Basic data backup question

[Flybye]

Hi all. I am still considering FreeNAS, and I just wanted to confirm:

1) Backing up your data to a USB drive is a big nono because ZFS hates USB, right?
2) So your only external alternative is to dump your data from the FreeNAS box through the network to your Windows client and finally to your external USB drive?
3) Should you set your backup program to copy directly from your FreeNAS to the USB, or should you be doing a copy from your FreeNAS to local folder on client and then backing up from local folder on client to USB?

 

[danb35]

Backing up your data to a USB drive is a big nono because ZFS hates USB, right?

That's a bit of an exaggeration. Long-term use of USB external drives isn't generally a good idea, as there are often data integrity issues. These aren't unique to ZFS, but ZFS makes them more visible. As an intermittent thing, the data isn't any worse off on a USB disk connected to your FreeNAS box than it is with that same disk connected to a Windows box.

So your only external alternative is to dump your data from the FreeNAS box through the network to your Windows client and finally to your external USB drive

Certainly not, unless you're exclusively limiting "external alternative" to external USB disks. You can send data over the network (LAN or WAN) to another FreeNAS box or to one of many different cloud backup systems. You can use external SAS enclosures. You can even use eSATA, though that seems to have been a flash in the pan.

Should you set your backup program to copy directly from your FreeNAS to the USB, or should you be doing a copy from your FreeNAS to local folder on client and then backing up from local folder on client to USB?

I don't know that there's a strong reason to prefer one of these options over the other.

 

[Flybye]

Ah ok TY. I forgot to mention I will still have my internal drives. The USB would only be for intermittent backups of the data. I kept seeing threads about how USB is bad for integrity and so fourth, but it would only be an intermittent backup that is only connected to power a few times a month which will get a whole backup of data.