DrivePool good for NAS?

[ThatMouse]

I'm working on a 12TB+ NAS build which will be a Skylake system on Windows 10. A lot of it being Bluray rips. My thoughts are RAID would be far too complex for my needs and a Linux/ZFS system would limit what software I could run for doing backups and other things like trans-coding video. Allyn Malventano from pcper mentioned he was using DrivePool, and I'm assuming the Scanner too. This combo seems to be exactly all I need. Simple enough to where I can always just add a drive or pull a drive off and get the files off if things go wrong. This this right for NAS?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Depends on what you want exactly.

 

However, based on what you've said, it does sound like it's exactly what you want.

 

And as for the "if something goes wrong", all the files are stored on normal NTFS volumes, in hidden folders.  So if something does go wrong, you can access the files on any system (but they will be spread out). That said, if you install StableBit Drivepool on that other system, it will detect the Pooled disks, and automatically recreate the pool. 

 

 

As for StableBit Scanner:

If you have both StableBit Scanner and StableBit DrivePool installed on the same system, DrivePool will grab information from Scanner. And if Scanner detects damage on the disk, DrivePool will automatically move data off of the disk to help prevent data loss due to corruption/damage.

 

 

 

 

There is one caveat though. because it is a file based solution and we're emulating at least parts of the file system, any software that depends on VSS (such as previous versions), or the USN Journal won't work on the pool, properly. 

[ThatMouse]

-- Updated for clarity --

 

Are you saying CrashPlan will not back-up and restore a virtual drive? I will need to move my 6TB+ of files into the virtual drive in the same folder structure (eg Movies, Photos) and I will expect CrashPlan to scan through those without re-uploading them.

 

Also, restoring sounds like another issue. When a drive fails, I know "Photos" and "Movies" are gone and need to restore those folders. But here it sounds like random files just go missing and you have no way to know which ones need a Restore, and the only option would be to restore everything which would take a year.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

CrashPlan should work fine with StableBit DrivePool.  it doesn't rely on either of the features mentioned.

 

In fact, I know that we do have a number of users that do use CrashPlan with StableBit DrivePool.  And I've tested it myself. It does appear to work fine.

 

 

As for moving the files into the pool, because it will likely be very helpful, check out our seeding guide:

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4142489

This will specifically use the same folder structure as before, so you should be good.

 

 

As for restoring, if you mean with CrashPlan, then I'm not sure.  I've only tested it out a bit, never in depth.

However, .... enabling duplication on pool would mean that if a drive dies, that you won't lose data. You'd remove the drive and the software will reduplicate the data as needed (assuming that the drive isn't identified as failing and data migrated off of it).

 

 

Otherwise, the newest internal beta build (2.2.0.659) includes some auditing tools, so you can dump a list of what files are where. This can be scripted and set to run periodically in the Windows Task Scheduler.

http://community.covecube.com/index.php?/topic/1587-check-pool-fileparts/&do=findComment&comment=11078

[Beaker1024]

Regarding the new auditing features in the beta. Do you see them getting a GUI settings for generating a TXT file in a selected directory and options to have the scheduled task made within DrivePool GUI?

 

Or has a detailed example of the command-line already been created to help make a batch file to manually create the scheduled task?

[ThatMouse]

Ok this sounds like good news! So my only concern is if CrashPlan will see files as deleted when drives fail, and I'd need to test if it's any more difficult to select and restore deleted files. CrashPlan keeps deleted files backed-up as long as you do not remove the folders from the backup plan in CrashPlan's UI. I've had to restore super important photos and videos using CrashPlan and it's hairy when one wrong click will delete them all!

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Regarding the new auditing features in the beta. Do you see them getting a GUI settings for generating a TXT file in a selected directory and options to have the scheduled task made within DrivePool GUI? Or has a detailed example of the command-line already been created to help make a batch file to manually create the scheduled task?

Well, for now, it's just a command line utility. (dpcmd).  If you have version 2.2.0.659 installed, you have access to the added features. And yes, you can definitely create batch scripts with it. And the link above gives some basic examples of how to do so.

 

As for developing a GUI. We'd like to (a robust auditing tool is something that's been on our to-do list for a while).  However, CloudDrive has priority right now. Once that's released....

 

As for specifics, I can't really say anything more for now. other than this is something that definitely has been on our mind.

 

Ok this sounds like good news! So my only concern is if CrashPlan will see files as deleted when drives fail, and I'd need to test if it's any more difficult to select and restore deleted files. CrashPlan keeps deleted files backed-up as long as you do not remove the folders from the backup plan in CrashPlan's UI. I've had to restore super important photos and videos using CrashPlan and it's hairy when one wrong click will delete them all!

 

Well, as I said, I can't really comment on that part, as I don't have experience with it. Sorry.

 

So testing it out specifically would be a very good idea.

And to simulate failure, you can either physically disconnect the drive, or you can use "Disk Management" to set the disk offline.  Both will make a drive inaccessible to StableBit DrivePool, and cause the disk to show up as "Missing".  (reconnecting the disk or setting it back "online" wil resolve the issue immediately).