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How to Use External or Mapped Network Drives with CSSB

  • This article is for Windows only

External drives and network mapped drives can be used with Carbonite Safe Server Backup (CSSB) for storage of backup data. CSSB can also perform backups of data on an external or network mapped drive.

External Hard Drives

External drives can be used in exactly the same manner as internal drives. However, please note that CSSB expects a static, unchanging storage location. You should not remove or exchange external drives that CSSB is using for storage.

Mapped Drives and other Network Storage

Most CSSB functions are performed by the amandabackup / CarboniteUser user. Backups of data on mapped drives are no different. The amandabackup / CarboniteUser must exist on the system housing the data, and it should have sufficient permissions to access the mapped drive remotely.

Please see What is the amandabackup / CarboniteUser user for more details about amandabackup / CarboniteUser.

In order to use a network drive with Carbonite Safe Server Backup, you must create amandabackup / CarboniteUser on the remote network machine and map the network drive to the local computer. Please refer to the sections below for more information.

The sections below are collapsed. Please click the section title to open / close a particular section.

Create amandabackup / CarboniteUser on The Remote Network Machine

To begin, please be sure to there is an amandabackup / CarboniteUser on the remote device. The process for doing so will vary depending on whether or not the device is part of a Windows Domain. If the remote machine is a NAS device, please refer to our How to Use a NAS device with CSSB Knowledge Base article.

If your machine is part of a Windows Domain

By default, the amandabackup / CarboniteUser account will be created as a domain user during the CSSB installation process. CSSB will attempt to use this account for access to the network location. While backing up to a network location, you can specify a different user with the Network Location option in the Tools menu.

To access network shares in a domain, the user account (be it amandabackup, CarboniteUser, or an account of your own choosing) must be a domain user. In most domains, no further setup is required. If your machine is added to a domain after CSSB has been installed or you opted to create a local amandabackup, CarboniteUser user during setup, you can Make amandabackup / CarboniteUser a Domain User

However, if backups fail with access denied errors, please ensure that the user account has access to the data.

If your machine is not part of a Windows Domain

By default, CSSB will create and use a local amandabackup / CarboniteUser user for access to the mapped drive. While backing up to a network location, you can specify a different user with the Network Location option in the Tools menu.

You will need to manually create an identical user on the remote system housing your data. This user must also use the exact same password as the account on your local system where CSSB is installed.

  • As an example, if you are using the default CarboniteUser account, then you must create a CarboniteUser account on the remote machine if it does not exist.

Once an identical user has been created on the remote system, give the account Aadministrator permissions. This will help to ensure it has the ability to access files on the remote system.

How to Map the Network Drive

Map the drive on the CSSB machine with the credentials of amandabackup / CarboniteUser user:

  1. On your desktop, right-click My Computer (or Computer) and then click Map Network Drive.
  2. When the Map Network Drive window appears, enter \<IP address>\<folder name> in the Folder field. Also choose a drive letter.
  3. Provide the credentials of amandabackup / CarboniteUser user.
  4. Click Finish to complete the process.
  5. Double-click on My Computer (or Computer). The drive you mapped will be shown.
Limitations for Backups of Data Stored on Mapped Network Drives

Carbonite Safe Server Backup uses the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshots to perform backups of locked, in-use, and system files. VSS snapshots can only be extended to SMB3 network shares. For all other network shares, backup of open, locked, and in use-files will fail. A warning will appear on the CSSB Report page if any files are skipped during the backup.

An exact listing of skipped files will be in the [CSSB Install Directory]\Debug\BackupErrors*.txt file.

Note: If you are attempting a File System backup, CSSB will attempt to copy the files even if a snapshot cannot be created. Open, locked, and in-use files will fail to back up, but the backup as a whole will progress unless too many files cannot be backed up. Please refer to this Knowledge Base article for more details.

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