rsync throwing weird error....

[skinny503]

Background: I recently got hired by a new company to be there in house IT person as the business was expanding and the ma and pa shops around town couldn't keep up with the demand. Coming in I inherited a windows server 2012 r2 that was supposed to have "triple redundancy" after explaining to the CEO that RAID is not a f*ing backup, I went to the task of making some file servers.

Fast forward to today, I have two FreeNAS systems set up and running! The first one which I refer to as unit 0 is set up as the main backup location for the 2012 r2 server Via iSCSI. Last night was the first time the Windows server was backup since 12-11-15........ Yeah it took it 13hours to copy all user data over but it copied it and I'm happy for now!

Now my task is to get the second machine I built to be a back up for unit 0. I have been trying to setup rsync from unit 0 to this what we will refer to as unit 1. When I go into unit 0 and attempt to add a rsync module I get an error that it can't create it.

Is this a no-no trying to rsync a iSCSI target? Am I just an idiot and missing something......well we know I'm an idiot so yeah. Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[skinny503]

what the fudge, why did this go in plugins and jails....

Admin could you please reprimand me and move this to the proper area

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Is this a no-no trying to rsync a iscsi target? Am I just an idiot and missing something......

I see no evidence (yet ;)) of idiocy, only lack of experience with FreeNAS and ZFS.

I don't know why what you're trying to do isn't working, not much information to go on, but ...

Your first choice for backing up one FreeNAS to another would usually be to use snapshot replication (you can search the docs, right?)

If you're determined to use rsync, you might want to go with rsync over ssh instead of creating a module.

 

[skinny503]

Robert,

Thank you for the guidance. I was able to set up periodic snapshots on the main box and have it synching to the second box! I like this method more then the rsynch route.

The problem I am having now is that the snapshots aren't recognizing the windows backups that are being done nightly to the first box via iSCSI to a zvol.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I don't know why you wouldn't be able to snapshot and replicate a zvol, but it's not something I've ever tried to do.

the snapshots arnt recognizing the windows backups

Are you expecting the snapshots to somehow show the contents of the zvol? I would not expect that.

 

[skinny503]

Robert,

I dont expect to see the contents of the windows backup as its naturally "hidden" from view if im understanding the windows server backup methodology.

So let me explain it as best I can without letting out too much of the crazyness.

So our "file server" running windows server 2012r2 connects via iSCSI to freenas0 (our main backup) and I can see the used space on freenas0 when I go into the storage tab so I know its saving or atleast i hope it is! :D

I set up periodic snapshops for the zvol that is connected to the iSCSI target. I was instructed to use a zvol as it was the only way to get iSCSI to make a target.

Every morning I come in and check that 2012r2 reports a sucessful backup, then I check freenas0 to check that i didnt get any errors relating to iSCSI or anything else.

Then I goto freenas1 and check the used space and its empty. If we turn on CIFS and dump a file into it the server it creates a snapshot that I can see in the snapshots tab.

So I'm wondering if maybe the way windows is saving the backup file and "hiding it" and the snapshots arnt seeing it

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

If the zvol snapshots are being replicated correctly, they should be the same size on freenas1 as they are on freenas0, regardless of what they contain. If they aren't, something isn't working correctly.

 

[skinny503]

Robert,

Thats the assumption I was under. Do you have any suggestions of screen shots I could put up to help track down who,what,when,where, and why?

 

[Sakuru]

Screenshots of the following screens would be useful:
Freenas0: Storage --> Periodic Snapshot Tasks
Freenas0: Storage --> Replication Tasks
Freenas 0 and 1: Storage --> Volumes
Freenas 0 and 1: Storage --> Snapshots

 

[skinny503]

here are the screen shots of freenas0

 

[skinny503]

Here is the screen shots for freenas1

 

[skinny503]

So you can see that the snapshots are replicating the test file that I had my graphics lady put in a CIFs file the day before I put the system into production. The windows server has been doing nightly backups and you can see the used data in freenas0 and I can confirm the data is being written to freenas0 from 2012r2 as i check it daily.

But then you goto freenas1 and can see the replicated snapshot of the test file, but nothing else. Normally I get back to this point and get pulled off this task for another "why doesnt my outlook work" or "why cant I play candy crush on my work computer?".......

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

here are the screen shots of freenas0

First thing is, you need to make the snapshots on freenas0 Recursive. Then make sure to do the same for the replication task.

 

[skinny503]

Done, and Done! Now lets see if everything works tonight!

 

[skinny503]

Well thats dissapointing, I changed the recursive settings but still no replication. :(

 

[skinny503]

I just noticed on freenas 0 I set the snapshot to go for vol1 in the dropdown, there is another option of vol1/zvol1. could this be the missing link?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

A recursive snapshot should include child datasets. I don't know if the behavior is different with zvols.

 

[skinny503]

yeah im new to the whole zvol part. I set it to vol1/zvol1 and will check tomorrow morning to see if that changes anything

 

[skinny503]

http://olddoc.freenas.org/index.php/Periodic_Snapshot_Tasks I found this and there is a section under where it explains the options for snapshots

"select an existing ZFS volume, dataset, or zvol; if you select a volume, separate snapshots will also be created for each of its dataset"

So maybe I do have to select the zvol instead of its parrent. that seems odd to me but its worth a shot

 

[skinny503]

Well its a no go again. For some reason freenas1 is not getting the windows backups.

At this point I wonder if having the server backup to the two units via iSCSI would be the better option as Im obviously an idiot when it comes to freenas of there is a bug in the system which I doubt.