Backing up volume to USB drive using Rsync for offsite backup

[prhammer]

I am definitely a N00b to FreeNAS. I have set up a FreeNAS box with 1 volume using two 1tb drives in a mirror. Our practice with our previous file server was to use Grsync to run a daily backup to an external USB drive that was taken offsite each night using the following options:

rsync -r -n -t -p -g -v --progress --delete -u /home/CompanyShared/volume_b/ /media/AnselBU/volume_b/

Now I need to get the same plan set up on the FreeNAS system. So I have two needs:

1. How do I mount the USB drive so that I can eject it each night and then have it remount when I plug it in the next day? Currently it shows up in the list of drives as da5. Do I need to use the shell to mount the disk? If so, what is the command?

2. I'm assuming that once it is mounted I can use rsync to set up a job using similar settings to the ones we used previously. But it appears that you set up rsync differently in FreeNAS using modules. So I'm not quite sure how to replicate the command above into the module format.

Edit: I'm using FreeNAS 8.3.1

Thanks for your assistance,
Ron

 

[paleoN]

1. How do I mount the USB drive so that I can eject it each night and then have it remount when I plug it in the next day?

You can do this via the GUI if you like.

2. I'm assuming that once it is mounted I can use rsync to set up a job using similar settings to the ones we used previously. But it appears that you set up rsync differently in FreeNAS using modules. So I'm not quite sure how to replicate the command above into the module format.

Not sure if FreeNAS currently supports a local rsync. There should be an existing ticket about this. You can always run the rsync via cron if need be.

 

[cyberjock]

Thanks for editing your post and adding your version. :)

There have been several people that have used USB drives for backups. It's really, really not recommended for a bunch of reasons. You still need to be performing scrubs(which at 30MB/sec max could take a VERY long time), USB drives are not portable(the manual always has warnings that say they aren't portable and shouldn't be used in portable applications), USB drives generally disconnect themselves from the host on any error, etc.

Personally, I think that you should reconsider your plan for backups and find a better solution. Quite a few people have tried this and it didn't work out too well when they had to do a recovery.

 

[michel de geofroy]

what would you suggest for offi site backup ?

 

[cyberjock]

I've answered that question quite a few times in the last week. Please search for my detailed answers in those threads.

Thanks.