Can I set up duplication for specific child folders under a parent share folder?

[nwtim]

About a week ago I had a 2TB HDD decide to never spin up again and lost a fair amount of data.  The data loss was primarily because I didn't have the time to set up duplication of the most critical folders and I had no done a complete backup in over a month.

 

The problem is that I have a relatively large number of video files that I don't really have space to efficiently back up, yet the folders containing these files are under shares that also contain folders for our photos and numerous other documents that we want to duplicate.  I've done this to minimize the number of drives that need to be mapped to easily access these folders from client PC's that already have a significant number of mapped drives (on my personal PC, I really only have one drive letter available to map!).

 

I've come close to writing a robocopy batch file for the most important folders to run through the Windows Scheduler, but I don't think this would ensure that duplicate files get placed on separate physical drives, so I've been hoping for something a little more "built-in" like was available with Lenovo's flavor of WHSv1.

 

I understand there's something in the Drivepool Command Utility called SetDuplicationCount, but I haven't seen any instructions for the proper syntax to use with it.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

[nwtim]

Well, let me ask this at least:

 

To use the SetDuplicationCount command, do I just type it in a command window and follow the directions?  Or do I navigate (in a command window) to any folder I wish to apply it to and 'run' it from there?

[jsox]

On a Windows 7 machine using DP 2.0.0.312 Beta you can set duplication on folders beneath the root folders. Seems to work fine for me in my tests. My only gripe is that there is no indication on the higher level folders that a lower level folder is duplicated. The duplicated folder says x2 but everything above it says x1. I set the duplication via the regular UI, not a command prompt command.

[nwtim]

On a Windows 7 machine using DP 2.0.0.312 Beta you can set duplication on folders beneath the root folders. Seems to work fine for me in my tests. My only gripe is that there is no indication on the higher level folders that a lower level folder is duplicated. The duplicated folder says x2 but everything above it says x1. I set the duplication via the regular UI, not a command prompt command.

Well, I'm using WHS2011 and I'm still running DP 1.3.7553, so I guess I'll have to update it to get the functionality you have.  Did you set up the duplication via the Dashboard or navigate to the folders with a command window or Windows Explorer?

[nwtim]

Okay, I found the way to use dp-cmd with the command SetDuplicationCount and wrote a batch file to set the count to 2 for five different folders under the parent "shares" folder.

 

I did get feedback for each setting that the count was set to 2 successfully, but is there an easy way to confirm which folders are being duplicated at any time in the future?  Or do I have to check the PoolPart folders of each HDD manually?

[Shane]

Under 1.3, the Dashboard addon currently does not provide a way to set/view which sub-folders have custom duplication settings. You use the shell command to set/view the count on sub-folders.

 

Under 2.0, the GUI allows you to set/view which sub-folders have custom duplication settings (Pool Options, File Protection, Folder Duplication), and in that menu you can expand the entire tree by highlighting the root of the drive and tapping the asterisk key.

[nwtim]

That sounds great!  How soon will 2.0 be available for WHS2011?  My update last night only brought it up to 1.3.7558 RC.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

nwtim, 

 

DrivePool 2.x is currently able to install on WHS2011 just fine. But it lacks any really integration. It just adds a link to the UI in the Server Folders tab. 

But 2.x is still in beta, but we are trying to get to a "stable" version as soon as we can.