Guide to backup home computers to CrashPlan on FreeNAS

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RichTJ99

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So to ask a general question based on this post.

The Windows (in my case) desktop installs crashplan & the freenas server is the crashplan "server" or does the server then reach out to crashplans internet servers to store the data?

Are you storing the desktop PC's data on freenas within a jail?

 

pirateghost

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So to ask a general question based on this post.

The Windows (in my case) desktop installs crashplan & the freenas server is the crashplan "server" or does the server then reach out to crashplans internet servers to store the data?

Are you storing the desktop PC's data on freenas within a jail?
The windows client would only be the interface to the server.

Crashplan will not let you use the app to backup to your own server and then backup that backup to their cloud based storage.

If you have no use for crashplan cloud option, you can use the client on the desktop to just backup to the server.
 

nello

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The Windows (in my case) desktop installs crashplan & the freenas server is the crashplan "server" ....
The diagram you reference is from Step 4 of the installation Guide.

The purpose of Step 4 is to provide the connection over which CrashPlan's graphical user interface (GUI) is re-directed to configure the server, which occurs in Step 7. In other words, this Step allows you to hijack the software you've installed on your Windows computer in order to configure the software that you've installed on your FreeNAS server.

Step 4 doesn't do any backups; it just provides a connection for configuring the CrashPlan installation on the server.


... does the server then reach out to crashplans internet servers to store the data?
The server CAN be configured to use CrashPlan Central, i.e., CrashPlan's (paid) cloud storage, as the server's backup Destination. It's up to you to configure CrashPlan based on what you need it to do. It is NOT necessary to use CrashPlan Central as a Destination. In fact, this Guide is intended for setting up CrashPlan running on FreeNAS to back up local computers to the FreeNAS storage, not CrashPlan Central.


Are you storing the desktop PC's data on freenas within a jail?
The Guide stores the backups OUTSIDE of the CrashPlan Jail, as shown in Step 6. Do NOT store your backups within the Jail. If you decide to start over at some point in the future, you'll want to delete the Jail. In this case, backup data stored within the Jail would be deleted when you delete the Jail.
 

MisterIce

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The server CAN be configured to use CrashPlan Central, i.e., CrashPlan's (paid) cloud storage, as the server's backup Destination. It's up to you to configure CrashPlan based on what you need it to do. It is NOT necessary to use CrashPlan Central as a Destination. In fact, this Guide is intended for setting up CrashPlan running on FreeNAS to back up local computers to the FreeNAS storage, not CrashPlan Central.

I'm in the middle of building my FreeNAS box and new to all this. I have looked at crashplan a few times, there's just one thing I can't figure out.

According to CrashPlan's features page the free subscription only allows you to backup once a day. Isn't a solution like SyncToy over CIFS shares a better idea? I use SyncToy at the moment to backup to a 2nd disk by letting Windows Task Scheduler handle the syncing in the background. And you can even run that like every 4 hours or whatever you want.

Isn't that a better idea?
 

pirateghost

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I'm in the middle of building my FreeNAS box and new to all this. I have looked at crashplan a few times, there's just one thing I can't figure out.

According to CrashPlan's features page the free subscription only allows you to backup once a day. Isn't a solution like SyncToy over CIFS shares a better idea? I use SyncToy at the moment to backup to a 2nd disk by letting Windows Task Scheduler handle the syncing in the background. And you can even run that like every 4 hours or whatever you want.

Isn't that a better idea?

Once a day? I have never ever heard of this limitation. Do you have a link?
 

PriNT2357

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Looks like you are right MisterIce. That's not something I was aware of either since I'm on the paid plan.

By default, CrashPlan for Home without a subscription backs up once daily, 24 hours after the previous backup completed. You can schedule backup to run less frequently if you like.

By default, CrashPlan for Home with a subscription backs up every 15 minutes. You can specify as often as once a minute.

http://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/4/Backup/Backup_FAQ
 

nello

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Krzykat

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Newbie questions: Am I correct in assuming that what we are able to do with this plugin and jail is to have Crashplan running on the FreeNas server.

That in order to configure this headless device we utilize a local machine such as my windoze box and an SSH connection between the two to configure.

We also select storage outside the jail so that we can move it or do what we want with it.

After all of this, the headless box can stand on its own without the need of the machine that was used to configure it.

We then can have this crashplan box (let's call it freecrash) accessible as a remote destination - allowing me for example to backup all of my families laptops all over the US to this central repository.
 

pirateghost

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Newbie questions: Am I correct in assuming that what we are able to do with this plugin and jail is to have Crashplan running on the FreeNas server.

That in order to configure this headless device we utilize a local machine such as my windoze box and an SSH connection between the two to configure.

We also select storage outside the jail so that we can move it or do what we want with it.

After all of this, the headless box can stand on its own without the need of the machine that was used to configure it.

We then can have this crashplan box (let's call it freecrash) accessible as a remote destination - allowing me for example to backup all of my families laptops all over the US to this central repository.
Yes.

Or you can use the dataset to push files to, and have your 'freecrash' backup the dataset(s) to crashplan's online cloud storage
 

nello

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Newbie questions: Am I correct in assuming ….
Yes, you are correct.

Having said this, you should be aware that CrashPlan automatically updates itself several times a year and most updates upset the applecart, requiring some command-line fixes.

As a result, many people have chosen to abandon the Plugin. Instead they run CrashPlan in a Linux environment, sometimes within a virtual machine hosted on FreeNAS. See for example, this thread:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/what-to-do-about-crashplan-on-9-10.42889/

I myself have abandoned the CrashPlan Plugin and can not recommend it in good conscious.

Your mileage may vary.
 

Krzykat

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You know - the main reason I (and I assume others) want to use the crashplan on FreeNAS is to take advantage of the drives. Crashplan however doesn't allow you to backup to a NAS device - and at least for me, that was the problem. As long as you have one computer on your LAN with Crashplan loaded on it - and if that has credentials to your FreeNAS, I think it can all be done without the fuss. I got this to work and now I can backup all of my friends, family, and client machines to my FreeNAS without bothering to install crashplan on the FreeNAS. The big trick was getting crashplan to write to a NAS (freenas) drive. Here's how to do it :D
 
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