How best to back up a Windows PC to a FreeNAS/TrueNAS disk pool?

Akagi · 24 Jul 2023 at 21:16

Hi all,

I have a PC running Windows 11 and a Microserver running TrueNAS Core with a pool of 3TB drives in RaidZ1 (I'll refer to it as the NAS from here)

The NAS is connected directly to the PC via an ethernet cable.

I want to run automatic scheduled backups, preferably incremental, from my PC to the NAS.

What is the best way for me to achieve this?

I previously had Windows and Veeam installed on the Microserver, but it didn't have the CPU power to run that solution effectively.

In the event of a total system failure, I want to be able to simply install the backup software, re-connect it to the NAS, and be able to access/restore from the previous backups.

I could do this with Veeam, but it required a server.

Thanks!

e; Upshot of this thread - Macrium Reflect V8 is awesome, Veeam doesn't work, SyncBack and Paragon both suck.
But use whatever works best for you. :cool:

Armageus · 25 Jul 2023 at 08:41

Not 100% clear what sort of backups you want (full system image or just data), but if it's full system image, you could just use something like Macrium Reflect (which will do scheduled and incremental clones) and store the images on the NAS.

Akagi · 25 Jul 2023 at 12:32

Armageus said:
Not 100% clear what sort of backups you want (full system image or just data), but if it's full system image, you could just use something like Macrium Reflect (which will do scheduled and incremental clones) and store the images on the NAS.

I'll look into it, thanks

I've heard of that software, but not as a backup solution etc.

visibleman · 25 Jul 2023 at 15:05

Used to use SyncBack (when i was Windows based) for pure data backups and it worked pretty well to a SMB share.

Donnie Fisher · 29 Jul 2023 at 11:15

Syncback worked well for me too. Could have multiple jobs scheduled. For example, 1 to back up to an external disk, and another to to the NAS with different parameters.

lcg · 29 Jul 2023 at 14:15

I use Macrium Reflect Home Edition (paid) to run scheduled incremental backups, and write them to a TrueNAS SMB share. You can also do this with the free edition, although the free edition will be withdrawn in January.

Another option is to install Veeam Agent on your PC which can run automatic scheduled backups and write them to a TrueNAS share. You can also restore files from Veeam Agent. This seems ideal for what you've described. Veeam Agent will only allow you to create one backup job, but this doesn't seem like it would be an issue for your use case.

Quartz · 29 Jul 2023 at 14:37

Just use Windows Backup

Akagi · 29 Jul 2023 at 17:42

Quartz said:
Just use Windows Backup

Ew

Akagi · 29 Jul 2023 at 17:42

visibleman said:
Used to use SyncBack (when i was Windows based) for pure data backups and it worked pretty well to a SMB share.

Donnie Fisher said:
Syncback worked well for me too. Could have multiple jobs scheduled. For example, 1 to back up to an external disk, and another to to the NAS with different parameters.

lcg said:
I use Macrium Reflect Home Edition (paid) to run scheduled incremental backups, and write them to a TrueNAS SMB share. You can also do this with the free edition, although the free edition will be withdrawn in January.

Another option is to install Veeam Agent on your PC which can run automatic scheduled backups and write them to a TrueNAS share. You can also restore files from Veeam Agent. This seems ideal for what you've described. Veeam Agent will only allow you to create one backup job, but this doesn't seem like it would be an issue for your use case.

I'll have a looksee, thankyou

Quartz · 29 Jul 2023 at 18:41

Acme said:
Ew

It works for me.

The error message is actually erroneous!

Akagi · 29 Jul 2023 at 18:43

I guess I just have a built in distrust for MS' inbuilt systems and processes. I'd like more detail of what it is doing and more control over it.
But it could be a viable option in reality...

whiskycycle · 30 Jul 2023 at 14:08

Veeam Free for Windows. Have it on my Win11 machine, backup to unRAID box. Have used it to do bare metal recovery, as well as general file recovery.

Akagi · 30 Jul 2023 at 22:11

whiskycycle said:
Veeam Free for Windows. Have it on my Win11 machine, backup to unRAID box. Have used it to do bare metal recovery, as well as general file recovery.

Does that not require Veeam software to be installed either on the target server, or on another server?

whiskycycle · 31 Jul 2023 at 01:07

Acme said:
Does that not require Veeam software to be installed either on the target server, or on another server?

No. Client side only, backs up to a share on the unRAID box directly.

Got Mrs W’s desktop and laptop doing backups to it as well.

Veeam Agent for Windows Free

Akagi · 31 Jul 2023 at 01:25

whiskycycle said:
No. Client side only, backs up to a share on the unRAID box directly.

Got Mrs W’s desktop and laptop doing backups to it as well.

Veeam Agent for Windows Free

Thankyou! I was looking for that and I couldn't for the life of me find it...

Akagi · 31 Jul 2023 at 03:50

Veeam doesn't work sadly, it seems to have issues accessing TrueNAS SMB shares, which sucks.

I am using SyncBack at the moment.

It doesn't seem to be what I'd call a "proper" backup solution, it has a lot of settings and options, but just seems to copy raw files 1:1 to a folder, and each backup just copies whatever is different since the last one. For my use case (doing complete drives) Its essentially just automating ctrl a, ctrl c, ctrl v...

And the file restore interface it has is redundant because... I can just go into the file structure on the NAS and copy out what I need... Essentially I'm not really sure why it exists? Thankyou for the suggestion though, it will do for the time being.

Maybe I'll get Veeam working another day...

Donnie Fisher · 31 Jul 2023 at 15:20

Its essentially just automating ctrl a, ctrl c, ctrl v...

Yes ... but you try doing a copy-paste on a whole drive's worth of contents and see how well windows manages it without error. Its the flexibility in error handling that the sync stuff wins over.

Akagi · 31 Jul 2023 at 15:20

Donnie Fisher said:
Yes ... but you try doing a copy-paste on a whole drive's worth of contents and see how well windows manages it without error.

SyncBack isn't doing a great job either in fairness....

Access denied errors even though it is running with admin privileges, and I can access the files, and logging every single "file has been changed between the scan and the attempt to copy" as a failure without an option to ignore it without paying for the full version...

But it is at least sort of working! My hunt for backup software continues though. Maybe I'll try Macrium next.

Armageus · 31 Jul 2023 at 15:23

Donnie Fisher said:
Yes ... but you try doing a copy-paste on a whole drive's worth of contents and see how well windows manages it without error. Its the flexibility in error handling that the sync stuff wins over.

Acme said:
SyncBack isn't doing a great job either in fairness....

Robocopy then

(Somewhat in Jest, but also not - because our software/servers, and backup needs at work are so bespoke - I ended up writing something in VB6 to pull files into the correct places, and then just backup at different intervals with scheduled tasks that run robocopy)

Akagi · 31 Jul 2023 at 15:59

I've cut down what syncback backs up to a folder level rather than trying to make it take a copy of the whole disk, hopefully that will help it.

I still want a disk image level backup solution but this removes the emergency "oh no I dont have a backup right now" situation, so thats good.