DrivePool and Backup

[Saphir]

Hi,

For Backups I use Allwaysync withn Versioning. The Backup goes to Pool which HDDs are in case that is connected with USB to the Server. The Server has the Pool with the original Data.

Since a long time I have enabled the duplication of the most important folders. Every thing seemed to be OK with the Backup. This days I switched on the duplication for all folders and I have changed one HDD. The balancing was moving a lot of files arround and now the duplication is doing his job. What I see in the Backup is, that in the versioning there are being files copied in which I havend changed. This makes my Backup Pool extremly full. Normally Allwaysync will only do a copy of files which are new or have been changed. Can it be that the duplicated files will goe to my backup Pool too? I don't think so because the duplications are actually new files and schouldn't go to the versioning.´ but I'm not sure. maybe it's the balancing which lets Allwaysync think the files have been changed but if it is so why? The files have an old time stamp for the last change.

Did anybody have this issue too? How are you doing Backups?

Thanks for your help.

[Shane]

I haven't had that issue; balancing/duplication should not affect file timestamps. Do you have Allwaysync set up to backup the pool drive or to backup the drives that make up the pool?

The setup I have:

• Main file server runs DrivePool, drives pooled as P:\ with a read-only password-protected hidden network share for use by the backup file server
  • laptops and desktops access the pool via normal writable password-protected network shares
• Backup file server runs DrivePool; drives pooled as K:\ and the main file server's pool mapped as P:\ via the above read-only share
  • backup file server has NO network shares of its own
• FreeFileSync with versioning makes nightly backups of P:\ to K:\
  • current/new files kept in K:\backup\new\
  • previous versions and deleted files kept in K:\backup\old\timestamp\
  • changelogs kept in K:\backup\log\

[Umfriend]

If the software uses/relies on timestamps of folders as well then this might be the problem:

Basically, with x2 duplication, a folder may have different date modified on the two disks and any software querying the pool will only get one of them.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

12 hours ago, Umfriend said:

Basically, with x2 duplication, a folder may have different date modified on the two disks and any software querying the pool will only get one of them.

In theory, that shouldn't be a problem, as the "CoveFs_SynchronizeDirectoryTimes" should be enabled by default, and should keep the directories in sync.  Though, if there are empty folders on one or more disks, it may be possible that it's not syncing the directory time.

[Umfriend]

1 minute ago, Christopher (Drashna) said:

In theory, that shouldn't be a problem, as the "CoveFs_SynchronizeDirectoryTimes" should be enabled by default, and should keep the directories in sync.  Though, if there are empty folders on one or more disks, it may be possible that it's not syncing the directory time.

So the thing is I do not know whether this may be relevant to OP. However, the theory is refuted by practice as can be seen in thread I linked. It wasn't just me. And not with empty folders either. Has something be done since January 2020 to address this? If so, then I may be wrong now (but wasn't then).

[Spider99]

i have seen this with files that get ms differences in timestamps which get detected by backup software and other software

this can happen on a pool rebuild as well as moving files around due to balancers

[Christopher (Drashna)]

okay, good to know, will look into the time issue. 

[Saphir]

Thanks for your answers. I saw that my sync software watches after files and folders. Checking a folder I saw that it has ecerywhere the same timestamp and on one place not but there was a timestamp from today and the problem was there before too.

My setup is PoolDrive Z:Data and Y:Backup. Allwaysync makes the sync oneway from Z to Y. The folder structure is synced too. Y: lookes the same as Z: + a hidden folder for the file history in every folder.

Empty folders I found but have to check if this happens continuously. For the folder I checked because the files shouldn't go to the history in my backup there where no empty folders.

I think I have to do a lot of testing and see what happens.

FreeFileSync I didn't use for a long time maybe I will have a try on this now since it looks much better now. Bu I think booth programs should do the same. I'm thinking too to use a backup software like snapraid, do you have any experience with this?

[gtaus]

On 3/10/2021 at 7:24 PM, Saphir said:

I'm thinking too to use a backup software like snapraid, do you have any experience with this?

I have been looking into using the features of SNAPraid with DrivePool. From what I understand, SNAPraid only provides parity files for reconstruction of the pool after a drive loss. It is not a backup program, per se.