One month down in 2025: How are your resolutions coming along? Check out how to get back on track here.
dropbox backup
10 TopicsMassive Data Upload and Sync Process - 20TB
Hi everyone, I am writing here to explain the process of our most recent data upload of 20TB to Dropbox via a 2019 Mac Pro connected to a 10Gbps Fiber line. The goal is to help those understand some of the issues we experienced as well as setting expectations to those who plan on uploading massive amounts of data at once. Below are the steps: Procure a 10Gb fiber PCIe card for the 2019 Mac Pro - Solo10G SFP+ 10GbE PCIe Card with SFP+ Module - after working closely with our Apple business rep, we found the this card which would work for our requirements. Yes, the 2019 Mac Pro has 10Gb ethernet ports, but we only had Fiber lines in our setup, not Ethernet. Not to mention adapters usually have 1Gb limits so this was not an acceptable solution either. We wanted to experience max speeds so we opted for a dedicated 10GbE fiber card. Speed Tests - we conducted speed tests after card installation and confirmed the speeds were around 4.5Gbps to 5Gbps upload and download. We could not figure out if the 50% falloff was on the 2019 Mac Pro side or on the ISP side. Still however, 5Gbps is no joke so we continued onward. (PS: We could not conduct speed tests via the Speedtest.net when on 4GB+ fiber. We had to download software to the PC/Mac to get true internet speeds.) Upload - We already had 20TB on the Dropbox Folder moved and was paused & ready to sync. We simply turned the computer on, ensured it had a good connection, and then turned Sync on via the Dropbox for Mac application. Thats it. The data automatically began to upload just as it would any other sync. Realized Speeds - Even with the 4.5 to 5Gbps up|down speeds, we only saw between 600Mbps to 900Mbps being uploaded to the Dropbox cloud. We hoped to see at least 2Gbps or 3Gbps being sent to Dropbox but this was not the case unfortunately. Still however, the ~750Mbps speed was enough to upload the 20TB in about three days which we were ok with. Note: At the beginning of the sync, the speeds were extremely slow which we contributed to the initial file indexing. About 3 hours in to the main sync is when the speeds started to get to their highest levels. Also, we checked our ISP speeds twice per day and at its LOWEST point we saw internet speeds of 3.5Gbps. Online-Only (Spoiler Warning - massive bottleneck!) - After about 70 hours of upload time, the full 20TB was on the cloud. Our Dropbox account confirmed the newly uploaded data storage amount. Our next step was to get this 20TB off of our 2019 Mac Pro external RAID (Pegasus R4i). Again, the process was just like any other file(s). We simply highlighted thew newly uploaded files and right-clicked, then selected "Make online-only". Simple right? Yeah, not so much. This is where we noticed lots of issues with our system. Essentially this 20TB "indexing?" caused us to essentially have to run Dropbox completely via the browser. There was no possibility of doing other things like downloading files via the Dropbox Mac application or Double clicking and a small JPEG opening up. The application simply said, "NO" and only had one task in mind, get these 20TB worth of files OFF of this hard drive. The good news? It did so, only taking a whopping 500 hours to remove these files off of the drive. A few notes: We were able to pause syncing during the "file-removal" / online-only process), restart the computer, resume syncing all without any error messages which was very impressive. I expected the application to crash, hang up, etc. Not at all. Note: We did NOT pause syncing during the main 20TB upload. Why did it take so long? I am not a software engineer but clearly it did not enjoy this task and it could be due to a number of reasons. Maybe simply the application was not built to handle 20TB? Maybe our computer did not have the power? Maybe it was due to the main Dropbox drive being on a RAID array? Who knows. Thats about all I wanted to say here. Again, the purpose of this small write up is to show how the software/cloud performed under extreme tasking. I would say overall very well considering. Hopefully this helps someone out there who's considering uploading massive amounts of data at once. TLDR: Uploading massive amounts of data via fiber internet = quick and easy. Removing this data off the drive / Making files "Online-only" = very time-consuming and not for the faint of heart. 2019 Mac Pro specs:4.3KViews1like3CommentsHow have you used Dropbox lately?
So you might have seen our little exploration into how Dropboxers use Dropbox, from the small stuff like online games and to do lists, right up to the big stuff, like buying a home and sharing baby photos. In fact, I’ll be back soon to share how I recently used Dropbox to take the pain out of planning a wedding (tips and tricks incoming). Great and all as it is to hear how we use Dropbox, we want to know how you use it! Day to day, big projects, sharing files with friends and family - we want to know about it. Share in the comments below, and if your tips are truly inspiring, who knows, you might even earn the Mighty Badge and the extra space that comes with it!8.8KViews1like4CommentsEven more Dropbox Product updates
We always love being able to share new Dropbox updates with you, so here are some improvements you might be interested in, including email updates, Backup news and improved search within Dropbox! Email to Dropbox is ready to use for business now too Email to Dropbox allows you and your trusted contacts to forward email attachments directly to your Dropbox account using a unique email address - that means everything sent to that email address is safe and secure in your account, without having to download or upload your files one by one. Quickly save your email attachments—like images and PDFs—directly to your Dropbox account so they are safely stored and easy to find when you need them. Perfect for saving you time, which can help you to keep your work-life balance in check! Reduce the steps needed to save your email attachments in Dropbox—quickly set up your unique and secure email address within seconds and simply forward email attachments directly to your Dropbox account Keep confidential files safe by having trusted clients and partners send sensitive documents directly to Dropbox, where you can securely store them and control access and permissions. Find your content faster by centralizing your email attachments alongside the rest of your content within Dropbox, so you don’t have to search across multiple places to find what you need Learn all about how to set up your unique email address here. Dropbox Backup updates You’ve heard us mention (obsess over) Dropbox Backup, and we’re glad to share an update. Now, with the Dropbox Backup plan, you can back up unlimited files on one external drive, in addition to one computer. Just plug in your external drive to back it up to the cloud with Dropbox Backup—it’s that easy. Videos, photos and personal documents that are stored on your external drive will get backed up to Dropbox Backup, where you can access from any device. Keep your digital life safe with Dropbox Backup, so you can quickly and smoothly recover from anything, spills on a laptop or on a hard drive. Check out the Dropbox Backup plan here. Improved Dropbox search capabilities It’s frustrating when you just can’t find what you’re looking for, and that’s why the team has been working on improving search within Dropbox. These improvements will help you find your content faster, especially when you can’t remember the file name. It happens, we know. Fast navigation with Dropbox recommendations. Dropbox will highlight your main collaborators, tags created by you and your team, and recent files and searches. Filter to find content faster. Instead of scrolling to find files in search, filter by date modified alongside folder, file type, people, and image properties to find what you need. Spell check that allows you to quickly identify misspellings and target your search more directly. We are excited about these updates, especially because it can be hard to remember all our file titles, but tell us what you think below!1.7KViews1like0Comments