What are FreeNAS server backup best practices?

[JRusty15]

Hi all! I setup my FreeNAS server a couple years back and I have been more than happy with it! I originally had it running on an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and 2GB of RAM without much issue. I recently upgraded to some better hardware and it still runs great. Anyway, I wanted to ask about some best practices for backing up the server. I feel I have it set up pretty well, but I wanted to get some other opinions to see if I could be doing things better.

I have my OS running from a USB stick and I ran a backup of this a while back and the server settings haven't changed really at all. Is there a better way to back up my OS drive?

I have two sets of data drives. Both sets are two physical disks running RAID 1 (mirror). Is there a better mechanism or RAID setup? I have no speed issues as one data drive is a file server, the other is a media server.

I have a UPS attached and configured to power down the server upon power loss. Are there better solutions?

Thanks for your input guys!

 

[Nick2253]

I'm curious, what is your hardware now? Depending on your hard drives, I would probably recommend a single pool, either striped mirrors or RAIDZ2.

To backup the FreeNAS settings, you only need the configuration file. There's a script floating about that does this (I think it's from Cyberjock). For example, I have my config file backed up nightly. For restore-ability, I have all my scripts and the backup data on my pool, and all I have to do to restore my server (if my boot device gets corrupted) is install FreeNAS, create a quick share to the backup directory. Copy out the config backup, and restore it. Works a treat.

As far as backing up the data itself, there's a couple different options. If you can afford it, running a second FreeNAS server (or something supporting ZFS) is a great option, because you can then use zfs send and receive to backup the data. The big benefit of this option is that you have a live backup (you're not backing up into proprietary containers or anything like that).

If you're not going the ZFS route, the next best thing for on-site backup is probably rsync. A common solution I see around here is backing up to a relatively inexpensive 2 disk NAS stored somewhere physically separate from your main server (like on the other side of your house).

For more reliable backup, the cloud is the best name in the game. Crashplan is probably the most cost effective if you have a ton of data. If you're looking to back up less than 2TB, some other options may be cheaper. There are a couple of services that actually offer ZFS in the cloud, but those tend to be very expensive, so I would only recommend those if you'll really benefit from having ZFS on the backup side.

 

[JRusty15]

My current setup:
CPU: AMD A10-9700 (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113451)
Mobo: ASRock A320M (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157764)
RAM: 8GB DDR4 (https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313510)
Hard drives: 2x 4TB drives, 2x 2TB drives

I'd like to be able to backup the config file to an external drive separate from the server just in case things go horribly wrong. But I can look for something that will do that automatically. Otherwise, I don't think the expense of a secondary server is warranted for my use of FreeNAS, and I certainly can't justify the expense of cloud storage for the amount of data I have. Basically I'm trying to see if the RAID 1 configuration I have is sufficient, or if there is a better way to configure the drives for better data fidelity. My biggest concern is losing everything. I figure with redundant drives if one HD fails, I can simply swap in a new one and I'm back without missing a beat. But I am also unfamiliar with the ZFS filesystem and RAID in general, so perhaps there is something better?

 

[Nick2253]

Basically I'm trying to see if the RAID 1 configuration I have is sufficient, or if there is a better way to configure the drives for better data fidelity.

Ultimately, you're going to have to determine what the appropriate amount of risk is for you. Personally, I wouldn't trust any one server to be perfect, so I treat data without a backup as data I've already lost.

You could configure your four drives as one RAIDZ2 array. That would give you the ability to lose two drives without your pool going down. However, since your smallest drives is 2TB, all the drives in your vdev would be treated like 2TB drives. You could upgrade the 2TB drives to 4TB at a later date, and the vdev and pool will expand to use the extra space.