Alternatives to Rsync features for backing up data?

[DzikrRully]

Hi all,

I currently use the rsync feature to back up data on the first TrueNAS Scale machine backed up to the second TrueNAS Scale machine.

but in the future the rsync feature can no longer be used according to the notification I get, is there another way to replace the rsync feature?

Thank you in advance

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

If both source and destination are TrueNAS, there is no better way than ZFS snapshots and replication. You should have a snapshot task for your data, anyway.

 

[William Bravin]

Hello all

Just upgraded one of my truenas core server to truenas scale. I received the same notice.

Should I revert back to core to maintain rsync. It have been working well for me for several years.

I chose rsync at the time because i did not know or felt comfortable with snapshots.

my understanding, is that rsync "replicates" the file structure and the files to another machine. I doo not know how snapshots works

does it compress the dataset and then requires an other trunas machine to uncompress it?

I backup may date once a month to a buffalo nas and this is just an automated copy and past function

will snapshots provide me with the same functionality and service and rsync?

sorry for this dumb question. i'm not versed in this environment. I just use these server to learn new things and to keep me busy

Thank you in advance for the time to read this and for your response

 

[sretalla]

1. Rsync isn't becoming unavailable, just available a different way in SCALE. https://www.truenas.com/docs/scale/scaletutorials/apps/communityapps/rsyncd/

2. Rsync is substantially different from Replication (which uses zettarepl... in turn using zfs send | recv) because rsync knows nothing about the difference between a directory and a dataset, so your "replica" will not be the same as your source if you have multiple datasets (child datasets in hierarchy). Rsync also knows nothing about snapshots, so if you force it to look in the .zfs directories, you'll get potentially many times the amount of data in your pool in the replica.

3. Snapshots don't move data anywhere, so it's replication you need to think about when you talk about replacing rsync. Snapshots can be replicated to other systems and ensure identical block-level copies of datasets/ZVOLs on the remote side, including snapshots.

4. Snapshots aren't a copy of your data, they are a frozen point in time of the contents of your dataset/ZVOL. Having them allows you to safely transfer/replicate content or to roll back to a point in time. Maybe this Ars Technica article can help with understanding them: https://arstechnica.com/information...01-understanding-zfs-storage-and-performance/

 

[William Bravin]

Thank you @sretalla for you quick response and education .

To be honest this is adding from what i see much complications to my solution.

I tried to disable the rsync service as mentioned in your first point. I get a message telling me that Kubernetes service is not stated. I know nothing about this solution it's purpose an or value for a home user with a simple configuration

Maybe I should just revert back to core If this is a simpler solution.

Again thank you

 

[sretalla]

Maybe I should just revert back to core If this is a simpler solution.

If you're not running any apps yet (and it seems you're not if Kubernetes isn't running), that can make sense to do.

 

[Patrick_3000]

Rsync is not disappearing in SCALE, at least as I understand it. You will still be able to schedule rsync jobs through the web UI. No need for an app. What's happening is that the rsync service will be disappearing in SCALE Cohiba which is due out later this year. The rsync service is necessary to schedule rsync jobs in module mode but not in SSH mode.

So, to the best of my understanding, all you'll need to do is that, if you currently have rsync jobs set up to run in module mode, you'll need to switch them to SSH mode, which isn't particularly difficult to do and has some minor advantages even aside from the extra security, which probably doesn't matter much on a properly-secured local network. The advantage I've found with rsync in SSH mode is that all the configuration is done on the Truenas side, not the remote host side, which makes it easier to maintain and back up some of the settings--in particular, the source or destination directory.