Cloudberry Backup allows you to back-up the data on your home or small business server to the cloud. Powered by a variety of online storage providers, the add-in integrates neatly with the Dashboard to allow backup scheduling, data encryption and many more features to protect your data.

• Easy installation and configuration
• Seemlesly integrates with the Dashboard
• Default backup plan is designed to quickly start data backup
• Scheduling capabilities
• Data encryption
• Data retention schedule
• Secure online storage
• Data versioning
• Differential backup
• The ability to restore to a particular date
• Backup verification
• Backup Window

The add-in, available for Windows Home Server v1, Windows Home Server 2011 and Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, has just received an update. v2.6.2 has the following improvements:

1. Force schedule full backup.

If you’re seeking a convenient way of duplicating hard disk drives (for backup, building or upgrading PCs for example) then you may want to check out Aleratec’s brand new 1:1 HDD Copy Cruiser USB 3.0 Duplicator. It’s a portable device that allows you to create full copies of hard drives using a high speed USB 3.0 interface.

No software is needed to run the duplication, as everything is built into the hardware and runs on connection. A simple one-button operation creates 1:1 clones and backup drives, and the sector-by-sector copy process includes partition and boot sector information. It can copy any combination of 2.5″, 3/5″ or SSD drives. Compact Flash (CF) memory, CFast memory and 50mm mSATA drives can also be duplicated with an optional adaptor.

The 1:1 HDD Copy Cruiser Mini USB3.0 supports Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7, Mac OS10.3 or later, and Linux. It’s shipping now at a price of around $104.99.

More: Aleratec 1:1 HDD Copy Cruiser USB 3.0

Windows Home Server 2011 will automatically manage your network client backups based on the backup retention policy, but occasionally you may need to trim the number of backups stored on your server. This ‘how to’ will demonstrate the process.

Let’s start by opening the WHS 2011 dashboard. Select the ‘Computers and Backup’ tab and double-click on the client whose backups require attention.

Highlight the backup you want to remove and click on the ‘View details…’ button.

This brings us to the Backup Details dialog box. Notice the drop down box under the Edit backup properties. It is currently configured to allow WHS to automatically manage this backup.

Click on the drop down box arrow and select ‘Delete this backup when Cleanup runs’ and click OK.

That’s it, the next time your server performs the backup cleanup routine it will delete any backup designated and any backup no longer needed based on the backup retention policy.

One of the best features of Windows Home Server 2011 is its ability to backup all of the computers in the home. It would be great to keep every backup of every client computer forever. But, this is not practical because you will quickly run out of space on your server.  So, WHS automatically manages your backups based on a default backup retention policy. Here is how you can keep one or two backups longer than what the backup retention policy allows.

To view your retention policy, open the WHS 2011 Dashboard, select ‘Computers and backup’ and then click on ‘Additional client computer backup tasks’.

Based on my retention policy the longest any backup will be kept is 6 months. Here is a link to Microsoft’s page explaining the backup settings.

So as the title of this tutorial suggests, we want to keep a snapshot of our client computer indefinitely. Here’s how.

Let’s start by performing a manual backup. Open the Launchpad application and select ‘Backup’.

Click on the ‘Start backup’ button.

Enter a backup description and click OK.

When the backup completes, open the Dashboard. Select the ‘Computers and backup’ tab, then double click on the client computer you just backed up.

This will open your client’s backup properties dialog box. Highlight the backup you just created and select the ‘View details…’ button.

This will open the Backup Details dialog box for the backup you just created. You will see the description of the backup, which you can change if you would like, and a drop-down box that currently reads ‘Manage backup automatically’.

Click on the down arrow, select ‘Keep this backup’ and click OK.

That’s it, the backup you created will be kept indefinitely, or until you change this backup’s properties.

OK, I know what you’re going to say – in fact, you’ve probably already said it. It’s all very well and good being able to back up my Macs to OS X Server, but hey, what about my PCs? Right at the start of the book, I mentioned that we’d look after you if you had a mixed PC and Mac home network, so let’s talk about backing up your PCs to Lion Server.

You have probably guessed that Time Machine doesn’t support PC backup. If not, let me drop you the news – Time Machine doesn’t support PC backup. That would be too easy, right? So, the most practical way of backing up your PCs to OS X Server is to run a backup program on Windows that can push the backed up files over to your server across the network.

Now, we have a decision to make, and it all hangs on the version of Windows you’re running. Most versions of Windows ship with an onboard backup application which may be fine for your use. Unfortunately, not all versions of Windows allow you to backup to a network device – if you’re running Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate then we’re fine. Windows 7 Home Premium? Unfortunately not. This is a little different to Windows Vista Home Premium which does let you back-up over the network. But, don’t worry, if your version of Windows won’t let you backup over the network, there are other third-party apps which will do. We’ll run through using Windows own backup application as well as an example of a third-party application to cover off both scenarios.

Using Windows Backup

Microsoft’s built-in Backup application may not offer all of the bells and whistles of specialist backup apps, but it does a job and hey, it’s free! (Well, you’ve already paid for it). But before we configure backup, we need to create a location on the server to store our backup files. So, On your server, create a folder somewhere you can remember called PC Backups. As an example, I created mine in my Documents folder – but you can store the files anywhere that’s accessible over the network on your server.

Back to your Windows PC, and you can find the Windows Backup app in Control Panel > System and Security, listed as Backup and Restore. Click the link, and unless you’ve previously setup a backup schedule, you should see the following:

To read the rest of this chapter, check out the Using OS X Server at Home eBook.

Over the last few parts of our (now extensive) guide to Apple OS X Lion Server, we’ve taken a look at some of the more differentiating features of the platform – namely the Shared Address Book, Shared Calendar and iChat Server. Today we’ll take a step back and look at one of the most important features in any home server platform – client backup.

I’m sure there’s very little need to convince WGS readers of the importance of client backup – your data, your applications, your configuration settings all held hostage by the risk of a future hard drive failure, power surge or (even more likely in my house) catastrophic user blunder. So it makes a lot of sense to back up your clients to another device. Most of the mainstream NAS devices now support network back up of Macs via Time Machine, as does Windows Home Server 2011 (with a lot of help from third party developers). As you’d expect, OS X Lion Server also supports Mac client backup via Time Machine, and the good news is that it’s very easy to do.

Before we walk through the steps, one note on storage. As I mentioned way back in Part 2 of the series, Mac hardware looks beautiful but isn’t the most flexible when it comes to internal storage upgrades. If you have a lot of data to backup, then it’s well worth considering an additional storage device to handle that data – I talk through some of the options in that part of the series.

Okay, now head over to your server and open up the Server app. In the now familiar left hand column, you’ll see an option called Time Machine. Click it!

The Time Machine panel in Server app is very straightforward indeed. Hit the giant On/Off switch to start the Time Machine network service. You’ll be asked which volume (if you have more than one) you wish to use for Time Machine backups. If you wish to change your mind, lower down the panel, you’ll see a section which allows you to select one of your server’s volumes for backup storage. Click the Edit button if you wish to change the default option.

That’s all you need to do on the server. So, we now need to configure our Mac computers to backup to the Lion Server, rather than a local hard drive. On one of those Macs, open Time Machine (it’s in the Applications menu in Finder). If you haven’t yet set up a Time Machine backup location, you’ll be encouraged to do so, otherwise you’ll be presented with the standard Time Machine application panel.

At this point you should be able to select a Backups folder on your server. Note that we have two entries for the Mac Server in our screenshot below – one pointing directly to the server, the other, though stating “Mac Server” to an iCloud address (more of which in a future guide). Select Backups on your server hardware and click Use Backup Disk.

You’ll be asked for your server username and password, following which you should be ready to backup. A countdown will begin and your backup should soon start.

To check on progress, click the Time Machine icon in the system bar at the top of the screen.

Complete the same steps for all of your Macs, and that’s Time Machine backup over the network taken care of.

To anyone looking for a Windows Home Server integrated Cloud backup solution, CloudBerry Lab is having a 30% off sale until December 1st.

All in the tradition of our Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday sales in the US!  Also, this sales applies not only to the WHS version, but also the

• Desktop
• Server 2003/2008
• SBS 2011 Essentials

versions.

Happy Holidays!

KeepVault, a cloud storage and backup add-in for Windows Home Server and Windows Small Business Server Essentials 2011, has received an update this week.

The developers report that version 4.11 ships with numerous improvements including:

• Cross Device Access & Restore

Access and restore the files from any of your protected computers using the ‘Selective Download’ feature in the KeepVault software interface. Previously reserved for KeepVault Pro users only, this feature makes it even easier to recover files to a new computer or share files between any computer on your account.

• Daily Status Reports

KeepVault Pro & Business customers can opt-in to receive a daily summary email showing the backup status of each of their computers. Quickly check important backup statistics to ensure your data protection is operating smoothly.

• Client Computer Backup/Restore (WHS & SBS Essentials 2011)

We’ve worked closely with Microsoft to enable a special mechanism for backing-up and restoring the Client Computer Backups created by WHS & SBS Essentials 2011. Now you can protect these online simply by selecting the ‘Client Computer Backups’ entry in the KeepVault interface and the software will do the rest.

• Fit and Finish

We’ve made numerous other improvements to the software to improve your overall experience.

Download: KeepVault – WHS 2011 | WHS v1

Once you have Windows Home Server installed, and protecting your PCs you can change its configuration to run client backups on a schedule you define. Here’s how:

1. Open your Dashboard Application, select Computers and Backups, and click the Additional Client Computer Backup Tasks link.

   

2. Set the time you want Windows Home Server 2011 to back up your client PCs.

   

LaCie this week announced the arrival of LaPlug – a device designed to convert any USB hard drive into a fully-fledged Network Attached Storage Device. The $74.99 box transforms a direct attached storage device with a range of features including the ability to share content with network devices around the home, USB Printer Sharing, Centralised Backup for Mac and PC, Remote Access for friends and family and multimedia streaming.

Once connected to one of LaPlug’s 4 USB 2,0 ports, your hard drive or thumb drive is immediately accessible to computers and other devices on your home network, as well as to remote users you allow to connect to the device away from home, courtesy of a custom web address. Connect a USB printer and it’s made available to all computers on the network. Media sharing with network media players such as Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, other uPnP/DLNA-certified media players as well as computers running iTunes is also included.

For backup, a hard drive connected to LaPlug can be utilised as a target disk for Apple’s Time Machine, whilst Windows users can take advantage of LaCie’s bundled Genie Timeline backup software for PC.

LaPlug from LaCie will be shipping globally and can be found online at lacie.com.

Earlier in the week, Orbital Technologies released its Backup Configuration add-in, providing Mac Time Machine support for Windows Home Server 2011. We’ve had around 400 downloads of the add-in so far, and the support forum has been busy with readers sharing their experiences with the add-in.

In response, the company posted this message on the forums last night:

In response to some of the early feedback on the Orbital Backup Configuration Add-in for Windows Home Server 2011 and for Windows Small Business Server Essentials 2011:

For Snow Leopard only

The Orbital Backup Configuration is supported only for OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). OS X 10.7 (Lion) support is unavailable due to a software conflict between Microsoft Launchpad and Lion Launchpad, and any workarounds would adversely modify the default Lion user experience.

Why we released for Snow Leopard when Lion is out

Although Lion is the current shipping version of OS X, we had enough requests from Snow Leopard users for the Orbital Backup Configuration to justify releasing it at this time.

Current Snow Leopard issues

Issues affecting Snow Leopard users are being studied and we are collecting more information as it becomes available. Please feel free to let us know if you are experiencing issues with the Orbital Backup Configuration software on Snow Leopard.

Revised help documentation has also been issued for the add-in, which is available with the add-in download. With regard to support for Lion, the company have announced on their website that they expect to release an update for the add-in once Microsoft have resolved the conflict between Microsoft Launchpad and Lion Launchpad.

Back in May, we previewed a new third party add-in from Orbital technologies that allows Windows Home Server 2011 to be used to back-up Apple Mac OS X computers. After a few months of waiting, that add-in has now been released.

Orbital Backup Configuration works by allowing Windows Home Server 2011 to be recognised and used as a target disk for Time Machine backups. Previously, WHS 2011 would only be recognised with some relatively major hacking. Check out our full preview to see the add-in in action.

Currently, the add-in only fully supports OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, due to the Launchpad issues previously reported with Windows Home Server 2011 and OS X 10.7 Lion. Once Microsoft get a fix in place for that issue, the add-in should work with Lion too. No ETA on that at this point, unfortunately:

The Orbital Backup Configuration Add-In runs on Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard). It is not supported on Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) or earlier versions.

At this time there are some issues outside of Orbital’s control related to the naming of the Launchpad in Mac OS 10.7 (Lion) and the Windows Operating systems that may prevent the Microsoft Launchpad from running on Lion. If you had the Microsoft Launchpad installed on Snow Leopard and upgraded your Mac to Lion, the Microsoft Launchpad will still be present, the Mac Launchpad will not be installed and therefore the Orbital Backup Configuration Add-In will run. If you have a fresh install of Lion or did not have the Microsoft Launchpad installed before upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion, the Microsoft Launchpad will not install and therefore the Add-In will not run.

Once the Launchpad naming issue is resolved we expect the Add-In will function on all Lion installations.

Orbital Technologies have asked us to host the download as well as a support forum for the add-in, which hopefully they’ll be active in. Please feel free to post your feedback, experiences and any issues encountered over there.