Today we’re releasing Version 3.02 for all four editions of Jungle Disk. This release contains a number of performance and usability enhancements, plus fixes for several issues reported by our users since 3.01 went out.
One notable enhancement is our new “Usage Information” screen for Backup Vaults (see the screenshot below). Several of you have asked for additional details on what comprises your backup vaults, and we’re happy to oblige. You can run this report on your own vaults by clicking the link at the bottom of the Backup Vault configuration page.
You can download the new version of your edition from our Download Center — we plan to enable automatic updates early next week. Once we do, Windows and Mac users can upgrade to the new version by selecting “Check for Updates” from Jungle Disk’s Help Menu.
Jungle Disk's Backup Vault Usage Screen
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Shaun said,
December 5, 2009 @ 1:01 am
I don’t really understand the report… what exactly is the difference between “Current Files” and “Current Data”… as well as “Old Files” and “Old Data”.
It doesn’t seem to be communicated very well.
gpzbc said,
December 5, 2009 @ 1:25 am
I’m still using legacy backup and trying to decide if it is worth the effort to spend the next month re-uploading all 100GB of my files. Can you help explain the usage data above?
What is the difference between Current Files and Current Data? In the example above, am I correct when I say that the 77.6 GB of files is using 32.92 GB of storage? So the efficiency of the new backup vaults can decrease storage by approximately half in some cases?
Thanks for the clarification.
Aron said,
December 5, 2009 @ 7:13 am
Thanks for the updates, it’s working fine so far!
A few remarks:
1. The graphs look a bit grainy on my Windows 7 box.
2. I would *love* to see these same statistics for the entire disk, not just one vault
3. As Shaun already said, it is currently not quite clear what each term means. Perhaps this could be made more clear.
Bruno G. said,
December 5, 2009 @ 9:42 am
From what I can tell, the ‘Backup Vault Files’ is the actual data that is stored in the vault. The Old files wedge is there when you have the option to keep previous versions of your files.
The Backup Vault uses compression to store your files, so that’s where the second pie comes in – it shows the actual space used by your files (above) once they are compressed.
So in effect, it shows that using the Vault saves you on your storage cost.
I’m sure that the compression is largely dependent on the type of data you put in your Vault – plain text files will compress much, much more than, say, pictures (JPGs) which are already compressed by the very nature of the JPEG format.
Jungle Allan said,
December 5, 2009 @ 9:50 am
Thanks for the comments, everyone. The statistics in the top section are derived from your files as they exist in their original form (i.e., before compression and de-duplication). So if compression and de-duplication didn’t exist, Jungle Disk would use approximately 98 gigabytes to store the current files, files waiting to be deleted, and previous versions of your current files.
The bottom section shows the dramatic storage savings provided by Jungle Disk’s compression and de-duplication features. So even though there was 98 gigabytes of data to account for, only 35 gigabytes were actually used — approximately 33 gigs for current files, and 2 more to store previous versions of the current files (as well as files waiting for deletion).
What’s particularly notable is the compression rate of the deleted and updated files. Because Jungle Disk only stores the changed portions of files when they are updated, the space needed to maintain the previous versions becomes much, much smaller.
Robert Kosara said,
December 5, 2009 @ 10:34 am
Very nice feature! Can we get the same for regular files on regular disks? I know it’s more difficult for general disks than for backup vaults, but perhaps you could use the sync mechanism to keep a usage data file current between different machines? It would be great to be able to find out how much space I’m using without having to run an integrity check.
Jeff S said,
December 5, 2009 @ 12:27 pm
This is a good first start! Thanks.
I’m with the others that the terminology is wrong. “old” files and “old” data is the wrong name to use. Additionally, the red slice for “old” should be further divided into “changed files” (yellow) and “deleted files awaiting cleanup” (red). Like the others I also found the two pie graphs a bit confusing to interpret, so some work is needed there.
Also, I cannot run these statistics on the OTHER backup vaults on the other drives I have mounted that are used by other machines, only the one on this computer. The link for the other backup vaults isn’t there and I certainly do not want to take a vault over to see it. You need to allow this statistics view on any machines that can see there is a backup vault on a drive even if that machine isn’t the one doing backups to it. It’s called MANAGEMENT. These other computers are not local to me, they are my kids laptops and they don’t live at home. Get it?
rick said,
December 5, 2009 @ 12:36 pm
Very nice update, thank you.
In addition, why not show the number of files once de-duplication is considered? This would also demonstrate that the numbers on the top part are actually not taking de-duplication into account, something I never would have guessed. Without this number, we see only a size before-and-after, not # files before-and-after.
Currently, getting this information is somewhat confusing, and I’m not sure what to believe:
Latest Usage Reporting lists 20,579 “Total Files”
Pie chart lists 146,873 “Total size of current files” (0 del/upd, since it’s disabled)
Latest Backup Reporting lists 135,814 “Searched Files”
So, I have 135K selected files locally currently, 146K online because of new/updated files, but only 21K after de-duplication? I won’t go as far as saying it’s impossible that we have that many duplicate files (this is a tangled mass of user directories), but I find it hard to believe.
Toby said,
December 5, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
I’m running 3.01 on OS X 10.6.2, and JD doesn’t seem to know there’s an update available. I have the ‘check for updates’ pref checked to no effect, and manually selecting Check for Updates from the Help menu tells me that “3.01 is the newest version available”. Is there a lag before the updates are recognized?
Andreas said,
December 5, 2009 @ 3:42 pm
Can someone tell me where to find this report? I can’t find it.
Thanks
gpzbc said,
December 5, 2009 @ 4:41 pm
Thanks for the explanation Jungle Allan. I guess I hadn’t realized just how efficient the new backup vaults are. I’m impressed.
Any progress on an easy way to migrate legacy backup files to a new backup vault. I’m a bit hesitant to start the whole process over again. It takes me over a month to do.
Jungle Allan said,
December 5, 2009 @ 6:58 pm
Everyone– Thanks for all the comments on the new Backup Vault Usage Report. We’ll take them into account for future enhancements in upcoming versions.
Toby– the automatic update feature will be activated early next week for 3.02, which is why your software still shows that 3.01 is the latest version.
Andreas– You’ll find the new report on the configuration page that pertains to your backup vault. Look for the blue hyperlink at the bottom of the screen.
gpzbc– I certainly don’t anticipate a server-side migration for legacy backups before the end of the year. We’re still in the planning stages for our next feature release — so if you’re anxious to try the new vaults, you should go ahead and begin the process with the current version. And given the likelihood that you’ll be uploading significantly less data this time (due to the efficiency of the new backup engine), you may find that you don’t need nearly a month!
Jungle Dave said,
December 5, 2009 @ 7:24 pm
rick – De-duplication is done at a block-level, not a file level, so there is no concept of files at that point.
Jungle Dave said,
December 5, 2009 @ 7:26 pm
Jeff – what would you suggest as a short alternative for the “old” files?
As for viewing stats for other backup vaults – the stats require having a fully copy of the backup database locally, and you don’t have that for the other vaults.
It might be possible to add that as a feature in the restore dialog, since you can restore from other backup vaults (it will pull down the backup database for the other vault when you open it).
rick said,
December 5, 2009 @ 7:37 pm
@JD: Ah, I see. That explains why when “chunk” is used in the logs there’s no clue as to what file the chunk pertains, though I would dearly love to know. Why? For example, a backup happened today that was 90% “chunks,” and I can’t imagine why. They’re usually in the minority as compared to straight files.
Also, given that there’s no concept of a file count post de-dup, what does the relatively small “Total Files” number online in Usage Reporting represent? As I mentioned, it’s a small fraction of the # files in vault usage information (we have only one vault).
Marco said,
December 5, 2009 @ 8:45 pm
Jungle Dave said local copies of the data are needed to compute stats.
So why were sync’ed data left off?
As a side note, I think sync is the greatest innovation in JDisk 3, as it effectively makes this application a cheaper, yet easy and functional solution alternative to Dropbox and the like.
I’m sure everyone here as noticed the huge hit Dropbox made. JDisk 3 offers that and more for about 20% the cost (based on my own usage and Rackspace disks vs. the cheapest Dropbox plan that would fit my data.)
Why don’t you guys market this option a little harder and improve these prosumer/small business service? Sometimes it seems to me that Sync is very low on your priority list.
Christopher said,
December 5, 2009 @ 10:05 pm
Instead of “Old Files”, how about “Previous Versions”? “Previous Versions” is the terminology used in the Jungle Disk Configuration settings.
Ron said,
December 6, 2009 @ 12:43 am
Although it does seem that the Vault has potential, I have a few questions:
How does one delete the “deleted & updated files” from the Vault to save space? (I assume that updated means “old and superseded”???)
In the Client JD app, what does Legacy Backup Cleanup mean? Does it delete my files??? What does it clean up?
Is there a help file for each item on the Client Menu, so I can figure out what the menu options are, and whether they are safe to use? For example, Why would I want to expire or delete Cached Data?
I agree with the others that all the labels and explanations on the on the new form are confusing.
Jungle Dave said,
December 6, 2009 @ 10:10 am
Ron – the deleted & updated files are retained for the length of time configured in the Backup Options on your backup job. The default is 60 days but you can lower it.
Legacy Backup Cleanup removes deleted files from your legacy backup jobs. Normally this runs automatically during each backup, but some users turn off that option and prefer to run it manually. It’s not needed for Backup Vaults.
Vigor Vanort said,
December 6, 2009 @ 4:18 pm
Does it still phone home every 15 seconds 24×7, even when no automation features are enabled? Or has that been fixed?
rick said,
December 6, 2009 @ 4:45 pm
Must the retention of deleted AND updated files always go in lockstep? I’d prefer a shorter timeline for deleted files and a longer one for revisions.
Jungle Dave said,
December 7, 2009 @ 11:16 am
Vigor – there is no “phone home” every 15 seconds. It does maintain a connection to the gateway server which is used to route messages between clients only.
Todd Eddy said,
December 7, 2009 @ 1:27 pm
@JD: +1 on showing the usage space on other vaults. Even if it’s not as detailed (just shows the current storage amount but not what % compression it is based off actual files). I have a linux server at home that doesn’t have a monitor and I run jungledisk from the command line. This makes getting the disk usage from it impossible. Perhaps adding an option to the web interface similar to http://localhost:2667/~operations listing operations in progress. Add something like http://localhost:2667/~vault-usage and prints out the disk usage of any vaults that computer is attached to.
Oliver said,
December 7, 2009 @ 3:19 pm
rick: Must the retention of deleted AND updated files always go in lockstep? I’d prefer a shorter timeline for deleted files and a longer one for revisions.
I second this! And I would love to have the feature back “at least X versions but not more than Y”
Jungle Dave said,
December 7, 2009 @ 3:41 pm
We could conceivably have different retention periods for deleted vs. updated files in the future.
As for the “at least but no more than” type limitation, unfortunately we found that too difficult to implement with block backups at this time. Without getting to technical, it has to do with the fact that we don’t really measure versions the same way we did before – every backup of a file is seen as a new “version”, even if the file hasn’t changed – of course each version doesn’t take any more space. As such it’s easy to throw out old versions, but hard to measure a # of concrete versions.
JanA said,
December 8, 2009 @ 9:17 am
If I open ‘computer’ in windows 7 I do not see the Jungledisk drives. Remapping the drives in Jungledisk does not solve the problem. I can open the drives from within Jungledisk. Why does Windows explorer not see them?
Sergey Maslyakov said,
December 8, 2009 @ 10:59 am
No Unicode support still. You probably do not realize how painful it is to put up with the GUI that replaces all non-ASCII characters with question marks. Try simulating this to get better understanding of how your bi-lingual users suffer… I have to mention that your competitors do not have this problem. I am really looking forward to you fixing this major annoyance.
Jungle Allan said,
December 8, 2009 @ 4:01 pm
JanA– We’ve had a few other users report the issue you’re experiencing, and we should have a fix for you. Please file a support ticket at http://support.jungledisk.com.
Sergey– Unicode support in the GUI is still on the list for consideration in future versions. While not currently supported in the GUI, we do support Unicode in the backups themselves.
Edward Reid said,
December 10, 2009 @ 11:33 pm
If a back-end conversion to vaults is offered at some point — and I understand that this is under consideration but not promised — would it be able to retain version information and old versions?
The reason I ask is that I definitely want to move to vaults, but would prefer to retain old versions. If the (hypothetical) back-end conversion might retain versions, I’ll take a wait-and-see approach. If retaining versions will be impossible, then I’m better off biting the bullet, starting new vaults now, and keeping the old style backups for a couple of months until the vault has been in place long enough to make me happy about the retention.
Edward
Kyle Skrinak said,
August 24, 2010 @ 8:14 pm
I have 20 GB in legacy backup folders. Please make a migration option available. I don’t want to chock my thin internet connection to make the switch.