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Monday, January 5, 2009
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Release notes
We've moved announcements regarding new releases to our wiki:
http://support.crashplanpro.com
http://support.crashplanpro.com
Thursday, July 31, 2008
CrashPlan Speed Increase Imminent
Here at Code 42 Software, a few of us have been working on speeding up our backup engine. The engine was topping out at about 15MB/second for a 2 year old MacBook PRO. While that's good enough for backing up over the Internet or even a wireless LAN, it's not fast enough for Gigabit LANs or direct attached disk.
We need speed. We need it to go to 11. We need warp 10.
It's a tricky thing, how do you accomplish the best compression in the business without slowing down too much? A happy customer wrote recently:
“CrashPlan compressed 951GB of design files into 350GB!!!! You guys rock!” ~David A.
Compression is a big deal. If you take David's example, before compression it would take 288 days to backup over the Internet at cable modem speeds of 40KB/sec. With our data de-duplication, compression, and encryption we reduce that time to 106 days. (Which is still ridiculous, which is why CrashPlan kicks serious butt by allowing you to back up over LAN in 10 hours and bring that drive off-site to continue your backup.)
So now that we've covered all the work CrashPlan does to save bandwidth and disk space, you can imagine how hard it is to make it go faster! A few days ago, we managed to increase the backup engine speed by about 38%.
It's amazing how "Sleeping on it" can help you solve problems in creative ways.
Today we made some innovative changes and managed to crank up the backup engine up to 60MB/sec on that same modern laptop.
That's a 400% increase in speed! Oh, and we're using 30% less CPU to do it too. WOOT!!
Since most USB drives top out around 25MB / second, we should be able to easily "max out" our new local backup feature.
Some of you techies might go, "60MB/sec? *yawn* I can copy files to my NAS device faster than that!"
Remember, we're managing that speed while at the same time, compressing 951GB of design files into 350GB while at the same time encrypting them - on a laptop - without slowing you down. THAT is a bit more tricky.
All PRO users will get this speed increase as a free upgrade.
We need speed. We need it to go to 11. We need warp 10.
It's a tricky thing, how do you accomplish the best compression in the business without slowing down too much? A happy customer wrote recently:
“CrashPlan compressed 951GB of design files into 350GB!!!! You guys rock!” ~David A.
Compression is a big deal. If you take David's example, before compression it would take 288 days to backup over the Internet at cable modem speeds of 40KB/sec. With our data de-duplication, compression, and encryption we reduce that time to 106 days. (Which is still ridiculous, which is why CrashPlan kicks serious butt by allowing you to back up over LAN in 10 hours and bring that drive off-site to continue your backup.)
So now that we've covered all the work CrashPlan does to save bandwidth and disk space, you can imagine how hard it is to make it go faster! A few days ago, we managed to increase the backup engine speed by about 38%.
It's amazing how "Sleeping on it" can help you solve problems in creative ways.
Today we made some innovative changes and managed to crank up the backup engine up to 60MB/sec on that same modern laptop.
That's a 400% increase in speed! Oh, and we're using 30% less CPU to do it too. WOOT!!
Since most USB drives top out around 25MB / second, we should be able to easily "max out" our new local backup feature.
Some of you techies might go, "60MB/sec? *yawn* I can copy files to my NAS device faster than that!"
Remember, we're managing that speed while at the same time, compressing 951GB of design files into 350GB while at the same time encrypting them - on a laptop - without slowing you down. THAT is a bit more tricky.
All PRO users will get this speed increase as a free upgrade.
Monday, July 7, 2008
OS X 10.5.4 Compatibility
CrashPlan PRO Server works quite well with OS X 10.5.4. We were able to upgrade our servers without incident.javascript:void(0)
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
CrashPlan PRO Server Release 6.10.2008
Overview
The focus on this release was incremental changes to support upgrading our existing installed base. No major new features, just minor tweaks, adjustments and enhancements. Since most of you are upgrading from 3.4.2008 release, we recommend you read the 4.24 release as most of the new functionality was added then.
Private Data Password Administration
Users can now lock their 448bit key with a password that is unknown to you. This feature allows CEOs and CFOs to meet compliance needs and have data secured from all parties. This also allows you to extend backup service offering to third parties who require their data be private. As an administrator, you have control over whether this feature is available for any computer or organization. Custom installers can be created that disable this feature by default.
Additional Regex Support
You may now specify exclusion patterns using regular expressions. For example, to exclude any folder called "Podcasts" regardless of where it is located, you would specify:
• PRO Server Master Key requests now accept additional information that's not required
PRO Server
• User:Computer - several additional details about computer are now on default screen including location, version, and OS specifics
• Organization:Edit - you may now move an org to be a child of any other org at any time
• Reports:Usage - Fix for computers that are not actually using PRO Server as a destination
• Backup File Selection - generic cross platform file selection concepts are now case insensitive to keep things easy for admins. (i.e. to back up all user's desktop files you may now use ":alldesktops" in addition to ":AllDesktops"
• Server:Verify Management - The interval is now an admin setting that may be changed. Interface improved to be more intuitive / sensical
• User:Deactivate - All computers for a user now manage the deactivation independent of user deactivation
• Org:Deactivation - When deactivating orgs and users, their original names are freed up for reuse
• Deactivation - For installations with more than 3,000 computers, we've sped up the deactivation speed considerably. Should now be sub second.
• Manager Account - You may now promote a read only manager to see all organizations in a PRO Server, not just a child one and their respective children
• Archive Validation - Added some additional healing technology around bad archives to help avoid having to completely start over
PRO Client Desktop
• Settings:Security - When activating private data password, we warning you an extra time to not lose your password
• Settings:Network - Public and Private IP addresses have more user friendly display
• Settings:Advanced:Time - Small display issue where you can't change the time without touching the day - fixed!
• Backup:File Selection - Click folder in list now shows file in finder
• Backup:File Selection - It was possible to change file selection and avoid a rescan. Not critical, but annoying as heck. This has been fixed
• Backup:Source - Performance enhancements to reduce CPU usage when displaying statistics
• Backup:Destination - Fixed display bug in the detailed destination screen where it could falsely say backup was incomplete when in fact, it was.
• Backup:Destination - shows detailed information about the status of the destination
• Backup:Destination - If the destination's USB drive was detached, but you were 100% backed up, you wouldn't know the destination was in fact, not ready. This has been fixed. Error messages have priority over backup complete messages in display
• Backup:Archive Location - Fixed bug that could prevent you from relocating a backup archive
• Restore - Settings no longer revert to default if you are switching panes
• Restore:Original Location - User Interface could look very broken when restoring to original location - fixed
• Language - CrashPlan now speaks German!
PRO Client Backup Engine
• Archive - Improved exclusion of CrashPlan archives from backup regardless of location
• Archive - Enhanced the way we store data blocks during backup and restore. This will allow us to more easily add features down the road. Also added some additional information to help in disaster recovery.
• Restore - When restoring to another volume, that volume is used as the temporary holding point as data is received to avoid copying the file later. This speeds things up if you're restoring directly to a USB disk.
• Synchronization - Better handling of timeouts in high latency environments
• Installation:automation - When installing in an automated push fashion with SMS or puppet, the service now waits for user login if that is required for setup.
PRO Client Installer
• Default.xml - We no longer default (guess) their first and last name based on e-mail address
• Default.xml - Defaulting to user name when being pushed out via SMS could result in not grabbing username correctly - fixed.
• New accounts - These no longer need to be e-mail addresses. All that is required is that they be unique
Windows
• Installer - Fixed PRO Server installer to not let service stop when logging out of windows server
• Fixed situation where system tray status would not know name of computer during restore job
• Installer now configures windows firewall correctly for CrashPlan
• Installer - End user license agreement in english unless translation is available
• pagefile.sys is now explicitly prevented from being backed up
Linux
• Changed default install location
• Folder shortcuts in restore panel now work
• Spacing adjusted on new account screen
• Many Installer improvements
• Upgrades - upgrade script enhanced to better support user based installs
• /mnt is no longer excluded from selection list
Mac OS X
• Many changes to support running engine as a user instead of system user to support file vault
• We now use smarter locations for various supporting folders (i.e. the log folder is now where it should be, not buried in the CrashPlan.app). Requires a new installation to take effect.
• CrashPlan Desktop - File Selection - Click folder in list now shows file in finder
• Installer:File Locations - logs now go in logs, cache files in caches, etc
The focus on this release was incremental changes to support upgrading our existing installed base. No major new features, just minor tweaks, adjustments and enhancements. Since most of you are upgrading from 3.4.2008 release, we recommend you read the 4.24 release as most of the new functionality was added then.
Private Data Password Administration
Users can now lock their 448bit key with a password that is unknown to you. This feature allows CEOs and CFOs to meet compliance needs and have data secured from all parties. This also allows you to extend backup service offering to third parties who require their data be private. As an administrator, you have control over whether this feature is available for any computer or organization. Custom installers can be created that disable this feature by default.
Additional Regex Support
You may now specify exclusion patterns using regular expressions. For example, to exclude any folder called "Podcasts" regardless of where it is located, you would specify:
.*/Podcasts/.*To exclude a movies and audio, one could do something like this:
(?i).+\.(?:avi|divx|m4p|mp3|m4v)$Website Changes
• PRO Server Master Key requests now accept additional information that's not required
PRO Server
• User:Computer - several additional details about computer are now on default screen including location, version, and OS specifics
• Organization:Edit - you may now move an org to be a child of any other org at any time
• Reports:Usage - Fix for computers that are not actually using PRO Server as a destination
• Backup File Selection - generic cross platform file selection concepts are now case insensitive to keep things easy for admins. (i.e. to back up all user's desktop files you may now use ":alldesktops" in addition to ":AllDesktops"
• Server:Verify Management - The interval is now an admin setting that may be changed. Interface improved to be more intuitive / sensical
• User:Deactivate - All computers for a user now manage the deactivation independent of user deactivation
• Org:Deactivation - When deactivating orgs and users, their original names are freed up for reuse
• Deactivation - For installations with more than 3,000 computers, we've sped up the deactivation speed considerably. Should now be sub second.
• Manager Account - You may now promote a read only manager to see all organizations in a PRO Server, not just a child one and their respective children
• Archive Validation - Added some additional healing technology around bad archives to help avoid having to completely start over
PRO Client Desktop
• Settings:Security - When activating private data password, we warning you an extra time to not lose your password
• Settings:Network - Public and Private IP addresses have more user friendly display
• Settings:Advanced:Time - Small display issue where you can't change the time without touching the day - fixed!
• Backup:File Selection - Click folder in list now shows file in finder
• Backup:File Selection - It was possible to change file selection and avoid a rescan. Not critical, but annoying as heck. This has been fixed
• Backup:Source - Performance enhancements to reduce CPU usage when displaying statistics
• Backup:Destination - Fixed display bug in the detailed destination screen where it could falsely say backup was incomplete when in fact, it was.
• Backup:Destination - shows detailed information about the status of the destination
• Backup:Destination - If the destination's USB drive was detached, but you were 100% backed up, you wouldn't know the destination was in fact, not ready. This has been fixed. Error messages have priority over backup complete messages in display
• Backup:Archive Location - Fixed bug that could prevent you from relocating a backup archive
• Restore - Settings no longer revert to default if you are switching panes
• Restore:Original Location - User Interface could look very broken when restoring to original location - fixed
• Language - CrashPlan now speaks German!
PRO Client Backup Engine
• Archive - Improved exclusion of CrashPlan archives from backup regardless of location
• Archive - Enhanced the way we store data blocks during backup and restore. This will allow us to more easily add features down the road. Also added some additional information to help in disaster recovery.
• Restore - When restoring to another volume, that volume is used as the temporary holding point as data is received to avoid copying the file later. This speeds things up if you're restoring directly to a USB disk.
• Synchronization - Better handling of timeouts in high latency environments
• Installation:automation - When installing in an automated push fashion with SMS or puppet, the service now waits for user login if that is required for setup.
PRO Client Installer
• Default.xml - We no longer default (guess) their first and last name based on e-mail address
• Default.xml - Defaulting to user name when being pushed out via SMS could result in not grabbing username correctly - fixed.
• New accounts - These no longer need to be e-mail addresses. All that is required is that they be unique
Windows
• Installer - Fixed PRO Server installer to not let service stop when logging out of windows server
• Fixed situation where system tray status would not know name of computer during restore job
• Installer now configures windows firewall correctly for CrashPlan
• Installer - End user license agreement in english unless translation is available
• pagefile.sys is now explicitly prevented from being backed up
Linux
• Changed default install location
• Folder shortcuts in restore panel now work
• Spacing adjusted on new account screen
• Many Installer improvements
• Upgrades - upgrade script enhanced to better support user based installs
• /mnt is no longer excluded from selection list
Mac OS X
• Many changes to support running engine as a user instead of system user to support file vault
• We now use smarter locations for various supporting folders (i.e. the log folder is now where it should be, not buried in the CrashPlan.app). Requires a new installation to take effect.
• CrashPlan Desktop - File Selection - Click folder in list now shows file in finder
• Installer:File Locations - logs now go in logs, cache files in caches, etc
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
CrashPlan PRO Server Release 4.24.2008
Overview
Arriving only 7 weeks after our previous release, it's a significant step forward for PRO Server. We've added new OS support, several key enterprise features, and numerous nice to haves including:
• Run PRO Server natively on Linux (Any modern distro on intel) or Windows (2000, XP, and Vista). This brings PRO Server to 4 distinct platforms. If you're looking for another platform, let us know!
• PRO Clients can act as backup destinations for other PRO Clients in addition to PRO Server. This means you can collect data on-site and move it off-site to your PRO Server. It also means you can keep both destinations active and in sync 24x7 providing redundant backups.
• Detailed mount point management screen - easily see who is using a mount point. You may also take a mount point off line for maintenance.
• PRO Clients can back up to multiple destinations. You can easily set up default destinations for any organization or do broad sweeping destination changes for existing client installs.
• Full regular expression support for backup file paths, backup file excludes, and file suffix exclusion
• 448 bit encryption keys used for data may be locked with a private password by the end user if sysadmin allows it. (E.g. HIPAA clients may now privately secure their data in such a way as to prevent the PRO Server admin from seeing it)
PRO Server Changes
• Account password security upgrades - passwords are hashed using SHA-1 and salted at PRO Client before being sent to PRO Server. There is never a time PRO Server knows a user's password.
• Account names are now unique now across all organizational groups. We did this to help avoid confusion for sys admins. Existing accounts that violate this rule will be renamed to avoid conflict during upgrades
• Password recover reworked to support new hashing scheme and new features
• Server:Mount Point - You can now disable a mount point. This is handy if you need to perform system maintenance and want the server to continue servicing clients on other mount points.
• Server:Restore - Fixed a timing issue for older servers and restoring large archives that could cause manifest to appear not ready
PRO Server Monitor
• Only one instance of our monitor UI is allowed to run at a time
PRO Client Backup Engine
• Backup:Destination - When a new destination is selected, it is now run through a battery of tests before allowing backup data to be stored there
• Backup:Excludes - Improved regex patterns to better exclude CrashPlan files
• Restore:Files - When restoring to another volume, that volume is used as the temporary holding point as data is received to avoid copying the file later
• Networking - Clients now automatically try 4282 and 443 when trying to reach an authority if no port is specified
• Backup:Process - Identified rare stalling point that was non-fatal but could affect performance, a few computers may notice increased speed while backing up
• Backup:Archive Format - Enhanced the way we store data blocks during backup and restore. This will allow us to more easily add features down the road. Also added some additional information to help in disaster recovery.
• Backup:Archive - Better recovery from archives that have been severely damaged
• Backup:Compression - If for some reason compression fails to truly compress data, throw away results and store data in original state to avoid decompression on restore
PRO Client Desktop
• Settings:Advanced- You may now use regular expressions to define excludes
• Settings:Advanced - You can now specify how often to verify incoming backups from other clients
• Settings:Network - You can now disable incoming backup listener on a client in settings/network
• Settings:General - No practical limits on retention policies. You can now retain from 1 day to 90 years or if you prefer, forever.
• Login - More descriptive login failure messages to help users who forget their password
• Backup:Source - you may now manage various aspects of an incoming backup to a PRO Client by selecting the computer name in the incoming backup portlet
• Backup:Destination - shows detailed information about the status of the destination
• Backup:Selection - Fixed minor display issue with backup file selection
• Restore - It is now easier to restore to original location
• Restore - Duplicate directories removed when browsing
• Restore - One the job is complete, you can now jump directory to where it was restored using our link
• Restore - Fixed an ambiguous date / time message in restore panel to clear up possible confusion
• History - License limit exceeded is now logged in client history
PRO Server Web Admin
• User:Computer - Computers may be renamed. New names are pushed out to clients in real time.
• Servers:Logs - Now remembers line count preference between sessions
• Servers:Mount Point - New submenu with various features to help manage mount points
• Home - Active computers connected stats are displayed for those organizations you have management over
• Computer:Destinations - Removed a false warning when adding destinations
• Computer:Restore - Fixed situation where files at / not displaying correctly
• Computer:Excludes - You may now edit admin excludes for a computer
• Organizations - Address info now optional and hidden by default
• Organizations:Show all Users - New feature to view all users across all organizations
• Organizations:Email Backup Report - Currently connected computers now display "connected" for the last connect date.
• Organizations:Default Destinations - Easily add new destinations for new computers or existing ones
• Org:Backup Report - Reports are now sent even when there are no computers
• Org:Users - e-mail links are no longer includes in text decoration for alert status. This means you can see if you've been to a specific user via browser history
• Org:Users - display bug related to pagination fixed
• Computer:Settings - Numerous new remote settings in support of new features. Regular expressions, system excludes, cpu utilization, etc. Also fixed away and present bandwidth settings - they were swapped.
• Passwords - Fixed rare situation where passwords would fail to reset correctly
• Email Accounts - Accounts are now allowed to have "+" in their e-mail address. (i.e. gmail)
PRO Server Alerts
• Low disk alerts now include name of mount point and free space in the e-mail for better "field support" via pagers.
PRO Client Installer
• New installer policy added which allows sysadmin to disable private key encryption for those situations where corporate policy is ownership of all data
• When using automated installers, $USERNAME now uses logged in username instead of installer username
• Better notification of version conflicts & upgrade messages to help support end users
Windows
• New native version for Windows! Runs on 2000, XP and vista. Includes nice PRO Server monitor dashboard as well
• Fixed situation where system tray status would not know name of computer during restore job
Linux
• Folder shortcuts in restore panel now work
• Spacing adjusted on new account screen
• Many Installer improvements
• Installer now fetches from our new download server
Mac OS X
• Folder locations for PRO Client are more in keeping with Mac standards
• Filevault support under 10.5 (Install as user instead of admin)
Arriving only 7 weeks after our previous release, it's a significant step forward for PRO Server. We've added new OS support, several key enterprise features, and numerous nice to haves including:
• Run PRO Server natively on Linux (Any modern distro on intel) or Windows (2000, XP, and Vista). This brings PRO Server to 4 distinct platforms. If you're looking for another platform, let us know!
• PRO Clients can act as backup destinations for other PRO Clients in addition to PRO Server. This means you can collect data on-site and move it off-site to your PRO Server. It also means you can keep both destinations active and in sync 24x7 providing redundant backups.
• Detailed mount point management screen - easily see who is using a mount point. You may also take a mount point off line for maintenance.
• PRO Clients can back up to multiple destinations. You can easily set up default destinations for any organization or do broad sweeping destination changes for existing client installs.
• Full regular expression support for backup file paths, backup file excludes, and file suffix exclusion
• 448 bit encryption keys used for data may be locked with a private password by the end user if sysadmin allows it. (E.g. HIPAA clients may now privately secure their data in such a way as to prevent the PRO Server admin from seeing it)
PRO Server Changes
• Account password security upgrades - passwords are hashed using SHA-1 and salted at PRO Client before being sent to PRO Server. There is never a time PRO Server knows a user's password.
• Account names are now unique now across all organizational groups. We did this to help avoid confusion for sys admins. Existing accounts that violate this rule will be renamed to avoid conflict during upgrades
• Password recover reworked to support new hashing scheme and new features
• Server:Mount Point - You can now disable a mount point. This is handy if you need to perform system maintenance and want the server to continue servicing clients on other mount points.
• Server:Restore - Fixed a timing issue for older servers and restoring large archives that could cause manifest to appear not ready
PRO Server Monitor
• Only one instance of our monitor UI is allowed to run at a time
PRO Client Backup Engine
• Backup:Destination - When a new destination is selected, it is now run through a battery of tests before allowing backup data to be stored there
• Backup:Excludes - Improved regex patterns to better exclude CrashPlan files
• Restore:Files - When restoring to another volume, that volume is used as the temporary holding point as data is received to avoid copying the file later
• Networking - Clients now automatically try 4282 and 443 when trying to reach an authority if no port is specified
• Backup:Process - Identified rare stalling point that was non-fatal but could affect performance, a few computers may notice increased speed while backing up
• Backup:Archive Format - Enhanced the way we store data blocks during backup and restore. This will allow us to more easily add features down the road. Also added some additional information to help in disaster recovery.
• Backup:Archive - Better recovery from archives that have been severely damaged
• Backup:Compression - If for some reason compression fails to truly compress data, throw away results and store data in original state to avoid decompression on restore
PRO Client Desktop
• Settings:Advanced- You may now use regular expressions to define excludes
• Settings:Advanced - You can now specify how often to verify incoming backups from other clients
• Settings:Network - You can now disable incoming backup listener on a client in settings/network
• Settings:General - No practical limits on retention policies. You can now retain from 1 day to 90 years or if you prefer, forever.
• Login - More descriptive login failure messages to help users who forget their password
• Backup:Source - you may now manage various aspects of an incoming backup to a PRO Client by selecting the computer name in the incoming backup portlet
• Backup:Destination - shows detailed information about the status of the destination
• Backup:Selection - Fixed minor display issue with backup file selection
• Restore - It is now easier to restore to original location
• Restore - Duplicate directories removed when browsing
• Restore - One the job is complete, you can now jump directory to where it was restored using our link
• Restore - Fixed an ambiguous date / time message in restore panel to clear up possible confusion
• History - License limit exceeded is now logged in client history
PRO Server Web Admin
• User:Computer - Computers may be renamed. New names are pushed out to clients in real time.
• Servers:Logs - Now remembers line count preference between sessions
• Servers:Mount Point - New submenu with various features to help manage mount points
• Home - Active computers connected stats are displayed for those organizations you have management over
• Computer:Destinations - Removed a false warning when adding destinations
• Computer:Restore - Fixed situation where files at / not displaying correctly
• Computer:Excludes - You may now edit admin excludes for a computer
• Organizations - Address info now optional and hidden by default
• Organizations:Show all Users - New feature to view all users across all organizations
• Organizations:Email Backup Report - Currently connected computers now display "connected" for the last connect date.
• Organizations:Default Destinations - Easily add new destinations for new computers or existing ones
• Org:Backup Report - Reports are now sent even when there are no computers
• Org:Users - e-mail links are no longer includes in text decoration for alert status. This means you can see if you've been to a specific user via browser history
• Org:Users - display bug related to pagination fixed
• Computer:Settings - Numerous new remote settings in support of new features. Regular expressions, system excludes, cpu utilization, etc. Also fixed away and present bandwidth settings - they were swapped.
• Passwords - Fixed rare situation where passwords would fail to reset correctly
• Email Accounts - Accounts are now allowed to have "+" in their e-mail address. (i.e. gmail)
PRO Server Alerts
• Low disk alerts now include name of mount point and free space in the e-mail for better "field support" via pagers.
PRO Client Installer
• New installer policy added which allows sysadmin to disable private key encryption for those situations where corporate policy is ownership of all data
• When using automated installers, $USERNAME now uses logged in username instead of installer username
• Better notification of version conflicts & upgrade messages to help support end users
Windows
• New native version for Windows! Runs on 2000, XP and vista. Includes nice PRO Server monitor dashboard as well
• Fixed situation where system tray status would not know name of computer during restore job
Linux
• Folder shortcuts in restore panel now work
• Spacing adjusted on new account screen
• Many Installer improvements
• Installer now fetches from our new download server
Mac OS X
• Folder locations for PRO Client are more in keeping with Mac standards
• Filevault support under 10.5 (Install as user instead of admin)
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