Best way to manage a backup volume

[numbertwo]

Hi,
I have a backup volume (BackUp01 :- single 1TB disk) that I wanted just to keep files as a backup. What is the best way to secure this drive? I was thinking if there is a way to make it detached/offline when not in used. Is this at all possible ? Thanks in advance.

 

[Mouftik]

What you mean by secure ? This can include multiple things :
- If someone steal the drive, you don't want him to read the data.
The solution would be to encrypt the backup drive, you keep the key secure and only you can read/write data on it.

- If your disk dies (which happened more often that we want to admit) you want to have data back.
This can be solved by a RAID 0 on a secondary disk, so if it dies ... just replace the failed drive. but you don't lost your data.

- If you delete something accidentally.
Automatic snapshot is your friend. You can mount the snapshot and recover the files at a point in time. I personally keep a weekly snapshot for 1 year, it's backup so you don't check data everyday.

Of course you can mix all of those solutions ! Encrypted driver over Raid 0 with snapshots. For the local part, you are done. Also I would advise to also have another copy on an other drive outside of the FreeNAS box.

 

[numbertwo]

Thanks for all your suggestions! Snapshot looks good to me.
My old N40L running on Windows was ransomwared couple of weeks ago. I do not want it to happen again. So, i'm now running this FreeNAS on the N40L (first time using a linux box), and it is connected to my router. So, i want to backup my data into this BackUp01 and make the volume 'offline' while not in used - something like plug/unplugged a USB drive in Windows ? I know FreeNAS is much secured than a W machine, but i am just worry that same thing might happen to it in future.

 

[sretalla]

Just a couple of notes on this one.

FreeNAS is built on FreeBSD and hence is UNIX, not LINUX.

Snapshots are not a backup. (although they can help you to recover from certain situations and can help you in performing a proper backup if that's what you want).

If you're using snapshots, on your shared (probably SMB) datasets, you should be able to cover against cryptolockers fairly well.

If you want to keep a copy of your important data that's inaccessible most (or even all) of the time, use either rsync or a replication task to copy your data to a dataset (optionally on a separate pool) that you don't share. (by no means should you be regularly unplugging a disk from FreeNAS... although there are some threads where this is discussed in terms of a procedure to keep offsite copies of data).

 

[pro lamer]

detached/offline when not in used

You may need a hot-swap bay or an eSATA port...
There are some threads here on how to spin down such a drive...

EDIT: And some mention some storage bags etc like here https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/how-to-backup-to-local-disks.26/

I use boxes like this https://www.amazon.com/3-5-HDD-Protection-Box-Festplattenlaufwerk-Schutzgehäuse/dp/B005KMHHTK

EDIT2:

by no means should you be regularly unplugging a disk from FreeNAS

I've seen someone recommended some kind of SATA expansion cable/enclosure to protect the drive connector from connect-disconnect wear (the expansion cable took the wear)

 

[Mouftik]

A good (Not perfect) solution for Backups which I used at home and work is the 3-2-1 strategy with some extra stuff. If implemented correctly, leads to cover most physical and human risks.
3 Copies
2 Media
1 Outside
I also add Snapshots on FreeNAS which is useful when you will (And you will, we all have done that once ...) delete/modify some unexpected files.

The outside copy of your data or Snapshots is what can save you in case of ransomware, because if your NAS is always connected to the network, he can be encrypted too ! So restoring from a Snapshot, and BOOM not your problem anymore.
As an outside Backup solution, I use an encrypted drive I always have with me, not expensive and you can backup the most important data with you (Ok if you have 10TB of Backup ... my solution is not ideal but I have a subset of the most important suff like photos, IDs ...).

Afterwards, I would say that there is no perfect Backup solution. But having myself my data on :
Personnal Computer + FreeNAS in RAIDZ2 pool + Encrypted outside drive
gives me a pretty descent protection without a huge cost.

 

[numbertwo]

A good (Not perfect) solution for Backups which I used at home and work is the 3-2-1 strategy with some extra stuff. If implemented correctly, leads to cover most physical and human risks.
3 Copies
2 Media
1 Outside
I also add Snapshots on FreeNAS which is useful when you will (And you will, we all have done that once ...) delete/modify some unexpected files.

The outside copy of your data or Snapshots is what can save you in case of ransomware, because if your NAS is always connected to the network, he can be encrypted too ! So restoring from a Snapshot, and BOOM not your problem any more.
As an outside Backup solution, I use an encrypted drive I always have with me, not expensive and you can backup the most important data with you (Ok if you have 10TB of Backup ... my solution is not ideal but I have a subset of the most important suff like photos, IDs ...).

Afterwards, I would say that there is no perfect Backup solution. But having myself my data on :
Personnal Computer + FreeNAS in RAIDZ2 pool + Encrypted outside drive
gives me a pretty descent protection without a huge cost.

what sort of Encrypted outside drive do you have or using now? Mind to share? Many thanks to all who contributed.

 

[Mouftik]

I used OS X Encrypted partitions for now, because I used to rsync from my OS X Laptop, but I am migrating to a Linux LUKS Encrypted drive because I want my data to be recoverable in any situation. LUKS is AFAIK fully supported and integrated to Linux (I use mostly Debian but who knows) so I would be able to recover my data on any LiveCD capable Machine which is wondefull :)