I’d love some input on my thinking and advice on approach on backup:

 

I am, thinking of buying 2 big HDDs and swapping them in rotation. I’m considering these 18tb ones + enclosures, despite concerns.

 

Context:

• my wimpy isp connection has low download and much lower upload. I imagine it would be impractical to restore via a cloud backup solution, and months/years to backup my tbs (to be decided). I have some experience on this from backblaze and crahplan usage years ago. 
• I have family nearby that visit, so I figure I can swap backup hds on a regular basis when they come over. Setting up a backup server at their home is not practical, and we both have poor isp bandwidth anyway.
• I would presume to leave one HDD plugged in to my server by USB, and would pull it out when they visit to swap for the other one. Let’s assume monthly at worst.
• Ideally, I could hot swap these usb drives, and see the backup process automate somehow. 

 

Question:

• Is this doable?
• if so, what is the best way to automate backups, including this scheme of having 2 HDDs in rotation?
• I’ve read that the UD script is an option, I have used dockers like Duplicati, and I also have a Win VM available.
• Any suggestions?

 

thanks!

 

 

I use two external USB drives to backup a folder I have in my Unraid server.  One drive is connected to the server, the other I keep at work.  I swap them every month or so.

 

I use the User Scripts plugin, and have a script which runs the script once a week (good for my needs) that does a rsync of the server's folder to the USB drive.

 

You could do something with a script in Unassigned Devices, but I believe the script only runs one time, when mounting the drive.  I prefer the periodic scheduled backup time, scheduling it during a maintenance quiet time, so the backup is relatively recent.