Storage Options - What Should I Use?What kind of storage can I use to hold my backup data? Backup for Workgroups can store your backup data on any Windows hard drive device (local or remote accessible via a Windows Networking connection), including:
We have customers who use an external USB drive plugged directly into the machine they are backing up and we have other customers who designate a 2 TB NAS device to be the Primary Storage location. The Backup Server can also store backup data on a server with a RAID array. Backup for Workgroups only needs a single drive letter to point to and from that point the RAID drivers take over and distribute the data according to the RAID configuration. Drive Spanning Keeps Up With Your Growing Backup NeedsBackup for Workgroups is designed to store your backup data to disk, but are you concerned that you will outgrow the space on a single hard drive? Backup for Workgroups now supports what is called drive spanning so you can easily add storage. As the amount of data you have to backup grows, now your backup storage can grow right along with you. This means that your Primary storage location can be a group of hard drives. You can start with just one, but as you start to fill that backup storage device, you can simply tell Backup for Workgroups to span over to another disk-based storage location of your choice. Backup for Workgroups supports hard drive spanning for your primary storage group. If you have a pair of 200 GB hard drives (D: and E: for instance), Backup for Workgroups will first use Drive D: until it is full. Once the 200 GB capacity has been reached on Drive D:, backup data will then begin to be stored on Drive E:. The Backup for Workgroups drive spanning works as a "spill over" method, which means that new backup data is added to existing backup data until there is no available space left on the first hard drive. After the first drive is full, then backup data is stored on the second drive. (It does NOT work as a RAID method, which involves using both drives simultaneously and splitting data between the different drives for redundancy and failover.) NOTE: The ability to span over multiple hard drives has been added to the built-in Mirror feature as well. If you span drives for the Primary storage and decide to use the Mirror feature, you will also need to have the same amount of Mirror storage space equal to or larger than the total amount of the Primary spanned drives either with a single hard drive or multiple hard drives. If you have a pair of 200 GB hard drives for the Primary storage location, then you should have another pair of 200 GB hard drives available for the Mirror, etc. Individual Client Backup Size ReportingBackup for Workgroups keeps track of the size of each Client's backup data that is being stored. By looking at the "Status" panel, Administrators can quickly see which Clients are consuming the most space on the storage unit. Storage Event E-MailsBackup for Workgroups can send administrators a specific Storage Event e-mail to keep them informed of the status of the Primary and the Mirror hard drive storage devices. Available under the Backup Server software "Tools > Preferences" menu.
Off-site Storage OptionsSome administrators may choose to rotate their Primary storage hard drives for redundancy and off-site storage (just as tapes used to be rotated off site, switched for different days of the week, etc.) This is simply a matter of personal preference. While rotating Primary storage drives is perfectly fine to do, we recommend using the Mirror feature to facilitate off-site storage requirements. Visit our support page to read about the pros and cons of rotating either the Primary storage drive or the Mirror drive and help choose which method is best for you.
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