Ready for testing: CrashPlan

User avatar
gboudreau
Posts: 606
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 1:15 pm
Location: Montréal, Canada
Contact:

Ready for testing: CrashPlan

Postby gboudreau » Wed Mar 10, 2010 8:58 am

Hi,

Just wanted to let you know that CrashPlan has been made beta this week.

App page:
http://www.amahi.org/apps/crashplan

More details & instructions:
http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Crashplan

This last link is displayed in the Special Instructions on install.
It explains how you can use CrashPlan, and it gives different options for how you can configure the CrashPlan daemon running on your HDA.

Comments about the doc. / corrections / questions are welcome.

Thanks.
- Guillaume Boudreau

User avatar
moredruid
Expert
Posts: 791
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:33 am
Location: Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Ready for testing: CrashPlan

Postby moredruid » Thu Mar 11, 2010 3:01 am

hmmm looks promising

Thanks!
echo '16i[q]sa[ln0=aln100%Pln100/snlbx]sbA0D2173656C7572206968616D41snlbxq' | dc
Galileo - HP Proliant ML110 G6 quad core Xeon 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 2x750GB RAID1 + 2x1TB RAID1 HDD

muellinger
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:34 am

Re: Ready for testing: CrashPlan

Postby muellinger » Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:35 pm

Hi,
I just did some Tests with CrashPlan. And i love it.
i installed Fedora 12 / Amahi today from scratch (my first install). I did not install
any updates from the fedory repo and directly installed CrashPlan.

Installation ran error free and worked like charm.
I did a test backup of the local box to a separate Folder. OK.
I then did a backup of my notebook (over WLAN). OK.

The only thing i am missing with CrashPlan is, that it can't update several important
Windows System Files / Userprofile Files. But thats a limitation of the software, not amahi.

To keep it short.
For me it is perfect for daily backing up Documents, Pictures etc.
For a Barematal Image i will use Products like Acronis or CloneZilla on a weekly basis.

I think, it can be made officialy available to all amahi users.

Pingjockey
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:31 am

Re: Ready for testing: CrashPlan

Postby Pingjockey » Wed Mar 24, 2010 8:06 am

So far I have had no issues with my testing of crashplan. My windows clients were able to backup to my my HDA with little issue. The next test is to configure the HDA to back up to crashplan central to verify my DR plan.

The only down fall to this is the amount of data I have to upload but that is not the fault of the application.

But, from the HDA side of things the app installed and ran without any issue and did not present a performance hit or anything.

I will submit bug reports as I find them though.

User avatar
gboudreau
Posts: 606
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 1:15 pm
Location: Montréal, Canada
Contact:

Re: Ready for testing: CrashPlan

Postby gboudreau » Wed Mar 24, 2010 8:13 am

The next test is to configure the HDA to back up to crashplan central to verify my DR plan.
You want to backup the HDA data to CP Central, not the data you backed up from clients, right?
To backup clients data to CP Central, that would be configured on the clients themselves.

You can't have clients backed up to the HDA, and use your CP Central only on your HDA to backup that same clients data remotely.

If that was your intention, I can elaborate on why this would not be practical, while technically feasible.
- Guillaume Boudreau

Pingjockey
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:31 am

Re: Ready for testing: CrashPlan

Postby Pingjockey » Thu Apr 01, 2010 6:23 am

Sorry I have been tied up with work lately. Actually, why would that not be a feasable plan? It would give you both an onsite and a offsite location for your backups?

Thanks

User avatar
gboudreau
Posts: 606
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 1:15 pm
Location: Montréal, Canada
Contact:

Re: Ready for testing: CrashPlan

Postby gboudreau » Thu Apr 01, 2010 6:34 am

When you backup clients to the HDA, the result are big (4GB) files, which contain encrypted data.
If you'd backup those offsite, to restore a single client file from the cloud, you need to first restore ALL the encrypted 4GB data files to a local computer, then manually link those to the client computer in CrashPlan, and finally restore your file from that.
If the client has a 100GB backup, and you want to restore a 100K file, that's a lot of overhead! :)

Also, I'm not sure the CrashPlan client will allow you to select it's own backup data files as the source for backups.

Like I said, it's technically possible, but not really usable.
- Guillaume Boudreau

Pingjockey
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:31 am

Re: Ready for testing: CrashPlan

Postby Pingjockey » Thu Apr 01, 2010 10:41 am

So perhaps a dual approach then....

HDA is the onsite master for backups. With the clients doing a backup offsite to crashplan central?

I am trying to cover my data incase some explodes so any suggestions are welcome.

User avatar
gboudreau
Posts: 606
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 1:15 pm
Location: Montréal, Canada
Contact:

Re: Ready for testing: CrashPlan

Postby gboudreau » Thu Apr 01, 2010 11:00 am

All clients should backup to both the HDA and a remote location.
The remote location can be CrashPlan Central, a friend that allows you to back to his PC/HDA, or a random person you're willing to swap HDD space with (you backup to his CP, he backups to yours).
- Guillaume Boudreau

joeaverge
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:53 pm

Re: Ready for testing: CrashPlan

Postby joeaverge » Fri Apr 02, 2010 8:15 am

I am using the Amahi to store most of my files instead of local storage. This allows for a couple of things. 1. Amahi apps can use them. 2. they are accessable for others on the network and available remotely using VPN. 3. The crashplan can back them up remotely.

If you use a friend's amahi (like gboudreau is suggesting) then they are available whenever you need to restore to the Amahi. If the data is large then you can create a local copy to a USB drive and sneakernet it to your friends to seed the CrashPlan backup save the large initial upload.

Amahi will be even MORE redundant once greyhole is finished alpha testing making the Amahi the best choice for storing your files

Would be nice to see a web interface to manage the crashplan client. Has anyone approached crashplan to see if this is in the works or to suggest it?

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests