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Crashplan Desktop Error - Crashplan has been disconnected from the backup engine


Ned

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Been using Crashplan dockers for a couple of months now with no problem and all of a sudden now when I RDP into the Crashplan Desktop docker, Crashplan gives the following error when it tries to load:

 

"CrashPlan has been disconnected from the backup engine."

 

The Crashplan engine iteself continues to run though, and I have verified on the website that my files are still being backed up.

 

How can I fix this?

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Gfjardim has not yet updated the CrashPlan Desktop to version 4.4.1 (it is still running version 4.3.0).  The CrashPlan backup engine on the server automatically updated itself to version 4.4.1 and the 4.3.0 client cannot connect to the newer engine.

 

Those who need client access to make changes or monitor progress (raises hand) are using the Windows client temporarily as it has been updated to 4.4.1. 

 

Just make sure you follow Leifgg's setup guide because there are some gotchas between client and server in version 4.4.1 with keeping necessary files in sync.

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Thanks, I did not realize that there was a version mismatch issue.  Won't the desktop docker automatically update itself when the newer version is released though, the same way the engine did?  Is there something I need to do?  I'm ok managing via the crashplan web interface for now if all I need to do is wait... If there's more to it than that though, can you please point me to this guide you are referencing?  Thank you!

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Thanks, I did not realize that there was a version mismatch issue.  Won't the desktop docker automatically update itself when the newer version is released though, the same way the engine did?  Is there something I need to do?  I'm ok managing via the crashplan web interface for now if all I need to do is wait... If there's more to it than that though, can you please point me to this guide you are referencing?  Thank you!

Guide is in my signature  ::)

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Thanks, I did not realize that there was a version mismatch issue.  Won't the desktop docker automatically update itself when the newer version is released though, the same way the engine did?  Is there something I need to do?  I'm ok managing via the crashplan web interface for now if all I need to do is wait... If there's more to it than that though, can you please point me to this guide you are referencing?  Thank you!

 

Your backup will continue to run in the background as configured.  You really only need client access if you want to change the backup parameters (location, folders, backup sets, etc.) or if you want to monitor progress.  Eventually, the CrashPlan Desktop docker will be updated to match the server version, in the meantime, you need another client access method if you want to modify the current backup settings.  Leifgg's guide is the go-to reference for ensuring the client and server can talk to each other with all the games Code42 keeps playing with headless installations.

 

BTW - I submitted a support ticket (a complaint really) to Code42 explaining how their recent update breaks headless installations and requires manual intervention.  I realize they do not officially support headless installations, but, I asked them to at least quit doing undocumented things that break them and require manual intervention on every CrashPlan service restart.

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Thanks everyone.  This is great info and a great, well-written guide as well!  I wish I found this when I was getting crashplan set up several months back :-)

 

Since as you point out, crashplan will continue to run just fine and I can also make configuration changes via the crashplan web access, I will probably hold off on installing a Windows client for now.  I'm also able to monitor progress through the iOS app as well which is good.

 

Any idea when we might expect an update to the crashplan desktop docker?

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Beaut, thanks!

 

I just got one of those lovely emails from CrashPlan:

Backup Alert!

Computer "TOWER" has been unable to reach any backup destinations for 3 DAYS. Back up to multiple destinations to reduce your risk of losing data.

 

And of course the CrashPlan-Desktop wouldn't connect.

 

google found the answer here pretty quickly, and the doc rocks. All the steps I did the first time round again but in one place.

 

Seems that the change that broke things was the ui_info key changing from unraid to a (unique per instance?) GUID. This is something I wanted to do on the first install (I have a near-anaphylactic reaction to shared / common secrets like that!) but couldn't easily enough find a way to do it then - changing the server based one and keeping it in sync with the client didn't want to work.

 

But now: easily fixed.

 

Thanks for the great doc.

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Seems that the change that broke things was the ui_info key changing from unraid to a (unique per instance?) GUID. This is something I wanted to do on the first install (I have a near-anaphylactic reaction to shared / common secrets like that!) but couldn't easily enough find a way to do it then - changing the server based one and keeping it in sync with the client didn't want to work.

 

But now: easily fixed.

 

Thanks for the great doc.

The .ui_info file now also includes the IP address of the machine on which the backup service is running.  Of course, Code42 in their wisdom regenerates that now on every service restart and it is reset to 0.0.0.0 because they assume a locally running service.  That has to be manually edited to include the unRAID server IP on every service restart.  In my case, I just found it easier to copy .ui_info from the client back to the server as the client copy has not been altered since I set it to read-only in Windows.

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The .ui_info file now also includes the IP address of the machine on which the backup service is running.  Of course, Code42 in their wisdom regenerates that now on every service restart and it is reset to 0.0.0.0 because they assume a locally running service.

 

Even though I'm paid up for a two or more years, I'd love to find a replacement for Crashplan.  This is such a headache.  At this point, I think a linux VM (with crashplan installed) and links to the unraid data directories would be a better solution.  If it's possible for the VM to mount the data directories.  Of course this wouldn't be an issue if I didn't move some directories around at the same time that CrashPlan was updating their software. 

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I am running (testing…) CrashPlan in an Ubuntu VM and that works fine. You can mount the host filesystem from the VM. Mount points will be different from what you have today so you need to go through the process “Adopting another computer”. It will take some time if you have a lot of data.

 

The only thing I haven’t got working is real time monitoring of the files on the host meaning that CrashPlan only finds new/changed files when doing a full scan that is once per day as default.

 

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I am running (testing…) CrashPlan in an Ubuntu VM and that works fine. You can mount the host filesystem from the VM.

 

Do you have unRAID filesystems mounted through the network (NFS, SMB, etc)?  Or is there a more elegant way to access the hosts file system?

There are ways to mount the file system directly described here: https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=34686.0

 

What I did in the Linux VM was adding following to fstab located in the folder etc:

shares /mnt/shares 9p  noauto,nobootwait,trans=virtio,version=9p2000.L,rw 0 0

 

And then following to rc.local in located in folder etc:

mount /mnt/shares

 

Also add the folder

shares

to the folder

mnt 

in the VM.

 

Then when you create the Linux VM in unRAID you can make an unRAID Mout tag (in the GUI) that will be visible to the VM. I set that to

shares

and mapped it to the unRAID Share

/mnt/user/

 

The above should give your Linux VM access to all shares on your unRAID system.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

It seems to me that we should be able to upgrade the GUI from within the docker container without waiting for gfjardim to update the docker container template.  My linux and unraid experience is rather limited so I'm fumbling around in the dark here.  I did the following steps last night and it seemed to work.  The GUI container updated and I could RDP into the container.  The GUI upgraded to 4.4.1 and connected to the engine.  It all seemed to be working correctly until I figured out that I must have done something wrong because I started getting warnings that docker.img was growing over 70% full. 

  I think what happened was that I used the standard linux Crashplan install which installed both the GUI and the backup engine. Because I didn't do anything to map the GUI container to the backup engine container I think the GUI was actually connecting to the new backup engine install within the GUI container. 

  When I saw the warning about docker.img going over 70% I ran the uninstall again and then attempted to install again, using different directories.  I tried several sets of directories until I realized the install includes a new backup engine being installed inside the GUI container. 

  My next strategy is to look at the install.sh script to see if I can modify it to install only the GUI.  or even install the engine but not start it.  Then use Leifgg's dropbox file to map the gui container to the backup engine container.

 

Any advise?

 

 

--- THIS DOESN'T WORK yet, so don't try this ---

1) Download the new version of Crashplan for Linux https://www.code42.com/crashplan/download/

2) Save the .tgz file to the unraid share /appdata/crashplan/data/

3) Putty into TOWER as root, navigate to that dir and unpack it.  I typed  'tar zxvf CrashPlan_4.4.1_Linux.tgz'  - I don't know what the zxvf are for, that is just what the google result said to use to unpack it.

4) get into the docker I typed 'docker exec -it CrashPlan-Desktop bash'

5) go to where I unpacked the tgz file.  'cd /data/appdata/crashplan/data/crashplan-install/'

6) removed the old version 'sudo ./uninstall.sh -i /usr/local/crashplan' (following Step 1 from the code42 page linked above)

7) I did not follow the next step for "Complete Uninstall"

8) Followed Step 2 to install the new version... "sudo ./install.sh"

9) Following the install prompts...

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What about installing crashplan from the link above, then disabling the backup engine that's installed within the Crashplan-Desktop docker by removing the appropriate services from the rc*.d directories?  The instance of the engine within the Crashplan-Desktop container would use a little disk space but if it's not running then it shouldn't be using any memory/processor.

 

right?

 

As I said above, I'm very new to Linux so please chime in if you have an idea or comment.

 

thanks

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Crashplan support respnded as followed when I asked about a how to install the GUI only. 

 

There's no way to install just the GUI from our script, as we do not design it for headless installations. My recommendation would be to run the installer, then disable the CrashPlan service in your init program. The methods of this will depend on what distribution of Linux you are running. I would check the documentation of your distro to see what they use to handle system services. Once you've disabled it, you can go in and tweak your .ui_info file to connect to the headless.

 

Please keep in mind that running unsupported installations may result in unexpected behavior which could put your backup at risk!

 

Based on this response, how do we disable the engine on the unraid distribution?

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This is all great, but the real solution is to get the crashplan desktop docker updated!  Does anyone have an ETA on when this proper and permanent solution will be completed?

Ditto... I am on the verge of dropping crashplan all together. I haven't been able to get the work around solution to work for me and I am only willing to go so long without backups... My crashplan seems broken as its not backing up to my other computer anymore and I can't manage the settings since the desktop dockers is broken.

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I'm in the same boat.  I'm changing settings right now by logging into my crashplan web account... but I'm seeing very little upload progress and I have no way of monitoring the backup or confirming that the settings have taken effect.

 

I must be missing something but however the desktop docker was created, can't the same thing be done over again but just with the latest version??  It seems like it would be a very simple thing to do for whoever created that docker.  Apologies if I am trivializing this issue but this is a very important docker to so many people.  If anyone can provide a status update it would be greatly appreciated.

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As a workaround until the desktop docker gets updated, is there any way to replace the Crashplan (non desktop) docker with the old one that used to work with the desktop docker??  Once I get this working again I will be sure to turn off auto-update on both of these dockers!

 

Can this be done??

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