DFS Replication with Dropbox

[JessC]

Hi guys, 

We were planning to add 1 more server for fault tolerance. Currently we only have one server operating and all our files are sync to dropbox.

Upon adding the second server we will do dfs replication to sync our files in case 1 server dies. 

 

Is it possible to point the dropbox in to the dfs replication to sync files in server 2 if server 1 dies, or is it possible to link dropbox to server 2 while being linked to server 1.

[TrigrH]

Wouldn't hotswappable drives be a more convenient and cost effective solution? (given that the data is already in raid)

[Mikensan]

8 hours ago, JessC said:

Hi guys, 

We were planning to add 1 more server for fault tolerance. Currently we only have one server operating and all our files are sync to dropbox.

Upon adding the second server we will do dfs replication to sync our files in case 1 server dies. 

 

Is it possible to point the dropbox in to the dfs replication to sync files in server 2 if server 1 dies, or is it possible to link dropbox to server 2 while being linked to server 1.

 

So if server A has dropbox point to the DFS and syncing, Server B will pull from DFS and always have a live copy. Should server A die, you'll have the most up to date copy at the time of death, on Server B.

 

If at that point you want to sync it with dropbox then I would. Otherwise having dropbox syncing the same folder on two different servers may cause some weird issues - there's no real need. Just setup dropbox on Server B when the time comes.

               

[dalekphalm]

10 hours ago, TrigrH said:

Wouldn't hotswappable drives be a more convenient and cost effective solution? (given that the data is already in raid)

Uhm... no.

 

In an enterprise environment, uptime is usually the most important factor. If a server dies, the HDD's inside might be totally fine. HDD's are one of many things that can fail.

 

Having a replication server with DFS means that you've got a live - on the fly - mirror of all your files, and should one server go down (for any reason), the end user won't even notice the outage.

[Acedia]

Why bother with dropbox if you got DFS? 

[dalekphalm]

6 minutes ago, Acedia said:

Why bother with dropbox if you got DFS? 

Off-site backup, I'd assume. Cheaper than hosting a third server for DFS in a datacentre.

[Falconevo]

Technically possible, although DFS replication will need a staging folder sufficient enough to cope with the largest potential file(s) to be copied.

 

Personally I wouldn't use DFS for this and I use DFS replication a lot, I would likely use a storage replica and go block level replication rather than file level replication.  Take in to account that the VSS/shadow and staging usage of DFS can be quite harsh to the system IO under large changes to content within the DFS replicated folder(s).  If the Dropbox changes a lot then DFS might not be favourable.   All depends on data set size and amount of file change inside the DropBox account.

[TrigrH]

3 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Uhm... no.

 

In an enterprise environment, uptime is usually the most important factor. If a server dies, the HDD's inside might be totally fine. HDD's are one of many things that can fail.

 

Having a replication server with DFS means that you've got a live - on the fly - mirror of all your files, and should one server go down (for any reason), the end user won't even notice the outage.

Thats kinda what I was saying, assuming the backup server is in the same location, just hotswap the drives over and boot the new server?

[JessC]

3 hours ago, Acedia said:

Why bother with dropbox if you got DFS? 

Because, we also have employees that accessing the files using dropbox. Mostly used by team leaders that are offsite. 

 

Our setup is like,

Team members work files are saved to our server then team leaders check their work from dropbox.

[dalekphalm]

3 hours ago, JessC said:

Because, we also have employees that accessing the files using dropbox. Mostly used by team leaders that are offsite. 

 

Our setup is like,

Team members work files are saved to our server then team leaders check their work from dropbox.

You could do a number of things to replace Dropbox.

 

The obvious solution is to setup a VPN Server (if you have enterprise networking gear, your router/firewall might already support hosting a VPN server). That way, the Team Leaders can check the work as if they were in the office (I'm assuming they're checking the work from home?).

 

Another solution would be something like OwnCloud/NextCloud (NextCloud has a fully free open source version) - similar concept to DropBox, except the files are entirely hosted by your own server. But, frankly, a VPN Server would still be better, in my opinion.

[Acedia]

10 hours ago, JessC said:

Because, we also have employees that accessing the files using dropbox. Mostly used by team leaders that are offsite. 

 

Our setup is like,

Team members work files are saved to our server then team leaders check their work from dropbox.

Set up DirectAccess or VPN.

[Mikensan]

I assume you're paying for dropbox since their free tier is rather small. Compare pricing to S3 (not that bad for warm storage) which offers the ability to just create shares which would play nicer.

 

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2018/06/aws-storage-gateway-adds-smb-support-to-store-objects-in-amazon-s3/