SureSync for the Home Network

Customers always seem to find it surprising that, as the VP of Marketing and Sales, I actually know how to use our product. Perhaps the surprise is due to the fact that many marketers don’t actually have an opportunity to use their products in their home computing environment. With SureSync, this just isn’t the case.
There are a growing number of us who use SureSync on our home networks to maintain files between our desktop and laptop or even backup files to an external hard drive.
Recently I have acquired a new desktop to replace my slow and old desktop at home. My new acquisition prompted me to reevaluate how I use SureSync on my home network. In the past I have mostly used SureSync to copy files, on a scheduled basis; from the old desktop to a secondary hard drive in case my primary fails. However as I now have the old desktop retiring, the new desktop, and a laptop; I wanted SureSync to simplify my life and my storage management issues.

The Issues
I have, for many years, used SureSync to copy files to a secondary disk storage. However, as I have increasingly begun using the laptop on our wireless network at home and now have three PC’s accessing my network, some issues have come up.

Issue #1:  I only backed up file copies on the laptop when I connected an external hard drive to it and then launched a manual task. Even though I tend to keep files with personal financial info away from my laptop’s storage, there are still files I work with on the laptop that I would like backed up.

Issue #2: Wireless networking is a fantastic convenience. It means I don’t have to sit in the home office at the desktop for every computing task. In fact, more and more I have been ripping my music CD’s and loading pictures from my digital camera directly onto the laptop, meaning they weren’t on my desktop nor were they backed up to the external hard drive.

Issue #3: Using my old scheduled method of backing up files to a secondary disk storage didn’t feel safe enough. All too often I have heard a friend or family member talk about their hard drive failures and data loss. Since I was scheduling my backups, sometimes the computer wasn’t on when the schedule was due to launch, completely missing changes and additions since the last jobs ran.

The Solution in SureSync – Data Availability, Protection, and Sharing
 I decided to install SureSync on the new desktop and was going to dive in head first and start replicating. As I mentioned, it has been a while since I revisited my data management plans at home and as I started my dive I realized I might need some water in the pool….I needed a plan.

If you find yourself in this same position, I found it useful to consider the following questions:

1. What is my ultimate goal? Data Availability? Access files from multiple machines? Do I need access to these files when I’m away from the home network?  How do I divide the folders and files that I wish to maintain in more than one location? How do I handle user accounts?
2. How many machines should I consider? Which is my main computer? Are they peers? Where do I want SureSync  installed?
3. For data protection, I asked myself exactly what data do I want to protect? How often do I need to protect this data (continuously, nightly, weekly, etc)?
4. To share and maintain files between multiple machines, I considered the exact data set that I would want on the other machines. Do I need to share all files?

As a result of my considerations, I found that my ultimate goal was not only availability of my files, but also to automate the process of making the files available to use. I didn't want to rely on myself to remember to run any jobs. I also decided the new desktop would be my primary PC.  This PC would host all of household files, perform synchronization between the laptop and desktop, and perform replication to external hard drives for data protection.

Data Protection
I use SureSync to copy files from my primary PC to my primary external hard drive. This gives me a secondary copy of files should one of my primary hard drive fails.

I utilize real-time monitors for continuous monitoring and replication with SureSync’s SPIAgent Add-on. Since I am not on the home network at all times, I have setup intervals to run during times I presume someone might be working on the computers at home. For example, during the weekdays my intervals run from 5:30 PM until midnight with unlimited retries and 30 minutes between each retry. The unlimited retries is important because if I don’t have the laptop connected to the network when the job launches, SureSync will continue to retry the path until it becomes available. 

I use the “Differing Master Copy” Rule to replicate any changes I’ve made to source files to the external-HD. I like the “Differing Master Copy” Rule because if I delete a file on the source, it isn’t automatically deleted on my external hard drive, giving me an opportunity to recover a file or folder in case someone accidentally deleted one erroneously. For those that weren’t deleted by mistake, I take care of them once a month which I’ll explain in just a moment. Another reason I like the “Differing Master Copy” Rule is because it protects the destination files from being directly altered by a person. For example, if I access and update files on my external hard drive, those file changes would be replaced by the “master copy” which resides on my main PC. The only real reason to access the external hard drive is to recover files.

SureSync Tech Tip # 1 (Opens in New Window)

Another layer of protection comes in the form of a second external hard drive and some manual intervention involving me. Once a month I’ll run a job manually to copy files on my primary external hard drive to the secondary external hard drive. Before I execute the manual job, I put my real-time monitors on hold. I update the Rules from “Differing Master Copy” to the “Mirror” Rule for my data protection jobs. This allows me to clean-up any files that have been deleted from my main PC or laptop and are orphaned on the primary external hard drive. The “Mirror” Rule will delete files on the destination if they do not exist on the source.

The secondary external hard drive is then kept in the household fire safe.  This is not as good as an off-site backup, but helps me feel secure that I might actually be able to get to my files should something utterly catastrophic happen.

File Sharing – Photos, MP3 Files and More
It is not necessary for me to have all files in all places at all times. However, for those files that I do want on my laptop (such as MP3’s, family photos, or videos of the nephews & niece playing soccer), SureSync provides me a solution to ensure I have the files I want where I want them. Before I reconfigured SureSync, I would have to rip the CD to both computers or transfer the files with copy and paste or thumb drive. This wasn’t simplifying my life because I needed to actually remember to perform all of these functions.

SureSync Tech Tip #2 (Opens in New Window)

Now within SureSync, I have setup relations between the two machines and I utilize the “Exchanging Copies” Rule. I prefer the “Exchanging Copies” Rule because it does not perform deletes, but when I add a file to either the laptop or desktop, it will copy it to the other machine.  No need to worry about adding the files to the primary desktop or for that matter, making a backup copy to the external-HD.

This is one example of files I share between my laptop and desktop. I also use SureSync to synchronize the public documents folder between my computers, which in turn get replicated to the external hard drive from my primary PC. I tend to leave “critical” files off of my storage on my laptop with laptops being stolen and identity thefts constantly on the rise. Call me paranoid, but I have heard way too many horror stories.

SureSync Tech Tip #3 (Opens in New Window)

Conclusion & Comments
Now I find myself constantly checking in with my new SureSync configuration, like a new toy. I’m sure I will alter my setup several more times, but at this stage in the game I’m quite happy with my new computing environment. And the real-time monitors have allowed me to basically set-it and forget-it.

If you’ve made it this far in my article, then perhaps you’d like to share your SureSync success stories with our audience? Or perhaps you’d like to test SureSync out on your home network? If you do, email me and I’ll help get you started – Chris Pinkham, VP of Marketing & Sales.
  

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