Crashplan: ignores backup will run between specified times

[nickt]

Hi all,

I've successfully got Crashplan installed as a plugin, and it's working very nicely, which is great. My only problem is that I can't get it to work in restricted hours (I have only 1 Mbps uplink to my ISP, so I want to restrict Crashplan to run out of hours, otherwise it kills the internet for everyone).

So I've tried to apply settings that should restrict backups to certain times - easily configured, but it doesn't actually seem to work. The backup just keeps running. I've tried pausing from the GUI (which works), but when I unpause, it runs immediately. I've tried restarting the jail, but it just starts immediately as soon as the jail comes back up.

Has anyone had this problem? Any thoughts?

For reference, in the GUI, Settings -> Backup -> Backup will run, there is an option to run "between specified times" only. Very easy to set up, and I can see the settings reflected in the relevant config file in the jail (
/usr/pbi/crashplan-amd64/share/crashplan/conf/my.service.xml):

Code:

<backupRunWindow>
    <runWindow always="false" days="SMTWHFS" endTimeOfDay="07:00" startTimeOfDay="00:05"/>
</backupRunWindow>

Thanks in advance. Nick

 

[dlavigne]

Were you able to figure this out?

 

[SweetAndLow]

How does this feature actually work? Does it only check for backup's between that time or does it only upload backups? I have a a feeling it might only check for backups between that time, similar to how a cron job would work.

 

[nickt]

Hi,

I haven't figured this out, unfortunately, although I do suspect it may be some kind of time zone issue. At the times I expected uploads to be inactive they were still happening anyway. But then a couple of days later during a supposed active period, the client reported that uploading was paused until it came out of the inactive period.

However, I haven't taken the time to figure this out for sure.

Instead, I've configured the client to allow uploads to happen all the time, and have implemented a time-based QoS policy on my gateway router to limit uplink throughput from the Crashplan IP address to a very small number during the "inactive" time. This is actually a better solution - during the "inactive" time, Crashplan is still able to upload at a dribble - it doesn't seem at all bothered by the very limited bandwidth it is given. But there is no impact to the performance of my internet connection during this time. At night, the router lifts the policy, and Crashplan can "let it rip"!