Backup/Archive Solution Help

[Deathmoney]

Hello,

Firstly I want to say I am new to Unraid, and the whole server space, and every thing that goes with it, so thank you for help and patience.

I have read many forum posts, documentations, and cant seem to find the solution.

I am trying to build a "backup" solution, which is actually more so an archive solution that behaves like a backup solution.

I have tried Duplicati, Urbackup, Nextcloud, Windows file history, and nothing seems to work for my use case.

 

Use Case:

I have 3 Windows laptops (win 10/11) used by 3 users about 1 TB each, as well as 3 android phones, that I want all to be backed up to my unraid box.

The files and folders selected should all be sent from the source (windows laptops) to the destination (unraid box). Files should be monitored for any changes, as in editing or adding new files to the folder. Allow versions to go back in edits. There should be some sort of deduplication to prevent duplicate files. And, what seems to be the biggest issue, if a file is deleted from the source, it should NOT be deleted from the unraid location. I want to maintain all files ever sent to unraid unless I go in manually to delete it.

 

Currently, backup solutions such as Urbackup, will create "full backups" with "incremental backups" added on to keep track of changes and keep file sizes small and efficient. You can set a retention policy on the backups to keep for an "x" amount of time. However, if I was to delete a file from the source, eventually that file will be deleted from the destination. Eventually the full backups will be cycled out for newer ones which ends up deleting files because they are no longer on the source. Nextcloud is a sync tool, except on android where I can choose to upload files to the server. I have used syncthings to try and overcome this issue, but again this is designed for syncing, and I don't like the idea of using it when the app seems very adamant against using it for such a purpose.

 

I have read a little into Rsync, Rclone, and Robocopy. However since these are laptops, mounting a network share to unraid causes problems when a device is asleep or turned off. I am also new to CLI, and scripting is even more out of my wheel house, so setting up a way to check if the device is online, monitor files, and create a backup schedule is a big learning curve.

 

I am tired of losing important files, and would love to find a solution where I can set it and forget it and feel safe. Once I have this setup, I will be backing up this backup share to another external drive, and some cloud provider. Sorry for the essay, and thank you again for your help! 😊

[Aran]

In short:
For your mobile devices, try Resilio Sync.

For my desktop & laptop i use the Windows default backup solution (file history) and store them on my unraid server.

The build-in backup solution on windows is not bad and works perfectly for home use. And you don't have to maintain another docker app.

[ConnerVT]

I agree with Aran.  I prefer that the source devices handle the backup process rather than the destination.  Especially when the source (such as a desktop or tablet) may be powered off at the scheduled backup time.

 

I use Macrium Reflect on my Windows systems to back up to my Unraid server.  I then (weekly) back up those backup files to an external USB drive that's attached to the server (with a script which rotates out the oldest files if it exceeds the USB drives capacity).  Ever (other?) month, I swap the USB drive with one I keep in  my desk at work.

 

I have nothing to offer for Android.  We're an iOS house here (and still haven't found a backup solution for those which I like).

[Deathmoney]

Wow so quick, such a great community!

Thank you both for your responses! I'll definitely look into Resilio Sync for mobile devices.

I will also look into Macrium Reflect, thank you for the suggestion.

 

I have setup up windows file history, but am experiencing so many issues with it. First it completely bogs down the laptop while tryin to set it up. It copies files that I have said not to. Its very limited in what it can do, and requires the parent folder not be excluded, even though there are other folders you don't want. Its very tedious to setup and you have to be very granular and exclude everything you don't want, rather than just saying, "copy only this". There seems to be a $OF folder created, where half my files are randomly stored in thousands of folders. This seems to be a "overflow" folder designed to combat long names. The app crashes when trying to clean up old backups, and the minimum logs it does generate seem to be useless. Just seems overall a hassle and unreliable to use.

 

I will definitely try those other two apps out, but if you or anyone else has any other suggestions, I am all ears. 

Edited June 14, 2023 by Deathmoney