Author Topic: backup creating folder structure  (Read 2292 times)

tinu

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backup creating folder structure
« on: September 05, 2009, 06:10:44 PM »
   

I have setup a backup to an attached USB drive (Maxtor) which, in principle, is running.

 

My goal is to mirror the LinkStation CHL. The "overwrite backup/ differential" kind of backup without creation of backup folders kind of does that. Differential is needed to remove obsolete files. However I want to run separate jobs for parts of the content, eg:

 

sources on LS:

/share1/sub1

/share1/sub2

/share2/sub3

/share2/sub4

/private/sub5

 

 

When I create a job for /share1, the subfolder land in the root directory of the destination USB drive, i.e. there will be /sub1 and /sub2 and no /share1 above them. At the same time it is seems that it is not possible to create a backup job starting at root / of the LS. So in order to get the whole disk backuped several jobs are needed.

 

Asides from messing up my folder structure, there's a bigger problem. As soon as the job for /share2 runs, it will wipe /sub1 and /sub2 because they are not part of the /share2 source. So this cannot achive what I want - replicate the source folder structure. 

 

Is there any way to

1. define a destination folder so the sources don't get placed into the root?

2. copy with several jobs into this destination and the job will not delete files and folders that are above the given target folder?

 

Maybe I'm just not seeing something here and approaching it all wrong. In short I want to achieve a full mirror. And some folders on the LS have to be removed from general view through access rights which means not everything be of a single folder (/share)

 

Thanks for any suggestions

Message Edited by tinu on 09-06-2009 03:16 AM

Dustrega

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Re: backup creating folder structure
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2009, 06:21:33 AM »
In other words you want a complete image from your LS-CHL to an external USB. When you are choosing your folders for a single job you can have multiple folders selected instead of creating individual jobs for each folder. If you choose your source and destination then click select that should refresh the page and allow you to choose a second source and destination. That answers your second question mostly, but the first one is a little more difficult. With all the features packed into these NAS devices it's not surprising when I say that the backup feature isn't so robust that it will do "imaging" from the NAS to an external USB unless you are copying the entire root directory. The main reason that multiple backup jobs are possible is not to make complicated backup plans (i.e. I want to "image" this but archive that) but to allow multiple backups to be made to multiple locations on other destinations. I hope this answers your questions but if you need further clarification please post back.

tinu

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Re: backup creating folder structure
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2009, 08:13:02 AM »
   Thanks for the reply. To summarize the problem again for clarification:

I want to copy ALL shares, maintaining the folder structure, to a USB drive to maintain an identical copy of the data. So not the whole physical drive.
Initially I did create a one job that contains 2 sources both going to the same destination. Settings:
- "overwrite backup/ differential"
- tick box 'create subfolder' NOT selected.

This resulted in each source being copied to the destination root, but deleting the other destination.

Since then I DO select the 'create subfolder' option, resulting in a 'backup' folder on the destination. Now the various sources do NOT delete each other and are contained in the not time stamped subfolder. I see this as an acceptable workaround, but it also highlights something I'd see as a bug in the backup mechanism.

The initial idea of using separate jobs was to let the backup focus (and run shorter) on particular areas. But I would expect a source of /share/sub1/sub2 to be replicated fully and not as /sub2.

In any case, my LS has died since after having it for less than a week. Its confirmed by tech support. Considering the limitation of the backup option and the fact that the noise from the disk is quite high (in comparison the backup WD Elements is absolutely silent) I am likely to make this a full return.


Dustrega

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Re: backup creating folder structure
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2009, 07:46:33 AM »
That is regrettable news but thank you for sharing your findings.