Discussion Redundant data backup solution

[clkd]

I have had more than 2 drives fail at the same time in a 16 drive raid6 setup resulting in a very expensive data loss. That is why I am now researching the best way to keep data backed up. Since cloud backup isn't possible due to limited internet availability I was thinking of converting the nas from a server into a very redundant backup system that will back up files from a few computers on the network. Do you think this is a good idea and if so would you use any raid setup or just mirror a bunch of drives or something? I am struggling to think of a better solution especially since I have lately been so reliant on cloud backups in my other applications. How would you make sure your data is backed up safely?

 

[hotaru.hino]

There's a basic rule of backing up I've been trying to follow, the 3-2-1 rule:

• 3 copies of the data
• 2 to more physically different media
• 1 copy off site

The off-site copy can be cloud storage or yet another hard drive stored somewhere away from your home. As far as implementation goes, that depends on how much resources you have.

 

[kanewolf]

I have had more than 2 drives fail at the same time in a 16 drive raid6 setup resulting in a very expensive data loss. That is why I am now researching the best way to keep data backed up. Since cloud backup isn't possible due to limited internet availability I was thinking of converting the nas from a server into a very redundant backup system that will back up files from a few computers on the network. Do you think this is a good idea and if so would you use any raid setup or just mirror a bunch of drives or something? I am struggling to think of a better solution especially since I have lately been so reliant on cloud backups in my other applications. How would you make sure your data is backed up safely?

In a situation with a large storage pool, dedicated backup hardware with deduplication is the approach I have used at work. The EMC DD line of hardware.

 

[USAFRet]

If you lost data in that RAID array, it wasn't a true backup.
RAID, of any type, is not a backup.

As above, 3-2-1.
Multiple actual copies.

Scale this up or down as needed:

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[clkd]

Thank you for your input and suggestions. I have done a little bit more research and I believe our 16 bay qnap nas is waaay overkill and was designed more for media streaming , especially since there is about 6tb of data in total and most of it are documents and the occasional image. Also it is a very expensive device that requires a lot of spare hdds and we had the issue of hdds that were originally used in it going out of production.
I think I will replace it with a 4 drive synology NAS running 4x6tb drives in RAID6 which would give us 12tb of space with 50% redundancy. This will be used for redundancy and backup wise I will connect an external 12tb drive to do automatic daily incremental backups. This drive will be rotated weekly with 2 different 12tb drives (3x 12tb drives, every week oldest one gets overwritten). Then, every 3 months, one of the 12tb drives will be "retired", stored offsite, and replaced with a new one.
Do you think this solution makes sense?
Also, do you think additional online backup is neccesary?

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, that solution makes sense.

Online? Maybe for some business critical files.