Backup tips (and apps)

[DarkCorner]

In the NAS there are only two shared work folders that coincide with two datasets.
The space occupied is around 70/80GB each, but they are mostly text files which when compressed can take up much less space.
For these datasets I already have hourly snapshots with one day retention and daily snapshots with 2 week retention.

I can't do a cloud backup because the line is an old ADSL with 1Mb upload.

I have a QNAP TS-212P which has about 800GB of available space.
I haven't found a guide for doing replications or RSync tasks.
In any case, it doesn't seem to me that with these two types of tasks it is possible to compress the files on the destination storage.
I could back up from a PC, reading the two shared folders and writing to the QNAP, but I wonder if it's not possible to do it directly from TrueNAS.

In the apps, I can't find any of the applications I know (like Duplicati, for example).
The active catalog is

GitHub - truenas/charts: TrueNAS SCALE Apps Catalogs & Charts

TrueNAS SCALE Apps Catalogs & Charts. Contribute to truenas/charts development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Many tanks in advance for any help and advice.

 

[sfatula]

Other backup apps can be loaded via Launch Docker Image. For me, I am using Kopia docker, very fast. Duplicati also has a docker container.

 

[DarkCorner]

Other backup apps can be loaded via Launch Docker Image. For me, I am using Kopia docker, very fast. Duplicati also has a docker container.

From which repository? I see 12 URLs here.
But isn't there an updated guide for configuring Docker?

 

[Davvo]

Wasn't docker going to be removed from SCALE in favour of kubernets?

 

[tprelog]

Wasn't docker going to be removed from SCALE in favour of kubernets?

I think Scale is already using Kubernetes - it's only the backend being switched away from Docker.

 

[ChrisRJ]

I can't do a cloud backup because the line is an old ADSL with 1Mb upload.

It is not clear at all what your upload speed is. Please specify.

Even if it were only 1 Mbps, that in and of itself would not necessarily be a showstopper. The change rate is also relevant. If you have about 2 MB of changes per day, that would not be a problem. Yes, the initial upload takes ages. But I have done something similar about 2 years ago and it works well.

 

[sfatula]

From which repository? I see 12 URLs here.
But isn't there an updated guide for configuring Docker?

View attachment 70505

Docker hub

 

[sfatula]

Wasn't docker going to be removed from SCALE in favour of kubernets?

Only the docker command is going away. The containers will still run fine using containerd. If they removed that, then no apps would work even theirs.

 

[DarkCorner]

@ChrisRJ
@sfatula
@Davvo
@tprelog
The upload bandwidth is between 700Kb and 1.5Mb.
I've already tried launching backups to Dropbox or Google Drive from a PC with Duplicati.
The problem is not only that when the backup is active no other service is able to use the Internet, but above all the time taken when the full backup is very large.
There are 4 PCs to backup, that's a discussion now closed.

Today I have a backup of the PCs on TrueNAS and now I want to copy the files to a second QNap NAS. I am completely at a standstill because every attempt is never successful.

With RSync there are problems, installing the Resilio or Syncthing apps appears
Error: [EFAULT] Kubernetes service is not running.

Frankly speaking, you can't dedicate that much time.
There is a lack of effective documentation, not everyone is a Docker expert. I, for example, have never used it and simply need to install an application on the NAS.

Now I'm watching a guide on Youtube to use Docker apps.

If I can't do that either, I install the apps on a Windows PC and use that.
I find it absurd that I will have to read from one NAS to write to a second NAS creating double network traffic, but I can no longer resend backups after two weeks of working on them.

 

[Aipoc76]

Do a cloud backup from 1 nas to the other. Use SFTP as your cloud service. Just use the NAS IP Addresses, not a cloud service. shouldn't take too long to backup 200GB.

 

[Davvo]

He is not willing to use the Cloud, so stop proposing that.
He needs to understand how to backup from one nas to another: if it were another TN OS on the target machine I trust that rsync would work painlessly.

What were the steps you did in order to use rsync?
Please do understand that TN requires some degree of strudy since it's made for professionals and not general users.

Configuring Rsync Tasks

Provides instructions on adding rsync tasks with two methods, SSH connection and module.

www.truenas.com

 

[Aipoc76]

re-read what i typed. Have a nice Day :)

 

[Davvo]

re-read what i typed.

Fair, I stopped after cloud backup

 

[Heracles]

Here, I do zfs replication between different TrueNAS. One of them is at my father's place about 400 Km away. Considering the size of the initial sync and the limited upload bandwidth for home internet access, I did that first sync at my place. Once done, I kept it here until I had the opportunity to go see my father. Once deployed there, the sync only had to do the deltas and that is how it works since that.

As for a complete backup strategy, you can see mine in my signature.

 

[sfatula]

Clould sync from Truenas to the other NAS should work fine. As a second backup, you could use an external drive and replicate to it. I have a rotating set of 2 external drives as extra copies of certain data for off site (bank) storage. NAS to NAS is fine, doesn't help with theft or fire, etc.

The snapshots are a form of backup (and versioned), but I presume you are just storing them on Truenas so they are for convenience only and not a helpful backup in case of disaster.

I realize OP is not wanting external cloud as his upload is so slow. But despite that, just throwing it out, one can limit the upload bandwidth used for storing offsite, or, one might only run it during sleep time and as long as it's an auto restart type backup, offsite could eventually work. I used to have slow upload and there are potential tricks. First backup might take quite a while but once finally done, it is likely any updates could process overnight.

 

[Heracles]

The snapshots are a form of backup

Unfortunately, No they are not and that is a very common mistaken.

but I presume you are just storing them on Truenas

It is impossible to do other way...

Snapshot are no backups and people must understand that clearly.

They have their use for sure but they are no backups.

ZFS replication uses snapshots itself but when we talk about this mechanism, we talk about replication or zfs send / zfs receive.

 

[ChrisRJ]

On the subject of snapshots and backups: I would argue that snapshots can indeed be seen as a special type of backup. Overall my view is that backups have a set of properties that help to mitigate certain risks. A backup on a second local NAS protects against any kind of hardware failure on the primary NAS. But, assuming it is always connected, there is considerable risk that a lightning strike will not only fry the primary but also the secondary machine. An optical disk (DVD, Blue Ray, etc.) on the other hand would offer protection against that scenario.

So a snapshot would protect against ransomware or accidental deletion of data by the user, but not a catastrophic hardware failure. It can obviously not replace an off-machine target (second NAS, optical disk, tape, cloud) in all aspects. But it is an efficient mechanism to ensure some kind of time machine and the benefits coming from that.

My EUR 0.02

 

[Heracles]

I would argue that snapshots can indeed be seen as a special type of backup.

The problem with this is that new users read it and think they have the backup we tell them they need to recover their damaged pool, lost server, etc.

Snapshots increase the redundancy level of a single copy of your data. But still, that is one and one copy only. Backups must be a second copy of the data.

Re-using your logic, mirrors or RaidZx would also be "kind of backups" when they too are clearly not.

So I will rather avoid confusion and define a backup as a different copy or the original. That way, snapshots, mirrors and RaidZ are clearly no backups.

 

[Davvo]

Snapshots are the CTRL Z of ZFS.

 

[ChrisRJ]

@Heracles , I think I have to agree with your assessment. Thanks!