I have set up a FreeNAS system on a very old PC, just for tests and to see what it is about (and possible migration from my Synology).
FreeNAS is totally new to me, as it is ZFS, snapshots, pools etc.
I understand that the best backup would be in another FreeNAS system somewhere else, but it is almost impossible for me to implement this now. Also, I want to avoid cloud.
(My data are about 1 Gb and probably would be less than 2 Gb in the next 5 years, but I’m concerned about data integrity and verification)
After experimenting with my 11.3 setup, I ended up with the following backup strategy
0. FreeNAS system with the data on Zpool of 2 HDDs mirrored. Snapshots of the various datasets.
1. Another Zpool will be usbHDD1, encrypted
import the usbHDD1 pool, run the task(s) to replicate snapshots from the NAS to usbHDD1
then export pool
and keep the usb HDD offsite
2. Repeat the step 1, for usbHDD2 and keep it offsite also
3. Every Friday coming home from my work, bring one of the 2 usbHDDs and run the corresponding task(s). Usb-HDDs will be rotating, so every time one of them will be offsite.
Will have more than one task for every usb HDD, for different shares that will change more or less often.
4. Out of paranoia and until I’ll become familiar with ZFS and its snapshots, every 4-6 months, I could pull the shares' data with my PC and keep them in another HDD formatted in NTFS or ext4, also encrypted and kept offsite.
I’m testing the above procedure and I found that it is easy for a novice like me and I think it is robust and safe.
Do you see any caveats?
FreeNAS is totally new to me, as it is ZFS, snapshots, pools etc.
I understand that the best backup would be in another FreeNAS system somewhere else, but it is almost impossible for me to implement this now. Also, I want to avoid cloud.
(My data are about 1 Gb and probably would be less than 2 Gb in the next 5 years, but I’m concerned about data integrity and verification)
After experimenting with my 11.3 setup, I ended up with the following backup strategy
0. FreeNAS system with the data on Zpool of 2 HDDs mirrored. Snapshots of the various datasets.
1. Another Zpool will be usbHDD1, encrypted
import the usbHDD1 pool, run the task(s) to replicate snapshots from the NAS to usbHDD1
then export pool
and keep the usb HDD offsite
2. Repeat the step 1, for usbHDD2 and keep it offsite also
3. Every Friday coming home from my work, bring one of the 2 usbHDDs and run the corresponding task(s). Usb-HDDs will be rotating, so every time one of them will be offsite.
Will have more than one task for every usb HDD, for different shares that will change more or less often.
4. Out of paranoia and until I’ll become familiar with ZFS and its snapshots, every 4-6 months, I could pull the shares' data with my PC and keep them in another HDD formatted in NTFS or ext4, also encrypted and kept offsite.
I’m testing the above procedure and I found that it is easy for a novice like me and I think it is robust and safe.
Do you see any caveats?