Backup Software Suggestions

[clifford64]

I have a TrueNAS system that has been running for a while now. I am planning on re-doing my pool here soon. Currently, my main usage for the storage is a media library. I have it setup with iSCSI and I have a 6TB virtual disk passed through to a VM. I am backing up this VM and all my other VMs with Veeam.

I am planning on changing my main pool from iSCSI with virtual disks to file level storage with network shares to make it easier for other devices to directly access the data for other purposes instead of having to go through the VM. An SSD pool will host the VMs over iSCSI still.

I have been having problems finding a backup solution that is as easy to use as Veeam. I will continue to use Veeam for VMs, but I don't want to pay the extra costs for it to handle the file share backup.

I am looking for a backup solution with the following requirements. It is quite possible what I am looking for is not attainable based on these requirements, but figured I'd check.

1. Preferably that it runs on Windows. Would like for it to run on the same backup server that Veeam runs on. The backup location is going to be the same location that the current 6TB VM backup is going to be on. This will be accessible either through a windows share or software that runs directly on this server.
2. Software has to support versioning control. I know people say rsync supports version control, but I also don't want it to just dump all files into the same folder with different time stamps.
3. Preferably have a GUI of some sort
4. Has to have email notifications. Preferably with information about what files have been changed, but this is not a deal breaker as it is not currently something I have.
5. Free

I am open to straight file level copying type software, but I need the email notifications to have peace of mind that it is working on a regular basis. My concern with file level software only is that it won't have proper versioning control and retention. If I delete a file on the server and I really don't want that file anymore, it should be fully removed from the backup after x number of days.

Just seeing if anyone has any suggestions out there or if I am being too picky for wanting something free?

 

[HoneyBadger]

I do have to ask - will ZFS snapshots and replication not handle the requirements here, or are you replicating to a non-ZFS target system?

 

[clifford64]

I do have to ask - will ZFS snapshots and replication not handle the requirements here, or are you replicating to a non-ZFS target system?

I believe it will be replicating to a non ZFS system. Will be storing the data on the same windows drive that the current 6TB VM backup is on. It will be replacing that data essentially.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I believe it will be replicating to a non ZFS system. Will be storing the data on the same windows drive that the current 6TB VM backup is on. It will be replacing that data essentially.

Understood. Looking at the list on Wikipedia for F/OSS backup software and taking into consideration the qualifiers of "hopefully runs on Windows, with a GUI" the frontrunners look like Bacula, BorgBackup, Duplicity, and the C# rewrite Duplicati (which appears to have a TrueNAS CORE plugin [1], although I'm uncertain if it's the client, server, or both)

[1] https://github.com/ix-plugin-hub/iocage-plugin-index/tree/master

 

[clifford64]

Looking at the list on Wikipedia for F/OSS backup software

I can’t believe I didn’t run into this in all my searching over the past couple of days.

the frontrunners look like Bacula, BorgBackup, Duplicity, and the C# rewrite Duplicati

I will have to look into these a little harder to see if they would be a good fit.

My first initial impressions of each are below. Not sure if anyone has any experience with any of these or others that may be able to provide beneficial insight

Bacula- potentially old? Last supported windows was windows 8/possibly server 2012

Borg- possibly a good candidate. Didn’t think it had a gui at first

Duplicity- apparently no error detection

Duplicati- looks nice, but I’ve heard about reliability issues. Not sure if that is the case or not. It was just the first thing I saw when I first heard of it.

 

[ChrisRJ]

I believe it will be replicating to a non ZFS system. Will be storing the data on the same windows drive that the current 6TB VM backup is on. It will be replacing that data essentially.

But aren't those 6 TB underpinned by TrueNAS? Perhaps a small picture would make things a bit clearer ...

 

[clifford64]

But aren't those 6 TB underpinned by TrueNAS? Perhaps a small picture would make things a bit clearer ...

Sorry. My TrueNAS system is my main storage for my current setup. My current backup system is a windows machine with a RAID card that has its own mass storage to hold the backups. This backup system currently runs Veeam. The current mass storage on this backup system is being used as a Veeam repository to hold the backup of my 6TB media VM that is actively running off TrueNAS. After the changes, I plan on removing this 6TB VM backup to switch to file level backup.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

You could snapshot and replicate the VM virtual disk. ZFS to ZFS would be blindingly fast.

 

[HoneyBadger]

You could snapshot and replicate the VM virtual disk. ZFS to ZFS would be blindingly fast.

@clifford64 doesn't have a ZFS target - his Veeam backup server is running Windows on hardware RAID - and there's a desire to move away from the 6TB VMDK as it's being used for Plex data (I recall discussing this with the OP early last year, if I'm correct)

 

[clifford64]

@clifford64 doesn't have a ZFS target - his Veeam backup server is running Windows on hardware RAID - and there's a desire to move away from the 6TB VMDK as it's being used for Plex data (I recall discussing this with the OP early last year, if I'm correct)

Correct. I think moving towards a dataset served over network shares would be easier to use and manage and be able to more easily access the files from other systems.

 

[clifford64]

Looks like FreeFileSync is going to be the winner for me.

 

[joeschmuck]

Looks like FreeFileSync is going to be the winner for me.

This does basically the same thing as SyncToy 2.1 that I use to synchronize my important files between two computers and my TrueNAS. But I'm going to give FreeFileSync a try, see if I like it more. It definitely looks to have more options.

 

[clifford64]

This does basically the same thing as SyncToy 2.1 that I use to synchronize my important files between two computers and my TrueNAS. But I'm going to give FreeFileSync a try, see if I like it more. It definitely looks to have more options.

I was able to modify a PowerShell script that I found that will run on the batch job and it will send me an email with the output of batch job. The batch job will also do versioning retention and auto deletion of old versions after a specific amount of time.