10tb backed up easy to setup and you just leave it going takes a while depending on how good your upload speed is they do a 30 day trial so u can test it if you need to speed it try upgrading your net speed a bit the good thing is its offsite backup as well

Lee

Shane

Could you explain further what you mean by "hoping to rotate another series of drives"? As in, two sets of backup drives (4+3 and 4+2+1) which you plan to swap around on a regular basis to keep one offline/offsite?

What backup features/capabilities are you needing and wanting?

Re the builtin WHS2011 backup wizard, it has a 2TB hard limit.

Jay_Z

Thanks Lee, I did start with CrashPlan recently - it will take a while! But, it's a great addition to my backups.

Shane, as you mentioned, I'd rotate with two sets, onsite/offsite. So, ideally onsite, offsite, online.

So, if I use the backup wizard, it will stop at 2TB per folder? This is where I was questioning, the best way to do the backup - perhaps, the wizard won't be the best option. Is there another recommendation on backing up the pool? Just copying the data to the external drives ... or, is there a better option - software, add in, etc to use on my pool of data? The less manual a process, the better!

lee1978

Hi

I made another pool added drives then used crashplan to backup to the new pool it works well what I would try since u like to rotate is to make 2 new pools backup 1&2 and try it that way using crash plan I think you tell it to backup to a folder which would be on the new pool or pools

Lee

Shane

The WHS 2011 backup wizard stops at 2TB per anything. Source folder bigger than 2TB? Won't do it. Source drive bigger than 2TB? Won't do it. Total backup size bigger than 2TB? Won't do it.

Oh, and want to split the backup across multiple destination drives? Won't do it.

As lee1978 suggests, crashplan can backup to multiple local destinations, not just to the cloud, so if you're already using it, you can just add your backup sets as new pools and tell crashplan to backup to them as well. Schedule crashplan to do all its backups at night.

If you want to use something else, I'm fond of freefilesync; it's nowhere near as shiny and has no cloud of its own, but on the plus side it doesn't need to phone home to install and its backups are standard files (because, you know, "what if I ever urgently need to recover my backups on a new machine and my internet is down?" ). And you could always use both.

Jay_Z

Thank you both, I didn't really look into the onsite capabilities of CrashPlan previously.

FreeFileSync sounds similar to ChronoSync (for Mac) which works quite well. Novice question, is it best to install this on my PC and set up the backup to drives connected to the PC - or, install on WHS and backup to external drives connected to the WHS system?

Yes, I definitely prefer to have the files backed up as standard files/non-proprietary formats that can easily be accessed if needed from another system.

Again, thank you, this was quite helpful - WHS, DrivePool and a good backup are going to make for a great place to store all my data!

Shane

Q. Is it best to install this on my PC and set up the backup to drives connected to the PC - or, install on WHS and backup to external drives connected to the WHS system?

A. That depends on your preferred tradeoff between bottlenecking (usually it's quicker to backup to a local drive than over a network) and convenience (your server may be in a closet somewhere). Security may also be a concern (e.g. if you want the ability to backup a system without it being able to nuke the backups if it gets compromised) but that's not usually demanded by home users and you are at least doing rotations.

lee1978

Hi,

For all you can't access files directly on the drive u can access individual files using the interface many underestimate crashplan but for instance I download music direct from my crashplan cloud backup to my iPhone or iPad and movies using the app and u can do this on any computer you are at anywhere in the world. Same goes with documents as long as you have it backed up you can access it anywhere.

Lee