Best way to back up NAS locally

[RChadwick]

After having a directory mysteriously disappear, I have re-realized the importance of a good backup. However, I haven't found a way built into FreeNAS to do this. Ideally, I'd love to just plug in a USB drive, and have some kind of script that copies everything over nightly. I could also do another NAS, but then the problem again is how to copy files over, other than manually. I could also leave some machine on all the time, with a program or script that backs up one NAS to another, but this seems so inefficient. I'm guessing/hoping I'm missing something. I've looked through plugins, but none seemed to be geared towards backing the NAS up to an external hard drive.
Thanks!

 

[Arwen]

Backups are important. That said, your problem may have been over-come with regular ZFS snapshots.
(If you noticed the loss before the snapshots re-cycled.) ZFS snapshots are pretty straight forward to
implement, meaning it does not require extra hardware, IF you have some free space in your Pool.

For my FreeNAS backups, I use an externally attached hard drive. But, I use the more reliable eSATA
interface. Or you can use a free slot in your NAS. My FreeNAS Mini did not have any free disk slots,
so I bought an external eSATA disk box, which also has USB 3.0 port with UAS. Today, I would have
bought a FreeNAS Mini XL instead, just for the free disk slots.

Here is a prior discussing on the subject of local backups, with my reply and procedure listed;

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/usb-hard-drives-for-backup.41901/#post-286917

 

[depasseg]

USB isn't great, eSATA (or an internal SATA connection) is better.

That being said, all you need to do is configure snapshots and replication. In the replication settings, choose the datasets you want to backup on the schedule you desire, choose 127.0.0.1 (localhost) as the destination and the target dataset on the backup drive that is the destination. Works really well. I use it here.

Snapshots state is what gets backed up, so make sure you have periodic snapshot tasks appropriate for your data.

 

[irTwit]

I follow ideas posted by Dusan using a trayless SATA enclosure and import/export scripts that configure scrubs, SMART tests and replication tasks. I keep one in the enclosure and one outside the server and swap them on the 1st and the 15th after they are scrubbed. I should add another drive into the rotation so there are at least two drives outside the server at any time.

This works for my small server with only 2TB of data but I think it would be unpractical if I had more data than could fit on a single drive.

As for the SATA tray, I was using a StarTech.com 5.25in Trayless Hot Swap Mobile Rack but occasionally the drive temp would reach 40c when doing a large replication or during a scrub. I bought an enclosure with a fan, ICY DOCK FlexCage MB973SP-2B, but haven't had a chance to test it yet.

 

[DrKK]

occasionally the drive temp would reach 40c when doing a large replication or during a scrub

While not ideal, I think the drives "occasionally" reaching 40C during an intensive but temporary process (e.g., scrub) is certainly not a big deal.

Now, if your drives are hanging out, idle, at 40C in your NAS 24/7, *that* I certainly don't recommend.

 

[guermantes]

USB isn't great, eSATA (or an internal SATA connection) is better.

In what way is USB not great? Just slower than the two other or outright not advised for backup interface?

 

[Ericloewe]

Slow, flaky, home to endless amounts of Super China Happy Sun Ultra Quality Top USB S-ATA Bidirectional UltraDMA ICs.