Best backup strategy

[thatflashcat]

I'm trying to decide between backing up internally or over the network. Cloud backups are out of the question due to low upload speed (250 Mbps down/6 Mbps up). The former would either require hotswap or turning the machine off to swap disks. The network option would be convenient as it is easiest to connect a drive in an external bay to my desktop, perform the replication, and be on my way.

• Can I still perform block level replication over the network (to a windows machine, so I'm assuming not)
• Is file level replication adequate? this backup is unlikely to ever be used.

 

[Samuel Tai]

Why not locally over a USB3 connection to the FreeNAS box? A USB3 enclosure isn't expensive these days, and you could get backup disks to swap in and out of the enclosure.

 

[thatflashcat]

Why not locally over a USB3 connection to the FreeNAS box? A USB3 enclosure isn't expensive these days, and you could get backup disks to swap in and out of the enclosure.

So you're suggesting I connect the drive using a USB3 enclosure and mount it from there? Can I just unplug it at any time without the system complaining?

 

[kiriak]

if you export it nobody will complain

just kidding,

I'm not an expert but did experimenting for a while with snapshot replication to a USB drive that was kept offline and it worked quite well.
But I'd say again, I'm just a noob in this.

 

[thatflashcat]

I think I'll buy an external bay and test with some of my old drives to see what happens.