Best practices: File Sync from Windows PC to FreeNAS? (long)

[KaptoZ]

Hi guys! Looking for some suggestions, feedback for best practices.

Wasn't sure where to post this as this really isn't a FreeNAS question, but I value your opinions.

What does everybody suggest for backing up/syncing files over LAN?

Here's my scenario:
About 30GB of active work related files (graphic files used for printing)
About 250GB of family pictures
About 300GB ofMP3s
About 1TB of various ripped movies

About 200GB of pictures from wife's Mac

Much of my work files are sync'd with cloud storage, not for backups, but for syncing between home/work/laptop machines.

Out of paranoia I have most files backed up into .zip files using 7zip since it's fast I have tons of local storage.
About every 6 months I make a copy (think a FULL snapshot) of synced files.
Several .zip files of archives, which are older projects. I make these zip files about every six months, just to cut down on the number of folders I stumble through. These zip files are around 15GB each.

I currently use Allway sync to sync my local backups (zip files archives and zip file backups) to a local USB drive and a older Thecus machine running RAID5. Allway has a feature that backups (moves to an nested folder) for up to 5 revisions of files. Becuase of this handy feature the mess of files I've synced, archived, zipped and backed up the total synced data is approaching 7TB. Which is how I got into my new FreeNAS build.

So my questions are:
What do you pros use for syncing/backing up?

Any FreeNAS configs or settings I should run?

Any best practices?

Thanks for all the feedback!

 

[pirateghost]

I use delta copy on my Windows clients and have them sync to their own datasets on FreeNAS so I can utilize snapshots for the family PCs.

I use back in time on my desktop (running Fedora).

On all my laptop's and desktops that I use, I have sync thing installed keeping my docs, pictures, music, videos, and working dev files in sync with each other with another copy on my server.

 

[Dice]

I use Dropbox for all 'important' stuff, both to enable access and sharing between devices as well as for off site back up. However, after an unexpected boot drive failure I realized I did not put files into the dropbox at the "every day rate"..but rather forgot about a lot of em, letting them linger on the desktop and deeper desktop folder structures. This needed a fix.
For the WIP and random recently offloaded junk, not yet in the dropbox, (think desktop, recent download folder) I actually use windows built in backup solution. Only for the selected folders, not the entire install. This is put on a size restricted dataset.

I aim to setup Syncthing with the purpose of replacing dropbox. Even though dropbox has been invaluable when shit really hit the fan.. Im a lot better equipped now, when on FreeNAS as opposed to scattered backups.

any best practices?
Setup snapshots of the important datasets (for example the invaluable documents) and arrange for some sort of replication to another (freenas) box.

 

[maultrommel]

I second the use of Syncthing! I use it on three machines, including FreeNAS and it nicely not only keeps my data in sync (I can even fine tune it to sync certain folders like yesteryears pictures only once a day, that keeps the ressource need low), but also provides me with an offsite backup on the laptop in case there is a fire while I'm away... If I wanted to, I could also add a computer far away to the cluster. Setting it up took some time, but I haven't really touched it since.

For online access I set up Pydio in another jail, giving it access to the same main dataset as Syncthing. That gives me access to my files trough the browser (or any other Pydio client).

Been toying about using UrBackup for full drive images of the computers, but haven't been able to give it a try yet.

 

[Dice]

For online access I set up Pydio in another jail, giving it access to the same main dataset as Syncthing. That gives me access to my files trough the browser (or any other Pydio client).

This sounds appealing :D