# Filesystem choice for backup drive (rsync)



## ilemur (Apr 15, 2012)

Have been successfully using rsync with a ntfs-3g to back up to a removable SATA drive. But after switching to 9.0 (clean install, so no string attached, same drive) started receiving kernel panics (have already tried rsync limiting bandwidth option as well).

So now facing a dilemma which filesystem to choose. The HDD is 2Tb so FAT won't do (and there is a requirement to read it under Windows7 ot at least linux (how is UFS2 support under the latter?)). So what options do *I* have?


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## jb_fvwm2 (Apr 16, 2012)

Have you limited BWLIMIT to 1000 or 2000 max?  If you still get panics, maybe try removing all the debugging stuff from the kernel. Also, if you are rsync'ing very large filesystems, one can start deeper:

```
# usr/local/share# rsync ... ... --bwlimit=1000 . /mnt/usr/local/share 
# cd ..
# usr/local # rsync ... ... --bwlimit=1000 . /mnt/usr/local
etc..
```
As to the filesystem, ufs2, maybe SUJ, one can fsck_ffs -y  easily usually.


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## wblock@ (Apr 16, 2012)

One option would be to run a small VM with Linux as a NAS.  Let Linux write to NTFS, because FUSE on FreeBSD is not solid (yet).  It could be done the other way, too: have a small FreeBSD VM on Windows to read the external drive, which is formatted with UFS.


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## ilemur (Apr 16, 2012)

jb_fvwm2, I have tried with bwlimit at a low rate of 100. Trying to *rsync* a photo collection (around 238Gb ~ 41000 files, not such a deep structure - 3 levels max). Everything worked fine under F*ree*BSD8. Debugging disabled. Only difference from the config on 8 is that *I* have removed all the sysctl variables (max_proc etc.).

wblock@, thanks! Haven't thought of running a VM on windows. This might be an option.


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## jb_fvwm2 (Apr 16, 2012)

Rsync uses memory a lot more if it has to copy a lot of files (keeps lists...) Maybe a shell script?

```
for f in $(find . -type f -newer [somefile] ); do (gcp -Rvu "$f" /destination/dir && sleep 1); done && yell
```
(Requires (optionally) audio/yell and sysutils/coreutils)


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## ilemur (Apr 17, 2012)

jb_fvwm2 said:
			
		

> Rsync uses memory a lot more if it has to copy a lot of files



It's a home server with extremly light load and 8Gb of RAM + C2D E6850 - so *I* don't think memory can be the issue. Seems like a fuse+ntfs-3g problem. Well as a solution *I*'ve switched to UFS2.


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