Copy selected directories from pools to local single drive

[Chris Jefferies]

Using FreeNAS-11.3-U5

I've got 3 pools with some datasets and when I look at them from my laptop, I see all the servers I've backed up. I also have time machine for a few macs and backups from DejaDup from an Ubuntu laptop. I would like to copy a selected set of these onto a local drive so I can disconnect it and send it to the farm for safe keeping.

I added a 4G drive to the server on a spare sata port. Much to my amazement, when it restarted, I could see it in the GUI under Storage > Disks. It was given the name ada2 and I confirmed that the serial number matched the one I had just added.

My question is, what now?

This would be, I imagine, a very common practice, right? Add a disk, format a disk (on something generically/hopefully retrievable 10 years from now), leave it as a disk; no pool assignment. Add a task, select the directories to copy, press go; come back later. Remove the disk and send it to the farm. And by farm, I mean, literally a farm. ;)

I can't see the new drive in any other location in the GUI. I don't see an option for formatting the drive in the Storage > Drives page. I've seen scenarios for copying to cloud, or to other FreeNAS systems, but how about just a disk on the same server.

I did see some notes about running some python scripts but, why do I have freenas if I could have done all this with a collection of python scripts? I also saw a video titled Adding Drives in FreeNAS and it had pages for mounting the drive, formatting, and so on, but it was an older system. I'm guessing a lack of these options in this version might mean the drive is automatically mounted? ??

I also noted that the version I'm using apparently does not have the column for pool assignments in the disks page. Maybe there are other options missing. When I tried to upgrade, FreeNAS informed me that I was up to date. When I tried to update to 12.something it put up a scary message about a new release train. Choo choo cha-boogie, I'm staying where I am.

Maybe I'm being naive about this or perhaps I'm overthinking it. Hard for me to gauge.

So, please, a nudge in the right direction would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[sretalla]

You'll need to create a new pool in order to be able to use the new disk.

That pool can be made up of that one disk alone, no problem.

There's nothing wrong with changing to the 12 STABLE train, that will allow you to upgrade to TrueNAS 12 Core.

For the "how to back up?" part: https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/how-to-backup-to-local-disks.26/

 

[Chris Jefferies]

sretella, Thanks for the encouragement to forge ahead with the new version, TrueNAS-12.0-U5.1. It worked very easily from the GUI. I can now see the 'pool' column in the disks view and my asa2 disk is marked as N/A as it is currently not attached to a pool.

I've looked at the post that you referenced at least half-a-dozen times as my searches keep bringing it up. The steps outlined seem to be, from the command line:

• Create a pool
• Create dataset for backup
• Import disk
• Start backup
• Examine log file
• Export backup disk

I looked at the possibilities in the GUI and these are the steps I tried and which seemed to work for a small slice of my backup.

First I shut down freenas (now truenas server) and added a new 4T sata drive to the dedicated server. It's a it is an old junk box half open and the extra disk is laying on the shelf outside with sata & sata power connections.

When I booted up, the disk with matching serial number was listed as asa2. I did not format the drive or do anything but plug it in.

Then I created a pool and added the 4TB drive, asa2 as a dataset. It is at /mnt/SendToFarmPool

I went into Services > Rsync, selected the edit pencil, selected the Rsync Module tab, then selected Add. The module is how we define the destination disk. I gave it the name of the pool that I want to back up, Module_MarconiPool. (write down the name assigned to the rsync 'module') Next I defined the path to the new pool/disk (/mnt/SendToFarmPool), enabled it, set it to read/write, and applied user: root, and group: wheel.

Next I went to Tasks > Rsync tasks and added a new task. Here I defined the source of the backup as the pool named MarconiPool. I set the path to /mnt/MarconiPool - User: root, Direction: push, Remote Host: localhost, Rsync mode: Module. Module: Module_MarconiPool. I checked Times, Preserve Permissions, Preserve Extended Attributes, Recursive, and Delay Updates. I did not do much research, so your mileage my vary. Finally it seems the schedule is required although I'll do this as need so I will disable it this task when I'm not making a disk backup.

I did not see anything about what format to use so I guess I'm stuck with the default for TrueNAS and as such I'll be required to use TrueNAS to retrieve files.

I would prefer some means of using a more dumb format so I could access using usb to sata from windows, mac, ubuntu, etc. Strangely, and I suppose I'm not doing things correctly, I've seen no references to managing disks, or formatting, in this GUI.

Anyway, The first big backup is happening. I think next step would be to export the disk after it finished filling up.

Thanks.

 

[sretalla]

I would prefer some means of using a more dumb format so I could access using usb to sata from windows, mac, ubuntu, etc. Strangely, and I suppose I'm not doing things correctly, I've seen no references to managing disks, or formatting, in this GUI.

FreeNAS/TrueNAS only support the use of the ZFS filesystem.

If you want a disk you can plug between Windows/Mac/Ununtu, you're going to need to forget about TrueNAS and use a Linux-based NASware product that's happy working with Exfat (not sure, but you could do your own research starting with OpenMediaVault)

 

[Chris Jefferies]

FreeNAS/TrueNAS only support the use of the ZFS filesystem.

If you want a disk you can plug between Windows/Mac/Ununtu, you're going to need to forget about TrueNAS and use a Linux-based NASware product that's happy working with Exfat (not sure, but you could do your own research starting with OpenMediaVault)

@sretalla - I think using the ZFS filesystem and being able to import the disk at a future date is reasonable effort.

Thank you, very much, for your guidance.

Chris.

 

[danb35]

If you want a disk you can plug between Windows/Mac/Ununtu, you're going to need to forget about TrueNAS

Well, ZFS on Ubuntu is trivial. ZFS on macOS is less trivial, but still do-able. Windows? Not so much. I understand it's in development, but not anywhere close to stable.

And if you're willing to forego the GUI and middleware, there's CLI support for ext2 at least, which Windows and macOS can be made to read.