How best to create a pool/mirror that spans two computers?

[p3dal]

I've been using drivepool on my server (win 10 machine) to provide duplicated file storage to my other machines on the network for years now. To avoid the risk of a single machine experiencing a failure, I would like to ensure my files are duplicated between my desktop (3x USB external hard drives) and my server (4x 8TB and 4x 4TB). My goal is to have a desktop with real time access to to the files, and any changes automatically mirrored to an identical directory on the server. This directory could then be made available via VPN to my laptop when I am traveling while my desktop is powered down. To accomplish this, I've tried the following configuration.

Pool 1 - Server: (physically on server)

• 4x 8TB
• 4x 4TB

Pool 2 - Desktop (physically on desktop)

• 3x USB Drives (totaling 32 TB)

Pool 3 - "Multipool" (includes both, but managed on desktop) with 2x Duplication turned on.

• Stablebitclouddrive share pointing to Pool 1
• Pool 2

 

As I started migrating a 4TB directory into the multipool, I discovered the cloud drive is converting all of the data into .dat files and storing them on the server, meaning they don't seem to be usable or accessible from the server, which defeats my idea of sharing them outside the network. Is there a better way to accomplish my goal? Can I connect clouddrive on the server to the clouddrive files being stored in Pool 1 so they can be accessed from either machine? I assume that's not how cloud drive is designed to work. I've also tried mounting the server shared folder as a network drive on the desktop, but it doesn't seem to present it in drivepool.

What is the best way to use drivepool to mirror a directory between two computers? Or would I be better off running a nightly robocopy script to keep them synced?

[p3dal]

As an update, I tried copying 4TB of data to the multipool and let it run for a day or so. Eventually the computer started having weird issues. Applications refusing to launch, files failing to open, copy speeds slowing to a halt, and generally acting like the I/O queue was full. For example, I tried to open notepad several times, and maybe an hour later a bunch of notepad windows popped up suddenly. Some applications responded normally, others acted very strangely.

 

I don't think what I'm attempting here with the multipool is going to work well enough to be reliable. It was an interesting experiment I suppose. I've steered clear of cloud drive in the past, and I think I'll continue to do so. Still looking for a good way to keep two directories synchronized between the two computers.