Backup software that works?

[jakev]

Hey,

 

I have just finished setting up an unraid server, and thought it would play nice with my copy of Retrospect (backup software).

 

At first glance, it seems that everything was working... Retrospect showed file comparison, transfer speed, etc. BUT, I noticed on the unraid maintenance page that the free space wasn't changing much. So I hopped over to "drive 1" of the unraid, and all the files were ghosted out, and everything was at 0kb.

 

Anyhow, after an hour of "copying", I now had a complete 0KB copy of all the files I was backing up.

 

To test, I was able to drag and drop files from the same location, and I was able to use Retrospect to backup to an external hard drive... but the backup software doesn't seem to want to work well with the un-raid server.

 

Does anyone know what might be the cause of this... or if not, does anyone have a good working filecopy/backup software that works with unraid? I would prefer to have a program that will automatically update certain data each night onto a different unraid disk. I don't want any type of compressed or backup file... I want all the files identical to what is on the workstation.

 

Any thoughts/input appreciated.

[Joe L.]

I suggest Acronis - True Image

 

I think it is about the best out there.  It even allows the "mounting" of a saved image as a new drive letter on any PC on your LAN equipped with True Image.  I can get to any file I want, on any backup image I've ever saved to my unRaid array, from any PC on my LAN.

 

Of course it also supports a cold restore to a blank disk from a saved image (did that when I upgraded the disk on my wife's laptop)

I did not have to reload or re-configure anything... Saved tons of time.  It can save to/restore from a network drive, a USB drive, or a local drive.

 

They used to have a trial version, give it a try if it is still available.

 

Joe L.

[jakev]

Hey Joe, (cue Hendrix music)

 

Thanks for the lead, I'm downloading their 15 day trial to give it a whirl.

 

Hopefully this will give me better results... even at the cost of buying a new program, it'll be worth it.

 

Will try to report back if the problem persists with other backup software.

 

Thanks

[limetech]

Which version of Retrospect are you using?

[jakev]

Limetech-

 

I'm running 6.5

 

::edited to add::

 

Sorry, that's version 6.5.342, if that makes a difference.

 

Joe-

 

I downloaded and installed the demo, but haven't restarted to try it out because I'm copying some files to the unraid server. But while looking at their website, I noticed that they claim to not support servers for the "home" edition, but are willing to sell me a server license for $700. OUCH

 

Funny, it let me install the home edition on win2k server, but who knows if it will actually run after the reboot.

 

I had planned on upgrading this computer with 2k server to 2k3 server, but might have to demote it to just XP or 2kPro to save on software costs. We really only need the server software for a few limited applications... perhaps it can be installed on a different system, oh well.

[jakev]

Well Joe,

 

That program doesn't seem to want to let me just copy the files (and verify them). It wants to make a complete backup image, which I think the backup built into windows will do an adequate job for data at least.

 

I was wanting something like how Retrospect offers a duplicate option that will go and look for new, deleted and updated files and only change those on the backup drive (in this case un-raid). This would save a LOT of time, over manually copying the entire contents of the workstation over.

 

I found a little 30 day trial program that does a good file comparison... but it seems to choke once I try to backup 100+ GB of raw files. It handled all the little files well, however.

 

Soooo... I'm still searching for something that will verify files and update only the ones that need it.

[lovingHDTV]

I have been using Retrospect 7.0 for about 6 months with my UnRaid without issues.  I have it backing up 3 computers to three different backup sets weekly.  I have also restored files from the server with it.

 

Just in case your interested.

 

 

 

 

[jakev]

HDTV-

 

Is that using the duplicate method, or the backup?

 

 

I seem to have found a working program called "ViceVersa Pro" that had a 30 day trial version and is doing a good job. Not quite as easy as Retrospect, but it works for now.

 

If Retrospect 7 works, It'll probably be cheaper to just upgrade, however.

[Joe L.]

Well Joe,

 

That program doesn't seem to want to let me just copy the files (and verify them). It wants to make a complete backup image, which I think the backup built into windows will do an adequate job for data at least.

 

I mis-understood your needs.  To me, a backup allow me to restore a given drive if/when it fails.  A copy of selected files as you are doing might allow you to recover your data, but not restore a drive in the event of a crash.  The backup built into windows will not allow you to restore a crashed "C:" drive (as far as I know)

 

True-Image will allow you to perform an incremental backup (only the files that are new or have changed since the last backup) but it will only do that one you have performed a full backup of a disk partition.  It may still suit your needs, but at the expense of storing an initial full backup of the disk partition. I think you can even perform a scheduled incremental backup on a periodic basis (daily, weekly, etc)

 

I don't know about you, but the first time you lose a disk and don't have to spend days restoring applications is when you will be happy to have had that full backup stored on the unRaid server.

 

I agree, the $700 win2003 server version is priced toward the corporate server market, not the home market.  I use True-Image on win2K and it works fine, although I have an earlier version that did not yet offer incremental backups. I don't know about the current release on win2k. I'd expect it would work just fine.

 

As far as win2003... you might make a dual-boot machine, win2003 and win2k/winxp.  That way, you can boot into win2k to do the backup with the home version, and then re-boot into win2003 for those specific apps that need it.

 

Joe L.

Joe L.

[jakev]

Joe-

 

I have a (somewhat old) version of Norton Ghost that... altho probably not as good as newer products... seems to be able to restore the OS if necessary. I've only had to do that twice in the past 5 years or so between 4 machines, thankfully. If ghost ever stopped working good enough, I'd probably look into a newer/better program for that purpose, which I admit True Image does seem a LOT nicer than Ghost.

 

The reason for the individual file backups are so that we always have multiple versions of files we can pick from, and in case one is accidentally modified/deleted/whatever, we can go back and easily just pull the file from an older date. The workstation/server contains a working copy on a raid 1 setup, which only saves me from ONE hard drive failing, but not from accidental deletion/modification/virus/etc.

 

I am looking to have setup 5 drives with the same data (only different update points), so that we have the last 5 versions of files available at any given time. Even if we do this every day, that gives us almost a week worth of easy recovery options. I've found it to be much easier to be able to browse to an older file than it is to go digging thru backup files, but I'll still have full-blown backup (windows backup or ghost) files as a last resort.

 

Plus, as much as I like the concept of redundancy, parity and whatnot... I still don't trust my data to all be in one place, or even two with the parity disk. So having many copies of my files are a big plus to me.

[lovingHDTV]

Not sure what duplicate method is, I just create a backup.  It essentially does an incremental weekly, then quarterly I create a new backup set which causes a new full backup, with weekly incrementals.  I plan on keeping 8 quarters of backup sets and will store them offsite on an external HDD.

 

 

 

HDTV-

 

Is that using the duplicate method, or the backup?

 

 

I seem to have found a working program called "ViceVersa Pro" that had a 30 day trial version and is doing a good job. Not quite as easy as Retrospect, but it works for now.

 

If Retrospect 7 works, It'll probably be cheaper to just upgrade, however.