The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/e7615fbf on 2025-04-18 23:35:00.
As many of you know, the 3-2-1 backup strategy is the ideal for data protection, but it's not exactly affordable to pull off in practice for large amounts of data. As such, I scaled up my raw onsite storage before I really had a full 3-2-1 in place, so I've been going back and adding reinforcements to my homelab over time and I'm happy to report I'm finally in a reasonably secure place -- though some calculated compromises had to be made. I just wanted to share my setup for anyone trying to find a practical way to add this level of security to their lab.
This is my setup currently:
- My primary server runs TrueNAS with everything in a mirror configuration. It's just kind of the way my lab grew -- I started with 2x4TB NVME drives, then 2x6TB Toshiba HDD's, and recently 2x24TB Iron Wolf Pros. Mirroring (and RAID) is not a backup strategy, but it does add redundancy.
- My most valuable / irreplacable data has all been etched onto a stack of M-discs and put in a fire-resistant safe at another location about an hour away. The $ per GB on those is quite high, so I had to prioritize what went on them.
- For cloud storage, I started using Storj, which integrates very nicely with TrueNAS. It's surprisingly cost-efficient, so I can back up quite a good amount. My entire homelab configuration, and anything that is not easily replaced, is on Storj. In the event of a catastrophic failure, I can recreate most everything from what's on there. This could also, in theory, scale easily with my income. If I'm in a place to afford more, I can just throw everything on Storj, for example. It would take like 10 seconds to set up in TrueNAS.
- I run Nextcloud and have most of my data synced locally on some of the devices connected to it (e.g. on my laptop, but not my phone). This adds another small redundancy layer for data I use frequently. If my server goes down, I at least still have a copy of the data on my laptop.
- Finally, I compromised on my Jellyfin media library - it's too big to backup on either Storj or M-discs for now (just from a cost perspective), so I've resigned myself to the fact that I could potentially lose it. This is what sits on the big boi 24TB drive. On one hand, most of it is replaceable, if ya know what I mean. I could pull the manifest from my Jellyfin config (which is backed up on Storj) and gradually re-aquire the majority of the media content. It would be a pain, but it's doable. Also, the nice thing about Iron Wolf Pros is that they come with a data recovery service for the duration of the warranty, so that's another small layer of security that could theoretically come in handy (though it is unlikely).
With this all in place, I've finally cut the cord on any remaining subscription services I had and I'm finally an independent data hoarding homelabber :)