FreeNAS questions

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I'm configuring an Pentium 4 CPU (3.4 Ghz) to run as a FreeNAS based server. I want to use it for storing backups of four networked computers. I'll be using FBackup 4 to make mirror images of the boot drives and store them on the FreeNas server.

My server computer is based on an Abit IC7 Max 3 motherboard with 4 Gig of DDR2 RAM. The motherboard has a Wake on LAN setting in the BIOS. I've never had a need to use this option before. My belief is that this will allow the server to go into power down mode, then wake when any of the other computers tries to connect to send files for storage.

First, is that what this function is for? And will it work reliably? (The server will have a wired LAN connection, not wireless. Three of the networked computers are wireless connections to our Router.)

I'm going to start with two new 2 terrabyte 5400 drives (Hitachi) running in RAID 1 confiduration in the server. Down the road, when and if I have some extra cash, I hope to upgrade the drives and the RAID setup. I know this is slim space for backups, but I believe I can make this work if I just make mirror images of the C drives and use compression. This is one laptop with a 120 Gig drive, a laptop with a 500 gig drive, and two desktops with 500 gig drives. Let me add this: none of the 500 Gig drives have over 50 Gigs of programs and data files on them. I'll defrag the previous night in the wee hours, then have FBackup run to upload one computer's C drive mirror per night about 3 or 4 AM. I'm thinking I'll only be able to store one (or maybe two) generation(s) of backups at a time until I upgrade the server drives with greater capacity. Am I being too optimistic about the possibility of being able to do this with just 2 terrabytes of server storage? (I don't plan to do streaming or do anything else with the server.)

Does anybody have any advice on this? Am I being realistic in my expectations?

FreeNAS will be running off a 4 Gig memory stick. I've tinkerered around with this. There are different versions of FreeNAS. It appears that there is a 64 bit version with a GUI. I've not tried this one yet. I belive the hardware will support the 64 bit platform. Three of the networked computers are Windows 7 64 bit, and one is Windows XP. Has anybody used the 64 bit GUI version of FreeNAS? Is it worth the effort? Or do I need to use a different version?

We have two laser printers. These will hang off two of the desktop computers and be accessible to all four networked computers - but not the server. No print server is planned.

This will be my first venture into setting up a home network server. All advice and input will be greatfully appreciated.

Bach On

WOL will not turn the computer on for any traffic, as it would literally never be off. WOL requires a "magic packet" to be sent to the server before it will be powered on. So, to answer your question directly: No, simply accessing the server from a client would not turn the server on.

Regarding the number of backups, it depends on how much actual data you are saving to the server. I would suggest excluding folders that you don't need (Windows, temp folder, program directories, etc) to save space since you can always reinstall to get those back. This allows you to keep more backups before having to delete them. We have no way of knowing how much you can store on the server's drives except the obvious answer of "2tb".

Defragging doesn't save you space and doesn't transfer across networks anyway, so doing this before or after backups is irrelevant.

I don't have working experience with FreeNAS, so I can't give suggestions/experiences with that.

Thideras, thanks for the response. So if I want to allow the NAS to go into sleep (not hibernation), I'd have to come up with some way for each networked machine to send out a magic packet to wake up the NAS BEFORE trying to perform a backup and sending it to the NAS. From reading the link, it appears this magic packet can be specifically addressed so as to only wake the server, and not awaken all machines in the network. I'll explore that issue. I wonder if some sort of batch file can be used to send out a magic packet? I'll explore this.

My goal is to have mirror backups that can be used to replace a bad drive. One of the many unknowns in this (at least for me) has to do with the restore process. Here is how I envision the restore process working.

1. If I determine a drive needs to be restored, I would put the drive into one of my working networked machines - probably one of the desktop machines.
2. I'd then use FBackup to restore this drive across the network.
3. Then I'd place the restored drive back in it's home computer.

It's a little cumbersome, but it looks do-able.

Trying to connect a computer with a hosed C drive to the NAS and running the FBackup would probably be more difficult. I might be able to use a CD or USB memory stick to connect, but that sounds a bit more complicated. Still, I can explore that option too.

I guess I'm just big on defraggingcv- maybe even anal retentive. I always thought it was best to defrag before making mirror images. I believe you're saying it won't matter. That's new info for me.

I'm sure I will have a lot to learn about how this process and project will need to shake down. This is another case of something new to learn. I guess that beats being bored.

Thanks again!

BO





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As to FBackup - I believe the newer versions of Norton Ghost allow for backups to be sent over a network. The older version I've had did not. (I think it was Ghost 12.) But the issue is cost. I'd have to have a copy for each machine I wanted to backup. That's over $400. I guess it is easy to see the attraction of a free backup program for a cheap S.O.B. like me. To my mind, that $400 can be spent to buy more drives to expand the storage capacity of the NAS. Perhaps then I could have both mirror images AND the data files from each computer available on the NAS.

BO

The WOL idea isn't feasible. There isn't going to be an easy way (short of manually doing it yourself) to wake the server before trying to connect to it. The cost of a low power server is very small and the annoyance of WOL is very high.

If you want to pay for full disk backups, get Acronis if you are using Windows. But you need to consider whether you really need to backup the full disk or just the folder that can't be recreated. The latter will be no cost, but the reinstall time will be slightly longer. For a home network, it is the better option.

If all the PCs you want to backup will be running a Windows OS, you can use Windows Home Server to do the backups. The client software runs on the PC you want to backup, and will wake those PCs up when its time to backup. You should be able to set the time for backups too on the server, and it should be able to stay in Sleep mode, until the backup time that you set comes.

Also, I can't remember what the type of backup is called, but it does a file comparison to reduce space needed for backups. So if all your PCs are running the same OS, there will be alot of files from the OS that only need 1 copy backed up, instead of copying the same file X number of times for X number of PCs. So you get a instant space reduction this way.

Just another option for you to consider.

your other option is to use FOG, this will do exactly what you want.

thideras said:

Defragging doesn't save you space and doesn't transfer across networks anyway, so doing this before or after backups is irrelevant.

Click to expand...

the only diference it "may" make is during upload, and minimal at that. the idea of making things "sequencial" will be ok, but i doubt you will max out bandwidth of the nic before any packets will be transmitted in full force, even though you have a 1500 byte payload; the device is still only going to send one file at a time (different if its raw, but that is sector by sector) .

FOG may not be a good option, since it's main purpose is for full imaging, not daily backups. Full imaging would also take up more space then other types of backup, like deduplication that WHS and others support.

thideras said:

The WOL idea isn't feasible. There isn't going to be an easy way (short of manually doing it yourself) to wake the server before trying to connect to it. The cost of a low power server is very small and the annoyance of WOL is very high.

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Click to expand...

I found a Google link for a Java script that can send a Magic Packet. The link had the source code. All one has to do is type in the MAC address for the server. Then you use a Java compiler to create the Java script. This can then be run like a program - from Windows.

I wondered if this could be used. The issue I saw was how to arrange to have it the computer run the Java script before starting the backup software.

The link on Magic Packets you provided also mentioned that there were scripts that could be attached to working software to send the WOL signal. But that may only be for Open Source software.

But I agree that running the server 24/7 shouldn't be that costly. I mainly considered it to add to the longevity of the drives.

I will also look at FOG. If I'm reading it right - I believe you guys are telling me it is primarily for mirror images.

If I did not make myself clear, let me say it here: I want to eventually have both the mirror images AND a backup of the data files stored on the server. I see that as the best option.

Thanks to everyone for the input. I've worked with Novel networked machines, but this is a different environment for me.

BO

Turning the drives on and off constantly is going to be harder on them than just leaving them on.