MSS = MediaSmart Server
EX470 = The first version of MediaSmart Server, subsequent models are the EX48x and EX49x.

_________________
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? If so, be sure to Rate them at WeGotServed.

I am currently using a small WHS registry change as explained in the WIKI at http://wiki.wegotserved.com/index.php?t ... ome_Server which according to the WIKI will duplicate the backup database assuming your WHS has more than one drive - my WHS has 5 drives.

I have also read in the forums that the BDBB Add-In also makes use of this registry change.

If making the small registry change per the WIKI and if it does duplicate the backups why would the BDBB Add-In be necessary?

Thanks.

_________________
Best Regards,

Bill Artman,
Kansas City - USA

Because duplication is not the same as a backup. You could end up duplicating a corrupt backup DB, and you have no off-site backup in the event of fire, theft, flood, 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? If so, be sure to Rate them at WeGotServed.

Thank you Alex -

I guess I'm confused. I understand when you say I could be duplicating a corrupt backup DB. If I use your Add-In wouldn't it backup the corrupt DB too?

I am really trying to understand this.

_________________
Best Regards,

Bill Artman,
Kansas City - USA

You certainly could backup a corrupt DB, however duplication is a continual process while taking a snapshot is a user driven event where one should verify the data they are backing up is good. A simple way to to do this is to try to mount a backup for Restore prior to running BDBB. If it works, then you most likely have a good 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? If so, be sure to Rate them at WeGotServed.

Thank you Alex for all of the good information you have given me. Have a happy holiday season!

_________________
Best Regards,

Bill Artman,
Kansas City - USA

I would like to use the BDBB add-in. My WHS has an eSata connector on the back of the machine for an external drive. My WHS has 5 disks with a total capacity of 3.18TB so I am thinking my external storage disk drive needs a total capacity close to 3TB.

I have not seen a single disk drive with a 3TB capacity so I am thinking I would have to use a multi-drive enclosure with several drives. My computer store has told me that if you have a multi-drive enclosure it has to be set up as a RAID which is more complicated.

Is it possible to purchase a multi-drive enclosure that BDBB will backup to where the drives not not RAID but will just save the data across the multiple drives? Do you have suggestions for a non-RAID eStata multi-drive enclosure?

Thanks!

_________________
Best Regards,

Bill Artman,
Kansas City - USA

3TB drives are available now from WD and Hitachi. You may need to buy a separate external enclosure if you can't find a dedicated external 3TB drive.

Thanks Cavediver for the info

_________________
Best Regards,

Bill Artman,
Kansas City - USA

BDBB doesn't back up your shared folders, only the client PC backup database. In the Server Console you can see how much space that needs in the pie chart area of the Server Storage tab.

_________________
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? If so, be sure to Rate them at WeGotServed.

Alex, thanks for the information. Just to clarify one last time!! If I use your BDBB Add-In if the WHS goes down or if the system disk fails I will be able to recover much easier. Is this true. Also I would plan to use a multi-drive external enclosure with two 1.5TB eSata drives for a total capacity or 3TB. The enclosure would be plugged into the eSata port on the back of the WHS.

Also I am currently using the registry edit to duplicate my backups. If I use your BDBB should I return the registry to it's original state where the backups are nor being duplicated?

I consider myself to be a technical person but this BDBB is really confusing to me!. Thanks again for your patience with all of my questions.

Bill

_________________
Best Regards,

Bill Artman,
Kansas City - USA

Bill, if you've not read the Wiki page yet, please do so as it has lots of good info on BDBB, and why and how you would use it. http://www.mediasmartserver.net/wiki/index.php/WHS_BDBB

BDBB only backs up your client PC backup database. Since by default WHS does not duplicate the backup database, BDBB can help protect against the loss of PC backups in the event of a disk failure. Since the theory is that your server has a backup of the PC, even if the backup DB gets lost or damaged on the server, you still have your PC running as the original so some people may not even need or want to use BDBB. It's only useful if you do decide you want to back it up.

I hope that helps.

_________________
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? If so, be sure to Rate them at WeGotServed.

Thanks Alex for the additional information. Now I better understand. Even though the client PC are still running when they are backed up by WHS, I can see the possibility of something happening to the WHS or it's backup database and before you resolve that issue one of the client PC drives fails too. This is where the Add-In would be very helpful.

Thanks again.

_________________
Best Regards,

Bill Artman,
Kansas City - USA

I'm not sure what you are referring to, can you be more specific?

_________________
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? If so, be sure to Rate them at WeGotServed.