Two DX4000 Sentinels, working together

Hello All,

   I have two DX4000 12TB machines.

  One of these functions as a file server that hosts the working files for all employees.

  What I want to do is set the other one up to do two things.

1)  Have a continuous, up to date, mirror copy of the first one (it can be schedule if it needs to be, but continuous would be preferable.  Idea this would be a true copy with files that are ready to use, and not within a achive type container.

2)  Have it store revisions of files that change.  This can be within an archive, etc.  Doesn’t need to be readily accesible.

Has anyone been able to get two devices to work together in this way in an automatic fasion?

Thanks!

Grady

Well you can play with robocopy.  Make a bat file and schedule it. 

cloudberrylab.com and crashplan.com have programs that will backup to a local PC

You can right clcik on a shared folder and get previous versions

I’ve been reading up on these ideas, and it looks like that will work for what I’m trying to do.

Thanks!

FWIW, I played with Cloudberry long time ago and it seemed to work.  They have a trial.  The homeserver version worked for me on wsse

I have a similar situation however:  I am going to purchase two WD 4TB WD Sentinel DX4000 units. I’ll have one in my home and one offsite. Will the one WD 4TB WD Sentinel DX4000 which will be in my home, talk to ie create a redundancy backup on a similar WD 4TB WD Sentinel DX4000 at an offsite location?

If yes - Does the software required to do this task come with the unit? 

Thanx … Dan

No it is not preconfigured for this nor is there any software on it to do so.  Again, I would look at cloudberrylabs and perhaps himachi to do a vpn between the two boxes.

Is VPN hacker proof?  What I mean is, does my data along the way, get grabbed and stored at clodbererylabs on one of their servers for any length of time and therefore become vulnerable to sniffers and hackers?

What does a typical VPN connection cost from Point A to Point B per year?

Thanx …

a VPN over the internet is free. Himachi or cost of 2 VPN routers, and or manually configure VPN on one server and connect from the other.  Now if you want a VPN from ma bell, you have to call her and ask her how mucho dolares

Your data does not go to any cloudberry servers.  It is just a 30 dollar piece of software that makes it easier to sync folders.

You can configure cloudberry to go to a cloud somewhere and you have to pay for that space.  Or you can send it to another network share.  That is what the VPN is for.  So your box can see your box at home as though it was locally attached.

OK good - makes sense.  Can you please tell me exactly what I need to purchase ie maybe send me a link to the precise software kit that you’re referring to?  

So I don’t need any  more hardware - right? Just a software kit that I install on my home PC?

Thanx so much for your help!

If you already have your DX boxes, you need the server edition.  It says Home server but it is the same

http://www.cloudberrylab.com/whs-2011-online-backup-to-amazon-s3-microsoft-azure-google-storage.aspx

If you don’t have your servers yet just get the desktop version and play with it.  Both have 30 day evals to give you time to finger with it. 

Himachi is here

https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/

So cloudberry goes on the server at work.  Himachi on both.  Connect the VPN, then cloudberry should browse to the shares on the home box.  Keep in mind VPN is slow as the internet.  So if you have a ton of data, you would “seed” the home box at work first.  Then take it home and it should be able to keep up with all the changes.

You really need to play with all this stuff before you tell your boss for only 2k we can do this neat stuff.

Forget those suggestions…most inexperienced admins ever.

First if you want to have 2 DX4000’s with exactly the same file shares, you should look into DFS
http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/archive/2008/05/14/installing-dfs-replication-on-windows-server-2008.aspx

if you are looking to turn 2 DX4000’s into cheap High availability storage then you are in for a lot of work. But you can start learning about iscsi multipathing, then look into hyper-v clustering. With a couple of $400 Dell Optiplex i7 3.4ghz and a couple DX4000’s you can have a virtual server that gives 100% uptime to the office for total less than $3000

http://cscmblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/windows-2012-how-to-configure-multi_13.html

If you just want a backup copy of your files, then check out:  Synctoy 

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/25046/schedule-synctoy-to-run-automatically-with-task-scheduler-in-windows-7/

Or if you want to use command line check out Unison
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/index.html 
or rsync
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/2231-rsync-under-windows

VPN is built in, do not use himachi, himachi is for teenage gamers and I doubt it is secure whatsoever.

Thanx for the reply but your links and associate data speak to Installing DFS Replication on Windows Server 2008.  I have a Windows 7 System.

 

All I want to do is to have one DX4000 at my office which backs up all my work drives, another DX4000, a twin, a duplicate, at my home - and have some back up program, on a predetermined schedule, copy any changes made from my office drives over to my home drives.  That’s it. Simple.  Nothing more, nothing less. Don’t know how much simpler it can get.  But to do this is like engineering a trip to the moon!  UGH!

You are looking for offsite backup so if the one at work dies, you can bring the other one in correct?

You have dx4000a (work) and dx4000b (home) both of which are server 2008r2.

You run DFS on the 2 dx4000’s that will replicate data back and forth using compression and instead of copying everything it only copies small amount of changed data.

Normally the Windows 7 computers are saving data to dx4000a.

If the server at work fails you just run home and get the dx4000b from home and bring it to work so its on the fast network, clients will start connecting to that.

Then you wait for a replacement, add it to the DFS, and wait for the data to replicate again. 

For the initial and any subsequent replication tasks to speed things up have both servers at work. Then when you take the 2nd box home just have it VPN into work, to make updates.

You are looking for offsite backup so if the one at work dies, you can bring the other one in correct?  YES

I understand your graphic - but what I do not understand is how ie what software or whatever, do I need to buy/install to gte the two DX’s to communicate with each other.  How do I send backup data from my office to my home?

I think you’re saying that the backup software comes onboard the DX4000 unit - right?

If so, then, how do they link to each other?

Yea great graphic :)  Problem is DFS is blocked in WSSE as well as you need Active Directory/a Domain Controller for this to work.

Actually you may can get DFS installed with Power Shell, but not from the GUI.  But it still lacks AD

There is more than one way to skin a cat. Just because you only see one way does not make it correct.