I just got my home server up and running and was wondering what you guys recommend for backups. I figure it will probably be worth having backups on cloud servers tjay are external, are there any good services yall use for that?
Borgbase with Borgmatic (Borg) as the Software. As far as I know the whole Borgbase Service is from a Homelab guy (with our needs in mind).
Also 3-2-1 rule!
Also team borgmatic here. ;)
Regardless of service, if you don’t test your backups, you have none.
Ehhh I would say then you have probabilistic backups. There’s some percent chance they’re okay, and some percent chance they’re useless. (And maybe some percent chance they’re in between those extremes.) With the odds probably not in your favor. 😄
Schrodinger’s backups.
Exactly.
Not so much about testing, but one time I really needed to get to my backups I lost password to the repository (I’m using restic). Luckily a copy of it was stored in bitwarden, but until I remembered it, were perhaps one of the worst moments.
Needless to say, please test backups and store secrets in more then one place.
I have an unraid server which hosts an docker image of Duplicacy. It is paid though for the web interface. And it backs up to Backblaze B2. I have roughly 175GB backed up, for which I pay $0.87 a month.
This is almost my exact backup workflow, with another location in between. Duplicacy is great, highly recommend.
Paid for the web interface as well. I really like that it’s super simple and just does it’s job. That would be the one I’d also recommend.
Do you have other clients backing up to your unraid? I’m looking for a complete solution to backing up end user workstations (windows, Mac and Linux) to my unraid server then backing up my unraid server to something like wasabi, Amazon, backblaze, etc. Preferably a single solution.
Yes, I have another server automatically rsyncing important config files to a nfs share. And my pc has a samba share where I manually backup files to.
Look into Veeam. The free version should be enough for this workflow.
rsync.net is great if you need something simple and cheap. Backblaze B2 is also decent, but does have the typical download and API usage cost.
I had never heard of rsync.net until now. I like the idea but it seems more expensive than B2. $15/TB vs $5/TB. Am I doing the math wrong or reading it wrong?
I’ve never heard of it either, but I came to the same conclusion as you
Yeah rsync.net has always been pricey.
When I researched what to use for my backup I found rsync.net. They have some nice features nobody else seems to support, like they support ZFS send/receive https://www.rsync.net/products/zfsintro.html
But in the end the price made me go with borgbase.com
I don’t see it on their website right now, but they offer a discount if you’re using something like restic/borg and only need scp/sftp access. Their support is also super friendly. I’ve had an account forever and got moved to the 100+ TB pricing even though I have < 50TB stored. YMMV but it doesn’t hurt to ask if they have any additional discounts.
Also keep in mind that B2 charges for bandwidth too. It’s $5/TB for storage, but $10/TB to download that same data.
Sure but backup is mostly data in (free on B2). Data out is rare, if ever.
If i wasn’t backing up 12TB+ I would actually go with rsync for the features though.
Borgbase looks interesting, too.
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How are you using rsync with B2? Are you mounting the bucket locally?
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Backblaze b2, borgbase.com. There are also programs like dejadup that will let you backup to popular cloud drives. The alternatives are limitless.
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It’s the first time I hear about resticprofile and it looks nice. So far I’ve been using crestic for configuration files. Do you know how they compare?
It seems like they have the same objectives - allow for easier configuration of Restic. I’ve never heard of Crestic until now. I’d say stick with what you’re comfortable with
I use restic to backup my raspberry Pi’s to my Synology NAS and backup my NAS to backblaze.
Backblaze.
Restic or Kopia, both to Backblaze.
I second restic. Have been using it for a year now and have been generally very happy. Actually had to use it in a couple occasions to restore directory content and even recover a complete workstation drive. I have had relatively easy success in both scenarios.
I’ve always found them pretty similar. How’d you chose one or another?
I know Restic before Kopia and made a set of systemd units to run Restic backups on my home server and office workstation (both online 24/7).
Kopia seems much nicer for a regular user, so I use it on my and family laptops. I used to use Duplicati there, but that project seems dead.
Thank you :)
+1 for backblaze. I use docker for everything and mounted volumes directly in the folder alongside a docker compose file. So I just tar my services directory with everything in it, and pipe it to rclone which connects to backblaze and has a “cat” feature so you can pipe data directly to the destination.
Restic and then rclone to backblaze? Or is there a way to restic directly to backblaze?
I do prefer having a local copy of my backups (and therefore i use rclone), but afaik restic does support b2 directly…
I use SyncThing to backup our cell phones to my on-prem server, and then use BackBlaze Personal Backup for a cloud copy.
As dumb/simple/boring as this may be…? An external hard drive.
…
…what? It doesn’t require you to be online 24/7, works at any™ PC, and the speed is really great – even on a potato.
Unless you work at NASA or at IBM or similars – then feel free to call me dum.
While I agree with you, hard drives do have a shelf life. How many years seems to be up for debate but it does exist. If you don’t have multiple drives that are of different ages you may be in a world of hurt one day.
Why? If you check the drive once a month, and it fails once per 10 years on average, the time when both the back up drive and the main drive fail simultaneously is on average 2340 years. Of couse they are much more likely to fail if they’re old but the odds are very small.
I have a hot storage NAS that backups to a warm storage NAS.
I backup every week and scrub every month.
I have 2 x ZFS1 pools that contains 3 x 20TB disks each.
With ECC ram, scrubbing, and independent pools, it’ll take a house fire to kill my local storage.
I also have a constant backing to Backblaze and yearly encrypted backup that I ship to a friend across the world.
That is great for hardware failures, but what about disasters? I would hate to lose my house to a fire and all the data (including things not replaceable, like family photos) I have on my server at the same time because my primary and backup were both destroyed.
Eh…you’ve got a point there. Then again, there is always pendrives and other extremely small devices where you can copy your (mostly important/crucial) files in and carry it along with your house/car keys or something like that.
Veeam backup and replication at home and at work. At home a copy goes to a NAS, another copy goes to backblaze b2 currently.
External HDD in my wifi network. It runs Samba. I can just drag and drop folders and it transfers over wifi.
Are you using a Synology NAS?
- restic > backblaze b2, nightly & automatic
- restic > normally unplugged drive, every couple weeks (manual, recurring reminder)
