Back Up Encrypted ZFS Data Without Decrypting It, Even If TrueNAS Doesn’t Approve

[Michael Lynch] not long ago changed his Synology NAS with a self-designed answer built on ZFS, a filesystem with a neat attribute: the skill to back again up encrypted info without obtaining to decrypt it very first. The only glitch is that [Michael] is applying TrueNAS, and TrueNAS only wants to back again up unencrypted ZFS facts to an additional TrueNAS system. The good thing is, there is a way around this that isn’t notably challenging, but absolutely needs leveraging the ideal tools. It also provides an educational walkthrough for how ZFS handles these factors.

The remedy is a compact handful of shell scripts to deal with comprehensive and incremental backups and restores of encrypted datasets, with out getting to decrypt the knowledge to start with. As described, this is some thing TrueNAS will tackle by default, but only if the place is also a TrueNAS procedure. Now, [Michael] can send out that backup to off-website cloud storage with only a little added function.

There is 1 additional trick [Michael] employs to keep an eye on his backups. He leverages a paid (but with a no cost tier) service called Cronitor. It is not extremely evident from the site’s functions, but there is a way to put into practice cron job checking that doesn’t involve including any software in any way. Here’s how that portion is effective: Cronitor provides a custom, one of a kind URL. If that URL is not frequented regularly (for example, because the cron occupation fails), then the consumer is notified. By integrating this into an existing cron position, a single can be notified. These an integration would seem like this:

  3 * * month-to-month-work && curl --silent https://cronitor.website link/p//regular monthly-career?condition=complete

In shorter, if the cron career runs productively, curl checks in by viewing the custom URL. If that does not come about, the consumer gets a notification. No extra software package, just a uncomplicated leveraging of a absolutely free services for some included peace of intellect.

Backups are effortless to neglect, so probably it’s time to consider a couple of moments to contemplate what you do for data storage, together with how you’d recuperate from disaster.