Backup strategy (local disk) help

[sjordan]

I think I have my Nas4Free server just how I want it. So I am getting close to going live with this thing. One thing that is still on my list to do is backups.

First let me give you some info on what I want to accomplish. I run a professional photograph business on the side. My current setup is 2 Mac machines. With the release of the new MacBook Pro I decided to consolidate my systems to one new MacBook. In order to do this I needed a place to store all of my images (over 3 TB). As you can see I went with Nas4Free. I plan to use AFP to share my photos and work out of those directories. Most of these files will be RAW images or very large TIFF and PSD files.

In the past my backup solution was this:
First line of defense was my TimeMachine. All my important files were backed up using timemachine.
Second line of defense was CrashPlan. Crashplan was setup on the mac to get all my important files

Now with Nas4Free I have a few challenges. Since I am using AFP shares to access my files TimeMachine is out of the question for backing up the images. I can still use TimeMachine for OS backups and anything I store locally on the MacBook Pro. Here is my setup:
Pool0 - RaidZ 3x3TB Drives - This will store all my photos
Pool1 - Stripe 2x3TB Drives - This is where I want to store local backups

So here is my question 1. What is the best method for me to get something similar to Timemachine? Rsync, ZFS Send or Snapshots....or a combination?

I believe I should be able to get CrashPlan working on the system. I have read that a few people have it working on freebsd 8 and 9.

[armandh]

I have not but this fellow did it way back when
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ME54-N- ... ure=fvwrel
at the 6 minute point of the video he talks about time capsule use

[sjordan]

I know how to setup timemachine....but timemachine will not work for what I want to do.

[armandh]

sorry but I am a PC person using Acronis software to image the computer Hdd(s) to the NAS4Free box
but however MAC backs up the OS [as opposed to the data] it should work
the answer here discusses software for mac
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=278164

[sjordan]

I am guessing you don't understand what I am trying to do here. Osx backups I can handle. I am trying to come up with a strategy for backing up my zfs pools/datasets

[fgrayson]

Look into rsync.

[armandh]

you are right
I did not understand

making copies of a back up when the original is available to make the copies from is dangerous [IMHO]
if there is some fault with the first it renders the second bad as well; where as
making the second [possibly cloud] back up from the originals provides a good second if the first is unusable.

think this through please

I back up 3+ ways
to a second drive and alternately to 2 NAS
a very small amount of really important stuff gets a monthly disk hand off for off premiss storage

[kenZ71]

I use ZFS mostly so backups are ridiculously easy.

At all times the NAS is writing all data to two drives.

Once a month I pull one drive and swap in a 3rd. Then run the ZFS resilver command to rebuild the raid. The drive that just came out goes in my desk drawer at work. Simple cost effective off site backup.

[sjordan]

kenz71

So I am guessing you have a mirror setup. That strategy unfortunately will not work for me. My pool is a raidz pool

[sjordan]

armandh: Crashplan is my offsite plan. There is a linux version which can be ran on freebsd

What I am trying to do is have something in house that I can use in case I loose my raidz (2 drives go bad).

[armandh]

a second NAS4Free has to be the easiest if I had a neighbor close enough it could go off prem too.
I have Cu pairs to the tractor shed but it is about 300 meters
only 10T works and a directional WiFi probably would be faster
but 10T beats cloud up link speeds

set up an additional Zmirror in the same box and use such as kenZ71 does is another option

[aaronb]

In answer to your question:

ZFS send would be the most effecient, however, this isn't in the GUI that I know of. Thus you are talking about setting up scripts, cron jobs, etc.

Next best solution would be Rsync. There are options to do a local Rysnc. See Service -> Rsync -> Local tab.
You can then set it to run on a schedule and sync up the 2 drives.

As a side note - snapshots are not a backup method, per se, since they exist on the local drive. What they are excellent for is being able to step back a bit in history and pull older revisions of files forward. There are 2 particularly useful reasons to snapshot the drive that I know of:
1. Accidental deletion.
2. Corruption of current file (be it bad save, you made changes you didn't intend, etc...)
Snapshots should use minimal space on the drive unless you change a lot of data between each snapshot. I do recommend setting up the snapshots on your ZFS drive just to deal with those 'oops' moments. Note that you need to balance snapshot frequency for your particular style of recovery. While they don't use a lot of space, they do take a moment and some space to create. Microsoft's defaults for NTFS snapshots on the server (Volume Shadow Services) is 2 times a day at 7:00am and 12:00pm local. These aren't bad choices.

[aaronb]

Additional thought:
Don't put effort into thinking about cloning the snapshots to the second drive (that is why ZFS send would be better, btw - it can replicate the snaps).

What you really want to do is schedule the snapshot on the second drive to occur immediately before the Rsync from the primary. That way you get snapshots on your duplicate backup which correspond to the changes being duplicated from the primary.