Using NAS Raid 1 + 1 External "Cold Storage" HDD - Good Practice?

redgymhero on 24/11/2022 - 13:50

Good afternoon, lovely Ozbargainers

Just a quick question. I recently had a HDD corrupt itself due to a power glitch. I'm currently trying to recover the data using a recovery tool (I didn't have important things on there, so if i lose the data, so be it), but that got me thinking about doing a proper redundancy / backup setup.

I have just purchased the Synology Diskstation DS220+ (I like that you can use HDD and SSD), and a 2 bay set up is all I can afford right now. I plan on running it in a raid 1 configuration.

I'm planning to put in 2x 4TB HDD's, in a RAID 1 configuration, they will be perfect copies of each other. I'm also then going to swap out one of the drives for a 1x 4TB hard drive, so that too will become a copy. The drive I take out, I will cold store in a closet, in another room.

I will aim to have the "cold" copy updated every two weeks.

My question: Do you think this is a good back up strategy? Thanks in advance for your time :)

(please be gentle, I'm new to the whole NAS / RAID / backup game!)

Computing

Comments

  • Hybroid on 24/11/2022 - 13:54
    +1

    3-2-1 is the recommended good back up strategy.

    3 copies of your data, 2 local on different media and 1 off-site backup (or cloud).

    https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/

    • redgymhero on 24/11/2022 - 13:59

      Amazing! Thanks for that. So I would have the 2 local ones ticked off (#1 being the NAS device, #2 being the other hard drive stored in the separate room), and would just have to figure out an off-site backup (most likely cloud)?

      • cafeman on 24/11/2022 - 14:02
        +2

        Correct. An alternative to cloud if your data is fairly non-volatile (i.e. it doesn't change much) is to just copy it onto another drive and keep it at your parent's / a friend's house or your office.

        FYI Backblaze is good value. I think it's technically possible to find a cheaper solution with S3 + Glacier or something like that but you'd have to roll your own solution and it would probably need more maintenance.

        • bdl on 24/11/2022 - 18:16

          Wasabi is also a good option (despite being founded by ex-Carbonite people) since they have a Sydney presence

        • Chandler on 28/11/2022 - 11:26

          FYI Backblaze is good value. I think it's technically possible to find a cheaper solution with S3 + Glacier or something like that but you'd have to roll your own solution and it would probably need more maintenance.

          The number of services I suspect are just front-ends for AWS and their various services is surprising (Backblaze is not one of these - they have their own hardware in data centres, AFAIK)

      • Hybroid on 24/11/2022 - 14:03
        +1

        Pretty much. You could always opt to not do off-site storage depending on your risk appetite and severity of consequential loss.

        Alternatively, a half-way approach, setup iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, your own dedicated hosting server etc service and only backup really critical data if most of the 4TB is fairly replaceable or insignificant in an extreme loss event.

        Say you only have 5GB of really important irreplaceable data that doesn't change too often, then would definitely have that backed up in the cloud or another external drive (avoid USB sticks though).

        • redgymhero on 24/11/2022 - 14:04

          That's an excellent point. I'll make sure to set up the HDD in such a way that "crucial" stuff is in a separate folder. And i'll just back that up to the cloud.

    • cafeman on 24/11/2022 - 13:59
      +2

      Just so the reader's clear, the 2 copies on different media doesn't mean it's mandatory that they're on different storage media (i.e. hard drives vs. optical disk vs. tape), it means physically different devices.

      Using two separate hard drives or RAID arrays with hot sync is OK. What's not OK is a single 4-drive unit split into two RAID 1 storage arrays configured with hot sync.

  • baronorder on 24/11/2022 - 14:00
    +1

    Keep the offline drive separate and just copy to it using either USB directly on the server or via a client machine using rsync / robocopy every so often. Buy decent drives (Seagate exos or similar enterprise spec drives as these tend to be very affordable and reliable) and use ZFS instead of RAID if you can as its much better at detecting data issues.

    • redgymhero on 24/11/2022 - 14:03

      Thank you! I'll look into rsync / robocopy - by client machine, you mean a laptop or something like it? I've currently got 2 Seagate Ironwolf's (non pro) - and will look to upgrade to exos in the future! Is ZFS something I can set up with one of the Synology apps, do you know?

      • baronorder on 24/11/2022 - 14:10
        +1

        Yes a laptop or other client if you can't directly mount the drive up to the synology device and do it there.
        No idea with the synology offering ZFS as I have never played with them

        • redgymhero on 24/11/2022 - 14:14

          Thank you for the ZFS tip, ill be looking into it, regardless. As to mounting up the trive to the synology device - the only way I could do that is by plugging it in the through the USB on the front. Would the Synology device let me copy stuff externally, in that way?

          • bdl on 24/11/2022 - 18:14

            @redgymhero: Yes you can setup hyperbackup on the Synology to copy to the USB attached drive.

    • redgymhero on 25/11/2022 - 08:30

      I just saw the "Seagate 16TB HDD Exos X16 7200 RPM 512e/4Kn SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5-Inch Enterprise Hard Drive (ST16000NM001G)" on sale on Amazon for $499 (it won't let me post the link) - is that a good deal / price??

  • nasz on 24/11/2022 - 14:08
    +1

    SHR RAID is the option you neee for a 2 drives.PersonallyI use a 4 HDD NAS in the same mode. greater resilience. But works well witha 2 drive nas.

    It's fault tolerant, bu not hot.

    I architect DR solutions for a living and very OCD about data loss, corruption and interegrity. - just ask my kids!

    • redgymhero on 24/11/2022 - 14:13

      Just looked that up - amazing that synology has their own hybrid version! Love that it also lets you put different hard drive sizes in there. Thanks for the tip! What did you mean by "but not hot" ? Not hot swappable?

  • nasz on 24/11/2022 - 14:22
    +1

    Yes - hot swappable. I prefer Synology, had multiple failures with QNAP and WD NAS. SHR Raid is much more accessible from a data recovery perspective too, although that's at a deep technical level - i.e. Unix O/S level.

    • redgymhero on 24/11/2022 - 14:48

      That's fair - the drive that's stuffed up is from a WD NAS - there's a reason Synology is a bit more expensive - am happy to pay the premium, for the peace of mind!

  • 7ekn00 on 24/11/2022 - 16:51
    +1

    RAID 1 will not protect from corruption :/

    Think about it, two HDDs with different data, how does the RAID controller decide which data is "correct"?

    ZFS handles it better, but higher levels of RAID needed to protect from corruption!

    (ie you need redundancy and error correction parity)

    • redgymhero on 24/11/2022 - 18:28

      Hmm good point. I'm tossing up between ZFS or SHR RAID

      • bdl on 25/11/2022 - 00:27
        +1

        Use SHR1 and BTRFS as you only have a 2 bay NAS. If you've only just started out and not put any data on the unit yet, re-set up your storage pool for btrfs before you start copying data. If you ever upgrade to a Synology NAS with more than 2 bays you can just put the drives in the new unit when you're ready.

        ZFS not supported on the DS220+.

        You've got ironwolf's already, no need to go exos - put that money instead to an external usb hard disk or two + cloud storage if your data volumes/Internet upload speed are suitable. If not, invest in a couple more usb drives and store them at trusted friends/family members/safe deposit boxes.

        Backups backups backups backups backups!

        • redgymhero on 25/11/2022 - 08:56

          Thank you thank you!! I'll look into setting up SHR1 and BRRFS. I'm getting the DS220+ and 2x 4TB Ironwolfs tomorrow, so I will set up the storage pool for btrfs for sure.

          I'll make the priority getting a good usb drive or two! And will make a separate "important" folder, which i will upload to the cloud.

          • bdl on 26/11/2022 - 23:26
            +1

            @redgymhero: Sure will, but you probably wouldn't need to go that big considering you only have 4tb of data

  • bdl on 24/11/2022 - 18:15
    +1

    I wouldn't swap drives and rebuild the RAID1 each time - just attach a drive via USB and backup to that. Add more if you want more protection.

    • redgymhero on 24/11/2022 - 18:28
      +1

      Thank you for the input! Didn't realise I could simply plug in the drive via USB. Will be doing that for sure. Appreciate it!

  • Marty-69 on 24/11/2022 - 21:04

    Synology Cloud Sync has support for a lot of cloud providers. Pick one, select what to upload and it's off-side and safe.

    • bdl on 25/11/2022 - 00:25

      Sync isn't backup.

      • Marty-69 on 25/11/2022 - 12:53

        You're right, but if you sync one way, it's like a backup ;-)
        I Sync from my NAS, one way, to Backblaze.
        Synology also has Hyper Backup but I never looked into that.

        • scottb721 on 25/11/2022 - 18:14
          +1

          I use the Hyper Backup 100GB plan for only $10yr (USD I'm guessing)

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