Backing up software is always something we think about after the disaster has happened. This past week I thought I’d delve into finding a solution to backing up all the computers I have in the house. Up to now I’ve been taking an external hard drive that hooks up to a free usb port on each computer and backing up data to it but that is slow and arduous.
I happen to have a spare computer in the shop doing nothing and a few gigabyte hard drives to stuff into it. I downloaded a copy of an open source program called FreeNas that turns an old computer with a few hard drives into a storage vault for you data that can be connected on a network.
The set up was relatively easy; it is a live CD based on Berkley Systems Distro Unix (BSD) that installs on your computer and then can be administered remotely through a web browser. There was a small defect in the setup configuration that I was able to fix once I got on the user forums and searching for the fault ( network timeout and disconnect ). The online administration GUI works well and gives you all you need to keep your online storage vault in good order.
I was able to have all my computers backing up to the FreeNas machine using either “Back in Time” application for Linux or “Microsoft Sync toy `in Windows. The FreeNas can be set up as a network share that can be viewed from your other Windows machines as a networked drive ( nice for drag or drop of files ). The Linux machine can use Samba or NFS to also drag and drop files to the FreeNas machine.
Power settings on the FreeNas can throttle back parts of the machine when it is in idle. If you have an old computer doing nothing, consider getting a few large cheap hard drives for it and try FreeNas as your own local backup storage solution.
- Jim
Here is an overview of FreeNas from Jupiter Broadcasting:
