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

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Drobo How-To Guide

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

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:

http://www.crashplan.com/business/features.html

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 http://www.drobo.com/support/updates.php

• 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.

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Drobo How-To Guide

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

Creating Drobo Volume(s)

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

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Drobo How-To Guide

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

STEP 3

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.

STEP 4

Enter a name for the volume that

describes what it will be used for. In this example a volume named

SA_CrashPlan will

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Drobo How-To Guide

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

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.

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Drobo How-To Guide

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

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.

https://web-‐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.

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Drobo How-To Guide

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

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

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Drobo How-To Guide

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

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.

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Drobo How-To Guide

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

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.

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Drobo How-To Guide

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

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.

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Drobo How-To Guide

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

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.

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Drobo How-To Guide

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

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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.