Cheap Remote Backup

[John Doe]

I've been looking for backup my personal FreeNAS (offsite) and I'm not convinced by any of the cloud solutions.
Most importantly, I want to take advantage of the ZFS snapshots and I don't really see how that would be possible with a cloud solution.

I have a friend with a FreeNAS and we've talked about setting up reciprocal replication tasks, but as far as I know, there is no way to make the data inaccessible to the remote backup - unless the entire volume is encrypted.

Since my data changes are irregular and in general not huge, I'm thinking about building a small FreeNAS that is basically a tiny computer with an external drive.

Raspberry Pi is one of the most popular but it's ARM architecture and so I don't think it would run on it.
So far I've found:
http://store.netgate.com/Turbot.aspx
http://www.jaguarboard.org/index.php/products/buy/jaguarboard/212/jaguarboard-1-power-detail.html
http://up-shop.org/up-boards/2-up-board-2gb-16-gb-emmc-memory.html

There are a few un-released devices as well, such as UDOO, which is very nice.

I know speeds are going to be very slow, but that's not a problem since my data changes are small. Perhaps averages of 3-5GB a day.

Has anyone done anything like this?

 

[Nick2253]

Using a tiny computer like that will be grossly inadequate for FreeNAS (or ZFS in general). You really do want 8GB of memory. You could probably get away with 4GB in this capacity, but I would say 2GB (or even 1GB) would be insufficient. With this little RAM, the issues isn't a speed issues as much as a corruption issue. There's anecdotal evidence that under 8GB of RAM, ZFS has a non-insignificant change of corrupting data (which is why the recommended memory was bumped from 4GB to 8GB over the last few years).

Furthermore, you're going to be forced to attach your drives via USB in this scenario, and that comes with its own problems: most USB controllers do not properly pass SMART or related data properly, which can make difficult to impossible to diagnose a failing disk, and can also lead to other ZFS problems (same reasons that you don't want to use ZFS with a RAID controller).

If you really want a cheap setup, look at something like the Dell T20 or the Lenovo TS140. Both can be found for under $300 regularly, and have shown up under $150 during sales. They support at least 4 drives. Usually the budget versions come with only 4GB of RAM, so it's recommended to get another 4GB stick (~$50).

 

[nojohnny101]

I posted a question which is very similar to what you asking
Take a read:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/cost-effective-off-site-backup-solution.41405/

 

[danb35]

Most importantly, I want to take advantage of the ZFS snapshots and I don't really see how that would be possible with a cloud solution.

http://rsync.net/ supports ZFS replication to their servers, and I understand they actively support FreeNAS as well. Considerably more expensive than crashplan though.

 

[John Doe]

@Nick2253 thanks for the response. I wasn't aware that low ram could cause data corruption. The reason I prefer those tiny computers is because of the power usage / noise, compared to those suggested. Regarding the hardware failure, that's not really a problem, as I would expect the remote system to stop working and therefore not receive the snapshots at which point I'd get notified.

@nojohnny101 yes, I read that thread before but there wasn't really an answer, not without building a full system.

@danb35 it all looked good, until I got to Pricing. For ONE TB, I'd have to pay $140 a month. I'd say it's unreasonably expensive.

 

[mjt5282]

I use WD My Cloud EX2 (and EX2 ultra) for remote syncing, they run linux and are RAM-limited, but they have support for cron and rsync. Separate your data into datasets and use rsync scripts to pull incremental updates. This gave me peace of mind until I could install an off-site identical ZFS FN backup server. The EX2 series have 2 disk slots, and can run mirrored or spanning. One of my EX2 is now used for local cold storage, and manages 300 Mbits/s on my gig-ethernet. The other only gets 200 Mbits/s, i think it is CPU and/or ram limited.

 

[danb35]

I'd say it's unreasonably expensive.

That's your call, of course. It's certainly more than I want to pay, although I recall seeing that they offered significant discounts (over 50%) for FreeNAS users. I was just tossing them out there as a "cloud" backup vendor who fully supports ZFS. There may be others, but they're the only one I know of.

 

[Nick2253]

Most importantly, I want to take advantage of the ZFS snapshots

This may be part of your hangup. ZFS is not widely supported in the cloud, and it's not cheap-as-dirt cheap to run a "proper" ZFS server. I would say it's fairly inexpensive to DIY (thanks to inexpensive workstation offerings) but you're probably going to be out-of-pocket around $500 for everything (including disks) on the low end.

If you are willing to use other technologies, like rsync, you can get cloud offering that are much cheaper. Or you could continue to go your tiny-pc route.

 

[mjt5282]

personally, I found FN zfs snapshots replicating to be unreliable across the WAN and had to ditch them for rsync. I have about 28.4 Tib under 'management' , but your mileage may vary.

 

[Arwen]

You could use something like a fitlet-i;

http://www.fit-pc.com/web/products/fitlet/fitlet-i/

Features;

• Smaller than a paperback book
  
• 4 core AMD64 CPU
• Upto 8GB of memory, (single SO-DIMM)
• 2 x 1Gbps Ethernet
• mSATA which will take 1TB mSATA drives, (I know, I have one)
• microSDXC and capable of booting off of it
• eSATAp port
• 2 x USB 3.0 and 3 x USB 2.0 ports
  
• low power 5 to 10 watts, depending on peripherals

No ECC RAM though...

I use it's bigger brother, fitlet-H, for my home media server. Same feature
set, except no eSATA, a built in 2.5" drive bay and 2 SO-DIMM slots,
(meaning it goes upto 16GB of memory.

 

[John Doe]

@mjt5282 That's an excellent idea, except it wouldn't work with ZFS snapshots. On the contrary, I've had good experience with Freenas snapshot replication over WAN.

@Nick2253 It appears that this ZFS snapshot requirement is really the problem. ZFS Snapshots are really nice, there's no doubt about it, but what really complicates things is backups - I think. I have TimeCapsule set on Freenas so multiple Macbooks backup to the Freenas. What would happen with rsync, would I have to re-upload that volume every time or do I have to exclude it? That's one of the concerns that I have with a solution like rsync.

@Arwen that looks quite nice. Price is so and so - for similar you can get a ASRock C2550 I think.

 

[Mlovelace]

Install Tarsnap in a jail and add what every dataset(s) you want backed up to that jail. Easy as pie.

http://www.tarsnap.com/

 

[danb35]

...but Tarsnap doesn't support ZFS snapshots/replication either.

 

[Mlovelace]

...but Tarsnap doesn't support ZFS snapshots/replication either.

Well, your suggestion is probably the better option if the OP doesn't want to replicate to a colo. Personally I backup my home freeNAS to amazon glacier, cheap and easy storage. Crashplan isn't a bad way to go either.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

For native, consider one of the b2 integrations, e.g. rclone. Alternatively, run a backup application on a client device, e.g. Arq Backup to Amazon Cloud Drive.