Help with Backup Strategy

[roland]

Hi team,

 

I am looking for some help in getting my backup strategy right.

And let's not drag this down the road of if a protected array is a backup or just a fault tolerant system. The plan is to backup the data from unRAID to CrashPlan. But the initial question I have is, how do you get your data reliably from your desktop/laptop to unRAID?

 

So far I used DeltaCopy on the Windows7 laptop. But it did stop working one day, there was no alert or warning and I did not notice until the disk gave up and there was nothing copied to the tower.

 

I currently only have 1 laptop but I can see that number growing with the kids.

Essentially I want to automatically backup the user folders from Windows to unRAID.

A fairly simple requirement, but how have you solved this?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

[garycase]

I use SyncBack with a backup profile scheduled to automatically run every night at a specified time [different for each of my various computers].    Works very well.  My UnRAID Auxiliary server isn't always on, so I have a scheduled job run 2 minutes before the SyncBack profile is schedule that send a magic packet to turn on the UnRAID server.

 

So -- in my case, every morning ...

-- at 2:58 the Aux server is turned on by my wife's computer (which wakes itself up to do that).

-- at 3:00 my wife's computer is automatically backed up by SyncBack

-- at 3:28 the Aux server is turned on by my computer

-- at 3:30 my computer is automatically backed up by SyncBack

-- at 3:58 the Aux server is turned on by my main HTPC

-- at 4:00 the HTPC is automatically backed up by SyncBack

 

and one day a week ...,

-- at 4:28 both my Aux UnRAID server and my Backup UnRAID server are turned on

-- at 4:30 the Aux server is backed up to the Backup server

-- at 5:28 both my Media UnRAID server and the Backup server are turned on

-- at 5:30 the Media server is backed up to the Backup server.

 

In your case the weekly backups of the UnRAID servers are going to be replaced by Crashplan, but the daily backups with SyncBack would work fine for as many PC's are you need to backup.

 

http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html

 

I use the paid SyncBack SE version, but the free version works fine for most purposes.

 

 

 

[roland]

Thanks for the quick reply Gary.

Will look into SyncBack.

 

I was also wondering if I could move my "My Documents" to unRAID and somehow make it available "offline" on Windows at the same time. This would also provide me with a synced version once more PCs join my household. Any ideas on how to set that up? Anybody doing that?

 

[Squid]

Thanks for the quick reply Gary.

Will look into SyncBack.

 

I was also wondering if I could move my "My Documents" to unRAID and somehow make it available "offline" on Windows at the same time. This would also provide me with a synced version once more PCs join my household. Any ideas on how to set that up? Anybody doing that?

Look up offline files on windows

[garycase]

You could simply relocate the Documents folder to a network location (i.e. UnRAID) and use the Offline Files feature; but I wouldn't recommend that.    I think it's more convenient to be certain that your current working copy of any document is on the PC -- this gives you the ability to recover accidental deletions via the recycle bin, etc. and also if you're working on an existing document (which is already backed up on UnRAID) you won't modify the previous version on the backup until you re-sync (i.e. run the SyncBack profile) ... so if you accidentally modify something in it, or change your mind about alterations, you haven't already altered your backup copy.

 

Basically you don't want your working copy to be your backup.

 

If you want more frequent syncs of the documents, just set up multiple schedules for that profile ... or just put a "Backup Now" icon on your desktop that will automatically run a SyncBack profile when you double-click it.

 

[roland]

Thanks Squid and Gary,

my question was more around if the offline files were a good idea or not.

I am currently working out how to implement it.

 

Thanks Gary for your insights, I will have to consider these and have a good look at SyncBack.

[jimbobulator]

garycase, any experience with any other software besides SyncBack for comparison?  I've been trying various free options trying to settle on something to do basically exactly what you're doing.  But I still haven't found what I'm looking for (cue the delay heavy guitar riff).  Deltacopy is next on my list, and I haven't tried SyncBack.

[trurl]

So far I used DeltaCopy on the Windows7 laptop. But it did stop working one day, there was no alert or warning and I did not notice until the disk gave up and there was nothing copied to the tower.

 

I currently only have 1 laptop but I can see that number growing with the kids.

Essentially I want to automatically backup the user folders from Windows to unRAID.

I have a PC with 2 users, and I backup the user folders to unRAID nightly using DeltaCopy. It has been working perfectly for me for a few years now. I even have it setup to send me email when it finishes.

 

How exactly were you using DeltaCopy? I have unRAID rsync daemon configured with the backup locations on the unRAID side, and DeltaCopy Client on the PC side.

I was also wondering if I could move my "My Documents" to unRAID and somehow make it available "offline" on Windows at the same time. This would also provide me with a synced version once more PCs join my household. Any ideas on how to set that up? Anybody doing that?

I do this also, but only with the music folders since they are pretty large. My wife's iTunes and my MediaMonkey are both working with music files that are on unRAID. I set this up in the individual applications rather than at the Windows level. These music libraries were originally on separate PCs. Instead of moving everything within the applications, or starting from scratch and rescanning everything, there are ways to move all the files then manipulate the application databases so they look for the files in the new locations.

[gundamguy]

Since we are on the subject... I currently I am using Windows File History to do incremental backups of documents and selected other folders. How good / bad of an approach is this, is a 3rd party program much better, if so how and why?

 

I'm alwasy keen on improving my backup strategies.

[roland]

How exactly were you using DeltaCopy? I have unRAID rsync daemon configured with the backup locations on the unRAID side, and DeltaCopy Client on the PC side. I even have it setup to send me email when it finishes.

 

I use it pretty much the same way. There were separate tasks for the 2 user folders and the photos. Unfortunately the photos backup stopped working (my own fault) and I never knew.

I did not see the email option, maybe I look into this as well. In general I am happy with DeltaCopy, just wondering if there is better options out there.