total backup solution

[panicos]

HI guys,

My setup:
-HP Proliant Micro server
-FreeNAS-9.2.1.3-RELEASE-x64 (dc0c46b)

I am running FREENAS from a bootable USB stick. My question is which woulkd be the best solution to have a total backup of the FREENAS in case the USB stick gets wrecked? I have a RAID configuration, ftp, tftp and other important services configured along with important data on the FREENAS and it is quite critical now to loose everything if the stick gets damaged.
I was thinking of making images of the stick, but that is not too confortable, as i have to stop the entire NAS for this.
Also, saving the config from the FREENAS gui is it enough to save absolutely the entire configuration of the FREENAS?

Waiting for your suggestions.

Thanks

 

[BigDave]

A failure of the boot drive should not result in data on the pool becoming damaged.

Also, saving the config from the FREENAS gui is it enough to save absolutely the entire configuration of the FREENAS?

Yes, I save a copy on my desktop when rebooting, making changes to settings and also updates.
FreeNAS has the ability to mirror your boot drive (see the manual) so if USB is the way you
wish to boot your machine, that's what I would recommend.

@DrKK swears by this method.
He's stated, his failure rate with the Sandisk USB 2.0 Crusier Fit 16GB flash drive, to be VERY low.

I purchased a used Intel X25E 32GB SSD as a boot device for my FreeNAS box. It was about 3
times the cost of a flash drive, but much more reliable (I still have 3 more of these drives as backups).
Since 9.3 and the change of the boot drive to ZFS, the writing to the boot device makes me shy away
from USB flash devices.

 

[panicos]

Yes BiGDave, you're right; a failure of the boot stick should not result in data loss. I was reffering to the loss of settings (NFS and CIFS shares, raid configuration, etc)
So a simple "save config" should back up all the settings and in case the bootable stick gets damaged i can replace it with another one, install frenass on it and then upload the saved configuration. This will restore entirely all the settings that i had, correct?

Regarding the mirror boot, i honestly don't know what is it, but i will follow your advice in checking the manual.

Besides that, i also want to switch to a small SSD (as boot drive) and i guess that i have to do the same thing (with the save/upload config) in order to migrate on it. I will check what has to be done and if i encounter any problems or difficulties that i can't handle, i'll come back with questions.

Thanks

 

[gpsguy]

Note: the OP is running FreeNAS 9.2.1.3. It doesn't support mirrored boot devices. He'd need to upgrade to 9.3.x

At a minimum, I recommend installing 9.2.1.3 on another flash drive [one could do it on another machine] and restore the configuration to it. When it's convenient, try shutting down the server and booting off the backup.

We don't recommended using dd, etc. to try to image the boot device. Users have run into issues in the past. Doing a fresh install is clean and easy.

Depending on how often the OP makes changes to the configuration, he might also want to use a cron job and automate the backup of it. Search the forum for examples.

 

[BigDave]

Note: the OP is running FreeNAS 9.2.1.3. It doesn't support mirrored boot devices. He'd need to upgrade to 9.3.x

I missed that important little detail
I'll try and pay closer attention in the future;)

 

[BigDave]

So a simple "save config" should back up all the settings and in case the bootable stick gets damaged i can replace it with another one, install frenass on it and then upload the saved configuration. This will restore entirely all the settings that i had, correct?

Correct

Regarding the mirror boot, i honestly don't know what is it, but i will follow your advice in checking the manual.

As @gpsguy pointed out above, you would have to update to version 9.3 to take advantage of the mirrored boot drive option.
I'm sorry I missed your version number when reading your post and hope my advice didn't create any confusion.

 

[panicos]

No pb man :) . I will update to 9.3 and i shall see afterwards

 

[gpsguy]

I wouldn't suggest upgrading straight to the latest 9.3.

At a minimum, I'd create a bootable backup (as I described earlier) of 9.2.1.3 and upgrade to 9.2.1.9 first. Use that for a bit, to ensure you don't run into any new problems, since there were a lot of bugs, fixes, and changes in the 9.2.1.x series. FreeNAS 9.3 brought even more changes.

If you run into any problems with the secondary (backup) device, you can always fall back to the original flash drive. If prompted to upgrade your pool, disregard that message, until you are comfortable with the release you are on. If you upgrade your pool version, you can't roll back to an earlier version of FreeNAS.

 

[panicos]

ok, i will follow your advice; will upgrade to 9.2.1.9 first, using a second boot device.
Although i asked before, i still have unclarities; you said about upgrading the pool. Are you reffering to the volume? Upgrading it with what? another disk ?
I have a volume (made of 2 hdd mirrored), with 4 datasets.

 

[toadman]

Upgrading the pool refers to the ZFS pool revision and feature flags. At times FreeNAS pulls in updated ZFS code that may have new features. When this happens you normally get a message that says you can upgrade the pool to the latest ZFS version. It's not required that you do so, and if you don't know you need new features, don't upgrade. The reason is that once you do upgrade, you can't then use older FreeNAS software to read that pool, were that something you needed to do for some reason.

 

[BigDave]

See the manual:
Installing and Upgrading > 2.5.1 Caveats

 

[gpsguy]

Thanks to the last two guys for clarifying it for the OP.

 

[panicos]

Indeed, thx toadman and bigdave.i won't upgrade the pool if propmted,as i don t need it to.it works fine just the way it is.besides that,i have configured the nas somewhere on 2014,when i made some zfs disablings(can t remember exactly what), because the transfer speeds between hosts in my lan and the nas itself,were very low. Wouldn't want to loose that.

Thx again