Tutorial to install CrashPlan (updated August 2016)

[jclaracq]

Hello everyone,

As I have reinstall CrashPlan on my ReadyNas today. I thought I will share with everyone my updated notes. Feel free to comment to improve this step-by-step. Maybe a clever person can make an install script from it?

This was adapted from:http://ptarmiganlabs.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/netgear-readynas-rn312-hello/

Step 1: Installation
Add some tools to READYNAS:

apt-get install apt-utils
apt-get install dialog

dpkg-reconfigure debconf

Set the debconf level to "dialog" and "medium"

It turns out the pre-installed version of cpio doesn't quite cut it. Replace it:

apt-get remove busybox-cpio
apt-get install cpio

Make a temp directory

mkdir /tmpcd
cd /tmpcd

Download last version of linux CrashPlan (Check on website)
wget https://download1.code42.com/installs/linux/install/CrashPlan/CrashPlan_4.7.0_Linux.tgz

Unzip the file:
tar -xvzf CrashPlan_4.7.0_Linux.tgz

cd crashplan-install
./install.sh

if upgrading, you need to remove a previous version: ./uninstall.sh -i /usr/local/crashplan

CrashPlan will install to: /usr/local/crashplan or install in /apps/crashplan
And put links to binaries in: /usr/local/bin
And store datas in a share (I prefer to put it on a USB media to not waste space on NAS😞 /media/USB_HDD_2/crashplan-backup (or /data/crashplan)
Your init.d dir is: /etc/init.d
Your current runlevel directory is: /etc/rc5.d
Is this correct? (y/n) [y]

Now we are going to do few customizations:

stop CrashPlan:
service crashplan stop
or run: /usr/local/crashplan/bin/CrashPlanEngine stop

Backup my.service.xml:

cp /usr/local/crashplan/conf/my.service.xml /usr/local/crashplan/conf/my.service.xml.orig

With your favorite editor, edit /usr/local/crashplan/conf/my.service.xml
example: nano /usr/local/crashplan/conf/my.service.xml

On the line that says ServiceHost. Replace 127.0.0.1 with IP of the NAS (the one from your LAN like 192.168.0.120) and then save the file and exit nano
Move CrashPlan cache and log directories to new locations or it will full your system partition

mkdir /media/USB_HDD_2/crashplan

ls -lah /usr/local/crashplan/cache/
mkdir /media/USB_HDD_2/crashplan/cache
mv /usr/local/crashplan/cache/* /media/USB_HDD_2/crashplan/cache/

ls -lah /usr/local/crashplan/log/
mkdir /media/USB_HDD_2/crashplan/log

vi /usr/local/crashplan/conf/my.service.xml
Change the paths as neeed for your choice of new directories:
look up for cachePath and FilesLog.

For example:

<cachePath>/usr/local/crashplan/cache</cachePath>
to
<cachePath>/media/USB_HDD_2/crashplan/cache</cachePath

<serviceLog>
<fileHandler append="true" count="2" level="ALL" limit="26214400" pattern="/media/USB_HDD_2/crashplan/log/service.log"/>
</serviceLog>
<serviceErrorInterval>3600000</serviceErrorInterval>
<historyLog>
<fileHandler append="true" count="10" level="ALL" limit="512000" pattern="/media/USB_HDD_2/crashplan/log/history.log"/>
</historyLog>

And finally check free disk space on /:
/usr/local/crashplan/log# df -h

Restart crashplan:
service crashplan start
or run: /usr/local/crashplan/bin/CrashPlanEngine start

Reset debconf to non-interactive (using "noninteractive" and "medium" as settings):
dpkg-reconfigure debconf

Step 2. Configuration
These instructions are based on those available on CrashPlanís support site.

1. Install the client on your laptop or desktop from CrashPlan site. Note this is the consumer version - Enterprise version can be obtained from here.

2. Before doing anything else, exit the CrashPlan client if it is running, then edit the ui.properties file located in one of these folders:

Linux (if installed as root): /usr/local/crashplan/conf/ui.properties
Mac: /Applications/CrashPlan.app/Contents/Resources/Java/conf/ui.properties
Solaris (if installed as root): /opt/sfw/crashplan/conf/ui.properties
Windows: C:\Program Files\CrashPlan\conf\ui.properties?

and ensure the following line:?
#serviceHost=127.0.0.1
#servicePort=4243

is modified to look like this (if not there at all, add it), then save the file:?
serviceHost=your_NAS_IP
servicePort=4200

Step 3. Newer releases of Crashplan require you to copy a UI key form the backend service on the headless system (the ReadyNAS in our case) to the client system (the computer we are using the desktop app on).

Copy the contents of /var/lib/crashplan/.ui_info on the ReadyNAS to the appropriate file on your client computer (see below) making sure to change the the first number (4243) in the file to the forwarded local port (4200).
For example...

ReadyNas .ui_info
4243,87a4cc89-09ac-495e-946e-ed1c3642a909,192.168.0.120

should be copied to the client and changed to

IMPORTANT Do not change port 4243 to 4200 !

4243,87a4cc89-09ac-495e-946e-ed1c3642a909,192.168.0.120

The correct client file will be in the location below depending on your client OS.

Locations Of .ui_.properties (source)

Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10, Server 2008, and Server 2012
Installed for everyone: C:\ProgramData\CrashPlan\conf
To view this hidden folder, open Windows Explorer and paste the path in the address bar.
Installed per user: C:\Users\\AppData\<Local|Roaming>\Programs\CrashPlan\conf
To view this hidden folder, open Windows Explorer and paste the path in the address bar.
Windows XP
Installed for everyone: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\CrashPlan\conf
To view this hidden folder, open Windows Explorer and paste the path in the address bar.
Installed per user: C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Programs\CrashPlan\conf
​To view this hidden folder, open Windows Explorer and paste the path in the address bar.
OS X
Installed for everyone: /Library/Application Support/CrashPlan/conf/.ui_.properties
Installed per user: ~/Library/Application Support/CrashPlan/conf/
Linux: /usr/local/crashplan/conf
Solaris: /opt/sfw/crashplan/conf
Now fire up your desktop app and you should be greeted with the setup process.

4. Open the CrashPlan app on your client and setup CrashPlan as per their instructions on their site.

5. Once setup, close the CrashPlan client app, close your terminal window and edit the ui.properties file again to remove the line you added or modified, saving when done.

6. You can then load up your client and set it up, and as with any other clients you also install the CrashPlan app on to (and either login with same account, or using your CrashPlan ìFriend Codeî) you will then be able to see your ReadyNAS as a backup destination (under ìComputersî)?. If you have more than one ReadyNAS that you install this on to, you can also setup backups to run between

CONGRATULATIONS YOU ARE DONE!

[Bogus]

Could you please check step 3, because it's not really clear. Should I or shouldn't I change the port number from 4243 to 4200?

[StephenB]

There's more than one way to set this up, but here is what I do:

My ReadyNAS /var/lib/crashplan/ui.info:

4243,xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,127.0.0.1

My Windows Client: c:\ProgramData\CrashPlan/.ui_info:

4200,xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,127.0.0.1

And putty (Windows) SSH->tunnels configuration:

L4200          localhost:4243

[Bogus]

Sorry for the confusion but what I mean is that there's a contradiction in setp 3 of the tutorial:

First you write to change the number: "Copy the contents of /var/lib/crashplan/.ui_info on the ReadyNAS to the appropriate file on your client computer (see below) making sure to change the the first number (4243) in the file to the forwarded local port (4200)."

And then you write NOT to change the number: "IMPORTANT Do not change port 4243 to 4200 !"

Anyway, here's how I got it working without the need of Putty and opening SSH tunnels:

In the client's ui.properties, I changed

#serviceHost=127.0.0.1
#servicePort=4243

to

serviceHost=192.168.0.123
servicePort=4200

My ReadyNAS /var/lib/crashplan/ui.info:

4243,xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,192.168.0.123

My Windows Client: c:\ProgramData\CrashPlan/.ui_info:

4200,xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,192.168.0.123

(192.168.0.123 is the IP address of the ReadyNAS.)

On my ReadyNAS 204 (with ARM processor), I needed to change the JAVACOMMON variable to the correct java executable in the install.vars file in the root of your crashplan install directory.

JAVACOMMON=/usr/bin/java

Also I needed to change the files libjtux.so and libmd5.so (located in /usr/local/crashplan).

(How can I attach those files here?)

Another change is that ReadyNAS devices boot at runlevel 2 but the installer creates the “init.d” startup script in “rc5.d“.  If you were to reboot, your service would never start so we fix it like so:

cd /etc/rc2.d/
ln -s ../init.d/crashplan S99crashplan
rm /etc/rc5.d/S99crashplan

After some research I also found that: CrashPlan just stays on 'waiting for backup' forever. I did an 'apt-get install libjna-java' and created a symbolic link from '/usr/lib/jni/libjnidispatch.so' to '/usr/local/crashplan'. You can also copy the file."

Two other files that I replaced are: jna.jar and jna-platform.jar -- I used symbolic links from /usr/share/java/jna.jar and /usr/share/java/jna-platform.jar to replace the /usr/local/crashplan/lib/jna.jar and /usr/local/crashplan/lib/jna-platform.jar (the files are installed after apt-get install libjna-java)

Somehow changing the log an cache paths in my.service.xml doesn't seem to do anything. log and cache are still in the same space. Perhaps that's an ARM thing, I dont know...

Other than that Crashplan is backing up 🙂

[jclaracq]

Bogus,

I just checked again. I can connect to the CrashPlan of the NAS from the GUI of the client only if the ui.info port is set to 4243 !! Thus for me it works like that:

My ReadyNAS /var/lib/crashplan/ui.info:

4243,xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,192.168.0.120

My Windows Client: c:\ProgramData\CrashPlan/.ui_info:

4243,xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,192.168.0.120

A second thing to know: backup your new ui.info of the client (as it can be overwritten if Crashplan is started on the client in "server" mode).

Now from tutorial your client connects directly to the NAS.

To connect the client as a "Crashplan client" of the NAS, what you need to do is to :

- Stop/kill the Crashplan service on your client PC

- reverse the ui.properties to serviceHost=127.0.0.1 and servicePort=4243

- restart CrashPlan

Now that way the GUI login in to the PC (not to the NAS) then you have to tell the PC to backup to the NAS using the code from the Crashplan server of the NAS.

If you want to go back to controlling the NAS Crashplan from the PC. You have to redo the ui.properties (actually I just uncomment the IP of the NAS and ServicePort=4200)

Also do not forget to overwrite you ui.info with the backup ui.info (every time you will switch from NAS to PC it will be overwritten.

[StephenB]

---

@jclaracq wrote:

Bogus,

I just checked again. I can connect to the CrashPlan of the NAS from the GUI of the client only if the ui.info port is set to 4243 !! Thus for me it works like that:

My ReadyNAS /var/lib/crashplan/ui.info:

4243,xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,192.168.0.120

My Windows Client: c:\ProgramData\CrashPlan/.ui_info:

4243,xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,192.168.0.120

---

You need to leave the ports at 4243 because you aren't tunneling through putty.  I always start with putty myself, so I can access the crashplan logs, etc directly from linux - and then launch the client if there's something there I want to see or change.  So 4200 works for me,

Also, I don't think you need to change the IP address on the NAS - 127.0.0.1 (localhost) should work too, and is easier to manage overall (fewer things to touch later if the IP address changes).  Your method does require setting the NAS IP address on the client (and mine requires leaving it alone).

@jclaracq - if you want edits to the main post, then let me know what they are - I can apply them for you.  

Also, you might consider listing both the putty and direct configuration options in the main post, so both are documented.

[Bogus]

---

@StephenB wrote:

---

@jclaracq wrote:

Bogus,

I just checked again. I can connect to the CrashPlan of the NAS from the GUI of the client only if the ui.info port is set to 4243 !! Thus for me it works like that:

My ReadyNAS /var/lib/crashplan/ui.info:

4243,xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,192.168.0.120

My Windows Client: c:\ProgramData\CrashPlan/.ui_info:

4243,xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,192.168.0.120

---

You need to leave the ports at 4243 because you aren't tunneling through putty.  I always start with putty myself, so I can access the crashplan logs, etc directly from linux - and then launch the client if there's something there I want to see or change.  So 4200 works for me,

Also, I don't think you need to change the IP address on the NAS - 127.0.0.1 (localhost) should work too, and is easier to manage overall (fewer things to touch later if the IP address changes).  Your method does require setting the NAS IP address on the client (and mine requires leaving it alone).

@jclaracq - if you want edits to the main post, then let me know what they are - I can apply them for you.  

Also, you might consider listing both the putty and direct configuration options in the main post, so both are documented.

---

Sorry my bad.

My Windows Client: c:\ProgramData\CrashPlan/.ui_info:

4243,xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,192.168.0.123

That is what I have too.

Regarding "the IP address on the NAS - 127.0.0.1 (localhost) should work too"

I doubt it (but don't know for sure), because it might only listen to itself (hence localhost). Chaning it to 0.0.0.0 makes more sense, in particular when using DHCP as the IP address of the ReadyNAS might change.

Stephen can you also attach files to my or the 1st post? These .so files are required for ARM.

[StephenB]

---

@Bogus wrote:

---

Regarding "the IP address on the NAS - 127.0.0.1 (localhost) should work too"

I doubt it (but don't know for sure), because it might only listen to itself (hence localhost). Chaning it to 0.0.0.0 makes more sense, in particular when using DHCP as the IP address of the ReadyNAS might change.

---

Perhaps just try both and report back?

---

@Bogus wrote:

---

Stephen can you also attach files to my or the 1st post? These .so files are required for ARM.

---

I can, but I am thinking it would be better if you and @jclaracq would collaborate on revisions to the first post, and I can apply those.

Then I can add an "EDIT" note, so people will know they won't have to scroll through the thread.

[jplee3]

Seems the latest CP release (4.8) has royally broken things - they now require Java 8 and the service will crash upon attempted to start with Java 7 still loaded. I was able to get the Oracle JDK 8 embedded installed on my RN204 but am still having issues with the service properly starting - it complains about authorization or something along those lines. I also had to replace libjtux.so with an ARM-compiled version because it was bombing on that too since the upgrade presumably overwrote it. It's irritatating that CP still refuses to support ARM platforms - there seems to be a good number of users backing up data from their ARM-based NASes (not just ReadyNAS but Synology and QNAP and probably more), and I'd say this is a pretty strong use case for a service like this.

[mdgm-ntgr]

Which firmware are you running?

Do you see this problem on 6.6.0?

In 6.6.0 we have upgraded the core OS from Debian 7 to Debian 8.

[jplee3]

I'm on 6.5.2 - I wasn't aware 6.6.0 was out or that I could upgrade to it... in fact, I was just on 6.5.1 earlier. How do I get up to 6.6.0? When checking for updates, it says I'm already at the latest...

EDIT: nevermind, I found it on the product page - https://www.netgear.com/support/product/RN204.aspx?cid=wmt_netgear_organic#Software%20Version%206.6....). I guess the auto-updater wasn't detecting this latest FW for whatever reason. Anyway, I just downloaded it and am pushing the new firmware. Will report back with what happens!

[jplee3]

So just updated to 6.6.0 successfully. No change to the way things were previously though with CP. Thing is, I had manually installed Java 8 and the Java 7 I had also installed prior to that still exists (openjdk deb pkgs, etc). Am I supposed to remove all that?

[mdgm-ntgr]

It would probably make sense to only have the one version of Java on the system.

[jplee3]

I removed openjdk-7 so just the binary for 8 is there. Still no go. Is Java 8 'bundled' into Debian 8/6.6.0? I ran apt-get update and then apt-cache search java and apt-cache search jre but still see Java 7 in the repo. Either way, unless something is wrong with my Java configuration or I'm missing some critical file, it's possible CP is just broken under Arm. I really don't want to have to resort back to attempting a fresh installation but I guess I'll be forced to if I can't figure anything else out. And even then, I dread having to do that only to find out that it might still be broken after 😞

Just stumbled across this thread with multiple users having similar issues but with their ARM-based Synology NASes:

https://pcloadletter.co.uk/2012/01/30/crashplan-syno-package/

Particularly the comment here and thereon after: October 3, 2016 at 15:56

[StephenB]

Crashplan is supposed to install its own java (in /usr/local/crashplan/jre ).  That was one of the changes made over the summer.

Perhaps something went off with 4.8 though - my OS 4.2 system hasn't seen that update yet.

[jplee3]

I don't doubt it - I noticed upgrades started breaking my CP installations every time they were rolled out and it was always related to Java/JRE.

I made some headway (which I didn't mention in my last post) where I had just symlinked the jna-*.jar from /usr/share/java and got past the initial authorization issues I was seeing. However, the issue now is that they've included a precompiled CP-specific library that doesn't run under ARM:

java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Unable to load library 'c42archive': Native libr
ary (linux-arm/libc42archive.so) not found in resource path ([file:/usr/local/cr
ashplan/lib/com.backup42.desktop.jar, file:/usr/local/crashplan/lang/])

At this point, I think ARM-users are SOL. That really stinks...

[jclaracq]

I noticed as well that my crashplan stopped to work about a week ago. I will check that as soon as I can and update the tuto if necessary. As StephenB said Crashplan installs its own java package. But I can only speak for x86 version

[jplee3]

Thanks! I don't think this is really going to be an issue for x86/Intel-based NASes, as I would expect the JRE that CP precompiles to run just fine. It really looks like it's an issue with ARM-based NASes. And before, this was only really an issue of pointing CP to use the Java/JRE compiled for ARM on the NAS (rather than CP's precompiled version). Now the issue appears to be that CP added another precompiled library dependency (which only works in x86), so even if users of ARM-based NASes point CP to use the system JRE, the CP service will still fail because that other CP-specific library can't load in the ARM environment. 

[john_h1]

Yup, Crashplan has stopped working for me too on my RN316 ReadyNAS.  I'm thinking about dumping Crashplan altogther and just use sync with Dropbox for my important files.

[jplee3]

The RN316 is Intel-based isn't it? You shouldn't have any issues getting it working again - probably what you're running into is Java problems (if you have Java 7 still installed, it's not going to work and you'll need to update to Java 😎

[jclaracq]

I am doing a check here. Actually Crashplan is still at 4.7 from their website. However looking at the logs, I see that on the 29 Sept. Crashplan tried to update itself. Doing so he needed Java 8 (jre-linux-x64-1.8.0_72.tgz) and installed it however it fails to update because of wrong CPIO.

I did

apt-get remove busybox-cpio
apt-get install cpio

Now I am looking how to trigger the update from Crashplan again...

[jclaracq]

I ended up installing 4.8. Just follow same tutorial but replacing 4.7 by 4.8 . The link is not available from Code42 website yet. 2 things:

- I noticed that changing the logs location does not work. Probably this settings is read somewhere else now.

- so far I have not been able to connect to the headless server.

Will try another day. Time to go to sleep.....bzzz

[oshae]

I'm running 4.2.28 on a Pro 6.

I've been using the Java 7 addon from RNSXtras for quite some time now. My CrashPlan 4.7 install tried to upgrade to 4.8 I believe on Sept 29. It tried to download the new JVM and was unable to because of the wget cert check issue. It filled the /usr/local/crashplan/upgrade folder with multiple attempts and filled my root volume. Luckily I was still able to boot up and SSH in. I modified .wgetrc according to a post I found and this page (I can't find the forum post anymore).

http://www.elftronix.com/how-to-automatically-skip-wget-ssl-certificate-check/

I managed to delete everything in the upgrade folder to reclaim the root volume space. After making that change to wget, CrashPlan tried to upgrade again. This time it was able to download the Java 1.8 and it successfully upgraded to 4.8. JAVACOMMON in my install.vars is now pointing to /usr/local/crashplan/jre/bin/java.

Everything seems to be working fine. I'm guessing parts of this have already been posted somewhere on the forums but I thought I would just post my experience in case anyone runs into the same problem.

Can I assume there is no need for the Java 1.7 addon from RNSXtras anymore? 

[jplee3]

I may just ditch Crashplan and move over to Amazon Cloud Drive. Pricing seems reasonable at $60 for unlimited storage... my CP plan expires in December anyway.

[oshae]

I still really like CrashPlan and recommend it all the time. Even a free setup where you cross backup between 2 clients is very handy. I have the CP family plan, so I can put my parents machines on it as well. The day they have a hard drive failure I know it will be simple for me to restore their stuff for them. Puts my mind at ease.

How would you use ACD with the ReadyNAS? There is no addon that I am aware of. Then again I'm not on OS6.