Crashplan restore ? and temp monitoring

Ur_Mom

Ur_Mom

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May 15, 2006
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I had a hard drive go bad, and had a good backup (99.8%) on Crashplan. First time doing a restore with them. If I reinstall my main OS (Windows Server 2012), and install the CP client, will I still be able to restore the drive (storage drive)? Or do I need to maintain my current WS2012 install to do the restore then reinstall the OS and all that? I want to install Server 2012 on an ESXi host, but had the drive go out. It will take a week or two for the restore to complete.

I have three drives, and the 1 TB went out. It's been hot in the area, and had the 120mm fan that went to the HDD's go out, and the drive got way too hot. I need to put some monitoring on the server and have it email me when it reaches a threshold and shut down after a bit more than that. Any suggestions on this one?
 
Not familiar with crashplan, but as for temp monitoring, look into Arduino and Dallas temp sensors. you can then write a basic serial interface to get the data, and use a python script (or other language but python makes it easier) to fetch the data via serial.

My hvac system uses this board:

http://www.canakit.com/catalog/product/view/id/627/s/4-port-usb-relay-controller/

Found that before I found out about Arduino, but if I was to do it again I'd use Arduino just because I could add even more sensors and inputs. I also do have an Arduino board now I use for other monitoring like UPS battery voltage and AC failure status.

I've been slowly working on a monitoring app that I'll eventually release to public, but you could use pretty much anything.
 
Ur_Mom said:
I had a hard drive go bad, and had a good backup (99.8%) on Crashplan. First time doing a restore with them. If I reinstall my main OS (Windows Server 2012), and install the CP client, will I still be able to restore the drive (storage drive)? Or do I need to maintain my current WS2012 install to do the restore then reinstall the OS and all that?
Click to expand...

http://support.crashplan.com/doku.php/how_to/restore_files
 
If you had just a drive go out that was not the system drive, just restore the files for that drive. No need to reinstall the OS UNLESS the drive that crashed was the system drive.
Basically, if your system boots, just restore the missing data- not the data for all drives.
 
RocketTech said:
If you had just a drive go out that was not the system drive, just restore the files for that drive. No need to reinstall the OS UNLESS the drive that crashed was the system drive.
Basically, if your system boots, just restore the missing data- not the data for all drives.
Click to expand...

Got it. I am doing it this way for now, as it's much easier.

I did create a new ESXi server and installed Server 2012 on it, so when I get the full restore, I'll just move that disk into it that way. But, I could just install the CP software and restore it to the other Server install... CP seems to work pretty good in that way. :)

As far as temp monitoring, I'll be looking into the Arduino thing. That way, I can learn that as well as have a good, productive reason to do it! :)
 
Just want to add - even though it takes a while to back up a lot of data and restore it, it really (REALLY) gets rid of that sense of dread when you have a hard drive failure. Knowing you have a good backup offsite that is safe and up to date is an amazing feeling.

For those that don't have a backup system, look into one of the online backup systems. I did after that huge sense of dread when a previous drive died. It's a much better feeling this time around! :)
 
Just to be clear, you can't do a bare-metal restore using CrashPlan. If you are moving your physical Server2012 install to virtual, use a P2V tool rather than a CrashPlan restore.

CrashPlan does offer sending your data on an external drive to speed-up restore or to seed a new backup.
 
I have one of those sata drive docks I occasionally run backups to (in addition to nightly local backups). Then I occasionally bring a few of the drives to my post office lock box. It's faster to drive a few TB worth of data somewhere than to upload it somewhere. Wish I had faster internet here or I would just do it through the internet and save me having to use the post office box. It has dual purpose though, I use the PO box number for my domain names instead of my real address.
 
Red Squirrel said:
I have one of those sata drive docks I occasionally run backups to (in addition to nightly local backups). Then I occasionally bring a few of the drives to my post office lock box. It's faster to drive a few TB worth of data somewhere than to upload it somewhere. Wish I had faster internet here or I would just do it through the internet and save me having to use the post office box. It has dual purpose though, I use the PO box number for my domain names instead of my real address.
Click to expand...

Technically placing anything other than US mail in a postal receptacle is illegal. If the Postmaster hasn't said anything, you should be good. Smarter would be getting a Safe Deposit box.
 
RocketTech said:
Technically placing anything other than US mail in a postal receptacle is illegal. If the Postmaster hasn't said anything, you should be good. Smarter would be getting a Safe Deposit box.
Click to expand...

Nah these are made for that. You can put jewlery etc. I got one of the slightly bigger ones so I can fit a few drives. only thing that sucks is they don't have any preauthorized payment plan, and it's once per year, so if I forget to pay, I don't know what happens to the stuff inside. I hope it gets properly destroyed, as I don't encrypt anything. I probably should encrypt my backups. I'd just hate to not be able to restore something because it corrupted or something.
 
Yeah it's dual purpose, I even had one of the drives on me when I initially bought the subscription so I can place it in to see if it fits, and the lady was there. She said lot of people put stuff in there.

But yeah my new credit union has some too, and they look slightly bigger, and it's more convenient driving there so I might actually look into those, especially if they can roll it into my banking fee so I don't have to worry about paying for it manually. Though the PO box is still nice because I use the PO number for domain name registration, so I'd have to figure something else out for that. I can always switch to the very small box which is cheaper though. It's like under 100 bucks a year so not like this is a huge expense.
 
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