Duplicating a pool then keeping it in sync across a network

[ethanol]

I want to duplicate my current pool in a different location (without paying for a cloud service).  I managed to pick up a 5 Bay Orico external USB enclosure for a really good price. I have a separate building in which I will eventually connect the Orico to a different computer than my current server which is running Drivepool. These will be connected over a home network (Cat 6) with 1GB LAN.

My current pool is 20TB (10TB duplicated). I now have enough drives/space in the Orico and want to achieve the following : 

- Full initial copy of the current pool by connecting the Orico to my current Server

- Ongoing mirror so that both the Server with the internal drives and existing DrivePool and the remote computer with the Orico attached are exact replicas

- Be able to read locally from the DrivePool at the new computer (ie its not only for Backup)

 

Now my questions : 

- Whats the best way to initially duplicate the pool? Set-up a new Pool and then just copy in File Manager?

- How should I set-up the remote sync - would I need cloud Drive for that?

- Would I also need DrivePool on the new computer (if I'm using Cloud Drive)?

- Is there a deal on the bundle (DP, Scanner, CD) for existing customers?  

 

[Shane]

- Whats the best way to initially duplicate the pool? Set-up a new Pool and then just copy in File Manager?

I'd go with that, yes.

- How should I set-up the remote sync - would I need cloud Drive for that?

Cloud Drive isn't designed for multiple simultaneous clients. You'd need something else, e.g. SyncThing (also check out its GUI wrapper, SyncTrazor).

- Would I also need DrivePool on the new computer (if I'm using Cloud Drive)?

If you intend to access the drives as a pool at the second site you'd want an instance of DrivePool there too.

- Is there a deal on the bundle (DP, Scanner, CD) for existing customers?

As I understand it, if you're an existing customer you get a discount on each product by entering your existing activation ID and the discount is bigger if your existing activation ID covers the product you're buying; just having activation ID(s) for DP and Scanner without one for CloudDrive is enough to match the bundle price offered to new customers.

TLDR: for what you're describing I'd use two installs of DrivePool (one for each machine) plus SyncThing/SyncTrazor to mirror in near-time (I'm presuming there's reasons you're not just opening a network share to the pool over the LAN).

EDIT: make sure to exclude system folders (e.g. System Volume Information) from the sync between the two pools, and make sure to sync at the pool level - not the poolpart level. If you're using SyncThing/SyncTrazor solely across a LAN then I'd suggest disabling relaying and global discovery, and/or using direct addresses, for additional privacy/security/efficiency.

[ethanol]

1 hour ago, Shane said:

TLDR: for what you're describing I'd use two installs of DrivePool (one for each machine) plus SyncThing/SyncTrazor to mirror in near-time (I'm presuming there's reasons you're not just opening a network share to the pool over the LAN)

Thanks for the suggestions.

To be honest, hadn't considered a network share option. What would that look like? I assume both computers would have DP on them. Wouldn't that just change whether I was "pulling" or "pushing" in terms of SyncThing?

[Shane]

I meant the network share option (if you just wanted all devices in both buildings to able to access one pool via the 1GB LAN you mentioned) as an alternative to the SyncThing option (where you'd have two pools sync'd to each other, one in each building). I figured there was a reason you weren't doing that.

But yeah, you could use a network share for syncing too - e.g. with the real-time syncing option of FreeFileSync - in which case you might only need to have the syncing software on just one of the machines. There'd be pros and cons to each option.

[ethanol]

OK. Yes, I have the network share option today and it works fine. The reason I was duplicating the pool was more for redundancy in the event of a disaster (fire, theft, ...) of the primary server/pool. 

[ethanol]

Does it matter whether SyncThing is installed on Source (Server) or Target (remote PC with Orico external attached) or does it need to be installed on both?

[Shane]

SyncThing needs to be installed on both; each instance scans its own content and compares notes with the other(s) to detect changes. This is different to FreeFileSync where it goes on one machine and scans both its own content and the remote content to detect differences. The former is better in slower networks, busier networks or involving large numbers of files (the issues compound each other), as it involves much less back-and-forth of network traffic, but FreeFileSync can compare a surprisingly large number of files on a fast network (e.g. about fifty thousand files per minute when my 1Gbps LAN is idle) and I feel its GUI is rather more user-friendly.

Whichever option you go for, I'd suggest creating a test pool to trial it before committing your real pool - and you could make two test pools and try both.

[ethanol]

Great - thanks for all the help!