So I have read that losing the config is tantamount to not having a backup at all. Basically, I use duplicacy to take files from my PC and stick them into a storage on my NAS. Assuming my entire PC blows up, which directory/directories do I need to have a copy of to restore my files. Also, are there any important files on my NAS i need a copy of? It has RAID, but there is no protection from bitrot or anything, so i would like to keep a copy in case it is corrupted if need be. Basically, other than the actual chunks/snapshot folder, what is required for a successful backup from my PC and the NAS that I should have a copy of elsewhere?
Sorry if this has been asked before(it surely has been in some form at some point)
PS. I use the web version
Nothing is required from a pc. Your pc can burn in flames, you can initialize a repository in a new empty folder on a new pc and restore.
Actually do go through the process in a new empty folder, to make sure you have all the pieces:
You will need credentials to access NAS, backup encryption password if you set one, and RSA private key if you used one. It’s a good idea to keep those in your password manager that is replicated to all of your devices.
On a NAS without bit-rot protection I would make a copy of a file called “config”. (Then I would promptly throw away such NAS and setup a better one).
Thank you for the answer, as for the bitrot, yeah yeah yeah i know, but when i had BTRFS set up it kept getting corrupted and i had to keep re initializing the NAS so i eventually just gave up and used EXT4 for the reliability(of the filesystem atleast)
This is likely result of bad ram. Now corruption still occurs, but silently, as ext4 cannot detect data corruption. You have effectively turned off the smoke alarm but the house is still on fire.
(Side note — I feel you have Synology — they do have some better-ish models, (the one with metal case), but their software is trash. Same goes about qnap. I would strongly recommend looking into TrueNAS. But for now — check memory (Synology has an app to schedule the test from your PC, and replace failed sticks))
I… have asustor, so unfortunately my software is even worse than synology. My hardware is fine, it is asustor software that is the culprit and they did not used to condone using a different OS. Now they say its fine, but just dont offer support. I would be more than happy to swap to unraid(if the fans would work with it) or truenas, but i don’t want to go through the whole process of resetting up everything (is there even a way to do it without losing all the data? I have more than just the backups on it)
When I gave up on synology, I built a new server, moved data, and then sold synologies (yep, plural) and disks on eBay. I have effectively timed it with when I would have needed larger disks anyway, to optimize spending.
No, you would not be able to convert ext4 to zfs (which you would want to use). Perhaps similar approach will work for you — wait until you run out of space and then migrate.
the worst part is… i bought it to get a more “hands off” approach since i was using unraid and it was all bootleg parts with like 2 10TB and 14 3/4TB drives, but some of the drives kept disconnecting and i couldnt tell if it was a power issue or a cable connection issue or what, but i was tired of trying to find which cable went to which drive etc so i said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and … bought the worst possible NAS, and now here we are! i will probably bite the bullet at some point and just go truenas but today is not that day - i have 70TB of storage so i dont see myself running out anytime soon T.T
Yes!!! I did exactly same! Thought Synology will be hands off, and after two years of filing bugs, letting them debug remotely, and becoming an expert of Synology botched internals I came to realization that something went wrong in the plan.
Yeah, the key is to avoid that :). Old enterprise severs (both chassis, motherboards, processors, memory, and used drives) are dirt cheap on eBay and from various hardware recyclers, depending on where you live. As a bonus to spectacular reliability you get server feature — like IPMI, and support for SAS disks, that tend to be cheaper on eBay as well.
I’ve setup TrueNAS core five years ago, and haven’t touched it since. It just works. It’s a shame ixsystems abandoned it, in favor of Linux based solution, and even though I disagree, I do understand the reasoning. Still, my NAS continues working. Literally zero issues in 5 years. And I upgraded hardware twice. The whole server. It does not care. Move the disks — press power button. Continue. It’s amazing.
Depends on what you do with it :). My whole extended family backups to my NAS (Time Machine over zerotier) and out of 120TB I have about 50TB free (could not pass up a good deal on almost new 100hr runtime disks on eBay :))
I try to get my fiance to back up her stuff, but… she has a like 10 year old mac and says “nothing is important”, I guess she has icloud or whatever for her photos and that’s enough for her, which is fine I guess, but I have to force her to backup the files for our small business or else shed just let them go raw on a 10 year old mac lol - i managed to get her to just throw the files in mega once in awhile, but thats the best i can do, which is maybe for the best since im considering downloading the non backup files and nuking everything in favor of truenas now that youve given it such a glowing review - is it worth using core(its still supported from what i read, just focused on solely NAS, not docker etc like scale is) or do you think anything truenas is pretty solid?
same here. I’m the overreacting “never delete anythind, backup in five places” one. So it balances out.
I’ve read iCloud ToS. I was very bored that day. They actually say to backup iCloud data.
Perhaps enabling TimeMachine would be a good idea. Unless samba implementation on asustor is botched. As it is on Synology. I had to configure periodic filesystem snapshots there to back out the sparse bundle when it would get corrupted inevitably.
Curiously, TrueNAS has a nice feature where they automatically take a snapshot of a dataset where Time Machine bundle resides upon successfully unmount. I think it’s genius, but on the other hand I had never needed to use it because they configured samba properly and not once not one bundle got corrupted — even when backing up from across the pond over SMB over zerotier. It’s really pushing it — but it works.
They killed core. It’s effectively dead. The last update to FreeBSD 13.3 is not even offered automatically. They will maintain current release for a few years, but FreeBSD 13.3 expires very soon, so no upstream security updates and no software in the repository — if you want to run software in jails.
For a NAS it’s all irrelevant, and I’m planting to stay on Core until wheels fall off. But I’m biased — I vastly prefer FreeBSD to Linux, Linux took over the world for all the wrong reasons, but objectively, most of the tooling like dtrace migrated to Linux by now (see eBPF) and even ZFS development now happens on Linux. FreeBSD is now unfortunately is a second class citizen —- what I believe prompted iXSystems to shift to Linux in the first place.
I’m pretty sure for most uses Scale would be just fine. If you don’t care about FreeBSD and don’t have specific reasons to need one I would go with Scale today. Ultimately, it does not matter what storage appliance runs on the inside as long as it stable. They add interesting features — like recently they added ability to add drives to existing vdev — pretty nice for some users, and these features won’t be back ported to Core. The 13.3 version btw has a samba bug where they missed overriding upstream samba update — as a result you can’t rename files over mounted drive lol. Fortuty the fix is to add that parameter manually. They did not forget to do that on Scale. So it’s pretty obvious Core is on life support.
I think everything on asustor is botched… every couple days i have to go in and disable SFTP and then re-enable it or else every backup fails forever lol. Heard on the Core vs Scale… scale it is lol - thank you for all the help and everything, i enjoyed the chat - i must go clean my rat cages and then pass out cheers
same here. I’m the overreacting “never delete anythind, backup in five places” one. So it balances out.