Use the Storage Panel to manage your backup media and mirrors. The Storage Panel is divided horizontally into two sections. The top section shows your Backup Storage Group (which can also be referred to as your Primary Storage Group) and the bottom section shows your Mirror Group.
What is the Backup
Storage Group?
The Backup Storage
Group contains a list of storage devices that hold your backup data. When
you initially setup Backup for Workgroups, you were asked to name your
initial storage location, so you should see at least one named storage location
at all times. Backup for Workgroups can span drives to hold more backup
data. When you need to add storage capacity, you can add
additional storage devices and use the sum total capacity of all the drives.
What is Inside the
Backup Storage Group?
The Backup Storage Group holds the Clients' backup data. This data is
compressed to save space and encrypted for security.
What is a Mirror?
Mirroring is the process of storing identical
data at a second locations. A mirror is simply a copy of your data. With
Backup for Workgroups, you can use the Mirroring feature to make a second
copy of your backup data.
What is the Mirror Group?
The Mirror Group contains a list of storage
devices that hold the mirror copy of your backup data.
Why You Should Mirror
The purpose of mirroring your data is to keep a second copy in case
there is a problem with the first copy. The mirror gives you the ability to
quickly recover your backup data in the event that a disaster
occurs at your Backup Server. If you would like the ability to take
your data off-site, we recommend that you store the mirror on a
removable hard drive or USB/FireWire external drive, or other portable media
to allow for off-site storage.
What is Mirrored?
When you invoke the mirroring feature, the Backup Server will copy the
backup data from the Backup Storage drives to the Mirror Group drives.
What is Not Mirrored?
Keep in mind that the mirroring capability included in Backup for
Workgroups is designed to mirror the Backup for Workgroups backup data only. It should not be confused with a general purpose mirroring
program.
How Does the Mirror Process Work?
In a nutshell, the Mirror process monitors the files stored at the Backup
Storage and when it
detects that a file has changed, the Mirror will store a copy of the file at
the Mirror Group.
When you have a Mirror Group that consists of more than one device/location,
you can choose to correlate the mirror storage devices to a corresponding
Backup Storage device/location; which is referred to as an Interlocked
Mirror. Or, you can choose to use the Mirror in Ad-hoc mode, in
which the mirroring process will replicate the files from any of the Backup
Storage drives to any of the mirror drives based on available free space.