How to backup my Datasets?

[Kienaba]

Hello,

please check the image I added to this thread. This is my backup task. But now I see that the used space of my external disk, where I replicate my snapshots to, is not increased after the last replication task. So I think when my TrueNAS is broken now, I do not have any data on my external drive.

At the moment the used space of my external drive is just around 1-2GB, but my datasets are over 1 TB big. So I also want to have over 1 TB of data on my external drive to be more safer.

Maybe someone can help me out how can I backup my datasets every month on my external drive?

Thanks!

 

[Kienaba]

Not possible to backup data? I just want to move my dataset X every month to my external drive. Not more.

 

[winnielinnie]

 

[Kienaba]

Ok, but can you explain this? There is only 2GB used on Replication. This make no sense...

And it also make no sense, that the External only have 128 KiB used. TrueNAS is so confusing with their stats. Everything make no sense to me. On external there should be at least 479GB used, because of my duplicati backups.

 

[winnielinnie]

There is only 2GB used on Replication.

the External only have 128 KiB used.

Those are top-level root datasets. They should be empty.

In fact, 2GB for the root dataset ("Replication") is too high. It means you inadvertently saved data inside a root dataset directly. (It should be empty.)

You should only be storing data on child datasets; never the root dataset.



Some views give you a recursive "used space" measurement. (This includes all space on the dataset itself and its children.)

Other views only display how much space is being used directly on the dataset's filesystem itself.

It you want an accurate reading, use these commands in a terminal:

Code:

zfs list -r -t filesystem -o space Pool

Code:

zfs list -r -t filesystem -o space External

You'll notice different values, such as "USED", "USEDSNAP", "USEDDS", "USEDCHILD", etc.

 

[Kienaba]

Oh, wow.... its so confusing. Thank you for the explaination! So everything is working fine. I understand it now... Crazy. Thank you so much.

 

[winnielinnie]

You're not out of the woods yet.

You need to investigate why you have 2GB of data saved directly in the "External/Replication" dataset. My hunch is that you have files and/or folders that contain important data, which are at risk of being lost forever in the future if you forget about them. (Such as configuring a replication task that neglects them, because you mistook a "folder" for a "dataset".)

If you list its contents, it might provide a clue:

Code:

list -lah /mnt/External/Replication

 

[Kienaba]

Good point. I checked it and its just an iso image of ubuntu. I think I upoaded it there because of the vm creation. But it make no sense, that I uploaded it to the external drive. I will delete it now. Thanks again!

Edit: Ok, I can't remove it that easy, because its a read only file system. But I am afraid of change too much on the existing file system. So I do not want to change the read only mode. I do not want to broke anything

 

[winnielinnie]

Your Replication Task probably has a "set to read-only" policy enforced for the destination target.

 

[Kienaba]

Yes, you are right. I think I will ignore this ubuntu image. I mean its not a big problem, when its where, because its no important data, right? Before I destroy something, I will keep it there.

 

[Kienaba]

Hello, I have a short question again...

The Replication Task only replicate the Snapshots I made to a specific path. So it will not replicate my data, it will just move my latest snapshot I made for a specific Dataset. So when I have a job for a snapshot on the first day of the month. Then I have a new snapshot on the first day of the month and where is it? Its on the disk where the dataset is? Or on the system drive where truenas is?

And then the Replication Task will look for the latest Snapshot of a specific Dataset and will move this Snapshot to the location I entered. Right?

But does the snapshot contain all my data? So when I just have the snapshot and destroy my server with all the data. I can still recover everything, because I have the snapshot?