Site to Site FreeNAS?

[bencooke]

I've read a lot of threads on this subject over the years, but was never satisfied with the answers. I've got a client that has an office in Georgia and one in Alabama. This is literally the second client I've had in the exact same situation. I'm going to be installing Ubiquiti equipment on each end and have a site to site VPN connecting the two offices. I've sold them on a TrueNAS system, utilizing Nextcloud for their sharing needs. They will have a TrueNAS system in each location with the exact same hardware.

Their main office is in Georgia, but I want the Alabama office to be able to get to the same files just as fast as the Georgia office can, as well as utilizing both servers as an offsite backup against each other. My thoughts were to install the exact same hardware and software in both locations and have some kind of geographical DNS load balancing, so that people in Alabama going to example.com will hit the Alabama Nextcloud server and the workers in Georgia going to example.com will hit the Georgia Nextcloud server.

The thing I'm trying to figure out, is how to sync both servers to have the same files at all times. I'm not sure if FreeNAS/TrueNAS can do this or if this is something that Nextcloud can take care of. I thought FreeNAS replication would do this, maybe it does, I don't know. I did it once and I don't remember being able to use the replicated files other than to restore the system they were replicated from. I've also tried federated sharing, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense. I don't want to be able to distinguish between the two Nextcloud instances at all. I want it to sync users and groups as well. I really don't want to be able to distinguish between the TrueNAS systems either, other than IP address.

Is this possible....easily?

 

[Chris Moore]

I've sold them on a TrueNAS system

With TrueNAS, iXsystems will come onsite and set the system up the way it needs to be. You just tell them what you want. It is 'white glove' service.

just as fast as the Georgia office can

There is going to be a time factor while data is copied.

some kind of geographical DNS load balancing

That is completely outside the scope of the NAS. Did you talk to the folks with TrueNAS? It isn't the same product as FreeNAS. Not exactly.
https://www.incapsula.com/load-balancing/dns-load-balancing-failover.html

Is this possible....easily?

You really should contact the TrueNAS support folks. If you are buying that product, it comes with support.

 

[bencooke]

I wasn't told about them coming on site to set it up when I talked to my sales rep. That's really nice to know and a great service!

I understand that copying a file over the internet will take time. I just want the files that exist after being copied to be equally accessible at LAN rate of speed for both offices.

The DNS part is on me, so I don't expect anything from TrueNAS in this regard. I just wanted my intentions to be clear.

Thank you for the information Chris! I'll call them today.

 

[Chris Moore]

I wasn't told about them coming on site to set it up when I talked to my sales rep. That's really nice to know and a great service!

I may have spoken out of turn. That may be a different service tier. My organization had talked to them about getting a system installed, but we couldn't iron out the details.

I understand that copying a file over the internet will take time. I just want the files that exist after being copied to be equally accessible at LAN rate of speed for both offices.

If I were setting that up, I would probably use rsync, but I would have the documents that came from the other office in a read-only state in an effort to prevent two people from editing the same document at the same time.

 

[l@e]

It mostly depends how those users are gone work with files, if it will be smb shares once any of them wherever he is located opens a file in editing, all the rest will se the file as readonly.
If you plan using nextcloud with local sync in each pc there might create a confusion since it will keep the last file modified.

Also what are paying for LAN speed of the 2sites as internet connection? Even if you have that high speed link the devices doing the tunel have some limits on encryption of the tunnel.

All is relevant to what they use/need the realtime update of the content.

Yes you can replicate and keep the boxes as backups of each other and best advices based on that, IX will give the best solution since they know evey aspect on delays and throughputs.

When you say dns based on geo you are assuming that the users will connect from outside the company premises? If not, a simple subnet prioritization can do the job.