It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:24 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ]

Recent News:



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 8 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: WHS Ver 1 Server Backup
PostPosted: Thu Aug 29, 2019 9:36 pm 
Offline
Newbie
Newbie

Joined: Mon May 21, 2018 2:05 pm
Posts: 5
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Hi there

Have been running WHS Ver 1 on a MSS 495 for years; using with Slimserver and great stuff.

Have been backing up network to MSS and backing up the server to an external HDD. Again, dandy . . .

Of late notice that my external HDD is almost full. Checking it out, yes . . . tens of MB's left!

Looking at it though, and going through WHS and checking out the 'Backups', I see a series of subdirectories dating back over the last couple years with similiar Shared folders in them with similiar sizes of folders.

I never considered this before: are these incremental backups i.e. you need 'all' of them, or are these like the backups of my system on the server in that I could delete any of them as the most current 'is' the entire current backup and not combining with some other earlier backups in some incremental strategy.

Thanks. Was going to purchase a new HDD for these server backups, then though . . . . hey . . . perhaps simply delete one or two of the older 2TB subdirectories.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  

Attention Guest: Remove this ad by Registering with the MediaSmartServer.net Forums. It's Free!
PostPosted: Thu Aug 29, 2019 11:11 pm 
Offline
2.5TB storage
2.5TB storage

Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 9:40 pm
Posts: 399
Thanks: 46
Thanked: 50 times in 37 posts
Your referring to using Alex's Server backup add in BDBB, Yes?

I'm gonna say that with BDBB each of the client & share backups your backing up to your external drive are individual copies and old ones are safe to be deleted. This based on the add in making a new backup folder for each backup and watching the size of a new backup folder get progressively bigger with each backup.

I'm personally only keeping about 3 months of backups and only do the share/client backup backups once per month so I don't need a super huge backup drive.

Maybe someone else that can offer something more definite will chime in.

_________________
Hi All, Thanks to everyone for your continued effort to keep the MSS & WHS alive. Haven't registered yet? Please do so the moderators know your here!

ex49x/v1 (toyin w/Vail)
VGA
Q8200s w/two 30mm cooling fans
4gb Ram
Rear Casecover Cooling Mod


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Thu Aug 29, 2019 11:32 pm 
Offline
Newbie
Newbie

Joined: Mon May 21, 2018 2:05 pm
Posts: 5
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Hmmmm . . . . . being rather away from much of this and just using this unit for those years, I'm not familiar with this Add-In and don't recall installing this at any time i.e. as far as I recall, Logitech Media Server and and a Home Server Smart add-in aside, I have nothing else added to this. This backup feature was part of the original install and believe it was presented in Power Pack 1.

I have Windows Home Server with Power Pack 3 as OS.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Thu Aug 29, 2019 11:33 pm 
Offline
Newbie
Newbie

Joined: Mon May 21, 2018 2:05 pm
Posts: 5
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
An additional bit of info from the server re: installation versions

Windows Home Server Backup & Restore: 6.0.2423.0

Appreciate the response. Thanks.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Thu Aug 29, 2019 11:47 pm 
Offline
Newbie
Newbie

Joined: Mon May 21, 2018 2:05 pm
Posts: 5
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Hmmmm . . . checking these dated backups on this HDD, I'm puzzled . . . .

The HDD is 3TB in size. Its been backing up routinely for 2 years now. I have several of these dated backups on this, and checking (in windows explorer on the server) the subdirectories beneath, they appear to capture the status of the subdirectories at the time of the backup, with the most recent complete. They all have the full files that were present on the earlier backups. So it seems a series of backups capturing a point in time rather than incremental.

But what puzzles me is when I check the size of each of these backups, the initial one approaches 2 TB in size and each after that is a bit larger. Which makes sense if more files were added in time (as it has), but when you start tallying up the subdirectory sizes, the sum is much larger than that of the size of the HDD!?

At this point, I really don't know . . .don't understand. And I will hold tight until/unless someone can tune me in. Otherwise, I'll just purchase a larger drive and continue on with perhaps multiple files, perhaps not.


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Fri Aug 30, 2019 10:41 am 
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
The subsequent backup gets bigger probably because it's symlinked. I'm not sure what backup you mean, though, can you share a screenshot of what you're seeing?

_________________
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: Fri Aug 30, 2019 10:56 am 
Offline
2.5TB storage
2.5TB storage

Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 9:40 pm
Posts: 399
Thanks: 46
Thanked: 50 times in 37 posts
Ok couple of things to pass along.

I did a server backup today using the console's computer/backups tab (in preparation for being hit by hurricane Dorian) and noticed this report when the backup ended:

260423 unchanged files linked from the last backup to save space
3273 new or changed files copied to this backup

So at the very least I shouldn't delete the most two recent backups.

Terra3 wrote:
Hmmmm . . . . . being rather away from much of this and just using this unit for those years, I'm not familiar with this Add-In and don't recall installing this at any time i.e. as far as I recall, Logitech Media Server and and a Home Server Smart add-in aside, I have nothing else added to this. This backup feature was part of the original install and believe it was presented in Power Pack 1. He posted the below on this thread a while back when addressing another issue http://www.mediasmartserver.net/add-ins/#WHSBDBB but it is referring to deleting the client databases using his add-in, not the servers shares backups.

I have Windows Home Server with Power Pack 3 as OS.

Using I'm running the same updated version as you. It's important to note that using the pre-installed console server backup does not backup your client backups, only your shares. You need to be using WHS Backup Database-Backup (BDBB) in order to backup the client backups. From the Wiki: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/wiki/index.php/WHS_BDBB

WHS BDBB is designed to allow the user to easily create and restore a backup of the Backup Database created by Windows Home Server, which contains the backups of all Client PC's in the home. This is an automation of the steps defined in the WHS Backup documentation.

There is also detailed info on it here: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2009/04 ... -released/ And you can get the most recent version of it here: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/add-ins/#WHSBDBB.

yakuza wrote:
I suspect the backup database has corruption, possibly due to running out of space at some point. Resetting the backup database should likely resolve the issue with the service crashing. My BDBB Add-In makes it easy to take a backup of your current database (if you want) and also to delete the current database if you don't want to do it manually.

The context of his comment is deleting the databases that BDBB creates, and I'm not 100% certain that BSBB also backs up the shares backup data on the server as well as the client backup data. So I'm using both the console's server backup feature to backup up the shares to my external drive, and BDBB to back up the client data to the same external drive.

You might want to PM Alex it's author (@Yakuza) and ask him to comment on this when he has a moment. If anyone would know how the server backups work it would be him.

_________________
Hi All, Thanks to everyone for your continued effort to keep the MSS & WHS alive. Haven't registered yet? Please do so the moderators know your here!

ex49x/v1 (toyin w/Vail)
VGA
Q8200s w/two 30mm cooling fans
4gb Ram
Rear Casecover Cooling Mod


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Fri Aug 30, 2019 11:11 am 
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
From the WHS help files:
Quote:
You can back up your home server to ensure that you have backup copies of important files that are located in your Windows Home Server shared folders and application folders.

You can add hard drives to your home server to use for server backups by using the Server Storage console tab. Then from the Computers & Backup console tab, you can select which Server Backup Hard Drive you want to use to back up your shared folders and application folders.

For subsequent server backups, only changed files are backed up to the same hard drive, which saves hard drive space.

If you use an external hard drive for your server backups, you can temporarily remove it to store in a safe location. To do this, select your external hard drive, click Remove, click Temporarily remove it from my home server, and then click OK. You can now disconnect the hard drive and store it in a safe location. When you later reconnect the hard drive, it is recognized as a Server Backup Hard Drive.

When a Server Backup Hard Drive is full, you must manage the space manually. For example, if you have more files than can fit on a single hard drive, you can use a separate hard drive for each of your shared folders. Or for added redundancy, you can alternate Server Backup Hard Drives.

To create free space, from the Computers & Backup tab, select your home server, click View Backups, and then delete your previous backups. It may take a few minutes to completely delete the backups.


_________________
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  
The following user would like to thank yakuza for this post
lioninstreet
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 8 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 18 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