Now that the fanfare and clamor of FreeNAS Corral has hit I thought it may be beneficial to cover the process of replicating ZFS datasets using two FreeNAS Corral storage platforms/systems. The following steps and accompanying screenshots cover the end-to-end process of settings up successful replication between a source FreeNAS Corral and destination FreeNAS Corral system. For this guide, we are going to use the new FreeNAS Corral Peering screens. This type of configuration would typically be targeted at a couple of different protection scenario’s: Intra-site (LAN) replication and Inter-site (local/remote) where you would want to replicate or backup ZFS datasets. Luckily, FreeNAS makes this extremely easy to accomplish.

Using FreeNAS Corral Peering to replicate ZFS datasets between two FreeNAS systems

To setup replication, the first step is to setup the FreeNAS ‘Peering’ which sets up and configures/pairs two FreeNAS Corral storage appliances for replication capabilities.

On Source FreeNAS Corral system go to ‘Peering -> + sign -> New FreeNAS’

Next input appropriate details to pair the Destination FreeNAS Corral system and click ‘Save’.

Then configure the replication job by selecting ‘Volume -> Replication -> + sign -> Replication job name -> Target dataset -> Repeat Every (replication interval) -> Save’. Validate that the replication link setup/configuration completes successfully in the status pane on the Source FreeNAS Corral system.

You can click on these images to get a larger/ higher resolution picture. This is a side effect of doing screenshots on a UI that expands horizontally.

Up next on our journey to replication bliss is to validate that the replication job synchronizes again using the status pane on the Source FreeNAS Corral system.

Next up, validate that the ‘Receiving replication stream’ status message appears using the status pane on the Destination FreeNAS Corral system.

Finally, on the Destination FreeNAS Corral system verify that the replication job is indeed running. This can be accomplished again using the handy status pane. You should see the ‘Receiving replication stream’ progress and the ‘Status, Progress, and Speed’ indicators doing their job under the hood.

That’s it! Now you can have your FreeNAS Corral cake and have it eat replication too! 😀

I must confess I am pretty impressed by how easy it is to setup replication between two FreeNAS Corral systems compared to setting up the same capability on the FreeNAS 9.x series. Let the replication bits fly!

The STH community uses FreeNAS extensively in labs and at work. You can join in our discussion on the STH Forums.