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TrueCrypt and Drivepool

edited March 2012 in DrivePool
Does anyone store a TrueCrypt vault on drivepool?  

For some background (and the reason why I am asking this), TC creates a vault that can be mounted as a drive.  When it is unlocked, you can transfer files over to it.  When it is encrypted, it appears as one single file on the drive. 

My plan is to save the vault on the server but mount it over the network from another machine.  My concern is that it will cause issues with Drivepool if it tries to access it while it is unlocked and then checks it again while it is encrypted.  Is there a good way to handle this?

Comments

  • Bear in mind the TC mounted drive is only visible to the client PC that is running the TC software. As far as Drivepool is concerned, it's still the same (encrypted) file, with an exclusive write lock acquired by the client. When TC mounts the file, the data is only decrypted and encrypted in memory on the client PC - the file blocks retrieved from the server (and sent back to the server for write I/O) are encrypted.

    That's the theory, but personally I haven't tested it with DrivePool - I suggest you give it a go and let us and Alex know of any problems.
  • Here's a question I can answer!  I actually have been using truecrypt in a lot of forms for a long time, so I have tried it in most configurations, and your configuration should work in Drivepool.  I haven't encountered any errors when doing this for the last few months now.  Here are some more details about it, since other people may be interested in this topic also:

    If you leave the read-striping and real-time duplication enabled and you have a Truecrypt archive on the drivepool when you mount it any changes you make are made to BOTH copies of the truecrypt archive.  I believe what is happening is similar to how dropbox handles the Truecrypt archives where the large file is looked at in many small subhashes and only the smaller pieces are updated by drivepool.  It should also be noted that back in M3 and before having duplication of a Truecrypt archive DID NOT work.  It does now though.  But, to answer your question if you make a Truecrypt archive on the server and mount it on another PC then any changes you make to the mounted drive are mirrored on both copies in the server.  

    For reference I have the settings ENABLE - Duplicate file in real-time (Default), ENABLED - Read striping for duplicated files, ENABLED - Enable tracing.  Then just make a Truecrypt archive or put an existing one into the drivepool and use it normally.  Everything mirrors perfectly and is pretty fast on my server.

    One additional side note, sometimes if you make A LOT of changes within a Truecrypt drive it make take several seconds or a minute or 2 before you can dismount it (I am talking making changes > 15 GB on the drive).  If you aren't adding tons of data it dismounts instantly.  I think this has to do with what I mentioned earlier, but if Truecrypt ever appears locked up, just let it sit for a minute or two and then it will successfully dismount the drives and everything is good.  All in all, I have been VERY happy with the mirroring ability for files like Truecrypt archives in Drivepool.
  • Thanks for the comments.  I am glad to hear that it should work.
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