FreeNAS Disk / Backup setup options (moving from WHS 2011)

[Cocksy]

Hi All,

I'm in the process of testing FreeNAS as an alternative to my WHS2011 - I've reached the 2TB limit on it and need something to replace it. This is for a home system for photos, music, films, ISOs, etc, and some data. My current WHS setup is effectively:

• 2 x 2TB disks in mirror (using Drivepool)
• 1 x 2TB disk incremental backup using WHS built in backup for the mirrored data (no backups of clients)
• Plex on WHS

That is effectively what I'd like to set up on FreeNAS (but with 3TB disks), and I'm trying to work out the best way to do it (although I'm open to alternatives if this isn't a sensible way ahead). Reading the guides and forums, my current plan is to set up 2 disks as a mirrored volume/pool, and create a couple of various datasets for each type of media, to make it easier to separate, and share with Plex, etc.
As my data doesn't change that often / quickly, I suspect that snapshots will be a great way to help with the incremental side of the backup, but as I understand it, snapshots only work inside the volume / dataset and can't "snapshot" to a separate drive.

So, how do I effectively snapshot to another drive inside the FreeNAS server? Do I need to set up replication from my mirrored volume/pool, and enable snapshots only on the "duplicate" (target replication), or do i need snapshots on both? Or is my setup something that can be done with a jail like crashplan to make incremental backups from the mirrored pool to another volume/pool on a separate disk?
Any help greatly appreciated!

 

[kdragon75]

I don't think the replication UI supports sending snapshots to internal drives. It more geared towards replicating to a second server. That said, you can certainly setup a scheduled task in the UI to run a command that does just this. Take a look at the Oracle documentation on ZFS send. This is not an awful setup but any backups *should* be in a physically different location. I have my old FreeNAS server that Im going t do this with at the other end of the house... Just as soon as I run some fiber...

 

[pro lamer]

I don't think the replication UI supports sending snapshots to internal drive

I've heard it was possible to set remote host field to be equal to "localhost"...

Correct me if I am wrong... (a noob here)

Sent from my mobile phone

 

[Cocksy]

you can certainly setup a scheduled task in the UI to run a command that does just this. Take a look at the Oracle documentation on ZFS send.

Cheers, I'll take a look at that and see if I can set it up that way then. Ideally at some point in time I'll get a second system and put the backups on that, and maybe even move it to a different location, but for now I'm a little limited!

I've heard it was possible to set remote host field to be equal to "localhost"...

I might give that a go in my test environment then too - thanks.

I wonder how I will need snapshots enabled?

1. Just on the source?
2. On the source and the replication destination?
3. Just on the destination?

I'm guessing option 3 isn't going to work, and I have a hunch option 2 might be overkill, but not sure to be honest!

 

[sretalla]

I wonder how I will need snapshots enabled?

Enabling snapshots on the source will effectively enable it on the destination too as your incrementals will create snapshots to match those on the source (this is how the incrementals work with zfs replication). So option 2 is correct, but you only need to "do" option 1.

Make sure to look at the ssh key for the account you use to setup the replication job, this was the tricky part when I was doing it. There's a post on the forum from @TheSmoker that covers it somewhere

 

[TheSmoker]

Just do it like any other remote host destination just use locqlhost as the ip and no cypher as it makes no sense ...

Sent from my SM-T825 using Tapatalk

 

[Ericloewe]

I don't think the replication UI supports sending snapshots to internal drives.

Sure it does, it's just extremely non-obvious:

I've heard it was possible to set remote host field to be equal to "localhost"...

I mean, it's obvious once you've been told, but it's incredibly unintuitive.

 

[Cocksy]

thanks everyone; I'll take a look and do some testing when I get home!

 

[Ericloewe]

I really should start a group for WHS refugees. I'm amazed how more keep showing up in 2018.

 

[Cocksy]

I really should start a group for WHS refugees. I'm amazed how more keep showing up in 2018.

I think that would be a great idea [emoji23][emoji16].
We might be able to cobble together some quick guides on how to create a basic FreeNAS setup that is similar to the capabilities of WHS?

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[Glorious1]

I don't think the replication UI supports sending snapshots to internal drives.

I have mine set up to replicate to another, backup volume in the same server and it works great.

 

[danb35]

I mean, it's obvious once you've been told, but it's incredibly unintuitive.

...and slow, and CPU-intensive, and... Why would you route everything through SSH on the same machine?

 

[Ericloewe]

I hope the upcoming replication GUI rewrite handles local replication better.

 

[danb35]

I hope so, but the responses to earlier tickets suggest the devs are too short-sighted to see the value in local replication.