Simple 3-2-1 backup strategy

[markoff]

Hi everyone! I'm new to this community but I spent 2 months reading the forum before today's registration.

I experienced bit rot recently on my photos and I realized that my backup strategy was not enough to preserve my data integrity, this is why I switched to zfs.

My freenas setup (used only by me and only for backup storage purpose):
Xeon E3 1225v5 with 8gb ECC ram (I'm not using dedup)

My goal: achieve data integrity and resiliency for my core data (around 1TB pics and docs). I would like also to be able to access data if my freenas server dies (I want to be able to retrieve my data in case of need from a generic laptop if a server fault occurs)

My past backup strategy (all USB/FireWire external disks):
3x2TB mirror (not raid, file level copy with rsync) -> CORE DATA that I want to be sure I will not lose
2x4TB like above -> multimedia staff that it's not critical to lose

I used HFS+ for every disk in the past (yes, I'm using an Apple laptop).

Now I want to put in place a 3-2-1 backup plan for the CORE DATA like this:

zpool A with just 1 vdev composed of a 3 way mirror (3x2TB)
zpool B with just 1 vdev composed of a 2 way mirror (2x4TB)

I will backup data inside those 2 pool via zfs send to an external usb drive (8TB) OR file level copy with rsync to the external usb drive (I'm still confused about this because if my server dies I'm unable to recover data since I just have a mac laptop)

I will run duplicati on zpool A to a cloud provider (backblaze or similar).

I would like to receive an advice on my backup strategy. Also I would like to know how should I backup my freenas without another server (I know it's the better option but I can't afford it).

Many thanks!

 

[Chris Moore]

My freenas setup (used only by me and only for backup storage purpose):
Xeon E3 1225v5 with 8gb ECC ram (I'm not using dedup)

Is this something you already bought or something you plan to buy? You need a system board to go with that processor and RAM.
Here is a link to the kind of information you should be providing:

Forum Guidelines
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/forum-guidelines.45124/

My past backup strategy (all USB/FireWire external disks):
3x2TB mirror (not raid, file level copy with rsync) -> CORE DATA that I want to be sure I will not lose
2x4TB like above -> multimedia staff that it's not critical to lose

Are you thinking to reuse these disks in FreeNAS?

Now I want to put in place a 3-2-1 backup plan for the CORE DATA like this:

zpool A with just 1 vdev composed of a 3 way mirror (3x2TB)
zpool B with just 1 vdev composed of a 2 way mirror (2x4TB)

Is this the same set of disks from above or is this something you plan to buy? Why are you using mirror vdevs? Why two different pools?

if my server dies I'm unable to recover data since I just have a mac laptop)

You just get FreeNAS back running on some other hardware and import the pool there. Last I knew, there was a ZFS on Apple equivalent so you can import a ZFS pool on a Mac. You might just need to install some software. There is even a ZFS for Windows project that is working on getting it functional over there.

 

[markoff]

Is this something you already bought or something you plan to buy? You need a system board to go with that processor and RAM.
Here is a link to the kind of information you should be providing:

Forum Guidelines
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/forum-guidelines.45124/

I have an HP ML10 gen 9 server (C236 Mobo with 6 sata ports). As boot drive I'm using 2x32GB USB Sandisk Cruzer Fit.

Are you thinking to reuse these disks in FreeNAS?

Is this the same set of disks from above or is this something you plan to buy? Why are you using mirror vdevs? Why two different pools?

I'm thinking of reuse those drives until I'm able to spend 750Euro for 3x8TB wd red (Italy's current price).
At the moment I have just 1 HDD in my freenas, I'm planning to do what I wrote above but I'm currently exploring freenas.

I studied the slide made by cyberjoke and I though to use 2 different pool because if I loose 1 vdev I will lose the entire pool.
Since I have 2 different dataset with different personal priority, I would like to minimize the probability to lose the core data.

So I use a mirror vdev to be able to use zfs autofix of corrupted data (if a file is corrupted on 1 hdd the 2nd will be used to retrieve the correct file using zfs capabilities).

I think that it's more safe to distinguish pool because if I lose 1 vdev in a pool I will lose the entire pool. If I lose the vdev containing my multimedia file (movies) I'm not afraid. And if 1 drive fail in the multimedia vdev I don't want to be forced to buy a replacement hdd to restore the degraded mirror vdev.

I hope I explained clear, sorry for my bad english :(

Thanks!