backing up freenas to external

[Sunseeker]

I wouldn't say that. These days, using USB backup drives is more popular than tape. It's cheap. Yes, if you want protection against bit rot, you need another server with multiple drives and ZFS. It all depends on your needs.

You can use the UFS Volume Manager, but not ZFS replication. The GUI only allows remote replication, and besides, you need a zpool to replicate to! So, no. Something else will have to serve.

You have several choices. The first one is block based vs. file based. Block based would be taking ZFS snapshots, and sending them to the external drive. The GUI does not allow this, so you'll have to write a script for that. Basically, the command would be something like:
zfs send volume0/filesystem@tousb | gzip > /mnt/usbdisk/filesystem.gz

+ This is fast, and you will be sure that the backup contains all data.
- A restore requires restoring the whole filesystem.
- A restore requires a system with the same ZFS feature flags. Currently, this means FreeNAS only. (This might change. After all, that's why the OpenZFS project was founded.)

There's also file based. rsync, tar, cpio,.. The FreeNAS GUI does not allow you to rsync locally, so you'll have to create a script. This might be your best choice. You can easily add a cron job that uses tar to write data to the external USB drive.

- You also have to check if the backup is complete. Restrictive file permissions might cause rsync or tar to skip files.
+ You can restore files one at a time.
+ You can easily read the data on another computer, as long as it can read UFS.

If I were to use an USB disk that would be more or less permanently attached to a FreeNAS server, I would set up a jail with rsnapshot. Mount all filesystems you want to backup read-only in the jail, and the USB drive read-write. Configure rsnapshot and you will have an efficient backup system that does not require special software to recover.

Thanks for this explanation... all to complicated for "enduser - usage"... regarding the backup solution i must say, that FreeNAS is not an easy system to use, if you want a NAS functionality for me like an enduser and you want to be sure that you can easy backup your data and have access to it from where ever you want.. you are stranded !!!

 

[cyberjock]

"easy" is very relative Sunseeker. For most people going with FreeNAS they have a dozen+ TB of data. In your case it would be like using a nuclear weapon for an anthill in Somalia. Yes, the ants are dead. But you might have been better off with cheaper and easier solutions.

FreeNAS really is for those that are hardcore about file servers, willing to pay to make it happen, and willing to do it properly.

I'd almost argue that you are expecting too much from FreeNAS. The problems with USB are NOT a FreeNAS issue. Anyone that does professional file servers does NOT use USB on Windows, Linux or any other OS you want to think up. The limitations with USB not being good for backups is because of the USB technology itself.

 

[no_connection]

I have yet to have a major problem with USB for file transfer. But I guess that's what I get for using the worlds most unreliable OS being windows. (don't confuse that with broken hardware as I have had those as well)
Using SHA256 none of the files transferred was corrupt.
The number of people using USB drives or sticks would drop rapidly if it didn't work.
Can you pleas explain the bad part of having you personal photos backup to a USB drive with a file system that can be read by most computers it is plugged in to?

With backup being your last stand to get your files back, I don't want a black box with no recovery tools that hiccups with the smallest error or damage to the data.
Don't get me wring, having a second box to replicate everything to in almost real time would be nice, that would also guarantee the integrity of the backup data, but I would not leave it as the final backup.
Sure your NTFS formatted USB drive could have a hickup, or the controller could die. Just pull it out and attach it to a SATA port, use a recovery tool if needed and still get 99% of your data back.

Expecting ZFS to be somewhat stable and resilient is not asking too much. Handling a potentially unreliable connection (If you call USB that) should be the design goal for ZFS.

 

[cyberjock]

USB isn't potentially unreliable. It works until a disk has a single error, then it's a non-connection. That is why using it is dangerous and nobody uses it for real long term storage.

 

[no_connection]

It's a simple USB to SATA bridge, if one can't handle that function get a different one. It should not drop the connection because the disk had an error as it don't care what it does.
If you like it better you could always plug it in directly to a SATA port. The data on the disk will be the same regardless.
So long term storage is the same.

If you talk about the USB drives that are too smart for their good and does things like on the fly encryption then yes, that is a bad idea. That could indeed result in a binary access to your data.

 

[cyberjock]

It's a simple USB to SATA bridge, if one can't handle that function get a different one. It should not drop the connection because the disk had an error as it don't care what it does.

Ok, when you can find one that doesn't crap outself on a single error you will be RICH as f*ck. Because the silicon itself for USB makes this not possible. ;)

 

[no_connection]

Funny, as I have used USB for data recovery from pretty badly damaged discs, so disk errors wasn't exactly a problem. Sure lots of clicking and waiting and recovery took quite a while but it still did it.

Maybe I should take a trip to the restaurant at the end of the universe while I'm at it.

 

[Arwen]

Ok, when you can find one that doesn't crap outself on a single error you will be RICH as f*ck. Because the silicon itself for USB makes this not possible. ;)

This may help, though I don't state if will aleviate all problems;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Attached_SCSI

Edit: Okay, this may help in the future.

 

[krikboh]

No support for FreeBSD/FreeNAS. Even under Windows only works with Windows 8.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cyberjock]

This may help, though I don't state if will aleviate all problems;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Attached_SCSI

Actually, from what I've heard that doesn't solve the problems. But again, it would require support for FreeBSD which currently does not exist.

 

[anodos]

USB backups are better than not backing up but shouldn't be used as a way of avoiding doing things right.