Rsync Between 2 FreeNAS 8 Servers

[krhoades7601]

Good Afternoon!

Simple and to the point version of my question:

Is there a way to put multiple paths in the Rsync Task? I want to rsync several directory structures instead of one.


Detailed version of my question:

I have two FreeNAS 8.0.4 servers up and running. FreeNAS Server A stores backups of all virtual machines that are housed on an ESXi 4.0 server. These backups are done through PHDVirtual Backup with NFS. FreeNAS Server B will be a backup server to Server A. Once the backups are seeded, I would like to move Server B to a remote location and push changed data across the WAN from Server A to Server B.

Here is my dilemma! Since there will be too much data to transfer across the WAN in the evenings or even on the weekend (600GB total size with about 50GB daily of changes), my thought is that I would only replicate changed data for a specific virtual machine. Maybe do one virtual machine per weekend. Directories are created on Server A in the backups directory and are names with a UUID number created by VMware. So the directory structure will look something like this:

/mnt
/mnt/tangobup
/mnt/tangobup/exports
/mnt/tangobup/blocks
/mnt/tangobup/.freenas
/mnt/tangobup/backups
564d1f1d-4f60-adf4-fc31-ea20c7bf9e6 (THESE ARE THE UUID numbers assigned by VMware--I have about 20 virtual machines in the list)
564d4e58-8009-d042-010c-98322ab7d
/mnt/tangobup/cbt

I have created an Rsync Task on Server A and a Modual on Server B pushing data from Server A to Server B. Is there a way to select multiple paths when I am Rsyncing? Meaning If I create a task to replicated the directory /mnt/tangobup/backups/564d1f1d-4f60-adf4-fc31-ea20c7bf9e6 how can I also add /mnt/tangobup/blocks because in order to keep everything in sync I would have to catch all other directories that may have changed as well.

Any information that you can provide would be helpful, even if there is another way to be performing this syncing process.

Thanks!

 

[louisk]

I'm wondering, if each VM generates 50G of daily changes, and you rsync 1 VM per week, with a total number of VMs being 20, the rotation will take 20weeks (5mo). So your backups will exist (being slightly sloppy here) once every 6mo for any particular VM. Given that they make 50G of changes, only having a backup that is 6mo old doesn't seem very useful.

 

[krhoades7601]

Rsync to Rsync

louisk,

I agree, but I am using Super File Syncronizer to sync the actual data nightly. I just want the VM. That way if disaster should strike, I can restore the VM and then just restore the data to the virtual machine.

 

[louisk]

I would suggest you look into doing ZFS snapshots. At least that way you'll only be sending differential instead of all the data all the time.

 

[krhoades7601]

I will try that today! Will that take longer across a WAN than Rsync? I currently have 3 MG up and 3 MG down coming out of the main office.

 

[louisk]

Well, if you are copying the same amount of data, it should take the same amount of time, but sometimes, copying it in more frequent, but smaller chunks can make things work out better on the network.