Crashplan Guide

[PhotoNAS]

I have just purchased a FreeNAS Mini and really like it so far. I upgraded from an old OpenSolaris box that just ran out of space. I have to say that FreeNAS is fantastic! It has all the features I always wanted OpenSolaris to have.

I was looking at the various offsite backup options. I understand the various tradeoffs and have decided that I am comfortable with the Crashplan's security issues given its cost and convenience.

I found a few guides to accomplish this but I noticed a few things. Each of the guides was from many months/years ago. Also, each one suggested doing slightly different things. Does anyone know of an up-to-date guide?
(What I would really love to hear is someone who has found a guide AND gone through the steps and discovered any gotchas.)

 

[SweetAndLow]

1. install plugin
2. configure using crashplans guide on headless install
3. done.

 

[PhotoNAS]

Are all the steps in this article still necessary?
http://techflow.io/blog/crashplan-plugin-for-freenas

 

[SweetAndLow]

That guide looks accurate.

 

[PhotoNAS]

That is quite a bit more work than your response implied. ;)
It clearly isn't that hard but I just wanted validation that this 1+ year old walkthrough was correct. I appreciate your validation!

Can anyone else confirm that this is still the necessary set of steps? Any gotchas on the client version trying to upgrade stuff. I read lots of things that claimed that was a problem in the past. Something about a remote java upgrade or something bizarre.

 

[depasseg]

The majority of those steps are specific to Crashplan. Yes, they are necessary.

 

[fracai]

I've always disliked the idea of changing the interface that Crashplan listens on. I prefer to use the instructions Code42 suggests and direct the local Crashplan to connect over an SSH tunnel.

 

[Mark Hodgkinson]

Anyone else having problems connecting the desktop client to the headless Crashplan since it updated to the latest release of Crashplan yesterday or is it just me? I can telnet to the port just fine but when I start the desktop client it wont make the connection.

In the ui_admin.log.0 it says:

Code:

[07.02.15 09:17:01.031 INFO    connect              com.backup42.desktop.CPDesktop          ] Connecting to service at 192.168.0.21:4243
[07.02.15 09:17:01.822 WARN    MQ-UI-0              com.code42.messaging.Session            ] **** No receiver assigned for message type class com.code42.messaging.security.SecurityProviderReadyMessage, Session[id=696384356020259875, closed=false, isAcceptor=false, lat=2015-07-02T09:17:01:821, lrt=2015-07-02T09:17:01:821, lwt=2015-07-02T09:17:01:821, #pending=0, enqueued=true, local=192.168.0.8:52540, remote=192.168.0.21:4243, usingProtoHeaders=false, usingEncryptedHeaders=false, LAN]
[07.02.15 09:17:31.817 WARN    connect              com.backup42.desktop.CPDesktop          ]     FAILED on attempt #1, aborting because something is seriously wrong.
[07.02.15 09:18:49.657 WARN    main                 com.backup42.desktop.SplashWindow       ] EXIT - unable to connect to CPService
[07.02.15 09:18:49.672 INFO    Thread-2             com.backup42.desktop.CPDesktop          ] EXITING... Normally
[07.02.15 09:18:50.373 INFO    Thread-2             com.code42.nio.SelectorEngine           ] Selector shutting down...
[07.02.15 09:18:50.373 INFO    Thread-2             com.code42.nio.SelectorEngine           ] Selector shutting down...
[07.02.15 09:18:50.373 INFO    Thread-2             com.code42.nio.SelectorEngine           ] Selector shutting down...
[07.02.15 09:18:50.373 INFO    Thread-2             com.code42.nio.SelectorEngine           ] Selector shutting down...
[07.02.15 09:18:50.373 INFO    Sel-UI-C             com.code42.nio.SelectorEngine           ] SelectorEngine stopped.
[07.02.15 09:18:50.373 INFO    Sel-UI-A             com.code42.nio.SelectorEngine           ] SelectorEngine stopped.
[07.02.15 09:18:50.374 INFO    Sel-UI-W             com.code42.nio.SelectorEngine           ] SelectorEngine stopped.
[07.02.15 09:18:50.374 INFO    Sel-UI-R             com.code42.nio.SelectorEngine           ] SelectorEngine stopped.

 

[SirMaster]

CrashPlan 4.3.0 added some extra security. There is now a UUID that each computer has that is transmitted between the client and backup service and it must match between both.

The file you need to modify on your client is called .ui_info. On Windows it's located in "C:\ProgramData\CrashPlan"

The file should contain the port your service is running on (default 4243) then the UUID of the computer that is running the crashplan backup service. Separate these 2 values with a comma. You can get the UUID of the backup service computer by looking at this same .ui_info file. For me on Linux the file was located in /var/lib/crashplan/ but might also be located in $HOME/.crashplan/

In short, simply copy the .ui_info file from your server to your client.

 

[Mark Hodgkinson]

Thanks, I copied the contents of that file to my client and it didn't work. However I have noticed that the port value and UUID seem to change, for example the port number in that file is currently 4295 (earlier it was 4260 with a different UUID (before I restarted Crashplan)) but if I telnet to 4243 then Crashplan responds so that is the port its running on. Any ideas?

 

[SirMaster]

Maybe I shouldn't have said to copy the whole file. Just make sure the UUID in the client matches that of the servers and specify port 4243 on the client. You also need to have the ui.properties file modified with the serviceHost= and servicePort= properties set to your servers IP and port 4243.

 

[Mark Hodgkinson]

Thanks, yes I tried that. Will see if its possible to switch this security off or roll back to an older version and disable automatic updates, I've been using Crashplan since it first launched and this has made it unusable for me.

 

[SirMaster]

Well I am not sure why that does not work for you. It's been working for me ever since the update and I put the UUID into my client.

 

[Mark Hodgkinson]

Thanks, in which case I may just rebuild my Crashplan jail from scratch and see if that sorts it out.

 

[Mark Hodgkinson]

Thanks for your help, I managed to get it working in the end after hours of rebuilding and retrying :)

 

[Andrew076]

I can't seem find the ".ui_info" file on my windows machine (and I am showing hidden items incase that was the issue)

 

[SirMaster]

Is the CrashPlan client up to date on your Windows machine?

 

[Andrew076]

Is the CrashPlan client up to date on your Windows machine?

Yes, the splash screen says 4.3.0

 

[SirMaster]

Maybe just do a complete search of your disk. It must exist somewhere. Maybe reinstall the crashplan client.

 

[Andrew076]

Maybe just do a complete search of your disk. It must exist somewhere. Maybe reinstall the crashplan client.

I did do a complete search... I am going to uninstall and reinstall again (I did that last night) and see if it creates it... I wish someone would create a service for FREENAS that was supported... sigh