Offsite Backup
This is arguably one of the most important tasks I have a mini setup to perform. I am one to believe you can't have enough backups and backing up everything in our office is a top priority. It can be unreasonable to expect one to transfer all of our backups from one site to another due to bandwidth restrictions and the shear amount of data to transfer. I keep it simple on the offsite backup. Daily sync's from work to a secure offsite location (fire protection included) that backup the core files that I feel we cannot operate without. Another feature I added was reporting temperature, dew point, and humidity of the area the mini is in.
A simple Automator routine combined with Transmit from Panic Software can work wonders for a small business. Several days throughout the week at a specified time (launched by an iCal alarm), Automator opens Transmit and "sync's" all of our core files to our offsite location. To get the first sync off to a good start I copied all the files from work on a portable hard drive and copied them to the drive at the offsite location. I check in on the server once every other week to make sure everything is running smoothly without error messages popping up. From time to time, every six months give or take, I will have to remotely restart the mini.
In this workflow Transmit is doing the moving and shaking but doesn't store any data on the internal hard drive of the mini. It syncs from work to another offsite location of a Synology storage device. In essence, the mini is just doing the moving and not the storing.
Environmental Sensor
I installed a THUM (Temperature Humidity USB Monitor) to monitor the atmosphere around my mini. If the temperature gets to cold or warm, I get an email alert. If the humidity gets to high or low I get an email alerting me to the condition. In my case I am specifically concerned with humidity. What makes the mini great is the compact size small enough to fit in small enclosures that offer superior protection.
The THUM software also can log these data points on time intervals from every 10 seconds to every 60 minutes. It stores the data points in a plain text file that is tab delimited. The Mac version of the software is handicapped compared to the Windows version. I have wrote the company asking for better functionality with no success. I own and run two of these hardware sensors and highly recommend them for those who require environmental information.
User Experience with offsite backup: A+
Transmit Price: $34 US as of June 25, 2013
User Experience with THUM: B+ (give me more options)
Transmit Price: $120 US
Recommendation: If you need offsite backup and environmental controls, Panic and the THUM will do a great job if you can use Automator.
In this workflow Transmit is doing the moving and shaking but doesn't store any data on the internal hard drive of the mini. It syncs from work to another offsite location of a Synology storage device. In essence, the mini is just doing the moving and not the storing.
Environmental Sensor
I installed a THUM (Temperature Humidity USB Monitor) to monitor the atmosphere around my mini. If the temperature gets to cold or warm, I get an email alert. If the humidity gets to high or low I get an email alerting me to the condition. In my case I am specifically concerned with humidity. What makes the mini great is the compact size small enough to fit in small enclosures that offer superior protection.
The THUM software also can log these data points on time intervals from every 10 seconds to every 60 minutes. It stores the data points in a plain text file that is tab delimited. The Mac version of the software is handicapped compared to the Windows version. I have wrote the company asking for better functionality with no success. I own and run two of these hardware sensors and highly recommend them for those who require environmental information.
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| MacTHUM Program Window |
Transmit Price: $34 US as of June 25, 2013
User Experience with THUM: B+ (give me more options)
Transmit Price: $120 US
Recommendation: If you need offsite backup and environmental controls, Panic and the THUM will do a great job if you can use Automator.
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