EVO can now automatically sync, copy, and backup your shares, folders, and files to other on-site systems and cloud services.
Slingshot—the automation engine and API for EVO—includes a new type of replication job created specifically for backup and other redundancy goals. The new “replication” job type accommodates cases where entire directories and incremental changes need to be handled. Sources and destinations can be shares hosted by EVO, USB drives hosted by EVO, other networked storage systems, or cloud services such as AWS S3, Microsoft Azure, and Dropbox (with others being added).
Flexible source and destination
For most users, replication needs will be simple: one on-site EVO to another EVO in the same location, doing a daily backup of anything that changed since the previous day. Or perhaps you’ll use it to easily do a server-side migration of data from an old system to your new EVO. But there are several more interesting ways to put these new features to good use…
From the beginning, Slingshot’s goal has been to work as a flexible and powerful automation hub. Your source files can be located on EVO, but that isn’t a requirement for Slingshot. In fact, a replication job can be created to handle files from a source outside of EVO to a destination outside of EVO. Of course, jobs can also be created to handle file replication completely internally to EVO, or really any combination of available sources and destinations.
Control what gets replicated
If you just want to do a daily backup of everything that gets put into one whole share, that’s easy. But, what if you’d rather be more specific with what gets copied? That’s where filters come into play.
Slingshot’s filters are based on regular expressions and can be applied to files or directories. You can filter by name, type, and age, so if you only want to sync .mov files older than, say, three days old, that’s possible. Filters can be set to either include or exclude, so if you only want .prproj files—no problem, but if instead you want everything except .prproj files you can simply flip the filter to the exclude mode.
You could even setup a scheme that sends all files to another on-site storage system, and sends only project files to cloud/off-site storage.
Choose your schedule
Replication jobs can be run on-demand, or as scheduled incremental sync/copy jobs, with the ability to define a start time and pause/stop time. This way, you can make sure your storage system is only doing replication during off-peak hours.
Example use cases
Slingshot’s replication features open up a world of possibilities for multi-system synchronization, including:
| Method | Purpose |
|---|---|
| EVO to EVO | This could be done to effectively mirror two on-site EVO systems. |
| EVO to USB disk attached to EVO | Connect a USB disk to EVO and do a server-side backup, then disconnect the USB disk and secure it in another offsite location. This is a quick and simple way to start keeping a copy of important data at a separate physical location. |
| EVO to EVO Nearline | Migrating completed projects and related assets from Tier 1 to Tier 2 is an excellent strategy for using storage resources appropriately and economically. |
| EVO to EVO Nearline to cloud service | In this hybrid approach that combines the best of several worlds, a Tier 1 EVO replicates nightly to Tier 2 EVO Nearline. The Tier 1 to Tier 2 replication occurs at very high-speed and completes quickly, while the Tier 2 system then pushes new data over your internet connection, to a supported cloud service. |
| Cloud to multi-location EVO systems | In this complex case, assume you have assets coming into your cloud storage/bucket from many different users, and you have several EVO systems in California, New York, and Amsterdam. You want any new files matching certain criteria to be automatically pulled from your cloud service to each of your three geographically distributed EVO systems. Sound far fetched? It’s actually pretty simple to setup! |
How might you use it?!
Plays nice with ShareBrowser
If you have EVO, you’re most likely using the included ShareBrowser asset management software. It is, after all, one of the things our customers love most about their EVO systems!
You’ll be happy to know that Slingshot’s new replication features play nicely with your ShareBrowser tags, comments, and custom metadata! So, if you’re replicating data from, say, your EVO to S3, when you search ShareBrowser for a file that exists in both locations, you’re going to get two entries for that file—once for each location. And all of your metadata will be displayed right there with each of the files!
Think these new features sound great? Contact our support team if you’d like to get Slingshot on your EVO.