Any comments on my backup plan?

S

Sgt_Strider

Gawd
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Oct 29, 2003
Messages
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I've read a lot on this forum and from what I gather not even a RAID-5 and or RAID-6 configurations will prevent the total loss of data. Of course, there will never be a fool proof solution. I like the idea of RAID-6, but it seems relatively expensive to get something of that nature setup. The good thing about RAID-6 is that I'm still good to go up to 2 failed drives.

What I propose here are two RAID-1 setups. I realize that I can only sustain 1 failed drive, but having my data on two separate file servers does give me a way to have another set of data available if one RAID array goes down.

I'm thinking of going with a two 2-bay NAS and then just put 2 drives into each of the NAS. I'll keep one offline as a backup. I'll synchronize the data between the two machines one every two weeks or month.

My main use will be for storing RAW photos and media files.
 
I'm thinking of going with a two 2-bay NAS and then just put 2 drives into each of the NAS. I'll keep one offline as a backup. I'll synchronize the data between the two machines one every two weeks or month.
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This is a reasonable plan.

An additional option using the same hardware is to not raid the offline backup server and do odd /even backups. What I mean by that is sync each week to a disk alternating disks to sync each week. This way you have 2 backups on the offline system and it gives you more protection against accidental deletion or a virus... What I mean by that is if your first nas you accidentally deleted a large group of files then synced that to a raid 1 server it would also delete the files where in my setup you would have 1 week to catch that.. Also this better protects against the first nas dieing during the sync.
 
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You want to rebuild the RAID1 every time ? Doesn't seem like a good solution.
 
You want to rebuild the RAID1 every time ? Doesn't seem like a good solution.
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Hmm. Confused. That was not in my solution and I did not read that in the OPs either. Did I misread?
 
I think I didn't understand the OP, with his mix of "file server" and NAS.

If he meant two identical RAID1 equipped NAS with one backing up the other, then it's okay, and I agree with your idea too (or just sync "manually", looking at what the sync software is going to delete before allowing it to).
 
Having 2 NAS box's backing up each other is a great low-price solution, but may I also suggest that you test a random file or two after you sync to be sure a controller is not failed and writing garbage.

I had an Adaptec controller go bad once that showed the array as optimal but was writing garbage. Now I always test.
 
If you are going to get two boxes and sync make sure they will do it automatically. Any backup that that is manual is going to get looked over or forgot at some point.
 
When I do sync of personal stuff or work clients, I always do additive only syncs. That way accidental and unnoticed deletes do not get synced over and removed from all your backups as well. That won't help you though if you overwrite an existing file with new data, that's where it's helpful to have snapshots on the backup devices (I use zfs/solaris).
 
dave99 said:
That won't help you though if you overwrite an existing file with new data, that's where it's helpful to have snapshots on the backup devices (I use zfs/solaris).
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This is absolutely my favorite part of ZFS!

Yesterday, I needed to make structural changes to one of my databases...required adding a column to 10 tables, each with between 1MM and 20MM rows of data.

I already automatically snapshot the database zvol everyday, and I created an extra snapshot just before I made the changes:

Code: 
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120509                       4.81G      -   229G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120510                       2.26G      -   230G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120511                       2.84G      -   230G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120514                       3.39G      -   230G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120515                       2.58G      -   230G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120516                       2.70G      -   230G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120517                       2.67G      -   231G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120518                       2.03G      -   231G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120519                       1.79G      -   231G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120520                       1.96G      -   231G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120521                       2.29G      -   231G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120522                       5.03G      -   231G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120523                       2.83G      -   231G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120524                       2.63G      -   231G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120525                       2.37G      -   231G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120526                       2.39G      -   232G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120527                       2.31G      -   232G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120528                       2.47G      -   232G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120529                       3.07G      -   232G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120530                       3.46G      -   232G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120531                       3.41G      -   232G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120601                       2.22G      -   233G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120602                       2.46G      -   233G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120603                       2.74G      -   233G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120604                       2.56G      -   233G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120605                       1.72G      -   233G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120605_addmd5                1.58G      -   233G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120606                        888M      -   213G  -
zulu03/xxxxx/databasezulu03@20120607                        803M      -   213G  -

If everything went wrong, all I'd have to do is shutdown the db, roll back the volume to the snapshot, restart the db and I be right back to where I started...probably in less then 1minute of time.
 
eagleknight said:
If you are going to get two boxes and sync make sure they will do it automatically. Any backup that that is manual is going to get looked over or forgot at some point.
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Yes, that's pretty much what I want to do. I was using file server and NAS interchangeably.

Anyways, I think my data is probably safer going with 2 RAID-1 solutions than with 1 RAID-6 configuration. Wouldn't you agree? I think it's cheaper and probably more manageable.
 
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