Retrospect for Windows and WebDAV

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Before you can use Retrospect 8 for Windows with WebDAV for network backups, you must properly configure your Windows operating systems. This article outlines some of the requirements for Windows WebDAV support.

Setting up the Backup Server

Retrospect running on Windows 2008r2 server: You will need to install the Desktop experience from the Server Manager>Features>Add Features and then make sure the service is started after the installation.

Retrospect running on Windows 7 and Windows 8: Start the WebClient service from services.

Retrospect running on Windows Vista and later: Make the following Registry Changes in the following path.

Edit the BasicAuthLevel key and change the value to 2 and then restart the WebClient service.

Retrospect running on Windows XP/2003: You will need to create the key: "UseBasicAuth" in the same path shown above. Set the value to 1 and then reboot the machine.

Retrospect running on Windows XP and later: Edit the FileSizeLimitInBytes registry key in the path noted above. The default is set to 50MB. You need to change the Hexadecimal value to ffffffff or decimal value to 4294967295, both equal 4GB which is the Max and after that is done restart the WebClient service. 

Note: Currently SSL is not supported by Retrospect for Windows when using WebDAV.

Retrospect can connect to a Linux or Windows WebDAV server. Below are directions for configuring a Windows WebDAV Server.

Configuring WebDAV Server on Windows 2008

Install IIS 7.5 or later. Included with Windows 2008R2.

Install the "Web Server (IIS)" Server Role from the Server Manager utility in Windows 2008

During the Web Server installation setup you will need to select WebDAV publishing under Common HTTP Features as well as Basic Authentication under Security.  

After IIS gets installed, launch the Internet Information Services(IIS) Manager. You can use the Default Web Site but it may be best to create a new Web Site just for WebDAV by right clicking on Sites and select Add Web Site.

When creating the new site you will need to give a physical path. You can leave the defaults for the binding but you will have to enter a host name so that the binding does not conflict with the default one. Note: You may also need to enter the IP address of the machine instead of a host name.

After the site gets created you will want to create a virtual directory. You can use WebDEV with the physical path you listed above but Retrospect on Windows will not be able to connect to it since it is not in a full UNC path format (i.e. \\10.4.11.136 vs \\10.4.11.136\backups). The virtual directory will give you a full UNC path to use. You will create the virtual directory by right clicking on the web site you created and click on Add Virtual Directory. The physical path you assign to the directory will become your Retrospect backup destination

Included with the website will be a WebDAV Authoring Rules icon, double click on that and click on Enable WebDAV. Next click on Add Authoring Rule. Leave Allow access to: set to All content, then select Specified users: or All Users: under Allow access to this content to.   Either way should work. In permissions, enable Read, Source, Write and click OK.

Then go back to the WebDAV site, double click on Authentication and enable Basic Authentication.  

WebDAV on the server side by default only allows a file transfer size of 30MB. Go to the WebDAV site within IIS Manager, double click on Request Filtering, click on Edit Feature Settings and change the Maximum allowed content length (Bytes): to 4294967295.

Last Update: November 6, 2012