Backup to an outside place

[Querformatik]

Hi,

 

ich have bought some backup space at Strato (a german webhoster). I have several possibilitys to connect to, like SMB/CIFS through a VPN tunnel, (S)FTP(S), Webdav, rsync and scp but Retrospect just doesn't accept any possibility.

First I mapped the network drive using SMB, CIFS and WebDAV, but when I try to select this network drive, Retrospect doesn't show it. So I just typed in the UNC-path which also doesn't work. Afterwards I found a program to map a FTP-connection as drive, which was first working with Retrospect. But when I started a backup, Retrospect and the program which mapped the FTP-connection crashed.

That's why I wanted to ask you if you have any suggestions to get to work Retrospect with external disc space.

 

Thanking you in anticipation,

Jan

[Daniels]

You do not want to use map drives since these are not read correctly by Retrospect. Are you using this space as the destination or as a source?

You also want to make sure that the user you specified in the Retrospect preferences has access to this space or does it require it require a specail user and password?

Have you tried mounted the share from within Retrospect and not outside of Retrospect?

[Querformatik]

Hi Daniels,

 

thank you for your fast response.

I'm using the space as destination. The space requires a special user and password, but I have no idea how to mount the share directly in Retrospect. It would be nice if you could give me a hint.

[Daniels]

You can either add it to My Network Places outside of Retrospect or open the Volumes window and click on My Network. The Advanced button will allow to the UNC path to storage space. The only thing I am not sure about is the unique user name and password. You may have to provide your Retrospect user access to staorage space for the connection to work.

[Querformatik]

What do you mean with add to "My Network Places"? If I open the explorer and type in the address, it is shown undern My Network Places (the OS is german...)

 

But in Retrospect I can't see this Network Place and the UNC-Path just won't work. It always says, that the folder isn't existing so I don't think that it's a problem with rights but a problem with VPN and so on at Retrospect.

 

[Daniels]

It looks like you are using a newer Windows Server OS which means you would want to add the folder in the first picture into your network places. As how to do this I am not sure.

As for the second picture have you made sure that Retrospect can get through your firewall?

The error listed above your second picture can be misleading because you will see this error if access is denied. I would still check permissions on the storage space and if necessary allow the Retrospect user to connect to the share.

[Querformatik]

I'm using a Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Retrospect is allowed to get through my firewall. I have lot's of clients backuped by Retrospect over network. The idea with the username sounds good, but isn't very practical because I have no chance to rename the FTP/SMB user... : :confused:

[Daniels]

Maybe you can setup Retrospect to use the user ID and password required for the storage space. At this point it looks like a permissions issue and maybe you can talk to web-provider about adding access.

[Richy_Boy]

I do roughly the same thing by use rsync (over ssh). Our retrospect backup storage is a Netgear ReadyNAS, which can use rsync to transfer files.

 

We setup a second ReadyNAS device off-site and sync the two over night via our internet link. As the retrospect data is already encrypted in our office and is passed through a ssh tunnel, there is minimal security risks involved.

 

The firewall obviously only allows the static IP of either end to connect too.

 

Maybe you can install a Windows based rsync client to your server and use that to duplicate data to your online storage? i.e. http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp

 

Richard

Edited September 23, 2010 by Guest

[Querformatik]

Thanks for all replys.

@Daniels: I don't think that the error message is because of the missing user rights. Because I make the normal Retrospect backups to a NAS where I also need an extra username and password. I can't remember if Retrospect asked for the username when I first connected to the NAS but I think that Retrospect just used the connection initialised by the Windows explorer.

Another problem is when I connect through vpn to the external space Retrospect can't find anymore the client-pcs on the intranet. When I shut down the vpn connection and restart Retrospect all is working fine again.

So now I'm trying to install a small linux host which mounts the external space and shares the space through smb. I hope that this will work because the linux host will be a part of the local workgroup. So even Retrospect should find him.

 

@Richy_Boy: I also thought about that scenario but I have much more space off-site so I want to use it to build up a long-term archive. That's why I can't just copy the files...

[Daniels]

Is the working NAS on your network? If it is then even with an extra password it would still be usable by Retrospect since it uses the same Domain Controller. If it is not on the same network you might want to find out what is different between the working one and the outside one.

The first test I would do once you get the linux box up is to backup a single file and see if you can use the share.