It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 2:01 pm

All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ]

Recent News:



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 312 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... 21  Next
Author Message
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:14 pm 
Offline
Founder
Founder
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 11:54 am
Posts: 10735
Location: Fort Collins, Colorado
Thanks: 630
Thanked: 931 times in 885 posts
Does the Help button not work for you? Granted it's not very informative, merely a simplified version of the readme...

_________________
Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  

Attention Guest: Remove this ad by Registering with the MediaSmartServer.net Forums. It's Free!
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:21 pm 
Offline
Newbie
Newbie

Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:47 am
Posts: 7
Location: Keighley, West Yorkshire, UK
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Quote:
Does the Help button not work for you? Granted it's not very informative, merely a simplified version of the readme...

Sorry, yes it does, but I thought it was just the WHS Console's 'Help' to start with. :oops:

It wasn't till I got to this page and you said 'see the help button' that I realised. But as you say, it is just a simplified version of the help button. I'd even consider putting what is there as an 'About' button, and replace the help text with something like what I put above.

Peter[/quote]


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:18 pm 
Offline
Newbie
Newbie

Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:58 pm
Posts: 5
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Brilliant! Do you have any plans to add a scheduling component into this? In the meantime, is there any reason I couldn't write a batch file that follows these same steps and use RDP to create a scheduled task to execute it?

I am trying to figure out the best way to create an off-site backup. Here is the best I've come up with so far:
1) Install an additional hard drive designated for backups.
2) Use WHSBDBB or a scheduled batch file to copy the backup database to the backup drive
3) Use an online backup service (e.g. IDrive) to backup the contents of the shared folders and the backup of the backup database.

Anyone have any thoughts about whether this is the way to go or not?


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:57 pm 
Offline
Newbie
Newbie

Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:47 am
Posts: 7
Location: Keighley, West Yorkshire, UK
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Quote:
Anyone have any thoughts about whether this is the way to go or not?

I think the 'way to go' varies by person, depending on variables such as how much data you have, how 'private' it is, how reliable and fast your internet connection is, what your upload limit is, compared with the price and feasibility of using a few external disks.

I can see the benefit of uploads if you have the right internet 'conditions' for want of a better term. However uploading several Gig's of data will cost a fair bit and use a lot of bandwidth. It also relies on honest employee's at the host provider.

Personally I've just invested in 2x 500GB external USB2 hard drives, which I will backup to every Saturday, then switch over every Sunday morning. I have the benefit of being in charge of the A/V cupboard at Church so I can leave the disconnected one there so it is offsite.

The most common suggested backup strategy in a workplace is 10 tapes. One each for Mon, Tues, Weds and Thurs. Then put Fri-A in. Then re-use Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs. Then put Fri-B in. etc with Fri-C and Fri-D. On the last Friday of the month, put in Month-A. Repeat over three months with Month-B and Month-C. This means you can go back anytime over a period of three months if necessary.

Regarding the backup schedule, yes you could easily write a script to do this and schedule it, and I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier.

Quote:
net stop WHSBackup
net stop PDL
xcopy /s D:\folders\{00008086-058D-4C89-AB57-A7F909A47AB4}\*.* e:\
net start WHSBackup
net start PDL


That *should* work, off the top of my head. (Replace e:\ with your external drive) I see that xcopy has been deprecated now, instead favouring robocopy. I've not used that yet, but do as you wish.

Peter[/quote]


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 4:01 pm 
Offline
.5TB storage
.5TB storage

Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:58 pm
Posts: 15
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Not to continue striking a reclining equine, but am I right that the

"WHS computer backup database"

is the normal multi-computer back up

and

"Backups created by BDBB stored in Server Storage"

are things like Photos, Software . shared folders?


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 4:11 pm 
Offline
Newbie
Newbie

Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:47 am
Posts: 7
Location: Keighley, West Yorkshire, UK
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Quote:
Not to continue striking a reclining equine, but am I right that the

"WHS computer backup database"

is the normal multi-computer back up

Yes

Quote:
and

"Backups created by BDBB stored in Server Storage"

are things like Photos, Software . shared folders?

No.

The latter is a copy of the former, which would (usually?) be stored on a different drive, either one added to WHS as a 'backup drive', or an external drive for taking off-site. However the option is there with BDBB to save the copy to the Server Storage (ie Storage Pool, ie the drives used by the Shared Folders).

I was thinking this through earlier, after my series of posts - the only benefit I see with having the latter stored in the Storage Pool is in the rare situation where you have 2 or more Storage drives, (3 or 4 if you have either/both of the Duplication's turned on) and the WHS DriveExtender (the technology which does the duplication) happens to put each copy on a seperate drive. With both duplications turned on, you could potentially have a seperate copy of your PC Backups on 4 seperate drives. (1: Original. 2: WHS Duplicated copy. 3: BDDB Backup copy. 4: WHS Duplicated BDDB Backup copy.) Still no good if there's a fire...

Can the author tell me I've missed something?

Peter


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:03 pm 
Offline
Max Contributor
Max Contributor

Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:14 am
Posts: 1540
Thanks: 3
Thanked: 117 times in 100 posts
Earlier today, before I understood just what this addin was doing, I enabled duplication for WHS Backups and pressed the Backup button. At this time I only want duplication enabled. I do not want a third backup as I don't have an external drive to put it on. The Backup button started a backup of the backup database, (I thought it was just going to create the duplicate); (in the drop down box, I told it to place the backup in server storage). It placed the backup on Drive 0 (the system drive).

After reading what was being posted here, I thought the backup / duplication would be migrated off of Drive 0 to the storage pool. The backup was 436 GB. However, Disk Management now shows my Drive 0 at 98% full, so I no longer have a landing pad. How do I get rid of the backup so I can get my landing pad back? I'll make another one later when I get an external drive.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:28 pm 
Offline
Max Contributor
Max Contributor

Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:14 am
Posts: 1540
Thanks: 3
Thanked: 117 times in 100 posts
[quote="yakuza"] There are tooltips for those options, as well as they are mentioned in the Help button and Readme. Please let me know if their usage is still unclear or if you have suggestions on how to improve the wording/help to better document them.[quote]

You mentioned tooltips for the "Enable Duplication for WHS Backups" checkbox and "Enable Duplication for BDBB Backups" checkbox. I can't find any tooltips. Where are they? If the tooltips are the little yellow box that opens when I place the cursor on the text, then they don't really give much information.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:03 pm 
Offline
Founder
Founder
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 11:54 am
Posts: 10735
Location: Fort Collins, Colorado
Thanks: 630
Thanked: 931 times in 885 posts
cu_shane wrote:
Brilliant! Do you have any plans to add a scheduling component into this? In the meantime, is there any reason I couldn't write a batch file that follows these same steps and use RDP to create a scheduled task to execute it?


No plans at this time to add a schedule, it takes hours to do the backup and I imagine most users will need to connect their backup drive to perform the backup. A batch file would indeed work, and I think Peter gave a great example.

I fear the backup DB (could be hundreds of GB, mine is 271GB with 3 systems backed up) is too large for effective online backup, given many users have 384kbit/sec upstream links.

_________________
Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:05 pm 
Offline
Founder
Founder
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 11:54 am
Posts: 10735
Location: Fort Collins, Colorado
Thanks: 630
Thanked: 931 times in 885 posts
howartp wrote:
Quote:
Not to continue striking a reclining equine, but am I right that the

"WHS computer backup database"

is the normal multi-computer back up

Yes

Quote:
and

"Backups created by BDBB stored in Server Storage"

are things like Photos, Software . shared folders?

No.

The latter is a copy of the former, which would (usually?) be stored on a different drive, either one added to WHS as a 'backup drive', or an external drive for taking off-site. However the option is there with BDBB to save the copy to the Server Storage (ie Storage Pool, ie the drives used by the Shared Folders).

I was thinking this through earlier, after my series of posts - the only benefit I see with having the latter stored in the Storage Pool is in the rare situation where you have 2 or more Storage drives, (3 or 4 if you have either/both of the Duplication's turned on) and the WHS DriveExtender (the technology which does the duplication) happens to put each copy on a seperate drive. With both duplications turned on, you could potentially have a seperate copy of your PC Backups on 4 seperate drives. (1: Original. 2: WHS Duplicated copy. 3: BDDB Backup copy. 4: WHS Duplicated BDDB Backup copy.) Still no good if there's a fire...

Can the author tell me I've missed something?

Peter


You got it all right. 8) And didn't miss anything, I left the Server Storage option there as some WHS MVP's on the WHS forums have found (minor) issues enabling the "Duplicate WHS backups" option, or they may not have an external drive but want to save a snapshot of their backup DB.

_________________
Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:06 pm 
Offline
Founder
Founder
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 11:54 am
Posts: 10735
Location: Fort Collins, Colorado
Thanks: 630
Thanked: 931 times in 885 posts
cavediver wrote:
Earlier today, before I understood just what this addin was doing, I enabled duplication for WHS Backups and pressed the Backup button. At this time I only want duplication enabled. I do not want a third backup as I don't have an external drive to put it on. The Backup button started a backup of the backup database, (I thought it was just going to create the duplicate); (in the drop down box, I told it to place the backup in server storage). It placed the backup on Drive 0 (the system drive).

After reading what was being posted here, I thought the backup / duplication would be migrated off of Drive 0 to the storage pool. The backup was 436 GB. However, Disk Management now shows my Drive 0 at 98% full, so I no longer have a landing pad. How do I get rid of the backup so I can get my landing pad back? I'll make another one later when I get an external drive.


You are encountering a "feature" (I believe it's a nasty bug) in PP1 where data is not migrated off the System Drive until there is 10% space left. I've updated my initial post with this info.

To delete the backup, simply select it in the list, and click the Delete button.

_________________
Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:10 pm 
Offline
Founder
Founder
User avatar

Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 11:54 am
Posts: 10735
Location: Fort Collins, Colorado
Thanks: 630
Thanked: 931 times in 885 posts
cavediver wrote:
yakuza wrote:
There are tooltips for those options, as well as they are mentioned in the Help button and Readme. Please let me know if their usage is still unclear or if you have suggestions on how to improve the wording/help to better document them.
Quote:

You mentioned tooltips for the "Enable Duplication for WHS Backups" checkbox and "Enable Duplication for BDBB Backups" checkbox. I can't find any tooltips. Where are they? If the tooltips are the little yellow box that opens when I place the cursor on the text, then they don't really give much information.


Yes, those are tooltips. Again, this is a public beta where I'm soliciting feedback on how to improve the add-in, so suggestions on how to improve the information and how it is conveyed is very useful to me. For example, would you rather see more verbose tool tips, improve Readme, more info off the help link, a separate help link within the BDBB gui, all of the above, etc?

_________________
Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:01 pm 
Offline
Newbie
Newbie

Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:58 pm
Posts: 5
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
yakuza wrote:
No plans at this time to add a schedule, it takes hours to do the backup and I imagine most users will need to connect their backup drive to perform the backup. A batch file would indeed work, and I think Peter gave a great example.

I fear the backup DB (could be hundreds of GB, mine is 271GB with 3 systems backed up) is too large for effective online backup, given many users have 384kbit/sec upstream links.


I think you are right about the online backup, so I have decided to go with two external hard drives -- one which will always be off-site (I'll alternate them). A scheduling feature would be great for this though. That way, the program could automatically backup at night and I could just swap the drives in the morning. (or whatever schedule one might choose)

Either way, great work.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:01 pm 
Offline
Max Contributor
Max Contributor

Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:14 am
Posts: 1540
Thanks: 3
Thanked: 117 times in 100 posts
yakuza wrote:
Yes, those are tooltips. Again, this is a public beta where I'm soliciting feedback on how to improve the add-in, so suggestions on how to improve the information and how it is conveyed is very useful to me. For example, would you rather see more verbose tool tips, improve Readme, more info off the help link, a separate help link within the BDBB gui, all of the above, etc?


As far as the tooltips goes, I didn't realize they were there until you mentioned it and I went looking. The first time I pulled up the addin to start to use it, I just checked the checkbox and never saw the tooltip. Maybe a little more information about what the checkbox actually does. I originally assumed correctly what the checkbox did, but I thought I needed to press the "Backup" button to make it work.

A more detailed readme would be great as I read the readmes.

The help button is another story. I rarely use help buttons any more as they usually don't provide much help and as another poster mentioned, I thought the help button realated to the console rather than the BDBB addin. And when I pressed the help button to see what was there, I didn't see much help, only some text that is more of an "about" info than help.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:08 pm 
Offline
Max Contributor
Max Contributor

Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:14 am
Posts: 1540
Thanks: 3
Thanked: 117 times in 100 posts
yakuza wrote:
I left the Server Storage option there as some WHS MVP's on the WHS forums have found (minor) issues enabling the "Duplicate WHS backups" option


What issues are there with enabling "Enable Duplication for WHS Backups"?


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 312 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... 21  Next

All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group