Integrating My FreeNAS Box into a CrashPlan Backup Scheme

[FloridaDan]

So I suspect that this question has crossed many people's minds, but I haven't seen a thread that really addresses the options, so...

Like many people whose posts I've read in various setup and trouble shooting threads, I have a small group of boxes that I'm currently backing up with CrashPlan. However, they're all backing up to the cloud or to various USB devices etc. Having a nice, capable, FreeNAS box sitting there with nothing really being directed to it seems, well silly. But that begs the question of how to get CrashPlan to write it's backups to that device (particularly from Windows machines.)

After some thought, reading, and configuration, I finally got the CrashPlan plugin running in a jail. However, that experience really underscored for me how fragile that plugin can be, particularly surrounding upgrades. It also really got me to thinking about what my best integration methodology is. As I see it, I've got three options:

1. Run the CrashPlan plugin in a jail and direct my other machines to backup to it.
2. Create a VirtualBox jail into which I install Linux or Ubuntu, and then run the appropriate flavor of CrashPlan in that guest OS.
3. Run CrashPlan as designed, but on my Windows boxes run a script at system startup (via a scheduled task) that makes network shares "visible" to CrashPlan. (See for example http://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/Latest/Backup/Backing_Up_A_Windows_Network_Drive)

As I think about these options:

• Options 1 and 3 are "unsupported" by Code42. Even though they provide instructions for both on their web site, they also clearly state that they wash their hands of both.
  
• Option 2 keeps me in the realm of the canonical, but seems rather complicated.
  
• Option 1 seems fraught with CrashPlan upgrade issues (in fairness they don't support what we're trying to do, so it's hard to blame, the, but it's also hard to put faith in solution.) This option seems most applicable if you have data on your FreeNAS box that you want to backup elsewhere, as opposed to using the CrashPlan plugin to receive backups.
  
• Option 3 seems to have little discussion around it, though it seems relatively straightforward, though it does involve storing a password in the script.

From the standpoint of something that "just works" it strikes me that Option3 is probably it, but wanted to see if there were thoughts from anyone else on this subject.

Thanks in advance.

 

[dlavigne]

Did you decide upon a solution?