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Software to backup Windows to a ZFS server

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EnderW

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Planning on building a napp-it ZFS server. My main computer is running Windows 7 and I would access the ZFS server via a shared folder.
What is a good software to backup the files on my main computer to the ZFS server?
Right now I use WHS and it backs up everything at night, would like something similar.
 
EnderW said:
Planning on building a napp-it ZFS server. My main computer is running Windows 7 and I would access the ZFS server via a shared folder.
What is a good software to backup the files on my main computer to the ZFS server?
Right now I use WHS and it backs up everything at night, would like something similar.
Click to expand...

If you want to backup files only (not Windows itself), you can sync your datafolder(s)
with robocopy as a task running every night (robocopy is included in Win7).
Combine it with snapshots on ZFS.

But why not saving files on the ZFS server instead of your local disk, combined with hourly
(or more often) snaps to have a proper acces to eaelier versions of documents.
 
Step 1: Set up SAMBA on the server so Windows can see it as a normal network share.

Step 2: Use Windows 7's built-in backup service to select folders / disk images / schedules

Step 3: Let the initial backup run and it'll handle the rest :D
 
If you are using a solaris-based ZFS server, it will come with kernel-based CIFS server not Samba.
 
You could use CrashPlan to back up to a folder that you designate on the server. For bonus points, you can set up other people (your parents, siblings, co-workers, whatever) to back up to the same machine. It does encryption, keeps old versions of files, and you can pay them to back up stuff to their central servers. I think it should be possible to do everything but their cloud thing for free.
 
_Gea said:
But why not saving files on the ZFS server instead of your local disk, combined with hourly
(or more often) snaps to have a proper acces to eaelier versions of documents.
Click to expand...
I'm considering that, but I would like to have a true backup
as great as ZFS is, it can't protect against a PSU going bad and taking all the hard drives with it

another option would be to have 2 ZFS servers, store files on server A and have it backup to server B
how would you set that up?
 
unhappy_mage said:
You could use CrashPlan to back up to a folder that you designate on the server. For bonus points, you can set up other people (your parents, siblings, co-workers, whatever) to back up to the same machine. It does encryption, keeps old versions of files, and you can pay them to back up stuff to their central servers. I think it should be possible to do everything but their cloud thing for free.
Click to expand...
I forgot about CrashPlan
so other computers can remotely backup to my server for free?
 
Another option - use an eSATA or USB connected external drive on the server. Put a zpool on the external drive, set up regular snapshots on your main data pool, then use a program to sync the data to the external drive (e.g. http://code.google.com/p/zxfer/ ) at regular intervals. Combine with a bootable CD/DVD of your server OS, so that you can access the external pool on a new machine if your server dies. Extra credit: make the external drive bootable, so that you don't need the CD/DVD.

Better yet, use multiple external drives in rotation. Keep one offsite for extra safety.

Test the boot on a 2nd comp; you may need to change BIOS settings, or update the BIOS, and you'll want to find that out before disaster strikes. :)
 
EnderW said:
Planning on building a napp-it ZFS server. My main computer is running Windows 7 and I would access the ZFS server via a shared folder.
What is a good software to backup the files on my main computer to the ZFS server?
Right now I use WHS and it backs up everything at night, would like something similar.
Click to expand...

What kind of backups are you looking to maintain? Just file/folder hierarchies that can be easily read from another machine? Complete bootable image you can put back on a machine bare metal?
 
Clearly the OP must sign a contract with Iron Mountain to store backups off-site if he REALLY wants his data to be protected. That's in addition to the 10 ZFS servers, 100 external hard drives, and 32 LTO5 drives each writing the same data to 32 different tapes for maximum protection that you guys already mentioned.
 
EnderW said:
I'm considering that, but I would like to have a true backup
as great as ZFS is, it can't protect against a PSU going bad and taking all the hard drives with it
Click to expand...
What do you mean? Bad PSU? It should not matter, because ZFS is always consistent on disk.

If you only write half of the data to disk, and then power dies, it does not matter. Because ZFS uses CoW. ZFS writes all data to disk, and as a last step it changes the pointer to point to the new data. The old data is still left intact. If only half of the data is written and power dies, then the pointer still points to the old data. So, UPS or no, it does not matter. I have several times just pulled the power in the middle of things, because by design ZFS is immune to power cuts.
 
brutalizer said:
What do you mean? Bad PSU? It should not matter, because ZFS is always consistent on disk.

If you only write half of the data to disk, and then power dies, it does not matter. Because ZFS uses CoW. ZFS writes all data to disk, and as a last step it changes the pointer to point to the new data. The old data is still left intact. If only half of the data is written and power dies, then the pointer still points to the old data. So, UPS or no, it does not matter. I have several times just pulled the power in the middle of things, because by design ZFS is immune to power cuts.
Click to expand...

No, he is talking about the PSU failing spectacularly and electrically frying every disk that is connected to it. You could also have a HBA fail in exactly that way and fry the SATA/SAS ports on the drive PCBs of all connected drives as well.

Also, why would you just pull power in the middle of things, are you inviting disaster? Just because something SHOULD/Might be able to survive something doesn't mean it actually will.
 
EnderW said:
I forgot about CrashPlan
so other computers can remotely backup to my server for free?
Click to expand...

I believe that's the case. I don't have a non-paid account, so I don't know... but I do know that a couple friends and family are backing up to my server without paid accounts. You run the client on the server and configure it to accept incoming backups, then give out the "friend code" to others (or use it on your own machines). Then install the client on the machine that you want to back up, and tell it the code. Backup seems to work fine over LAN or internet.
 
EnderW said:
I'm considering that, but I would like to have a true backup
as great as ZFS is, it can't protect against a PSU going bad and taking all the hard drives with it

another option would be to have 2 ZFS servers, store files on server A and have it backup to server B
how would you set that up?
Click to expand...

No other RAID system protects against the PSU frying every piece of hardware in the computer.... Why is that a downside of ZFS? ZFS doesnt protect your data in the case if your house burning down, is that also a weak point of ZFS?

eSATA drive in an external enclosure/caddy/etc and backup to that. Cheaper than a second server...
 
thedge said:
No other RAID system protects against the PSU frying every piece of hardware in the computer.... Why is that a downside of ZFS? ZFS doesnt protect your data in the case if your house burning down, is that also a weak point of ZFS?

eSATA drive in an external enclosure/caddy/etc and backup to that. Cheaper than a second server...
Click to expand...

No one said that any system would protect against this. That is why you have full current backups (hopefully multiple copies to be safest), which is what the discussion in this thread was about.
 
thedge said:
No other RAID system protects against the PSU frying every piece of hardware in the computer.... Why is that a downside of ZFS? ZFS doesnt protect your data in the case if your house burning down, is that also a weak point of ZFS?

eSATA drive in an external enclosure/caddy/etc and backup to that. Cheaper than a second server...
Click to expand...
I didn't say it's a downside of ZFS, I said it's a downside of not having a backup
RAID, ZFS, snapshots, duplication, etc, etc is not a substitute for a true backup!
 
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