Best Practice for NAS HDD Backup

Hostile_18 · 23 Apr 2024 at 15:50

Hi all,

Curently have a 25 GB SSD Unraid server. I've just bought a EXO 18TB HDD to back up all the essential files and store it offsite.

Just wondering is there a best practice to do this? Like how long can a traditional hard drive hold data if not plugged in? Should I be errasing all my data and rebacking up a fresh copy every few months/year so nothing is staying in the same place too long (Bit Rot IIRC?).

Any advice would be appreciated.

Armageus · 23 Apr 2024 at 16:05

Unless you've got some backup software that verifies against the original or a method of check-summing the backed up copy against your Unraid copy, then yes the safest way would be to erase and copy fresh.

Hard drives generally should be alright for at least a few years if stored safely.

Hostile_18 · 23 Apr 2024 at 16:08

Armageus said:
Unless you've got some backup software that verifies against the original or a method of check-summing the backed up copy against your Unraid copy, then yes the safest way would be to erase and copy fresh.

Hard drives generally should be alright for at least a few years if stored safely.

Thank you thats not too bad then. Maybe new files every few months and a full wipe every year. Cheers

Sin_Chase · 23 Apr 2024 at 19:35

Youve got an 18TB HDD to backup a....25GB SSD?

I personally sync my NAS to a Backblaze Cloud Storage instance that charges based on data stored. Get a nightly off site backup and dont have to think about it. For the cost of your drive you could get a few years worth of sub fees covered and have far more flexibility.

Unless you are religiously backing up to HDD and removing it off site on a regular basis I'd argue its not an effective backup solution. That is unless your data set is very static and you dont need daily snapshots?

Armageus · 23 Apr 2024 at 19:38

Sin_Chase said:
Youve got an 18TB HDD to backup a....25GB SSD?

25tb I imagine

Sin_Chase · 23 Apr 2024 at 19:39

Armageus said:
25tb I imagine

That would make more sense. That being said, cloud storage wont be particularly cost effective.

Sin_Chase · 23 Apr 2024 at 19:51

Hostile_18 said:
Thank you thats not too bad then. Maybe new files every few months and a full wipe every year. Cheers

What facilities does your offsite storage have?

If you had an Internet connection you could consider running a small appliance to do incremental updates over the internet after you have established a copy locally first?

Hostile_18 · 23 Apr 2024 at 20:26

Armageus said:
25tb I imagine

Theres something like 14tb of Data currenty being used, When it out grows the 16.xtb of the drive, I'll was just going to skip certain large media files. It's more for the organisation and the hard to find content that will be going on the external. Ultimately when I go 4k remuxes, no back up solution will be good enough to cover everything. I also have the one drive failure protection of Unraid.

Hostile_18 · 23 Apr 2024 at 20:27

Sin_Chase said:
What facilities does your offsite storage have?

If you had an Internet connection you could consider running a small appliance to do incremental updates over the internet after you have established a copy locally first?

Honestly other facilities was going to include socks and boxers lol (was going to just store it in a draw at my parents!).

Hostile_18 · 23 Apr 2024 at 20:35

Sin_Chase said:
Youve got an 18TB HDD to backup a....25GB SSD?

I personally sync my NAS to a Backblaze Cloud Storage instance that charges based on data stored. Get a nightly off site backup and dont have to think about it. For the cost of your drive you could get a few years worth of sub fees covered and have far more flexibility.

Unless you are religiously backing up to HDD and removing it off site on a regular basis I'd argue its not an effective backup solution. That is unless your data set is very static and you dont need daily snapshots?

Just realized what I did there, yeah 25TB SSD. It's a media server so 95% of the content is static. New additions now and again. If worse comes to worse and I lost a few bits it wouldn't matter too much. The main thing is ive put many, many hours into organisation, custom art work and getting encoding "right" for best quality vs size etc.

Sin_Chase · 23 Apr 2024 at 20:39

Cant you just export your application and meta data databases/files and then take a file listing on a regular basis?

Or does your media server have some kind of media-less backup options that could be stored online? At least worst case its just the bulk media you need to replace

Hostile_18 · 23 Apr 2024 at 20:44

Sin_Chase said:
Cant you just export your application and meta data databases/files and then take a file listing on a regular basis?

Or does your media server have some kind of media-less backup options that could be stored online? At least worst case its just the bulk media you need to replace

I could import some (and that data is backed up on my local PC) but honestly the thought of having to re download and search for (I mean encode) 10,000 episodes and 800 movies and then apply all the art work etc. For the sake of £310 it was worth the cost of peace of mind, should something catostrophic happen to the NAS.

Backblaze B2 is charged per TB so it would be like £140 a month for my current usage.

On the plus side I can't believe how quiet the Exos drive is. I'd heard horror stories. For my media use its very close to silent.