How to install Genie Backup Manager Pro on my FreeNAS box?

[Deepak Agarwal]

Hi

This is all in the context of my home network situation.

I have been able to use one of my older PC's running Windows XP SP 3 (32 bit) in to a FreeNAS box for media content sharing - and it works for what I wanted it to do. It has a brand new physical HDD on which I have created a ZFS volume, a CIFS share called 'Share' and three (3) folders therein called 'Video', 'Photos' and 'Music' with content loaded on to these folders. This share is now visible to all my devices - other desktops, laptops, mobile phone and tablet - all good!

I also have another older PC's running Windows XP SP 3 (32 bit) that I currently use as a File Server, the intent being that all work/school files are stored in/available from one central location to other PC's/laptops - this arrangement works fine. I have Genie Backup Manager Pro 9 installed on this PC for my backups of this data on an external HDD. I do differential backups and keep 6 differential backup copies (1 for each weekday and Saturday) and do a full backup on the 7th day (Sunday) deleting all of these differential backup copies . The backup job is run every night at 'Log Off' (Switch Off) as a log off script batch file - I don't have the batch file here at work but I can post the contents of it later tonight once I get home. Essentially, it continually checks if all the other client PC's in turn have been switched off, waits until all of the client PC's have been turned off and then runs the backup job. optionally, I can also start this backup job manually, if I may have a need to do so at any time!

Now that I have this FreeNAS box, I was wondering if I can use this FreeNAS box to serve as a File Server as well in addtion to it serving a shared media content box? Is it possible for me to do the following on this FreeNAS box that I have :-

1. Install another physical HDD to this FreeNAS box of mine and use this for work/school data (I would ideally like to separate the media and work files)
2. Install the Genie Backup Manager Pro 9 somewhere on this FreeNAS box (I couldn't figure out how to install Windows software on the FreeNAS box) and run a log off script file to do exactly what I currently do on my File Server computer.

Any pointers in this regards shall be highly valued.


P.S. I don't have a need to backup this data on a physical HDD inside this box - its quite ok for it to be backed up on an external HDD as I do for my media content.


Best regards



Deepak

 

[pirateghost]

You can't install Windows software in freenas

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[Deepak Agarwal]

Hi Pirateghost

Didn't know that but that's ok! I did read a blog by Brian Moses (I think) - he said he installed Genie Timeline on FreeNAS box and it went like a breeze... May be I am confused. Let me see if I find the link for it!

Found it - here is a partial quote from his article...I have just underlined some bits to save from reading the lot...

The link to the full article is here :- http://blog.brianmoses.net/2012/02/backing-up-windows-machines-to-freenas-part-two.html - just in case!
Installation and Configuration

Firstly, I leveraged the configuration I had already done to my NAS. I already had a volume created, which was configured using a ZFS file system and RAID Z2, which is most similar to Raid 6. The purpose of this configuration was to be able to survive the loss of two drives simultaneously. On that volume, I created a folder for Backups and then a sub folder for each machine I intended to back up. I set up a CIFS share on the Backups folder, and I mapped a drive (B: for Backups) to the share I created for my primary PC. Because of the number and volume of files to be backed up, compression was an important consideration for me. FreeNAS is quite handy in this arena. My entire Backups folder is a ZFS Dataset and there are compression options you can set on each ZFS Dataset. In my case, I decided to go ahead and use gzip-6 for compression in that dataset. I know that that extra tiny little bit of compression comes at the cost of more time and CPU cycles, but I felt that after the first backup was done the incremental activity would be occasional enough I could afford taking a small performance hit in writing data to the NAS.
Installing Genie Timeline Pro was a breeze, like most applications these days. It was mostly, double click the installer and then mindlessly click “next” and “I Agree” when appropriate. About the only alarming thing is that at some point in the install, your Windows Explorer will restart.
Upon successful installation, Genie Timeline will launch directly into the Backup Setup Wizard. Of all the features of Genie Timeline, this is the one I appreciated most. The wizard comprised of three steps:

1. Selecting the Backup Drive: This was pretty easy. Since I had already mapped a drive to the Backups folder I created on my FreeNAS box, I just went ahead and picked that mapped drive (B:)
2. Selecting the Data: In this step, there are two options: Smart Selection and My Computer. Smart Selection features “categories” of files (see page 20 of the Genie Timeline Pro User Manual for details). My Computer allows you to go through and check boxes for what you want to back up. You can mix and match between these two screens to pick your ideal backup. Because “stupid easy” is my objective, I chose Smart Selection and grabbed the following categories; Disaster Recovery, Email, Desktop, My Documents, Office Files, Financial Files, Pictures, Music, Videos, Bookmarks, eBooks and PDF, and Miscellaneous.
3. Set Backup Options: On the third and final step, you get to choose whether to compress and encrypt your backups. Since I was doing compression on my FreeNAS box, I decided to go ahead and leave this option unchecked. I found out later, that leaving the compression and encryption options disabled made it very easy for me to poke around and look at the backup files. In the event I needed to restore something manually, I could do it.

From the above, do you think, he is installing the Genie Timeline on his primary PC - which I take to be another windows based PC?

Is this how we backup data from the FreeNAS box to external HDD using Windows PC, yeah? I can also map this share to a drive on this Windows PC of mine, but then how do I turn of the FreeNAS box from within my batch file after the backup job is completed - as I do now? Is there a way to do that?


Best regards


Deepak

 

[pirateghost]

Based on what is there, yes he is installing the software on his Windows PC. The freenas box is merely acting as a storage for the backup, it does not perform the backup on its own.

As to how you shut it down after, why? The purpose of a nas is to be available all the time. If you plan on shutting it down every night, why not just use USB drives connected to your PC? You don't need freenas for such a trivial task

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[Deepak Agarwal]

In all of the above discussions, the other point got left out - how do I add a physical HDD, if at all I can?


Deepak

 

[pirateghost]

In all of the above discussions, the other point got left out - how do I add a physical HDD, if at all I can?


Deepak

Put another disk in.
Power nas on
Make another vdev, and volume
Configure it any way you like

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[Deepak Agarwal]

Thank you! Appreciate that!


Deepak