Creating Initial (seed) Replication in a Small Bandwidth environment

Question

What is the best method to get the initial replication (which is the entire Device's data) over a slow connection ?

Note: a Device in CDP terms is a partition or mount point.

I want to back up a server that is connected with small bandwidth connection (Ex: 1 Mb/s). The data to be backed up is approximately 50 GB so it is recommended to create the initial seed backup using a local copy of the data. Then the changes (deltas) can be transmitted using this 1 Mb line.

Solution

There is an option to Copy and Move Disk Safes in CDP 3.x and 4.x. due to the fact that the Disk Safes are portable and can be used with any similar type of CDP Server (Enterprise, Advanced, Standard).

http://wiki.r1soft.com/display/CDP/Closing+Disk+Safes

http://wiki.r1soft.com/display/CDP/Copying+and+Moving+Disk+Safes

http://wiki.r1soft.com/display/CDP/Attaching+Disk+Safes

There are two methods that can be used to accomplish this, one has no extra costs but is a temporary solution (in cases where it is just needed at one time), the other will incur the costs of at least one Agent.

Option 1: Download the CDP Server program and install on a Windows or Linux machine and use the 30 day trial license (fully functional and comes with 100 Agents and 100 Addons). Take that machine (preferably a laptop, or use an existing machine onsite) to the site where the server is located to be replicated and get the initial seed replication in a Disk Safe. Then 'Close' that Disk Safe and copy it's entire contents intact including all sub-folders to temporary storage (USB, etc.) then copy to the location where the permanent CDP Server stores Disk Safes and 'Attach Existing Disk Safe' to the appropriate CDP Agent setup in the permanent CDP Server.

Note: Once the 30 day trial has expired you will not be able to use that OS again to install the trial version. Also if using a laptop you can cut out the step of copying the Disk Safe to some temporary storage (USB, Flash, etc.) and just take the laptop to the site where the permanent CDP Server resides.

Option 2: Same as option 1 except you purchase at least one Agent (in CDP v3 and v4 the Agents are OS generic) and use that Agent license to get the initial replication. Then follow the steps in Option 1 to Close that Disk Safe and get the contents over to where the permanent CDP Server stores Disk Safes and attach to the appropriate Agent.

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