What to do about Crashplan on 9.10?

[Tim1962]

Hi I had a stable Crashplan plugin of CP4.6 when on FreeNAS 9.3. Since going to 9.10Stable Crashplan has failed (I think in common with other threads.)

Could other users (and experts!) advise...
Do I
Struggle to fix within the current Jail (if so is there a definitive answer to a non definitive question!)
Create a new CP install within a VirtualBox
Sit tight without local backups til FreeNAS10
Something else

My CP archives are stored within FreeNAS itself not the jail so hopefully can reuse them but not a massive big deal if not

(Preferably the solution will transfer most efficiently to FreeNAS10 when stable)

 

[stone961]

Here is what I have done.

I got tired of CP upgrading without notification and then breaking when running in a jail so this is what I have done.

Created a linux VM.
In the fstab, created NFS mounts to the FreeNas shares I wanted to backup.
On the linux VM, installed the supported CP application from CP.
Adopted the backups I already at CP (https://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/4/Configuring/Replacing_Your_Device)
done

I have been running this setup for about a year now and found it to be less work than keeping the CP jail working though FN updates/upgrades and CP updates.

 

[Tim1962]

Thanks, I guess thats the direction I am working towards and really want something "fire and forget" dependable. Just a bit nervous not to make a commitment to change and then find something simple and definitive is around the corner (FN10). A bit conflicted about whether freenas is an appliance or a tinkering project (for me!)

Wifes away tomorrow evening so looks like tinkering is on its way. Thanks for the "push"

 

[stualden]

stone961, which version of Linux (from the many available on that list) are you using? How much memory are you allocating to the VM, and how big is your backup set (approx # files / Gbytes)? I would like to experiment with this too.

 

[danb35]

You could probably use just about any flavor of Linux, but I've found that Ubuntu works well. I allocated 4 GB to the VM.

 

[stualden]

Thank you - Ubuntu 64-bit worked nicely. Interestingly, the VirtualBox jail has the same problem under 9.10 (doesn't receive an address via DHCP), but hard-coding the address is a workaround. (Just want to note - I also run the Plex Media Server plugin and its jail does NOT have this problem - it still works just fine with 9.10.)

With all that, though, I felt as though I was dedicating an awful lot of my FreeNAS resources to CrashPlan. Since I had a spare Windows box lying around, I just installed CrashPlan on it and adopted the backups that had been done until now by the CP plugin. So now the filesystems were a little different, but it only took one overnight to figure out that everything was really the same (2.5T and about 325,000 files) - see this link for how this works. CP on Windows appears to be much faster and more reliable than what I had with the plugin. So I'm saying goodbye to CP on FreeNAS - it's been fun (sort of) but I won't miss it.

 

[mrichardson03]

Additionally, CrashPlan is really cracking down on unsupported configurations. I got an email a few days ago saying that I had an unsupported machine backing up to my account (a Synology in this case), and that after the 4.6 -> 4.7 upgrade it wouldn't be allowed to back up to the cloud anymore. If you're not going to run the client in a dedicated VM, it's simply not going to work going forward it seems. For me, CrashPlan was so slow and unreliable even on supported platforms that I've replaced it.

 

[icsy7867]

Thank you - Ubuntu 64-bit worked nicely. Interestingly, the VirtualBox jail has the same problem under 9.10 (doesn't receive an address via DHCP), but hard-coding the address is a workaround. (Just want to note - I also run the Plex Media Server plugin and its jail does NOT have this problem - it still works just fine with 9.10.)

With all that, though, I felt as though I was dedicating an awful lot of my FreeNAS resources to CrashPlan. Since I had a spare Windows box lying around, I just installed CrashPlan on it and adopted the backups that had been done until now by the CP plugin. So now the filesystems were a little different, but it only took one overnight to figure out that everything was really the same (2.5T and about 325,000 files) - see this link for how this works. CP on Windows appears to be much faster and more reliable than what I had with the plugin. So I'm saying goodbye to CP on FreeNAS - it's been fun (sort of) but I won't miss it.

I am running a similar setup now, after failing with crashplan for quite some time. I have also pretty much ditched virtualbox and I am using bhyve/iohyve to host the ubuntu guest. I am running Ubuntu 14.04LTS with XFCE4 and xrdp. It actually handles RDP from a windows machine fairly well. I just setup NFS shares and mounted them in fstab. Seems to be running fairly smoothly so far.

 

[adrianwi]

I've gone the VM route too! CentOS 6.7 with NFS mounts to FreeNAS datasets. Seems to be a good solution to a continually breaking CrashPlan jail.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I switched to a Linux vm running crashplan with my data mounted into the VM.

 

[nello]

For me, CrashPlan was so slow and unreliable even on supported platforms that I've replaced it.

What's your replacement?

 

[mrichardson03]

Arq on my Macs, Duplicity on FreeNAS.

 

[nello]

Since the consensus here is to dump the plugin and move to a virtual machine (VM) running CrashPlan (CP) under Linux …

Can anyone recommend a guide for getting a VM set up on FreeNAS as well as getting CP running on the VM?

 

[diskdiddler]

Is there any way people could just release the VM to use, rather than having to configure a new one?

 

[adrianwi]

Creating a VirtualBox jail, installing a VM using an ISO file, downloading and installing CrashPlan within the VM and then mounting the datasets you want to backup is a 15-20 minute job.

 

[Stux]

Creating a VirtualBox jail, installing a VM using an ISO file, downloading and installing CrashPlan within the VM and then mounting the datasets you want to backup is a 15-20 minute job.

Researching how to do that is not

 

[stualden]

Seriously, it's not that bad. Read the section of the FreeNAS doc covering jails and VMs, and then go ahead and give it a try.

Alternatively (and this is what I did) - if you have a spare Windows box, just run CrashPlan on that instead. Either approach will give you far less hassle than dealing with the plugin.

 

[adrianwi]

Researching how to do that is not

Creating a VirtualBox jail in FreeNAS is as simple as Jails > Add Jail and then enter a Jail Name and select VirtualBox-4.3.12 in the Template drop-down (you can leave everything else as it is)

Here's a pretty straight forward guide to creating a Linux VM > http://www.storagecraft.com/blog/th...nstalling-a-linux-virtual-machine-on-windows/.

And here a guide to installing CrashPlan on Linux > https://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/4/Getting_Started/Installing_The_Code42_CrashPlan_App

:D

 

[diskdiddler]

Additionally, CrashPlan is really cracking down on unsupported configurations. I got an email a few days ago saying that I had an unsupported machine backing up to my account (a Synology in this case), and that after the 4.6 -> 4.7 upgrade it wouldn't be allowed to back up to the cloud anymore. If you're not going to run the client in a dedicated VM, it's simply not going to work going forward it seems. For me, CrashPlan was so slow and unreliable even on supported platforms that I've replaced it.

I got a similar email a while back, these people are complete idiots, and that's my polite opinion regarding them too.

It's really time to find an alternative, anyone found a decent one?

 

[nello]

Creating a VirtualBox jail in FreeNAS is ... simple ....

Does it make sense to hold off on creating a VM for CrashPlan until FreeNAS 10 is released with its full support for bhyve?