The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/OfficeGreat7679 on 2025-01-15 22:41:47.
I have a setup like this Node 804 4x ssd 2Tb in raidz2 2x nvme 2Tb mirror (zfs) for vms and games disks
I have another mini pc n300 with current 1x ssd 500Gb and 2x slots for nvme. Attached to it there is a single bay usb case with a 4TB HDD (also zfs)
As of today, I use zfs send to copy things from node804 to n300 external disk for local backup (mainly photos, all config files, and some other documents)
The photos and documents, I rclone files to backblaze to have an outside copy.
This setup looks ok, but few things are bothering me. I don't have UPS, so any power fluctuations or lack of it could damage the hardware I don't like the fact my local back-up relies on a USB cased drive. I started downloading nightly builds from my favorite Linux distro on the n300 and Local disk is reaching its limit in any time soon. I'm not doing any back-up of this server, neither it's media.
I have more or less 250~300 to invest in the next improvement of this setup and I'm struggling to make a decision, so hearing external opinions might help.
I thought on building a secondary (and cheap) back up nas. I could buy just one more HDD and pair it with the existing HDD in a few months. With that I could turn it on/off on demand for running backups. Given that I would have a more reliable local backup, I could convert the raidz2 pool into raidz1 and get some extra space to move the new files content here.
Or... I could buy a UPS to reduce the chances of hw damage and get another nvme disk to the n300 to store more files. I think this doesn't change much the backup situation, but adds some level of resilience.
Maybe there is a 3rd option that I'm not seeing... What are your thoughts?