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Cloud Backup/Restore Preperation Help


champs777

Question

I currently backup my computer with CrashPlan(http://www.code42.com/crashplan/).  Recently I had a hard drive fail.  The issue I ran into was that with DrivePool is that I don't know what was on that hard drive to try and restore.  I had to restore "Everything"  because CrashPlan doesn't not have the ability to only restore what is missing.  It is total crap!

 

That being said, I would like to prepare for the next drive failure.  Let's say this is my current setup

 

/Movies

/TV Shows

/Photos

 

If I look at each of the physical discs, some have all 3 folders, so have a few/couple, some have none.  My thought process, and please tell me if this is poor logic, is to make sure that each physical disk has the same folders.  Even adding the folders manually if needed.  Then I can use CrashPlan to backup up each physical disk/folder.  When a drive fails, I just restore the folders on that physical drive.

 

Questions

Can I add folders manually to the DrivePool folder on each physical drive?

Is this a poor way to do this?  Am I thinking about this wrong?

 

Thank you in advance!

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If our intent is to backup the entire pool via CrashPlan, and if we are NOT using duplication, then I might go with something like:

 

1. Set DrivePool to "do not balance automatically" and TICK "allow balancing plug-ins to force immediate balancing".

 

2. Turn off the "Volume Equalization" and "Duplication Space Optimizer" balancers.

 

3. Turn on the "Ordered File Placement" balancer.

 

4. If feasible, set CrashPlan to do its backups when you are not using the pool, so that it does not read files while DP is moving them around.

 

5. Then tell CrashPlan to back up the hidden poolpart folders on each drive that forms the pool.

 

This should minimise the amount of wasted traffic. There might be more optimization we can do, too.

 
If we ARE using duplication, then things get messy.
 
Frankly, it would be a lot easier if CrashPlan just implemented a "skip existing files" option.  :rolleyes:
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If our intent is to backup the entire pool via CrashPlan, and if we are NOT using duplication, then I might go with something like:

 

1. Set DrivePool to "do not balance automatically" and TICK "allow balancing plug-ins to force immediate balancing".

 

2. Turn off the "Volume Equalization" and "Duplication Space Optimizer" balancers.

 

3. Turn on the "Ordered File Placement" balancer.

 

4. If feasible, set CrashPlan to do its backups when you are not using the pool, so that it does not read files while DP is moving them around.

 

5. Then tell CrashPlan to back up the hidden poolpart folders on each drive that forms the pool.

 

This should minimise the amount of wasted traffic. There might be more optimization we can do, too.

 
If we ARE using duplication, then things get messy.
 
Frankly, it would be a lot easier if CrashPlan just implemented a "skip existing files" option.  :rolleyes:

 

Thank you very much for your assistance Shane.  I will follow your instructions and see how it all works out.  I 100% agree, though.  If CrashPlan just skipped existing files, I wouldn't have to do anything at all.  That would be idea for sure  :)

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If our intent is to backup the entire pool via CrashPlan, and if we are NOT using duplication, then I might go with something like:

 

1. Set DrivePool to "do not balance automatically" and TICK "allow balancing plug-ins to force immediate balancing".

 

2. Turn off the "Volume Equalization" and "Duplication Space Optimizer" balancers.

 

3. Turn on the "Ordered File Placement" balancer.

 

4. If feasible, set CrashPlan to do its backups when you are not using the pool, so that it does not read files while DP is moving them around.

 

5. Then tell CrashPlan to back up the hidden poolpart folders on each drive that forms the pool.

 

This should minimise the amount of wasted traffic. There might be more optimization we can do, too.

 
If we ARE using duplication, then things get messy.
 
Frankly, it would be a lot easier if CrashPlan just implemented a "skip existing files" option.  :rolleyes:

 

Thank you again for your help Shane.  Few Questions.

 

Since I have disabled "Do not balance automatically" , when should I tell CrashPlan to backup?  Should it just be late at night when I am not adding/moving files?  

For the "Ordered File Placement", should I have my largest drives at the top of the priority?  

Do I need to have StableBit recalibrate or something?  To move the files where they need to go based upon the Ordered File Placement Priority?

 

Thanks again for your help. 

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Yes, if you don't use the pool late at night, that would be a good time to have CrashPlan do the backups.

 

As drashna notes, if automatic balancing is on but not immediate, it defaults to 1am - but since in our scenario we're not using automatic balancing that's not a concern (the idea is that we want the pool to just do the bare minimum of balancing, and do so immediately as required, so that CrashPlan is not wasting bandwidth on files that have been moved between drives - though things might get tricky if we get close to filling all of the drives).

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