PistalPete Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Looking for some advice. I had installed Microsoft windows server 2011 using drive bender as a pooled drive manager. MS WHS 2011 is based on Windows Server 2008. When doing client backups, the backup process creates a key backup file 4096dat, and if that goes south, you lose all client backups. Long story short, all my client backups are fooked. So now time to move on. Windows Server 2012R2, employs it's own pooled drive manager, storage spaces. After doing a little research, storage spaces appears to be pretty unreliable. When it goes bad, it's a total disaster as far as losing you backups. So I am hesitant to employ storage spaces. Anyone care to comment? Stick with Drive Bender? Drive Pool? Or Storage Spaces? Is it worth the risk, or should I just forget about pooled drives all together and stick with separate drives? One hard disk for Photos, one for Movies, one for backups, etc.? You then run the risk of drives filling up quickly and running out of storage room. Second to that is that Server 2012 seems to also use the same method of a key dat file that point's to all other dat files in the backup set. Lose the key file and all is lost. Is that correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PistalPete Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 Oh, also forgot to ask, domain or workgroup, what are the pros and cons? Which would you recommend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffeuh Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 hi, i'm personnaly use DriveBender because it's very simple and easy to use. Add or remove HDD is very simple and the dashboard is very clear. Here an example of my current server based on Windows Server 2012R2 : Storage space is more adapted for Enterprise and is OS inegrated. But the implementation is more complicated and need to be designed. That's a professionnal tool provided for Enterprise context. Domain or Workgroup ? That is the question Seriously, in Enterprise, Domain is THE solution with an ActiveDirectory to manage users In workgroup, after 2-3 computers this is very hard to manage. AD has been made for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 I went for Stablebit Drivepool. I use it on two servers, 2012R2, and my desktop, Win10. Never faltered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PistalPete Posted March 15, 2016 Author Share Posted March 15, 2016 Quote i'm personnaly use DriveBender I also opted for Drivebender over storage spaces. The dashboard in the latest version is very well laid out and intuitive. Easy to use. @ Chancer, I did read good things about Drivepool, and going forward this seems to be the better option as far as support goes, given that Drivebender has now become "doner" supported just to keep the lights on. But I already had a paid version of Drivebender. Because I only have 3 clients, I also opted for Workgroup over Active Directory. There are advantages to AD though, such as the ability to sync more easily, But syncback is a nice little sync program that performs well. But I still may switch over to Active Directory. I haven't been able to completely set up the server, other things got in the way. Right now just backing up the clients, but when I find the time, I need to set up anywhere Access and streaming services. In WHS 2011 that never worked well for me as far as access outside the lan. (over the internet) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffeuh Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 sure, with 3 clients, AD is not very usefull and it's too big for just 3 computers. WHS2011 works well, i found. Maybe a wrong configuration or something wrong. What doesn't work on your WHS ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PistalPete Posted March 15, 2016 Author Share Posted March 15, 2016 In WHS2011, the database corrupted and I lost all my client backups... Tried to repair it numerous times but could not recover the database. I certainly didn't want to enable duplication due to disk size constraints, but looks like that turned out to be a huge mistake. I am liking 2012R2 so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffeuh Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 On Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at 9:08 PM, PistalPete said: In WHS2011, the database corrupted and I lost all my client backups... Tried to repair it numerous times but could not recover the database. I certainly didn't want to enable duplication due to disk size constraints, but looks like that turned out to be a huge mistake. I am liking 2012R2 so far. how .... so bad ... Very strange that your database corrupted. In this case, the design recommended by Microsoft is set RAID for DATAs disk, enable duplication and if you can, add external backup (another HDD, NAS, Azure, etc ...). So, WHS is a All In One solution and is nice to use when you have a few computers to manage. With 2012R2, you are the master of all and you have to manage all components. This require more skills but you know what happen. This can more efficient for you, and with DriveBender for example + Windows Shares, you can have almost the same result as WHS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PistalPete Posted March 17, 2016 Author Share Posted March 17, 2016 Quote with DriveBender for example + Windows Shares, you can have almost the same result as WHS Yes, agreed. I have set Drive Bender pooled drives for backup of media (video, documents, pictures, etc.) under shared folders, synced with syncback, a separate non pooled hard drive for backup of client o/s (with o/s backup set duplicated) and another separate hard drive for back up of the server o/s. I choose to sync media because this keeps the media in the original file format, giving me the ability to stream it. So two copies of the media exist, one on the server, the other on the client. And I feel more confident have the client o/s backups duplicated on the server. Server O/s backup is also duplicated. I think I have all my bases pretty much covered with this setup. I just want to setup anywhere access now. Will do that when I find the time. Streaming over the internet though comes with it's own set of problems, not the least of which is my isp blocking port 80. Port forwarding and a static ip from go-daddy or even Microsoft's account will do the trick, but I guess I need to consider encryption. this area is new to me so will need to do some research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webdoc Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 I use windows server 2012 R2 have also drive bender, yes you are right I also don't like storage spaces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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