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Søren Langkilde Madsen
Søren Langkilde Madsen
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LR 4.1, backup

Aug 2, 2012 9:52 AM

Hi

 

Background

LR has a backup routine that you can configure.

LR has a reference to each photo in its database - not the pictures itself.

 

Question

What is in the backup - the LR database (with the references) or the actual pictures?

 

Background cont

The reason I'm asking is that I have a pretty big bunch of picture data (approx 16-17 TB data distributed on 7 NAS servers). This is already under a welf unctioning backup routine. So if LR tries to handle to huge set of data - it would be hopeless and unnecessary.

But if backup in the LR world means backup of the database (with all the references etc) it would make good sense.

1049 Views   7 Replies   Latest reply: Søren Langkilde Madsen, Aug 2, 2012 10:58 PM
 
Replies
  • Hal P Anderson
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    1. Hal P Anderson,
    Aug 2, 2012 10:17 AM   in reply to Søren Langkilde Madsen
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    All that LR backs up is the catalogue. It does some optimizations and integrity checks and then creates a straight copy of the catalogue to your backup directory. You are responsible for backing up your images through some other mechanism.

     

    Hal

     
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  • JimHess
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    2. JimHess,
    Aug 2, 2012 10:17 AM   in reply to Søren Langkilde Madsen
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    If you were to look in your backup folder (as designated in your backup preferences) you would see that it only backs up the database or catalog (*.lrcat), which simply contains all of the adjustments you have made in Lightroom. It does NOT backup your images! Your other backup routine should be doing that.

     
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  • Søren Langkilde Madsen
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    3. Søren Langkilde Madsen,
    Aug 2, 2012 10:33 AM   in reply to JimHess
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    Thank you both

     

    Thats cool. A backup of all the picture data (on servers) are taken care of. I have a mechanism that work good and without too much work and hassle.

    I'm installing, testing and evaluating LR and haven't got around to the LR back routine before now.

     

    Shifting to LR on this large amount of pictures takes a bunch of tests. Right now I'm replicating a couple of TB's data and is testing the setup. But before letting LR runs its backup routine I would just make sure that LR didn't try to wrestle to picture data on the server.

     

    Once again, thanks for your quick answer.

     

     

    If a supplementary question is allowed.

    Do any of you have some experience to rather big amount of picture data and LR.

    As described I have approx 16-17 TB growing each year.

     

    Does this amount of data handled by LR - lead to performance problems, stability problem etc?

     
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  • Hal P Anderson
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    4. Hal P Anderson,
    Aug 2, 2012 10:59 AM   in reply to Søren Langkilde Madsen
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    I know of one person with over half a million images in a single catalogue, running fine. Backups do start to take a while with that size of catalogue, I hear.

     

    Hal

     
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  • Søren Langkilde Madsen
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    5. Søren Langkilde Madsen,
    Aug 2, 2012 11:58 AM   in reply to Hal P Anderson
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    Yes, I can imagine that this takes a while.

    My backup takes a while as well.

     

    OK, a third question.

    Can you configure where LR put its backup of the database?

    Have looked in the catalog config, but nothing much to change here?

     
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  • Hal P Anderson
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    6. Hal P Anderson,
    Aug 2, 2012 1:14 PM   in reply to Søren Langkilde Madsen
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    Sure. When LR asks your permission to run the backup, there's a button you can push to choose where to put it. Once you specify a location, that location will be used for all subsequent backups.

     

    Lightroom Database-4 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Develop_2012-08-02_17-12-54.jpg

    Hal

     
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  • Søren Langkilde Madsen
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    7. Søren Langkilde Madsen,
    Aug 2, 2012 10:58 PM   in reply to Hal P Anderson
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    Hi Hal

     

    Thanks a bunch for your help

     

    -- Søren

     
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