One of the interesting new features in the EX485 & EX487 HP MediaSmart Servers is the ability to back up the Shared Folders on your home server online, using Amazon’s S3 service.
The fact that Amazon S3 is used to power the service is in itself an interesting move, given that HP have already invested in their own online backup service, HP Upline. However, that service does not appear to be compatible with Windows Server-based systems. Big corporation in “not joined up” shocker? Quite possibly.
So, Amazon S3 it is, which puts the MediaSmart service on the same platform as Jungle Disk’s Amazon S3 back up service (if you don’t have the new MediaSmart Server but you like the look of what we’re about to show you, check out Jungle Disk for a pretty similar application).
Backing up your shared folders online with the new MediaSmart Server is pretty straightforward, although the sign-up process could be improved. Here’s how to do it:
1. In the HP MediaSmart Server Welcome Tab, click Server Online Backup
2. The Online Backup page will open. Under Current Activity, select Click Here to Configure
3. If you don’t already have an Amazon S3 Account and Account Key, you’ll need to sign up and get one to proceed. To do this, click Get an Amazon S3 Account
4. A browser window will open and you’ll be taken to Amazon’s S3 sign up page.Click Sign up for Amazon S3 to continue.
5. If you already have a standard account with Amazon (.com) for shopping, you can log into that account in the next screen. Otherwise, select I am a new user and proceed.
6. Once you’re all signed up with Amazon, you’ll need to slot in your Amazon Access key and Secret Key into the Settings Tab for Online Server backup. Both of these keys can be found on your Amazon S3 account page online.
If you can’t find your keys, just visit this link to retrieve them from your account.
7. Leave the Default name in “Bucket Info” (Buckets are the name that Amazon give to folders) and ensure the Use default box is checked.
8. Go to the Scheduling Tab and click Enable Scheduled Backup. You can now select which of your shared folders you’d like backing up online. If you’re concerned about bandwidth requirements or storage costs, you can click Compute Size to tell you how much data will need to be transferred.
Set the time window in which you want your backup to be scheduled each evening and then click Apply.
9. Finally, you can set whether you want restored files to overwrite local files with the same name, or otherwise. Never overwrite is the safest option, and the one I choose. Once all that is done, click OK to complete setup.
10. That’s it as far as setup goes, but if you want to ensure that everything’s working ok, go into the Server Online Backup page again, and you’ll now see a Backup Now option at the top of the page. Click this to perform a manual backup.
You can backup folders other than those you have just scheduled if you so wish.
A progress bar and timer will let you know how long it’ll take for your upload to complete. Large music, video and photo folders may take a long while to fully backup.
When the backup is completed, you’ll see the folder listed under Backup Summary in your Server Online Backup Tab.
11. Should you need to browse, or restore your backed up files, simply select Browse/Restore from the Server Online Backup Tab, navigate to the file you want to restore from the folder view which pops up and you’re good to go!
So, that completes our walkthrough of backing up your files online with the HP MediaSmart Server and Amazon S3 – a nice and easy way of ensuring your most valuable files are safe and sound on an off-site server.
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