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I have a Synology NAS. All cloud files sync to it (Dropbox and Gdrive, the latter using "real" files, not just their .gdoc format), all backed up nightly to Syn

by dmje 5y ago

I have a Synology NAS. All cloud files sync to it (Dropbox and Gdrive, the latter using "real" files, not just their .gdoc format), all backed up nightly to Synology C2 in the cloud, encrypted. Photos, which are in the "absolutely irreplaceable" category: all of the above but also have Mylio running so have external drives and 2x desktops with this data on them. Feels pretty safe, I think...?

dheera 5y ago
Having copies in at least 2 physical locations is important, because RAID/on-site backups won't help you if there's a fire/flood/theft that destroys everything. Back in school I used to have 2 Synology NAS, one in my dorm, one in my office, each running two drives with RAID 1. I had a gigabit link between my dorm and office (in 2008-2014!) thanks to MIT's awesome network. Now I live in Silicon Valley where even in 2021 I can only have a shitty 15 megabit Comcrap uplink so that setup doesn't work anymore. What I do now is a 4-bay Synology NAS. - The first 2 bays are RAID 1, they are the "live" volume - The 3rd bay is the "nightly backup" volume and syncs to the "live" volume every day late at night. That way if I accidentally delete something or mess up something I can look at yesterday's version at any time, very conveniently. - The 4th bay is usually empty, but once every 2-4 months I bring a drive from a storage closet in a different town, plug it in, sync it, and put it back in storage. Car is still faster than the internet in Silicon Valley. And that also allows me to have an airgapped backup, just in case there is ever a ransomware attack on Synology that destroys all the online drives.
- dmje 5y ago
  Good advice, thanks. I actually have an unused Synology NAS which I moved from because it was slow. I wonder if I can use HyperBackup or similar and put this one down in my garden office. That might add another layer of "distance security"...
  - dheera 5y ago
    HyperBackup does this weird nonstandard "hbk" bullshit and I don't understand it, and I'm afraid of anything brand-specific. Between two Synology NAS I use Shared Folder Sync instead. Within the same NAS, sadly Shared Folder Sync doesn't work (even though there's no reason it shouldn't work) but you can set up an rsync task in the Task scheduler e.g. /bin/rsync -ap --delete --verbose /volume1/FOLDER/ /volume2/oldfiles/FOLDER/ >> /tmp/rsync.FOLDER.log and have it email the logs to you.

by dmje 5y ago

dheera 5y ago

Having copies in at least 2 physical locations is important, because RAID/on-site backups won't help you if there's a fire/flood/theft that destroys everything. Back in school I used to have 2 Synology NAS, one in my dorm, one in my office, each running two drives with RAID 1. I had a gigabit link between my dorm and office (in 2008-2014!) thanks to MIT's awesome network. Now I live in Silicon Valley where even in 2021 I can only have a shitty 15 megabit Comcrap uplink so that setup doesn't work anymore. What I do now is a 4-bay Synology NAS. - The first 2 bays are RAID 1, they are the "live" volume - The 3rd bay is the "nightly backup" volume and syncs to the "live" volume every day late at night. That way if I accidentally delete something or mess up something I can look at yesterday's version at any time, very conveniently. - The 4th bay is usually empty, but once every 2-4 months I bring a drive from a storage closet in a different town, plug it in, sync it, and put it back in storage. Car is still faster than the internet in Silicon Valley. And that also allows me to have an airgapped backup, just in case there is ever a ransomware attack on Synology that destroys all the online drives.

dmje 5y ago
Good advice, thanks. I actually have an unused Synology NAS which I moved from because it was slow. I wonder if I can use HyperBackup or similar and put this one down in my garden office. That might add another layer of "distance security"...
- dheera 5y ago
  HyperBackup does this weird nonstandard "hbk" bullshit and I don't understand it, and I'm afraid of anything brand-specific. Between two Synology NAS I use Shared Folder Sync instead. Within the same NAS, sadly Shared Folder Sync doesn't work (even though there's no reason it shouldn't work) but you can set up an rsync task in the Task scheduler e.g. /bin/rsync -ap --delete --verbose /volume1/FOLDER/ /volume2/oldfiles/FOLDER/ >> /tmp/rsync.FOLDER.log and have it email the logs to you.