Snapshot Tasks and Replication Running off Schedule

[Franko]

Hi,

I am new to FreeNas and wondering if anyone can help with a problem around timings of snapshots and replication tasks.

I have two boxes running FreeNas 8.3.0 r12825.

Nas1
Snapshot once daily at 23:00.
Replication task set to begin and end at 00:15.

Nas2
Snapshot once daily at 23:00.
Replication task set to begin and end at 03:15.

What I expected to happen was that both boxes would snapshot at 23:00, then one would start replication at 00:15 and the other at 03:15, outside peak time etc. What I'm finding is that both boxes snapshot and replicate at about 20:10 every day. Replication is working fine but it isn't running when I'd expect. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening or can you suggest tweaks to get this running the way I intended?

PS - To troubleshoot so far I have checked the time settings on both boxes (both are in correct time zone etc) and rebooted them both.

Thanks,

Franko.

 

[fracai]

How do you have your snapshots defined? Are you just using the web GUI and the snapshot panel? That panel doesn't have a space for setting the time, just the interval and the start and stop times.

You can hack this by setting up your interval and start/stop times, let at least one snapshot occur, and then manually rename the snapshot so that the name corresponds to the time that you want.

I'm not sure about replication as I'm not running any. What's your goal? Replication starting and ending at the same time sounds like it's prone to not doing what you want it to (ie. always being available to run or never running).

 

[fracai]

Regarding replication running at the same time as the snapshot, that's how replication is intended to run; whenever a snapshot is created as long as it's within the begin and end times. So, I suspect that having the begin and end times the same is either exposing a bug or is intended to mean "always run".

 

[Franko]

Thanks for the info fracai

I am using the web GUI and now think I might have misunderstood the start and stop times in the snapshot and replication sections.

I have now changed the settings so that Nas 1 is set to snapshot 00:15:00 to 03:00:00 (replication task set up with same start and end times). On Nas 2, I've done similar but between 03:15:00 and 06:00:00.

I'm hoping now that Nas 1 will kick off with snapshot and replication at 00:15 and Nas 2 will do the same at 03:15.

So far this evening there have been no snapshots taken, so will keep my fingers crossed and check in the morning.

Thanks for the pointers,

Franko.

 

[fracai]

That sounds like it'll be fine, though you probably could have kept the snapshots at 2300. I'm not sure if replication is triggered by a new snapshot (the snapshot would need to occur during the replication window), or if it constantly checks for non-replicated snapshots (the snapshot can occur at any time and will be replicated when the window opens).

 

[Franko]

All worked perfectly last night, so looks like I had it set up wrong in the first place.....

It isn't important that snapshots happen at 11pm so I'm very happy with this.

Thanks again for the help,

Franko.