[jael]

Hi everyone!

Getting ready to build my first HTPC, I have done a whole lot of research in the past two weeks. I have decided on UnRaid to serve my video and music files and my shopping cart is full of parts.

I need a backup solution and am looking for suggestions. I'm looking to backup data from two computers (documents, photos, music) *as well as* all of those dvd rips that will be stored on my UnRaid server. While the two computers could simply be backed up to a single external hard drive, re-ripping all of those dvds in case disaster strikes is not an option to me. I would rather invest a little extra to backup everything.

Should I go for a second UnRaid system or go with FreeNAS or are there possibly simpler/better solutions than that? It will be used for nothing but backups (eg. I don't need the fancy FreeNAS features for example). What do other people use?

Would much appreciate any related input!
Thank you!

[eskro]

unRAID is great for backups!!

[bnevets27]

From the looks of it he wants to back up his unRAID. I would go with 2 unRAID servers personally. That's what I have done.

[mr.sparkle]

unRAID is great for backups!!

nope, backups are great for backups

unraid is a parity protection, single-disk recovery

[smiffy1989]

Pretty unlikely that you will have two drives fail at the same time, parity protection provided by unraid which covers you against one drive failure should suffice IMO.

I could understand if you had real important data like pictures of kids etc but being paranoid enough to build two unraid servers just for a movie collection is a bit extreme IMO.

[Clumsy]

I wouldn't call it that unlikely though ... your psu failing in an unfortunate fashion could cause just that. Agree with the movie collection sentiment though

[poofyhairguy]

I have two Unraid systems. The stuff I really care about are on both.

[jael]

Thanks so much everyone!

I'm going to stick with just one UnRaid system for now and when my collection starts getting so large that a two disk failure becomes more likely (statistically), I'll add a backup UnRaid system. It will be on a decent UPS as well, so that should help keep it healthy.

Thanks again!

[thethirdnut]

I'll throw in a vote for the FreeNAS, or full-blown FreeBSD server as a backup strategy since no one else did.

Friend of mine is moving to FreeNAS and quite happy with it, and I am testing the FreeBSD waters on some skunky old hardware - strictly backups at this point.

ZFS is looking like its worth the effort - at least for me.

[bnevets27]

Pretty unlikely that you will have two drives fail at the same time, parity protection provided by unraid which covers you against one drive failure should suffice IMO.

I could understand if you had real important data like pictures of kids etc but being paranoid enough to build two unraid servers just for a movie collection is a bit extreme IMO.

I think its more encase of a large disaster. Flooding/fire/hurricane of course it would have to be off site though also.

Its only really extreme on the money side of things. If it took you days/weeks/months to rip your collection. If money isn't the factor then having a mirrored back up would allow you to just plug it and your back running with all your data. If all the second unraid box is doing is being a backup then it can be run on really low end hardware, only large cost is drives and the prices are steadily dropping all the time.

[Balinus]

I bought a NAS (Synology DS211j) which is set to RAID 1. Automatic backup from computer of the house to the NAS is done each 5 days. I do an automatic backup of the NAS to an external USB harddrive once a week (the USB HD is always connected to the NAS).

So, I get a full backup solution that is 100% automatic. Of course, in case of fire it is not fire-proof.

[Chromdome93]

Curious. What software do you use? Or do you do it all manually?

[drose25]

Keep in mind that RAID does not protect you from an accidental "rm -r" or other mistake or operating system error. It will happily duplicate the problem across your array.