I'm using unRAID Server Basic Version 5.0-beta14 as a test Windows 7 backup server for my home compters.

 

The issue I'm having is I can't manage the backups stored on the unRAID server from my laptop. The option is not available.

 

I would like to delete some of the backups to free up space on the array.

 

I've created a Backup share and all users have Read/Write access.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Parity ST3160812A_5LS2F4PT (hdb) 156290872

Disk1 WDC_WD800BB-00FRA0_WD-WMAJD2146739 (hda) 78149652

Disk 2 WDC_WD1200BB-53CAA0_WD-WMA8C1830067 (hdc) 117220792

Which version of Windows 7 are you using?

 

Not all versions of Windows 7 allow backing up to a network drive.

Comparison chart here : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare

 

There are other backup options aside from the one built into Windows... even if you have a version of Windows that does not allow network backups natively.

Tell us exactly how you are trying to manage your backups on unRAID.  You need to tell us what program you are using on the laptop and the EXACT wording of the error message. 

 

Laptops can be a bit more challenging to use on a local network as they are often configured for use on Public networks.  (The things you want to do on local secured network are most often the very things things you DON'T want to be able to do (or have done to you) in a public network environment!) 

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

I am using Windows 7 Ultimate on all systems and the weekly back up to the unRAID share seems to be running fine. I've successfully done test file restores without problems. However, I only have approx. 15  GB space left on the 200 GB array.

 

I've checked both the laptops I'm backing up, and there should only be approx. 60 GB of data backed up (Users folders).

 

While trying to manage the backup from my laptop to delete older backup sets I see information in the attached file.

 

All laptops and unRAID server are connected to a Workgroup.

 

Thanks

From this screenshot of the Windows backup, it is saying that this particular computer does not have any backups stored out on the server.  You mentioned computers in your first post.  Look at the same screen for each of these computers and do the math on ALL the numbers.  I assume that you can manage the backups for the other computers that you are using this system for.  (From what I can see, you can only manage the backup files for THIS computer from the Windows Backup software.  You will have to go to the other computers to see what they are doing.)  If the other computers are are backed up to the server then the issue lies within this computer. 

 

You should also be able to use Windows Explorer to look at the files on the server.  But I have a gut feeling that MS in their infinite wisdom is using cryptic file names to name most of the files and folders so it might require a a lot of careful analysis to figure out exactly what is actually backed up to the server using Windows Explorer.

 

 

From what I can see, you have setup a rather small sized array using unRAID--- ~200GB.  I must admit that I don't use the Windows Backup system to do my backups.  But I am surprised that that you can setup a workable scheme and have some reasonable assurance of being able to recover any file, using only 200GB of storage to for 60GB of data.  Most schemes store at least three sets of old data.  Thus 60GB of data require a minimum of 240GB of storage space-- The oldest data set should not be removed before the the newest set is completely backed up.  Granted since you are doing more than one computer, you are not moving 60 GB at a time so the 240GB might be bit more than the absolute minimum but you are still on the very low end.  If I were setting up a backup scheme, I would be looking more for a minimum of 500GB of storage space for a current 60GB of data.  Especially since (most probably) Windows is going to be doing the actual management of the data backup  points. 

Thanks for the reply and information.

 

I back up two laptops to the unRAID server. I checked and can't manage the Windows 7 backup from my wife's laptop either.  Same problem as my laptop. See attachment in this thread.

 

I have two shares on the unRAID box: Media and Backup. When I try to browse the Backup share from Windows 7 in Windows Explorer, I get an error that states I don't have rights to browse the folder. I can browse the Media share, add and delete files without issues. I can't help but wonder if this problem is with user rights from Windows 7 to unRAID. It seems odd that I can perform a test restore from both Windows 7 laptops by browsing to that folder in the Windows backup utility. Weird.

 

I realize the array is small, but as I stated earlier, I thought a 200 GB array would handle 66 GB (checked last night) backups OK. The Media share just has a few photos and files stored so I can test add, delete, etc.

 

I guess I'll continue to mess around with it and see what I can come up with.

 

Thanks again, and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My hope is to get it all worked out and then build a real unRAID server to stream movies, music and back up all out stuff.

I believe you need to use a user name and password for the backup network location. I only tried it once but the W7 backup utility requires both fields be filled in before it will create a backup. Likely, you have a conflict between the uers on the PC and this user/password which isn't allowing you to access the share. Try a reboot and access or reset the windows credentials.

Thanks for the suggestion lionelhutz.

 

Yup, have that set up. I have the exact user names and passwords on the server as I have on the laptops.

 

I tried again last night to access the unRAID Backup share using Windows Explorer and no joy. I even tried mapping the Backup share and just can't connect using any of the Users/passwords set up in unRAID. It looks like there is no way to connect to unRAID from Windows 7 and manage the backups.

 

It's confusing that I can access the Media share from Windows 7, and add/delete files without problems. But not the Backup share. It may be that Windows is placing some kind of encryption on the backup sets that messes things up.

 

I'll do some research and try another backup program. I heard Cobian was pretty good.

 

 

No, you're doing something wrong if you can't access the share and it has nothing to do with the backup program being used.

If you haven't downloaded and install 'Putty', do it now.  Then login to a Putty session (user ---root  and your password for root).  You should now have a prompt that looks like this:

 

   

 root@Elsie1:~#

      Enter the following command:

 

   ls -al /mnt/user

 

    One of the lines will look like this:

 

   drwxrwx--- 1 nobody users 192 2012-11-16 10:08 Backup/

 

What this tells us, is that this is a directory (d), the next set of three characters (rwx)  are the permissions level for the owner.  Owner has read, write, execute permission, The next three (rwx) are the permissions for member of the group (again--- read, write and execute).  The next three characters  (---) are the permission for all other users.  In this case, they cannot do anything beyond this point! 

 

The owner of this directory is 'nobody' and the group is 'users'.  What you need to post back are the permissions, the owner and the name of the group.  If you are not the owner (nobody) or a member of the group (users), you cannot  gain access to any files beyond this point.  ('nobody' is a special user in this favor of Linux and has some unusual privileges.)

 

There is one exception--- the Super User ----, who is 'root' in the case of unRAID and you are logged in as the Super User.  Super User can do anything, and I do mean anything, so be careful with if you experiment.  Linux assumes that Super User is a trusted individual and knows what he is doing---- There are no "Are you Sure" prompts!

 

 

 

 

PS ----  As a point of information for you, the execute permission has to be set for any directory for which you want to be able to list the files within the directory. 

 

PSS ---- If you have a monitor and keyboard attached, you can do all of the above from right there. 

 

Thanks for responding Frank1940. Here's the output. It looks like, according to your post, the nobody user and users group members have Read, Wire and Execute permissions to the Backup directory.

 

unRAID login: root

Password:

Linux 3.1.1-unRAID.

root@unRAID:~# ls -al /mnt/user

total 0

drwxrwx--- 1 nobody users 152 2012-11-29 18:06 ./

drwxr-xr-x 5 root  root    0 2012-12-06 15:13 ../

drwxrwx--- 1 nobody users 136 2012-12-02 22:15 Backup/

drwxrwx--- 1 nobody users 120 2012-08-26 11:39 Media/

drwxrwxrwx 1 root  root  112 2012-11-29 18:06 plex/

root@unRAID:~#

 

I ran groups <username> using both my wife's and my username and we are both part of the users group. I can assume that, according to your post, we both have Read, Write and Execute permissions to the Backup directory.

 

I ran groups <username> using both my wife's and my username and we are both part of the users group. I can assume that, according to your post, we both have Read, Write and Execute permissions to the Backup directory.

 

Not necessarily. The SMB user configuration done via the unRAID GUI must also be correct. Improper Linux permissions can prevent access but only the GUI config can allow access.

Thanks for responding Frank1940. Here's the output. It looks like, according to your post, the nobody user and users group members have Read, Wire and Execute permissions to the Backup directory.

 

unRAID login: root

Password:

Linux 3.1.1-unRAID.

root@unRAID:~# ls -al /mnt/user

total 0

drwxrwx--- 1 nobody users 152 2012-11-29 18:06 ./

drwxr-xr-x 5 root  root    0 2012-12-06 15:13 ../

drwxrwx--- 1 nobody users 136 2012-12-02 22:15 Backup/

drwxrwx--- 1 nobody users 120 2012-08-26 11:39 Media/

drwxrwxrwx 1 root  root  112 2012-11-29 18:06 plex/

root@unRAID:~#

 

I ran groups <username> using both my wife's and my username and we are both part of the users group. I can assume that, according to your post, we both have Read, Write and Execute permissions to the Backup directory.

 

Now let's go a deeper into the file structure and see what gremlins might exist there.  Run the command:

 

     

 ls -al /mnt/user/backup

Thanks for sticking with this issue.

 

unRAID login: root

Password:

Linux 3.1.1-unRAID.

root@unRAID:~# ls -al /mnt/user/Backup

total 4

drwxrwx--- 1 nobody users 104 2012-12-09 02:26 ./

drwxrwx--- 1 nobody users 128 2012-12-08 08:38 ../

drwxr-x--- 1 esroth users 160 2012-12-08 05:47 HP-PC/

drwxr-x--- 1 karoth users 160 2012-12-08 16:57 KAROTH-PC/

-r--r----- 1 esroth users 528 2012-12-08 05:47 MediaID.bin

root@unRAID:~#

 

And some good news. I decided that I had done something wrong when setting up the Backup share on My unRAID server. I connected to my server using the Microsoft Telnet Client, completely deleted the Backup directory and all files/directories within Backup.

 

I then connected to the server using the Web GUI, deleted and recreated the Backup share. Ran backups for both laptops and can now manage the backup sets. Viola!

 

Not sure why this happened, but at least I can delete old backups if the test array fills up.

 

Thanks for all the support on this issue. I really appreciate all the help and suggestions provided. unRAiD is a great product and I look forward to building a "real" unRAID server in the future when I have some free cash. I plan on terrabytes of storage and would like to try media streaming.

 

Have to go to work.

 

Thanks to everyone who helped with this issue. I changed the subject to [solved] because I can now manage/remove old backups through the Windows 7 backup utility. unRAID is an excellent solution and I look forward to building a media server in the future and setting up a whole-home media streaming/storage server.

 

Thanks again especially Frank1940, and I look forward to learning unRAID.