Cloud - Stick with Crashplan?

[Fish]

Currently, I'm using CrashPlan home for my laptop, but I want something that will back up my entire NAS to the cloud. I've been using CrashPlan for a year, but it sounds from the forums here that it's super finicky to get working and keep it working. My year subscription is almost up so now would be the time for me to switch...

Should I stick with CrashPlan? Or to put it another way: what's the cheapest and easiest cloud solution for backing FreeNAS volumes up to the cloud?

 

[danb35]

The cheapest is almost certainly CrashPlan. Easiest--well, CP can be challenging on FreeNAS. I've followed the suggestions of some others here and installed CrashPlan for Linux in a Ubuntu VM, shared the parts of my server that I want to back up as read-only NFS exports, and mounted those in the VM. That I've found to work very well so far. I'm running that VM under Proxmox, but you could just as easily run it under Virtualbox on your FreeNAS server.

 

[Fish]

The cheapest is almost certainly CrashPlan. Easiest--well, CP can be challenging on FreeNAS. I've followed the suggestions of some others here and installed CrashPlan for Linux in a Ubuntu VM, shared the parts of my server that I want to back up as read-only NFS exports, and mounted those in the VM. That I've found to work very well so far. I'm running that VM under Proxmox, but you could just as easily run it under Virtualbox on your FreeNAS server.

Would that be a resource hog to use Virtualbox under FreeNAS as opposed to the pluginjail? Also, is running the latest version worth all the headache of doing it manually? Or would turning on the plugin work just fine

 

[pirateghost]

aside from the 10 minutes I need to fix the remote GUI connection after every update, I don't see any issues with Crashplan at all. Could probably even script it and not have to deal with it. Even if the remote GUI isn't working, it is still backing up my files.

 

[Fish]

aside from the 10 minutes I need to fix the remote GUI connection after every update, I don't see any issues with Crashplan at all. Could probably even script it and not have to deal with it. Even if the remote GUI isn't working, it is still backing up my files.

So it's pretty easy to fix the issues when updates break the connection? Do you ever have to update the plugin? Or just the desktop app

 

[pirateghost]

So it's pretty easy to fix the issues when updates break the connection? Do you ever have to update the plugin? Or just the desktop app

The plugin and the client update themselves on my machines.

I know a lot of people have issues with the updates but I haven't had any.

 

[ggoldfingerd]

I'm also debating Crashplan. This seems like a good route, but it will require a decent amount of RAM depending upon the backup size. I'm also wondering what will happen in FreeNAS 10. It will take me a long time to back everything up and I wouldn't want have to switch to something else in FreeNAS 10.

 

[SweetAndLow]

After setting it up once i have never bothered to connect again using the remote gui connection. It just works but I'm sure I will have to fiddle with it if i want to change something.

 

[fracai]

I'm also debating Crashplan. This seems like a good route, but it will require a decent amount of RAM depending upon the backup size. I'm also wondering what will happen in FreeNAS 10. It will take me a long time to back everything up and I wouldn't want have to switch to something else in FreeNAS 10.

What are you expecting to change in FreeNAS 10? If anything I'd expect things to get easier as you'll be able to install Crashplan to a Linux VM with bhyve.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I'm sure I will have to fiddle with it if i want to change something.

It's a little-known fact that most CrashPlan settings can be modified by logging into your account on their website. The way they format the page, it looks like everything is read-only, but in fact that label indicates a column of checkboxes that you can use to disable changes from the client.

 

[Fish]

Has anyone set it up recently? There are multiple threads here on the forum with instructions that seem to conflict with each other. I tried running a few down, but got stuck on each one.

 

[Walter Gunter]

I got it working running the Client on Linux. I used the 3.6.3 plugin that comes with FreeNAS, and downloaded the 4.3 client. It was able to connect. It eventually updated to 4.5 Client, but it had already connected, so all is well.
There are a couple of good resources out there, the biggest thing is to just ignore the .ui_info step since it isn't in 3.6.3: https://github.com/sirkkalap/freenas-crashplan-howto

Great reference, just make sure you have the port forwarding enabled from the Linux machine to the FreeNas machine (it's in the steps)
Also, remember to change the ui.properties to match the instructions.
That's just to get the plugin running and connected. The other issue is generating storage and I created one (the source has to be outside of the jail, but the destination is in the crashplan jail)....not sure if I have a good grasp on this (it is working and backing up, but still not clear where the data goes (to which volume), since the storage was read only....)