Backup to INTERNAL drive with email notifications (and versioning?)?

[53kl2s]

New to Unraid, I see the backup options are as varied as the sources and targets (makes sense).  I've searched for this, but cant find it, even though I'm sure it's somewhere. I'd appreciate it someone can point me in the right direction (guide or just just the right words).  Can I If I want to backup my array to an INTERNAL drive.  Say 4 + 4 TB Array to 8TB drive.  Would it have anything to do with adding this drive as a pool device?  An unassigned device?  Is there a plugin solution that does email notifications on fail (IMPORTANT) and any chance of versioning (less important), or do I need to try and write something of my own using rsync? 

Thanks for taking your time to help out newbies like me!

[JonathanM]

Using a backup destination internally is not recommended, as the things that threaten your data would effect your backup as well. You could make it work, but it would be better to focus your efforts on something that is at least removable so it can be physically separated from the server most of the time.

[53kl2s]

I'm willing to take that risk as I have other backups (including cloud).

[53kl2s]

If anyone is searching for this. I ended up going with Duplicacy.  (First was Duplicati but the backups were slow and getting stuck.)  You just need to use the unassigned devices plugin. Then one of your internal drives can be an extra backup location and use Duplicacy/Duplicati or something else to sync there. 

But as alluded to above, this will help protect against your array failure, but not fires, theft, lighting strikes, surges, or the controller/PS frying your backup drive (though Duplicacy versioning should mitigate ransomware). But everyone should have multiple backups (one off-site) and not rely on one backup anyways.  I personally also backup to Crashplan (and plan on storing a drive at my brothers house) so it wasn't worth it to me to backup to USB for the very rare chance that controller card/PS fries 2 array drives and backup drive (and not USB drive), bother with expensive tapes or removable media, or build an entire other machine just for additional backup.  

Also: for email notifications duplicati hooks in well with healthchecks.io and you can use a emailToSMS gateway (check your email-to-number with your provider) to get an txt right to your phone for free whenever a backup doesn't complete

Edited February 11, 2023 by 53kl2s