Overview

These instructions are an addendum for specific cases of Preloads to a Local Server destination.  

Please review this general preload article before continuing:

Note: These instructions might be used for backup environments or replication environments and you will see some corresponding references.  If there's any confusion, contact support.

Instructions to Preload data to a Bare Drive or USB Disk (please follow carefully!)

Performing a preload (initial replication or backup to USB disk) for data is quite similar to the process of performing a preload for online backups. First, you configure the account, but instead of starting the initial replication or backup, you do the following:

1. Use the web portal to put the account into maintenance mode.

2. In the backup manager on the source, go to the file menu and choose Preload Remote Backup.

3. In the dialog, choose a path to the external USB disk and click OK.

4. It will ask which backup destination you want to do a preload for. Choose the network server location.

5. It will start the initial job. Wait for it to finish.

6. When finished, physically transport the USB disk and attach it to the target (where you've configured the source's Local Server field to be pointing toward).

7. On the target, in explorer open the USB disk and navigate to the top-level directory that contains the preload data. Then navigate into the brandID subdirectory (e.g., generic). There should be a single subdirectory that has the same name as the account number of the account you preloaded. Use explorer to copy this directory to the replication target underneath the NetworkServerStoragePath\brandID directory (for example, copy E:\mypreload\generic\12345001 to X:\ReplicatedData\generic or X:\LocalRepository\generic).

8. Finally, use the web portal to take the account out of maintenance mode.

IMPORTANT: Do not take the account out of maintenance mode until you have completed all of these steps. If you clear the maintenance flag early and the replication source attempts to replicate data, you will have to do the preload all over again.

Note that you can put multiple preloads onto the same USB disk. To do this, use a different top-level directory on the USB disk for each account that you preload. When you are finished preloading multiple accounts, on the replication target there should be multiple subdirectories of the NetworkServerStoragePath\brandID subdirectory, one for each account that was preloaded. For example, X:\ReplicatedData\generic could contain the subdirectories 12345001, 12345002, 12345003.