We Got Served

Back in January at the CES 2008 when Microsoft first showed off the Power Pack 1 among the mentioned features was the ability to backup the backup database (wow, this sounds weird…). This was later cut from the product and is therefore not available in the release version of PP1 that is being pushed out to users via Automatic Updates starting from today.

While it might show up again in later updates to Windows Home Server this leaves one scenario for WHS “un-backed up”. While you can make sure the data in your shared folders stays safe and available by enabling duplication and creating an off-site backup using the new server backup functionality of PP1, your Client PC backups are lost if the server hard drive that contains the files crashes. So in the rare case that your server and your client PC hit a case of severe data loss at the same time you are out of luck…

Alex Kuretz, who has already created the handy Remote Notification add-in for Windows Home Server, has released a public beta of new Add-In called Windows Home Server Backup Database-Backup (even weirder) with the official abbreviation WHS BDBB (the weirderest??? ;-)). As you have guessed from its name it allows the user to backup the WHS backup database which stores all your client PC backups. It is basically an automation of the steps outlined in the official WHS Backup documentation to create a copy of your backup database that can be restored to the server. In addition to that it also allows you to enable duplication of the WHS backups and the backup created by BDBB itself.

One thing to keep in mind is that creating and restoring a backup can potentially take a VERY LONG TIME as you might be copying hundreds of gigabytes depending on your setup. During this time the the server will be under a high load which results in decreased performance for streaming, slow Console response and similar.

Download: Windows Home Server Backup Database-Backup 1.0.0.4 Beta