Crahsplan plugin not well maintained?

[Spacemarine]

I'm trying to install crashplan and I'm currently reading through all the threads on this forum. On the front page of "plugins", 10 (ten!) out of 20 threads deal with crashplan and it's problems, so it seems to be a really important topic. And most of the problems seem to arise from updates to newer versions, that are done automatically by crashplan and kill your configuration.

For me this raises an obvious question: Where is the maintainer of the crashplan plugin? Is there even one? Why isn't the plugin up to date and properly configured? If the plugin would always have the newest version, the russian roulette would be over.

I would rather spend some money than spend hours of having a headdache with crashplan. Maybe there is a way to crowd-fund a maintainer that solves all the crashplan-plugin problems once, instead of everyone trying to solve them on their own? I'd be in immediately.

 

[danb35]

The Crashplan software automatically updates itself without user intervention. This is normally a good thing. However, Crashplan isn't designed to run on FreeBSD, and it isn't really designed to run headless. Both of these facts cause problems with the FreeNAS installation. The auto-update means that unless the maintainer is really on the ball, and all the users are really on the ball in upgrading, there are going to be problems. The "not designed to run in FreeBSD" means that doing so is a bit of a hack, and not supported by the Crashplan folks. Ditto for running headless, although at least they have a knowledgebase article on how to do that.

What we need is backup software that (1) is designed to run on FreeBSD (no Java garbage), (2) is designed to run headless, and (3) has a nice UI (a web UI would probably be best). It's out there, at least for (1) and (2), it just costs a bit more than Crashplan for the server space.

 

[Thorsten]

@danb35 so what would be this backup alternative?

 

[danb35]

One alternative that meets (1) and (2) is Tarsnap. It's a secure online backup system that encrypts your data before transmission, with keys that only you have (they're generated locally and never sent to their servers). I wrote a how-to on it earlier this year. It seems to work well, but (1) there's no GUI, web or otherwise, and (2) they charge per byte, per day--there's no flat-rate fee like Crashplan offers. I know I've seen other cloud storage solutions discussed here, but I'm afraid I don't remember what they are.

Crashplan has a pretty GUI and it's cheap, but it's a PITA to get and keep working on FreeNAS. I don't think the maintainer (@Joshua Parker Ruehlig, if I'm not mistaken) really has anything to do with this, with the possible exception of deciding to make the plugin in the first place.

 

[danb35]

Because Crashplan is a PITA to get and keep working on FreeNAS, I'm looking to see if there's something comparable available that will work better. Wikipedia has a comparison of online backup services, though I'm not sure how up-to-date it is. Unfortunately, it doesn't indicate FreeBSD support, but it does indicate Linux support, and I figure the chances are slim that a service that doesn't support FreeBSD would support Linux. Here are the services listed there that indicate Linux support and the availability of unlimited storage plans:

• Crashplan
• Diino ($49US/year for private, unlimited bandwidth, limited to 100 GB storage. Java-based)
• Dropmysite (appears to be focused on website/database backups)
• Druva Insync (this product appears to be intended for enterprise users. Phoenix seems to be designed for server backup, but no pricing is published)
• Handy Backup (I don't see an unlimited storage option on their page)
• IASO Backup (appears to be targeted at enterprise users, but at least their knowledgebase does mention FreeBSD)
• Infinit
• Infrascale
• SpiderOak (According to wikipedia, unlimited storage is occasionally available by special offer. There's a HOW-TO for FreeNAS at https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/spideroak-installation-into-a-jail-freenas-9-2.19868/)
• Unitrends Vault2Cloud

Really, none of the options look that great. Diino could work, but the limited storage is a deal-breaker for me--I have multiple Terabytes on Crashplan right now. An unlimited plan with SpiderOak might have potential. There's some indication that Crashplan might be interested in official FreeNAS support, which would be ideal.

 

[cyberjock]

Another option if you like zfs replication is to use rsync.net's ZFS replication feature.

 

[depasseg]

Another option if you like zfs replication is to use rsync.net's ZFS replication feature.

Any chance you have a contact there and could negotiate a lower rate. I would LOVE this, but it's crazy expensive.

 

[cyberjock]

Any chance you have a contact there and could negotiate a lower rate. I would LOVE this, but it's crazy expensive.

Nope. :(

Try calling them and see if you can negotiate with them?

 

[Spacemarine]

Another option if you like zfs replication is to use rsync.net's ZFS replication feature.

I have access to another freenas machine at our university, which has a very high-speed internet connection. I could use that as a target for ZFS replication, however there seems to be no easy method to encrypt the data BEFORE it is sent out to the remote machine. If there was, I would seriously consider that option. This is also being discussed here:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/off-site-replication-target-with-encryption.26745/