Backup

[Tom7320]

Hi!

I'd like to backup my data on a ZFS storage pool to an external USB3 HDD and I'm looking for the best way to do this:

• rsync vs. zfs send/receive?
• What filesystem is best on the target? Fastest? Safest?
• Is there a "GUI way" (planned?) or do I have to use terminal?
• What's your practical experience?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Malpensilo]

I would be very interested to know the answers to these questions myself.

 

[Tom7320]

I've read a lot about ZFS the last couple of days and I think it should be possible with zfs send/receive to duplicate a complete ZFS storage pool. But I'm wondering why nobody seems to ever have done this before with FreeNAS..... :(

 

[Malpensilo]

Yes, that has come up somewhere. I seem to remember thinking that a good fall back strategy would be to have another (inferior) FreeNAS setup mirroring the original, using rsync. Then, in the event of a catastrophe, to just replace the backup machine for the main one. We seem to have a few crappy old PCs that could do this.

By the way, my new blog here http://freenasnoob.wordpress.com/ shows my ponderous efforts to come up with a decent backup strategy. I will be updating frequently as I learn more. Any help you can offer gladly accepted.

 

[cyberjock]

You can do just about anything you want. You can even go to the command line and just do a "cp" command.

There's pluses and minuses each, some have limition in their function and performance. If you've never done any of them I'd recommend you take the time to do them all so you can see what they do and don't do well. Think of it as a learning exercise.

I've read a lot about ZFS the last couple of days and I think it should be possible with zfs send/receive to duplicate a complete ZFS storage pool. But I'm wondering why nobody seems to ever have done this before with FreeNAS..... :(

And people have. It's just not something that's a big deal to setup and use.

 

[Tom7320]

For me it is quite a big deal! I am using rsync for Backup since the last two decades and it works well. But I'm still new to ZFS and its possibilities....
It was really great if FreeNAS had a GUI way of a simple backup to an external HDD.... :)

 

[cyberjock]

The manual provides good instructions for setting up and running snapshots and replication. :)

 

[Tom7320]

Yes i have read the manual! There are instructions for backups on remote servers, but not on an external HDD. But it should be similar I suppose....

 

[Tom7320]

It might be too trivial to post it here, but maybe it still helps someone. At present I use an external USB HDD with whatever filesystem FreeNAS supports on it and a simple Bash script with rsync to copy all my important data to that HDD:

Code:

#! /bin/bash
 
set -eu
 
SRC="/mnt/vol1/"
DES="/mnt/backup/"
EXC="/mnt/vol1/bin/exclude"
 
if [ ! -d $DES ]; then
    mkdir $DES
fi
 
mount /dev/da1p1 $DES
rsync -havP --delete --stats --exclude-from=$EXC $SRC $DES
umount $DES

Exclude looks similar to this:

Code:

- /.freenas/
- /TimeMachine/
- /jroot/
- /jsoft/

I'm still looking for a way to automount the HDD after switching it on.... :)