Using Drobo Storage with CrashPlan Pro for On-Site & Cloud Backup

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1 Drobo How-To Guide Protecting critical data is key to ensuring business continuity. Drobo storage systems excel as backup- to- disk target as they provide high throughput and random access for near instantaneous file restores that aren t possible with traditional tape based systems. While maintaining onsite backups is the foundation of any disaster recovery plan as it provides for nearly instant recovery, it cannot protect against physical or natural disasters. Pairing CrashPlan Pro with a Drobo provides not only the best onsite backup, but also protected cloud storage that is incredibly simple to configure at an affordable price point. This document outlines the steps required to configure a Drobo with CrashPlan Pro for on- site and off- site cloud backup. CrashPlan Pro includes additional features that are beyond the scope of this document. For details on additional features and capabilities of CrashPlan Pro, consult their website: Topics Creating Drobo Volume(s) Installing the CrashPlan Pro Backing up Systems to Drobo Storage Backing up Systems to CrashPlan Cloud What You Will Need The latest Drobo Dashboard and firmware release Drobo direct attached (5D/Mini) or iscsi storage (B800i/B1200i) device Windows Server 2003 R2 / 2008 / 2008 R2 or OSX (10.7.x / 10.8.x) CrashPlan Pro Account Prerequisites This document assumes that the Drobo has been deployed and configured with the most recent firmware and the Drobo Dashboard is installed on the server that will be run the CrashPlan Pro application. If these prerequisites have not been met, reference the URLs below. Drobo Documentation - Drobo Dashboard - drobo.com 1

2 Creating Drobo Volume(s) Drobo How-To Guide STEP 1 Load the Drobo Dashboard and select the Drobo that will host the CrashPlan backups. Select the Volumes tab and then click Add Volume to launch the volume creation wizard. STEP 2 Select the Format Type for the volume to be used by CrashPlan and click Next. NOTE This example is using a Windows host and NTFS. For OSX hosts, select HFS+ drobo.com 2

3 STEP 3 STEP 4 Select a volume size that is appropriate for the proposed data set and click Next. As Drobo storage is thinly provisioned, a volume greater than the size of available physical storage can be configured. It is recommended that sufficient storage is provisioned to accommodate future expansion. This will avoid the hassle of migrating data in the future. Enter a name for the volume that describes what it will be used for. In this example a volume named SA_CrashPlan will be used. Click Finish to complete the Wizard and then click Apply to provision the volume. drobo.com 3

4 STEP 5 The Drobo volume is now ready to be mapped to the server. Click on the empty box in the Mount column to begin assign the volume to the host. Select a drive letter and click OK to complete the process. STEP 6 Verify that the volume was properly mapped and is accessible within the operating system. drobo.com 4

5 Installing the CrashPlan Pro STEP 1 Click on the URL below to login to the CrashPlan Pro web interface. For current users, login with the existing credentials. For new accounts, follow the instructions to create a new CrashPlan Pro account. cea- msp.crashplanpro.com/console/login.html STEP 2 Once authenticated, download the CrashPlan Pro application installer for the applicable operating system. NOTE Drobo supports CrashPlan Pro deployments on both Windows and OSX STEP 3 Follow the installation instructions to complete the installation process. NOTE - This installation takes a few minutes and will not require a reboot once completed. drobo.com 5

6 STEP 4 Once the installation has completed, sign in with the CrashPlan Pro account used in the a first step of this section. Once the account has successfully authenticated, the installation is complete. STEP 5 Repeat the steps in this section for all the computers that will be linked to Crashplan drobo.com 6

7 Backing up Systems to Drobo Utilizing a Drobo for local backups provides expandable and redundant storage offering protection from up to two simultaneous drive failures with no interruptions in service. While the Drobo protects against disk failures, it cannot protect against malicious applications or natural disasters. Best practice is to not only maintain local backups for ease of recovery recovery, but also configure off- site backups as outlined in the next section to ensure business continuity. STEP 1 Launch the CrashPlan application. On the Backup tab select Change under the files section to select the data that will be included in the backup job. In the Change File Selection window, select the volumes/folders to be included in the backup job. NOTE An entire volume, directory tree, or individual file can be selected for backup. drobo.com 7

8 STEP 2 On the Destination tab, select the Folders icon On the Folders menu, click the Select button to choose a backup destination On the Select a Directory window, select the drive that cooresponds with the newly created Drobo volume Click OK to save the directory selection. drobo.com 8

9 STEP 3 Verify that the Drobo volume has been added to Available Folders section. If the volume is not listed, verify it was correctly added in the previous steps. On the Backup tab, select the Start Backup associated with the newly added Drobo backup drive. The backup will begin immediately. To status of the initial backup job can be monitored by selecting the Backup tab. drobo.com 9

10 Backing up Systems to CrashPlan Cloud CrashPlan Pro Online can be configured to send all, or a subset of critical data and replicate it to the cloud. Extending local backups to the cloud with CrashPlan Pro provides simple, automated, and secure (448- bit AES) mechanism to store a copy of the data off- site for disaster recovery. NOTE - The amount of data that can be replicated to CrashPlan Pro Online and the time to recovery are limited by the size of the Internet connection. Some consideration should be taken to estimate backup and recovery times for cloud data. In the section above, a backup job was created that utilized the Drobo for local storage. The same backup can be pushed to the cloud with a single click. STEP 1 To begin the cloud backup, click Start Backup associated with CrashPlan Pro Online in the destinations section STEP 2 Once the backup has completed visit the CrashPlan website to view statistics and storage utilization for backups replication to the CrashPlan Pro cloud. drobo.com 10

11 Drobo 2460 North First Street, Suite 100, San Jose, CA DROBO Copyright 2013 Drobo, Inc. Data Robotics, Drobo, DroboEllite, DroboPro, BeyondRAID, and Smart Volumes are trademarks of Drobo, Inc., which may be registered in some jurisdictions. All other trademarks used are owned by their respective owners. All rights reserved. Specifications subject to change without notice. May 2013 drobo.com 11