Jonas Camillus Jeppesen
Cadet
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2015
- Messages
- 5
Hi all
My basic question is the next paragraph, read past that if you want my thoughts, wishes and a bit of discussion.
What is a good backup strategy for a 100-500 GB of important data (think photos) stored on a FreeNAS system? *
* No need to discuss off-site vs. on site backup. I know the difference and I think most solution being usable on-site could be implemented off-site instead, if that is wished for.
RAID is not a backup, neither are ZFS snapshots. Admin error might delete all data, or 4 disks might die simultaneously in a raidz3 setup. To discuss a backup strategy let me talk about my data and how I store them now:
After writing this down I realize that only 2. (important data being stored, not backed up, on the FreeNAS system) needs a backup strategy. 1. is not worth backing up and 3. use the FreeNAS system as its backup.
So what is a good backup strategy for those few hundred gigabytes of important data (again, think photos) stored on the FreeNAS? Here is what I've come up with
Thank you for your input!
/ Jonas
My basic question is the next paragraph, read past that if you want my thoughts, wishes and a bit of discussion.
What is a good backup strategy for a 100-500 GB of important data (think photos) stored on a FreeNAS system? *
* No need to discuss off-site vs. on site backup. I know the difference and I think most solution being usable on-site could be implemented off-site instead, if that is wished for.
RAID is not a backup, neither are ZFS snapshots. Admin error might delete all data, or 4 disks might die simultaneously in a raidz3 setup. To discuss a backup strategy let me talk about my data and how I store them now:
- Unimportant data like TV-shows and movies are stored on varies local clients (my laptop, my desktop, media center, etc.) and it is straight forward to migrate that to the more centralized FreeNAS system. I guess these TB of unimportant data are exempt from the backup strategy.
- Important data like family photos are stored on a multitude of external hard drives laying in drawers and on local live systems (my laptop, my desktop etc.). It would be nice to store all these in one safe place. Hopefully that safe place could be FreeNAS + a backup strategy.
- Important documents, research data, code, etc. are mostly stored on local live systems (laptops, desktops etc.) and they are needed locally while on the move (I need my work related documents while on the train without an internet connection). So the FreeNAS system should probably serve as backup location for those, not a centralized location for daily use.
After writing this down I realize that only 2. (important data being stored, not backed up, on the FreeNAS system) needs a backup strategy. 1. is not worth backing up and 3. use the FreeNAS system as its backup.
So what is a good backup strategy for those few hundred gigabytes of important data (again, think photos) stored on the FreeNAS? Here is what I've come up with
- A second FreeNAS system. It seems like a good, albeit expensive, solution.
- Blu-Ray. Dual layer discs hold 50GB - not very attractive to store sets of 10 of these.
- External hard disks. Offline disks seems like a very unreliable media (compared to an active ZFS file system).
Thank you for your input!
/ Jonas