Replication results in empty directories

[CyberPete]

I'm using replication to back up one FreeNAS 9.10 server (call it alpha) to another (call it beta). All that appears on beta is an empty directory tree. No files!

I followed the User Guide, setting it up. I made sure all old snapshots on both alpha and beta were destroyed. The Status field on Replication Tasks says 'Up to date', yet there are no files on beta, only directories.

I did have replication working a while back, probably when I was running 9.3, but after a disaster when I assumed that all my files were backed up, but they weren't, I had to start again.

Has anybody got any ideas?

 

[Nick2253]

Can you share a little bit more about your setup? Screenshots of your Replication settings would be really helpful here.

 

[CyberPete]

My setup is two PCs sitting next to each other, in the same room, both on the same ethernet network.

These are the system info reports for each:


These are the Periodic Snapshot settings for Alpha


and the Replication settings:



These are the volumes and datasets on Beta:


This is the directory listing for the replicated file set, on Beta. The source, on Alpha, has thousands of files and hundreds of directories.

Code:

total 10
drwxrwxr-x   3 Pete  1005	  3B Feb 27 12:20 ./
drwxrwxr-x   4 root  wheel	 5B Feb 27 17:22 ../
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	 15B Feb 26 07:15 Duplex/

Replicant/Duplex:
total 24
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	 15B Feb 26 07:15 ./
drwxrwxr-x   3 Pete  1005	  3B Feb 27 12:20 ../
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  wheel	 2B Feb 10 08:01 Business/
drwxrwxrwx   2 Pete  1005	  2B Jul 11  2015 CCTV/
drwxrwxr-x+  2 root  1003	  2B Feb 10 08:03 Documents/
drwxrwxr-x+  2 root  1005	  2B Feb 10 08:05 Media/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  1005	  2B Feb 10 08:43 Media_Workshop/
drwxrwxr-x+  2 root  1005	  2B Feb 10 08:22 Photos/
drwxrwxr-x+  2 root  1008	  2B Feb 10 08:26 Software/
drwxrwxr-x+  2 root  1005	  2B Feb 10 08:29 Users/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  1005	  2B Feb 10 08:35 Writing/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  1005	  2B Feb 26 07:15 jails/
drwxrwxrwx   3 Pete  1005	 13B Feb 10 08:55 scripts/
drwxrwxr-x+  2 root  1008	  2B Feb 10 08:28 temp/
drwxrwxrwx   2 Pete  1005	  2B Feb 11 08:04 test/

Replicant/Duplex/Business:
total 9
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  wheel	 2B Feb 10 08:01 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	 15B Feb 26 07:15 ../

Replicant/Duplex/CCTV:
total 9
drwxrwxrwx   2 Pete  1005	 2B Jul 11  2015 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	15B Feb 26 07:15 ../

Replicant/Duplex/Documents:
total 9
drwxrwxr-x+  2 root  1003	 2B Feb 10 08:03 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	15B Feb 26 07:15 ../

Replicant/Duplex/Media:
total 9
drwxrwxr-x+  2 root  1005	 2B Feb 10 08:05 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	15B Feb 26 07:15 ../

Replicant/Duplex/Media_Workshop:
total 9
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  1005	 2B Feb 10 08:43 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	15B Feb 26 07:15 ../

Replicant/Duplex/Photos:
total 9
drwxrwxr-x+  2 root  1005	 2B Feb 10 08:22 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	15B Feb 26 07:15 ../

Replicant/Duplex/Software:
total 9
drwxrwxr-x+  2 root  1008	 2B Feb 10 08:26 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	15B Feb 26 07:15 ../

Replicant/Duplex/Users:
total 9
drwxrwxr-x+  2 root  1005	 2B Feb 10 08:29 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	15B Feb 26 07:15 ../

Replicant/Duplex/Writing:
total 9
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  1005	 2B Feb 10 08:35 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	15B Feb 26 07:15 ../

Replicant/Duplex/jails:
total 9
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  1005	 2B Feb 26 07:15 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	15B Feb 26 07:15 ../

Replicant/Duplex/scripts:
total 59
drwxrwxrwx   3 Pete  1005	13B Feb 10 08:55 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	15B Feb 26 07:15 ../
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Pete  1005   672B Apr  3  2015 BackupDuplex
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Pete  1005	 6B Nov 30  2014 BackupFilter
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Pete  1005   620B Nov 29  2014 BackupSimplex
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Pete  1005   925B May 17  2015 CleanDuplexBackup
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Pete  1005   881B Nov 29  2014 CleanSimplexBackup
drwxrwxrwx   2 Pete  1005	 7B Feb 10 08:55 Dropbox-Uploader/
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Pete  1005   664B May 16  2015 RestoreDuplex
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Pete  1005   916B May 16  2015 _AWAFV~R
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Pete  1005	79B Jul 20  2015 deleteMediaLibrarysnaps
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Pete  1005	59B Jul 20  2015 deleteallsnapshots
-rw-rw-rw-   1 Pete  1005   235B Jul  8  2015 deletethese

Replicant/Duplex/scripts/Dropbox-Uploader:
total 72
drwxrwxrwx  2 Pete  1005	 7B Feb 10 08:55 ./
drwxrwxrwx  3 Pete  1005	13B Feb 10 08:55 ../
-rw-rw-rw-  1 Pete  1005   6.8K Nov 18  2014 CHANGELOG.md
-rw-rw-rw-  1 Pete  1005	34K Nov 18  2014 LICENSE
-rw-rw-rw-  1 Pete  1005   6.9K Nov 18  2014 README.md
-rw-rw-rw-  1 Pete  1005   8.4K Nov 18  2014 dropShell.sh
-rw-rw-rw-  1 Pete  1005	38K Nov 18  2014 dropbox_uploader.sh

Replicant/Duplex/temp:
total 9
drwxrwxr-x+  2 root  1008	 2B Feb 10 08:28 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	15B Feb 26 07:15 ../

Replicant/Duplex/test:
total 9
drwxrwxrwx   2 Pete  1005	 2B Feb 11 08:04 ./
drwxrwxr-x  15 Pete  1005	15B Feb 26 07:15 ../

I created the Replicant and Duplex data-sets, but the system has created a second, read-only, dataset under Duplex, with the same name. Is this usual?


Thanks again,

Pete

 

[MrToddsFriends]

These are the Periodic Snapshot settings for Alpha
[...]
and the Replication settings

Is there any special reason for having the "Recursive" option set in your snapshot settings but not in your replication settings or is that an oversight? I'm just guessing here, relying on a flat dataset structure for my own stuff, so no recursive option needed, neither for snapshots nor for replications.

 

[CyberPete]

Is there any special reason for having the "Recursive" option set in your snapshot settings but not in your replication settings or is that an oversight? I'm just guessing here, relying on a flat dataset structure for my own stuff, so no recursive option needed, neither for snapshots nor for replications.

I set the Recursive option on the snapshots because I have child datasets and the User Guide seemed to indicate that I needed that set, of the child datasets would not be backed up.

Should it be enabled on the receiving side as well?

 

[MrToddsFriends]

My question aimed to the "Recursively replicate child dataset’s snapshots" checkbox on the sending side.

 

[CyberPete]

My question aimed to the "Recursively replicate child dataset’s snapshots" checkbox on the sending side.

Yes, I see that.
Problem solved now. It seems that if you have "Recursive" set on the Snapshot page of the sending side, you must also have "Recursively replicate child dataset’s snapshots" set on the Replication Task page. Otherwise, no files get copied. To my mind, that seems odd behaviour, that you can end up with no backup and no warning, but I suppose that's the way the system was designed.
Thanks for your help.