Your client will connect to each of its backup destinations independently of the others and send whatever data is necessary to bring that destination up to date.
It's important to note that your destinations are not mirror-images of each other – since one destination may be offline while the other(s) are receiving data. Your client will continually work to connect to all of its destinations and keep each of them current.
Although CrashPlan allows you to back up to multiple destinations, it backs up to only one destination at a time. CrashPlan chooses the destination that it calculates will complete backing up first. After the backup to that destination is complete, it moves to the next destination.
For example,
CrashPlan trades speed for transparency to the user. As a result of this trade-off, CrashPlan's “out of the box” backup speed will never match a straight copy of files; CrashPlan performs backups that are incremental by block, de-duped, compressed and encrypted, all at low priority, deferring to I/O and network overhead of the host.
To make an initial backup go faster, here are some things you might try:
Yes. This is the easiest way to have copies of your data at multiple sites. Remember, computers acting only as destinations don't count as a seat!
Full instructions are here.
No. CrashPlan stops backup to a drive if the minimum free space is 1% of the total drive size or 1 GB (whichever is smaller).
The archive verification process (also known as “archive maintenance”) uses MD5 sums to verify data integrity of the local archive. If the data is corrupted, CrashPlan will self-heal the archive by requesting that the source re-send that portion of the file.
More info is here.
Real-time file watching support is either not working or disabled. Before digging in to system problems, review the following settings to verify that the settings for continuous back up are enabled:
Spotlight is likely not enabled for the volume or needs to reindex the information. These commands may help:
Note: Reindexing may take several hours. Consider reindexing when the computer is not being used.
sudo mdutil -i on <volume_name> sudo mdutil -E <volume_name>
You can also reindex using System Preferences:
Is the inotify kernel module installed? CrashPlan uses it to monitor changes to the filesystem.
Also, you may need to increase the number of watches that can be created. This is noted in the logs by this error:
inotify_add_watch: No space left on device
You can temporarily update the value with:
echo 1048576 > /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches
You can update the value permanently by putting the following value in /etc/sysctl.conf and restarting:
fs.inotify.max_user_watches=1048576
Yes. On Mac and Linux, you can back up any open file. On Windows, CrashPlan PRO uses Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Service to VSS. However if you are backing up larger database file(s) you will want to read the Dumping Application State section of the “Backing Up Open Files” page.
VSS stands for the Volume Shadow Service. It's the Windows mechanism by which programs can back up files that are locked open by other processes. As long as both processes support VSS they can negotiate through the service for a copy to be made.
When backing up an open VM, it is a good idea to avoid frequent scans, which slow down performance. So, as with all backup operations that involve open files, we recommend extending the New Version setting (Settings > Backup > Backup Frequency and File Retention) to longer than 30 minutes.
CrashPlan does not lock your files while backing them up. It just reads them. It never modifies them either… except when you are restoring.
However, if you are on Windows you may occasionally get an “in use by another process” message that we can't control that since it's part of the Windows operating system. This should only be a problem if you have very large files that are updated frequently. But if this is a problem for you, your best option is to set the client to backup during off-hours only.
On Windows, CrashPlan uses the Volume Shadow Service (VSS) to negotiate with other applications over backing up files that are locked open. A primary example of this would be the Outlook pst file.
Make sure the Volume Shadow Service is enabled Automatically. If you've turned it on then reboot your computer to make sure all programs are using it properly. After it's enabled the backup files log should reveal that files that were previously locked open and unavailable should be getting backed up.
View full information on VSS support
When open files cannot be backed up, you will need to use an application-specific dump/export tool and backup the dumps.
Yes. There are two ways you could do this:
You can back up the data store in place on Mac and Linux; however, you will never be assured of a completely accurate backup. On Windows, your database application must support VSS in order to back up open database files. When backing up large, active database files make sure you increase the backup interval to a few hours or more.
See the Dumping Application State section of the “Backing Up Open Files” page.
Yes, with one note. With HFS+, there is no way for any application to back up a file in real-time that is open 100% of the time, which is the case with Entourage. In practice, CrashPlan will capture a safe copy about once an hour.
Some ways to help CrashPlan capture 'pristine' Entourage backups:
Yes. Your database is the most qualified piece of software to make sure it's made a safe copy of itself while it is running. See the Dumping Application State section here.
No. You must back up to either a PRO Server or a PRO Client. FTP would be far slower and not a guaranteed restore.
With CrashPlan running at both ends, the destination software simulates restores and validates files when the destination is idle and not in use. This is a big deal - something you cannot do with FTP efficiently - and ensures that your files are in good shape when you need them.
Yes. The best and most reliable way to do this is to install a client on the web-server.
If you can't do that, here are some other ideas:
We do not support backing up Windows encrypted folders.
Yes. Make sure to install the PRO Client as the user who owns the FileVault account.
Yes. You can do this within the client (Settings > Backup). For more information, read about how to control what is being backed up.
Additional resources:
This is usually caused by setting CrashPlan to use 0% of the CPU when the user is present or away. CrashPlan brings itself to the foreground when the Desktop UI is open, which means backup can proceed, but as soon as the UI is closed the 0% throttling takes over and backup will stop.
If you're customizing the installers, yes. Turn off the listenForBackup property within the custom configuration you edit for your installer.
<listenForBackup>false</listenForBackup>
If your backup destination runs out of space then backups to that destination will simply stop. CrashPlan will not automatically delete backed up data in order to make room at the destination.
In order to resolve the situation you'll need to:
Removing files from your backup selection permanently removes the files from the backup archive.
NOTE: After compacting your data will be removed in the remote destination. You will not be able to restore any compacted data once this process is complete.
Removing unselected files also takes place as a result of the current file retention policy in effect on a PRO Server. Additional details about File retention.
Let's assume you have a directory named /tmp/local1. You've completely backed up all your data to this directory and you now wish to relocate these backups to /tmp/local2. You can do this using the following method:
When you complete this process PRO Client will evaluate /tmp/local2, realize that it already has all the backup information it needs and continue with regular backups using this location.
CrashPlan PRO will back up the symbolic link file itself, but it will not back up any of the folders or files the symbolic links points to.