Backup DAS

champ222

champ222

champ222

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Hi All

Im in the process of updating my NAS which has led me to think about my backup solution too.

Currently, i have a bunch of external drives that connect via a usb hub to an intel nuc thats always on. When i want to run a backup, i flick the switch to switch on the extension powering the usb drives and usb hub. I manually run the backup, then "eject" the drives in Windows, then power off.

When i upgrade the drives in the NAS i then usually get a new external drive.

With the new NAS build, ill probably need to replace two of the drives, so first i thought about putting those in external enclosures and using them for backups, this would probably work fine, but then i had the thought about putting all the drives in a single case and using sata to usb cables to connect them to a usb hub and psu all enclosed in the case. It might be a neater solution than a bunch of usb drives.

I was hoping to find a pcb or something that has a bunch of sata connections, and a usb port and that is powered by a molex or something, allowing me to power the HDDs using the usual sata power connectors. The only one i can find is this one by lindy:

Lindy sell direct, so rather than link that, its like this:

Link

Sata to usb cables are common, but ones that allow you to add the 12v for a 3.5" hdd are not so common. I can get them from china for about a fiver each.

Ive researched DAS systems but most conversations usually end up recommending a nas. But i dont need another nas to back up the nas.

Any thoughts from you guys? How do you backup your NAS?

Thanks
 
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Thought about something similar to this recently (just upgraded to 20TB disks in my NAS), so I now have a stash of lower capacity drives which still have some life left in them.

How many disks are you running?

It would be handy to have a method of powering on/off drives as and when they're required. So that you can have a cold backup for each (day/weekly) which would provide a bit of extra protection against ransomware. Obviously isn't the nicest way to treat the drives turning them off and on again vs letting them spin idly - but it would save on power and they're old drives anyway and shouldn't be the only backup. Technically you could have USB docks and power them on/off with regular timer plugs or smart ones if you want to be fancier. You can even get smart extensions where each socket is smart!
You could then have the USB cables going into a hub and since only one drive is on at a time, throughput shouldn't be an issue. You could script the ejection too with a scheduled task or cronjob. Might as well add notification emails too :D

I read that some people achieve a similar result by using scheduled firewall rules, to block of access to certain networked disk devices.

I think what I'll end up doing is just using an old 2 bay NAS for now and have that power on/off when required.
I was going to sell it, but I've decided to keep it around for doing extended SMART tests on new disks.
Then when I upgrade from my 4 bay NAS, to an 8 bay, the 4 bay will become the backup NAS instead.

A short depth rackmount DAS enclosure would be nice, but I doubt it would let you power on/off individual bays.
TerraMaster is a name that has popped up a few times recently whilst I was deciding on the storage upgrade. They sell some DAS units.

Please post an update with whichever method you decide to go for - as it sounds like a fun way of engineering something for yourself vs buying a ready made product.
 
What software are you running for the NAS ? Could you use a server style case with hotswap bays ? Then in theory, you could have one of the bays as the backup bay which you slot your drive in and out as needed. Slot in, back up, remove and store elsewhere.
 
Aren't you just looking for a multi bay case which supports jbod? I know there are a lot of usb3+ cases that supposedly support this.
 
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