Backup solutions for FreeNAS?

[JeffSelf13]

I've been running my FreeNAS system for about 2 months now with no issues. I have an 8 drive system with 6 of the drives using 4TB NAS drives. I'll be replacing the last two drives over the next two months. I'm running Plex on my server and have put my entire DVD and Blu-Ray collection on there. I'm also putting all photos from my wife as well as my Lightroom catalog there. Which leads to my question. How do I back up FreeNAS?

I see there's a plugin for Crashplan. Is this the most recommended? I'm currently using Backblaze for my wife's MacBook Pro and my iMac. Does anyone use BackBlaze with FreeNAS?

Appreciate all advice!

 

[Kevin Horton]

I've been running my FreeNAS system for about 2 months now with no issues. I have an 8 drive system with 6 of the drives using 4TB NAS drives. I'll be replacing the last two drives over the next two months. I'm running Plex on my server and have put my entire DVD and Blu-Ray collection on there. I'm also putting all photos from my wife as well as my Lightroom catalog there. Which leads to my question. How do I back up FreeNAS?

I see there's a plugin for Crashplan. Is this the most recommended? I'm currently using Backblaze for my wife's MacBook Pro and my iMac. Does anyone use BackBlaze with FreeNAS?

Crashplan running on the NAS has been problematic for many people. I side-step those issues by running Crashplan on my Mac, and selecting the shares on the NAS as items to be backed up. I also use rsync to backup the most important data onto two external drives that I connect to the Mac.

My medium term plan is to build up a second FreeNAS box, have it an offsite location, and use ZSH replication to back up to it.

 

[nojohnny101]

I built myself a low-spec second FreeNAS box and use replication over SSH (the box is offsite).

 

[droeders]

I currently take a multi-pronged approach to my backups. Keep in mind that I'm paranoid about my data and I don't trust my personal info in the cloud.

1. I have cloud storage for non-personal things that I can replace, but don't want to. This includes ISOs of all my DVDs and Blurays, FLAC rips of all my CDs, my MythTV recordings, etc. Similar to @Kevin Horton I use a Linux VM to mount (read-only) any of the ZFS datasets I want backed up, and I use the Crashplan frontend from this Linux VM.
   
2. I have a separate local FreeBSD machine with a 2-large-disc ZFS mirror that I use for nightly, weekly, and monthly snapshots. I'm currently using rsnapshot for this, but I will likely move to ZFS snapshots in the future. This protects me from accidental deletions, allows me to roll back to older file revisions, etc.
3. I have 2 ESATA drives that I keep off-site in case of fire, theft, or other catastrophe. These are formatted for ZFS so that I can at least detect if there's bit rot. Approximately every two weeks, I bring one of these drives home, rsync my critical (non-cloud) data to it, and run a ZFS scrub after the rsync has finished. I also run SMART long tests every other backup to these drives. I always keep at least one of the drives off-site, and both of them the majority of the time.
   
4. I have archive quality Bluray backups of my most critical data kept in a remote location several hundred miles away (my parents' house). These are a last ditch effort if all my other backups fail. I typically only update these about once a year, and I hope I never need them. I'm currently trying to find a better, but still economical, way to do this as my most critical data is getting a bit large for this approach.

By keeping my largest dataset in the cloud (music, videos, etc), I don't require very large drives for my two offsite critical data backup drives. Obviously, other folks have different sizes of datasets, paranoia levels, and requirements, so my approach may not fit your needs.

 

[James Random]

Crashplan running on the NAS has been problematic for many people. I side-step those issues by running Crashplan on my Mac, and selecting the shares on the NAS as items to be backed up. I also use rsync to backup the most important data onto two external drives that I connect to the Mac.

Crash plan has just stopped working (again) on my NAS. I have given up trying to keep it going. I am thinking of trying a similar approach to this now.

 

[Evertb1]

I haven't got a huge amount of data but backing it up is important to me. As a former Windows Homeserver user I was used to let the server take care of all the backup jobs (with some third party tooling of course) . Making the switch to FreeNAS forced me to rethink some things. As the FreeNAS box is the only machine running 24/7 in my household, it should be able to take care of the backups. But I am afraid I still need to figure some things out before that is the case. In the mean time I have chosen to run back-up software from my Windows Workstation. All the data on the FreeNAS box is available in shares. I run GenieTimeline pro to back up all te shares to a (cheap ass Zyxel) 4 bay Nas (with 4 x 6 TB WD red in mirrors). It is only in use for that purpose: holding my backups. Of my more precious data (family photos etc.) I keep extra backups in the cloud. My photo archive is also written to Blu-ray disks but that is a pain the b*t. I also have a "scratch disk" on my workstation holding a bunch of multimedia files (dumps from cameras etc.) that are waiting for processing. Those get a daily backup to some external disks (eSata). It's maybe not an ideal solution but it works for now.

 

[hescominsoon]

Something I am going to try is running a windows vm..load crashplan on it..and let it "see" the volume i want backedup....

 

[chris crude]

I haven't got a huge amount of data but backing it up is important to me. As a former Windows Homeserver user I was used to let the server take care of all the backup jobs (with some third party tooling of course) . Making the switch to FreeNAS forced me to rethink some things. As the FreeNAS box is the only machine running 24/7 in my household, it should be able to take care of the backups. But I am afraid I still need to figure some things out before that is the case. In the mean time I have chosen to run back-up software from my Windows Workstation. All the data on the FreeNAS box is available in shares. I run GenieTimeline pro to back up all te shares to a (cheap ass Zyxel) 4 bay Nas (with 4 x 6 TB WD red in mirrors). It is only in use for that purpose: holding my backups. Of my more precious data (family photos etc.) I keep extra backups in the cloud. My photo archive is also written to Blu-ray disks but that is a pain the b*t. I also have a "scratch disk" on my workstation holding a bunch of multimedia files (dumps from cameras etc.) that are waiting for processing. Those get a daily backup to some external disks (eSata). It's maybe not an ideal solution but it works for now.

That Genie Timeline is a decent program it seems. I don't have issues backing up to FreeNAS or restoring from it. I'm not sure about the file structures of the backup though. I have it set to monitor a few partitions, if I want to browse through the backup files I have to go about 4 folder levels deep. I want to run Plex server on FreeNAS now but I haven't set it up yet, I wonder if that strange folder structure will be an issue when mounting them to a plex library.

 

[Evertb1]

That Genie Timeline is a decent program it seems. I don't have issues backing up to FreeNAS or restoring from it. I'm not sure about the file structures of the backup though. I have it set to monitor a few partitions, if I want to browse through the backup files I have to go about 4 folder levels deep. I want to run Plex server on FreeNAS now but I haven't set it up yet, I wonder if that strange folder structure will be an issue when mounting them to a plex library.

Yes Genie Timeline is a pretty good program. I am running it for about 14 months now and am still satisfied. In fact, I am glad I have documented some of the settings etc. because it's running so smooth that I never touch it.

About that mounting of your backup folders to your Plex library: Do you want Plex to stream your backup media? I don't think that's a wise way to handle your backup files. To me a backup is just that, a backup. Other then the needed backup, maintenance and restore actions (restoring hopelfully not often) I want to leave my backup media alone.

 

[chris crude]

Yes Genie Timeline is a pretty good program. I am running it for about 14 months now and am still satisfied. In fact, I am glad I have documented some of the settings etc. because it's running so smooth that I never touch it.

About that mounting of your backup folders to your Plex library: Do you want Plex to stream your backup media? I don't think that's a wise way to handle your backup files. To me a backup is just that, a backup. Other then the needed backup, maintenance and restore actions (restoring hopelfully not often) I want to leave my backup media alone.

I understand leaving a backup machine purely as a backup, my machine has been used purely for that reason for over a year. I want to use more features of FreeNas, and already have my primary machine and 2 backups. Figured I would move my Plex server from my Win10 machine to FreeNas to utilize the better hardware that goes mostly unused.