Vault on an external HD?

[CelticDesignServices]

I have a colleage who has attempted to run Vault but installed Vault Server on an external HD attached to her laptop. I got word that for whatever reason she's not able to get this to work.

Is it not possible for this type of setup? Must one have a separate, stand along station as the server for Vault?

I too am getting ready to set up my office to a Vault setting and am also wondering if simply adding an external HD to say, my work station to act as the server or do I need to purchase a server station? A very small set up at this point, possibly a max of 3 workstations total involved....trying to keep costs down at this point until things pick up more.

[CelticDesignServices]

LOL...."colleague", not "colleage"

[danny]

You can setup a Vault server on your laptop, make rhe backups on the external harddisk. In this setup you will have a back-upped Vault. And you can use it with 3 othet computers.

[DonovanCox]

You can install to an external drive and put the filestore and database on that, but it's probably not an optimal solution. External drives usually don't have the fastest of hard drives, not to mention I"d hate to lose the connection between the external drive and the rest of the system. 

You may want to install an additional hard drive into your workstation and then move the filestore and database to that drive. You'll need to make sure the windows accounts "AutodeskVault" and "Network Service" have permissions ot the folder or drive you plan to use. 

[CelticDesignServices · Accepted solution]

Thanks guys!

I was pretty sure one could do such. I recall doing this type of a set up back on release 2009 or so and had the Vault Server set to the 2nd HD of my workstation for a short time frame until my client was able to afford getting the server they needed. It wasn't the best for speed and what not, but it worked and bridged the gap for a few months until the better server came.

I guess I'll have to look into her set up and see if she missed anything.

[chris.fairfowlG9CNJ]

Hi, what about a solid state drive? I have a work station, HP workstation laptop and office work station.

currently I use a portable HDD with no Vault, it would be good to use Vault on a SSD.

[DarrenP]

you jut install vault on the ssd like any other program you don’t have to use the ssd as the database or the filestore you can use another harddrive i wouldn’t recommend an external drive

[michael.battcock]

Hey Jim,

I wouldn't recommend this setup, even though it's able to be done. I would just be nervous about the amount of failure points on an external hard drive versus an internal hard drive. The increased amount of failure points would for sure equal higher failure rates. From a security standpoint, I'd much rather have my Vault held in a workstation than on an easy access external.

Cheers,

Mike

[cfairfowl]

Hi, I've been using external HDDs and now a SSD for AutoCAD and now Inventor for over 10 years, I replace the drive every 12 months as a safety precaution and transfer all projects across. I only ever work from the external drive and back the files up on a spare portable drive at home. I use a work station, laptop and the client office machine so I have the flexibility of moving around and maintain a steady work flow. I've yet to have a failure, or been prevented from working in all these years. Up to now I haven't used Vault but I'm considering using Vault on an external (portable) SSD and using it as my server - backing it up frequently. 

[swalton]

Currently you can move your external drive from machine to machine and keep your working environment.  Once you go to Vault, I don't think that will be true. 

Vault does not store files in its file store the same way a user sees them at a client workstation.  The only map between the user's file structure and Vault's file structure is one of the Vault-controlled SQL databases.

I think the first question is: Where do you intend to install the Vault Server (ADMS) software?

Laptop?

Desktop?

Customer Desktop?

Physical Server at your home?

Amazon Cloud Server?

Which of the above computers will be visible to all of the machines where you plan to work?  You will need Windows 10 or Windows Server to host the Vault ADMS software.

You can install the Vault Server software on any of the above computers, and configure the database/filestore to be on some external harddrive.  However, without the specific Vault Server install, the data on the hard drive will be useless. 

I would not recommend using an external drive except for testing or while you wait for your dedicated server hardware to arrive.

[cfairfowl]

Thanks for the reply - much appreciated...

My problem is I must have the flexibility of having all my working files on a portable HDD or SSD, I work for more than one client so have to be able to work on any client project no matter where I am. My HP Elitebook Workstation I use while moving around- hotel, on a train, airport departure lounge etc. I use a Mesh workstation in my study and any client workstation available to me that has Inventor/AutoCAD installed. Being in a situation where non connectivity (to the cloud) or no internet access occurs is not an option for me. I'll continue without Vault until or if Autodesk can produce an option for Vault to be used on a portable system, I cannot believe this flexibility is beyond their capability. As a foot note, I'm fully aware of the risk of using a portable storage device but I back-up my files almost daily onto the study workstation's drive.

Thanks once again for your advice.

Sent from my iPad
Kindest regards,
Chris Fairfowl
Designer, Subsea Oil and Gas.

[swalton]

You could get a SFF pc, like a Mac Mini or some custom built machine and use it as a portable server for the Vault ADMS software.  Once that was done, you would have to network the SFF server to your work computer.  As long as the proper Vault Client/CAD plugin software was installed on the work computer, you would be able to get to your files.  I don't see any of your customers letting you install the Vault Client software on their machines, so I expect that you would have to use your laptop for everything.  

Next you would want some sort of backup drive for the SFF pc...

You might want to setup different Vaults in the ADMS to segregate your customers...

I think the current workflow with the removable drive will be the easiest solution.