Network storage drive that will sync with AD share?

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joblo37pam

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I've got a unique request from a client. They have a SBS08 network covering three locations, and everything is working fine. They are accountants, however, and need to go on-site to a client's office once in a while to perform audits that can take a couple days. They rarely have internet access for these audits, but use a small wireless router to connect their laptops to share files between their machines. It works ok, but they have to manually copy files from the server to their machines before they leave and back to the server when they return. To compound the problem, some of their files have links that break whenever the paths change, so if they create them in the office, they break when they go offsite, and vice-versa.

Now, none of these problems are huge issues, but they are inconveniences and take time to sort out each time they go offsite. I would like to find some sort of network connected external hard drive that could automatically sync to a share on the SBS box when it is onsite, and still be functional when it is offsite with no connection to the SBS network. Does anyone have any experience with a product that would do this? I know I could set up a SFF atom box with FreeNAS or similar, but I'd prefer something smaller and simpler if possible. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.
 
I bought a 2 tb one for 199$ but thats a bit large. You could always buy a router with a usb port in it and get a 120gig usb drive to stick into it. ???
 
dashpuppy said:
I bought a 2 tb one for 199$ but thats a bit large. You could always buy a router with a usb port in it and get a 120gig usb drive to stick into it. ???
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The important part isn't the size, it's the ability to sync with an AD share when onsite. Otherwise, any network attached drive would work.
 
While I do not know for sure, I would say no. I dont think such a product exists. You will have to go custom. I personally would buy something like a qnap that has a veriant of unix on it and create a custom python script (or whatever language of your choice) to do the location logic and then call a sync tool and just have it run as a cron job every x minutes / hours. Or if you dont want to go with the more expensive nas setup, create a script on your server or a third machine that will sync the two locations (if they both exist) every x minutes.
 
set the folder to be available offline on the laptops?
 
j-sta said:
set the folder to be available offline on the laptops?
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Offline files can't be shared when offsite as far as I know. If it was just one user, that would work fine, but we're talking about a team of 3-4 people that need shared access to the files both when onsite and offsite.
 
just make a VPN tunnel for them when offsite. that way it would be like they were still sitting at their desk in the office. your directory wouldnt know the difference.
 
ghost6303 said:
just make a VPN tunnel for them when offsite. that way it would be like they were still sitting at their desk in the office. your directory wouldnt know the difference.
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That would be fine if they had internet access when offsite. Most of the time they don't or have poor enough bandwidth that moving large files back and forth would take too long to be practical
 
joblo37pam said:
Offline files can't be shared when offsite as far as I know. If it was just one user, that would work fine, but we're talking about a team of 3-4 people that need shared access to the files both when onsite and offsite.
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good point...

best I could suggest, as was previously suggested, is get a wireless router with a USB port that can share an external USB harddrive.
 
j-sta said:
good point...

best I could suggest, as was previously suggested, is get a wireless router with a USB port that can share an external USB harddrive.
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thats my quote LOL!


Buy a nas unit, those are cheap too.! I just bought a 2tb one for 199$ i'm sure you can find a cheaper smaller one.

OR a usb pocket drive such as a western digital & a usb router!



BTW, what is AD ?
 
joblo37pam said:
That would be fine if they had internet access when offsite. Most of the time they don't or have poor enough bandwidth that moving large files back and forth would take too long to be practical
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im not sure what your question is, then. a 'network storage drive' that would be on the network would be useless if you dont have a network connection to begin with. you are just trying to sync local files (on a laptop for isntance) with files in an active directory on your server?

the only way to do this would be to change how you use your AD- simply have your employees work from their local computers and use AD as a backup-only type drive. say you have an AD drive mapped as G: on the local computer, and you make a link of G:\somefile.txt, then go offsite. there would be no (easy) way to have a portable drive assume the letter G: while you are offsite, and the AD drive G: be automatically switch over when back in the office. they would have to be different drive letters, which would automatically break any links to a specific drive letter.
 
ghost6303 said:
im not sure what your question is, then. a 'network storage drive' that would be on the network would be useless if you dont have a network connection to begin with.
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if you re-read the OP, they would have a network connection since the users take a wireless router with them to the client's location.
 
ghost6303 said:
im not sure what your question is, then. a 'network storage drive' that would be on the network would be useless if you dont have a network connection to begin with. you are just trying to sync local files (on a laptop for isntance) with files in an active directory on your server?

the only way to do this would be to change how you use your AD- simply have your employees work from their local computers and use AD as a backup-only type drive. say you have an AD drive mapped as G: on the local computer, and you make a link of G:\somefile.txt, then go offsite. there would be no (easy) way to have a portable drive assume the letter G: while you are offsite, and the AD drive G: be automatically switch over when back in the office. they would have to be different drive letters, which would automatically break any links to a specific drive letter.
Click to expand...


As stated in the OP, they use a cheap router to 'network' the machines when they are offsite, they just don't have a WAN connection. A small NAS would theoretically work, as it could maintain the same drive letter/IP both onsite and offsite, but I need to be able to sync it to the onsite server so that it is at least backed up. I can probably script something to copy everything over on a schedule, but if it could be a real-time sync/replication, that would be best.
 
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