What settings for local TrueNAS as backup destination?

Support
1

Hello,

I’m trying to set up a Duplicati backup from my windows machine to a truenas fileserver in the same local network. In step two I have to specify the destination. The storage type dropdown offers me the following standard protocols:

  • FTP
  • FTP (Alternative)
  • OpenStack Object Storage / Swift
  • S3 Compatible
  • SFTP (SSH)
  • WebDAV

However the datasets that I can create on truenas (scale/community edition) are as follows:

  • Generic
  • SMB
  • Apps
  • Multiprotocol

I searched this forum and “CIFS” is suggested for SMB shares but CIFS isn’t available in the destination dropdown and I also read here that it isn’t supported by Duplicati. That is a bit confusing to me.

On truenas there are apps that provide FTP, SFTP and WebDAV. I guess I could install one of those and then choose that in Duplicati as destination? But is that an appropriate choice for a local network backup?

I also found this thread and this is probably what I will try next (also documented here).

Is there something like a standard or recommended way to set up a local NAS as storage destination for Duplicati backups?

2

I think you need to enable the service. I would suggest SFTP:

That is a bit confusing for two reasons:

  1. Usually, one mounts an SMB share in Windows, and then configure Duplicati (or any application) to use the drive that it was mounted on (e.g., X:\)
  2. Native support for SMB is not in the current stable, you need an experimental release

For (1) Duplicati does not realize that is is an SMB share, it just sees a local filesystem and makes backup to that.
For (2), the advantage is that you do not need to pre-mount it, so you can keep your backup settings out of your Explorer view and inaccessible to other applications that should not use it anyway.

That depends on your security mindset I think. I would argue that any of the tree suggestions can be secured and would fit a home-use network. I would personally go for SFTP as the use of keys instead of passwords greatly increases security, but you need SFTP without the option for a shell.

I don’t think there is a general way, as each user has different requirements.

1 Like
3

I think I initially didn’t understand that the SMB share can simply be targeted as local storage. Now that I understood this, I don’t need to use any of the other protocols. Thank you anyway for explaining and for the links.

The first full backup just finished. So far it looks like this might become the first backup solution that I’ll actually keep using.

2 Likes