Running Crashplan in a Ubuntu VM

[jcazes]

Looks like my last challenge is how to automate this on a power schedule.

1. Do you know how to configure ubuntu to login automatically and start crashplan after reboot? I was able to get the VM to auto start, but Ubuntu doesn't login / crashplan doesn't seem to run automatically.

2. Do you have any issues with network speed on the VM? I seem to be topping out at 10-20Mbps upload even though I have a gigabit / 1000MB connection. This might be a Crashplan limitation but thought I'd ask.

[depen]

1. My howto is written so the VM should use as little rescources as possible. There by X is not started by default. If you changed the runlevel to rc2.d during install (step 12) Crashplan should start during boot. When you want to access X, run "startx". If you want X to autostart, undo step 3.

2. I get similar performance. I believe it´s due to CPU-limitation. My TS-251 has to struggle with the data de-duplication and encryption. However, these features is well worth the wait. =)

[d3763]

I have a new problem now, seems that on restart my Crashplan installation gets corrupted somehow. The GUI always has trouble connecting to the Backup Engine. Stopping and Restarting the CrashPlanEngine doesn't help, and neither does clearing the CrashPlan cache. It just forces me to uninstall-reinstall every time.

[depen]

Not much to go on, but I would definitely recommend you to raise a crashplan ticket. Remember to include your logs. https://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/4/ ... To_Support

[depen]

@d3763 Any updates on your issues?

Skickat från min Nexus 5 via Tapatalk

[d3763]

@depen

Nothing yet. It's been so much simpler to just uninstall-reinstall to continue with my backup. I have a lot of stuff to go through before I feel comfortable with my data.

[keg415]

Many thanks for posting these instructions! I was having a problem* attaching a CrashPlan archive folder on an external USB drive on both a ReadyNAS Ultra 2 and on the TS-251+ I just bought to replace it when running CrashPlan in a Docker container. CP does not support either of these configurations, so was not able to assist. Installing in a VM fixed the problem, and is supported.

An issue though is that ACLs are not accessible to the VM, so CrashPlan is unable to save/restore permissions. Is there a way to make this work? Would mounting via NFS v3 instead of CIFS enable ACL access?

Also, is it necessary to install xfce4 and tightvncserver on the VM in order to access the LXDE GUI with a browser/html5? (The browser works *much* better for me than UltraVNC viewer on Win10.)

* These are the symptoms of the CrashPlan problem I was experiencing: https://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/4/ ... chronizing

[depen]

I also believe it might be some issues with file permissions. As I wrote in the first post "Attaching backup archive manually doesn´t work". Im only a Linux newbie and I haven´t been able to figure out a solution.

You do not need to install a VNC server on your VM. Virtualization Station already has a VNC server. If you want to connect with your browser, use the "Console" button in Virtualization Station.

[keg415]

Update from crashplan ticket:

I have been made aware that in some cases, the window with text is it will not load, as this is an HTML page. If we are unable to load the page, for whatever reason, we will display a blank page, but this will allow input to still occur.
Below is the page with the available commands:

http://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/4/T ... n_Commands
This (old) issue, has been marked with low priority, since it is not preventing usage from occurring.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

MikeW
Customer Champion
Code42 Support

Maybe I need some mozilla packages..? I will test tomorrow and report back =).

CrashPlan support provided me with the following fix to the blank CLI problem:

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sudo apt-get install libwebkitgtk-1.0-0

Works OK now.

[keg415]

An issue though is that ACLs are not accessible to the VM, so CrashPlan is unable to save/restore permissions. Is there a way to make this work? Would mounting via NFS v3 instead of CIFS enable ACL access?

ACLs are accessible to the VM if the shares are mounted via NFSv3 instead of CIFS:

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sudo apt-get install nfs-common

/etc/fstab entry:

example.hostname.com:share /local nfs defaults,rw,auto 0 0

Example:

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NAS0:Test		/share/Test		nfs defaults,rw,auto	0	0

(I ran some bonnie++ benchmarks on the VM to compare CIFS with NFS performance for various settings of the NFS rsize= and wsize= options and found that the NFS defaults gave the best results, which were comparable to CIFS for read/write, and much better than CIFS for file create/delete.)

However, tests showed that CrashPlan doesn't appear to back up the ACLs, so I've opened a CrashPlan ticket on this issue.

[depen]

libwebkitgtk-1.0-0 solved the CLI issue for me as well. Thanks! I´ll update the first post . I´ve only tested with the 3.0 version of the package earlier and that doesn´t work. I tested it again today with the same, non-working, result.

NFS sounds interesting. Report back with results of your ticket, please.

[keg415]

However, tests showed that CrashPlan doesn't appear to back up the ACLs, so I've opened a CrashPlan ticket on this issue.

Tech support responded that CrashPlan does not support ACLs on Linux, as stated here:
https://support.code42.com/Administrato ... d_Metadata

[keg415]

(I ran some bonnie++ benchmarks on the VM to compare CIFS with NFS performance for various settings of the NFS rsize= and wsize= options and found that the NFS defaults gave the best results, which were comparable to CIFS for read/write, and much better than CIFS for file create/delete.)

bonnie++-r4096 results for CIFS
mount -t cifs -o defaults,rw,credentials=/var/backups/.smbcredentials,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777

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Version  1.97       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency   1     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
cpvm             8G   531  99 102766  21 42356  15  1736  96 136688  32  3463 159
Latency             17364us   27466us    2158ms   37569us     193ms   26814us
Version  1.97       ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
cpvm                -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16    98   3 17870  10   226   3    95   3  3169  28   207   5
Latency             72604us    8021us     312ms     478ms    2070us     453ms
1.97,1.97,cpvm,1,1469580705,8G,,531,99,102766,21,42356,15,1736,96,136688,32,3463,159,16,,,,,98,3,17870,10,226,3,95,3,3169,28,207,5,17364us,27466us,2158ms,37569us,193ms,26814us,72604us,8021us,312ms,478ms,2070us,453

real    13m37.372s
user    0m5.060s
sys     1m28.844s

bonnie++-r4096 results for NFS
mount -t nfs -o defaults,rw

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Version  1.97       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency   1     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
cpvm             8G   607  99 111897  24 47928  13  1674  97 154862  13  5960 182
Latency             29007us    1599ms    2395ms   35459us     983ms     118ms
Version  1.97       ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
cpvm                -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16  1667  42 +++++ +++  4014  39  1631  41  6802  48  4706  39
Latency             16727us   24948us   44516us   69434us    1857us    3888us
1.97,1.97,cpvm,1,1469585337,8G,,607,99,111897,24,47928,13,1674,97,154862,13,5960,182,16,,,,,1667,42,+++++,+++,4014,39,1631,41,6802,48,4706,39,29007us,1599ms,2395ms,35459us,983ms,118ms,16727us,24948us,44516us,69434us,1857us,3888us

real    5m46.558s
user    0m4.240s
sys     1m6.644s

Configuration
TS251+: 16GB RAM, 2x WDC WD30EFRX RAID 1, write cache disabled, QTS Version 4.2.1
CrashPlan VM: Ubuntu 14.04.04 server, 2 cores, 4GB RAM

[keg415]

I now have a CrashPlan VM backing up to CrashPlan Central and to external USBDrive1 mounted via NFS.

I migrated 1.5TB from A Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra, on which I'd been running CrashPlan+ for over 5 years. I was able to mount TS-251+ shares on the VM using the same paths as the ReadyNAS (/share/homes -> /c/home, /share/MultiMedia -> /c/media, etc.) so that CrashPlan did not need to update the file paths.

UltraVNC viewer on Windows 10 crashed often, so I removed (apt-get autoremove) tightvncserver from the VM. Browser works fine for managing the CrashPlan VM.

I found LXDE to be buggy. Setting display resolution with lxrandr caused windows to use only the upper left quadrant of screen, and could not be maximized. Had to kill pcmanfm because it was consuming 50% CPU. So I also removed lxde-core, lxrandr, and xfce4-goodies, and am using xfce4.

Installed OpenSSH Server and configured SSH authentication, since I find PuTTY more convenient than console xterm etc.

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sudo apt install openssh-server
sudo ufw allow ssh

[depen]

I don't believe you will be able to notice any performance difference between cifs and nfs using Crashplan. The bottle neck will be the cpu performance for handling the built-in encryption.

lxde is not perfect, xfce might be a better choice. However, I believe xfce will use a little more ram.