I have a newly built unRAID server for file storage, but now I'm trying to figure out how to do a backup of the server.  I read through the posts on Crashplan, but that seems to use an unRAID server as a backup destination, rather than backing up the unRAID server itself.

 

What is the best way to sync two unRAID servers?  rsync?  I found a thread that talked about rsyncing individual drives from one server to another, but is it possible to rsync one share to another?  I'm asking because I have different sized drives in both unRAID servers.

 

Any other thoughts on the best way to keep two unRAID servers in sync would also be appreciated.

rsync from drive to drive is the best method. If a drive is not recoverable, physically moving the backup drive from the backup server to the primary server should resolve the problem. Backing up be share makes it difficult to determine which files have been lost; although, using rsync to restore from backup user share to primary user share should work.

rsync from drive to drive is the best method. If a drive is not recoverable, physically moving the backup drive from the backup server to the primary server should resolve the problem. Backing up be share makes it difficult to determine which files have been lost; although, using rsync to restore from backup user share to primary user share should work.

.... ugh...

 

Now you have me second guessing myself... My main box is 100% 3TB drives and my backup box is a mix of 2TB and 1.5 TB drives (and if this HD shortage continues some 1TB drives i have in storage).

 

I am backing up share to share.. after that comment, You made me consider balancing and matching my drives between the 2 boxes.

 

I think I'll stick to the current method i have. but you made me think about it.

 

@Loosley.

I am pretty sure most people here are using rsync to back up unRAID to unRAID.

backing up \\server1\share to \\server2\share should work fine.

 

I keep my backup server off most of the time and just sync them every 2-3 weeks (or when i make massive amount of changes.).

 

you could go further and setup a script to do it automatically on a schedule.

 

 

 

 

I am looking at how to do this also.  I figured that a server1/drive-N to server2/drive-N backup method would be easiest to oversee and to fix if things break.  But I also have a number of smaller drives in my back up server whereas I have fewer, larger drives in the main server.  Then I realised that I could create "logical drives" as shares in the back up server and assign whichever physical drives I want to them.  That also has the benefit that I can still use a cache drive in the back up server when there are small changes to be backed up, which I could not do if I was backing up to the physical drives as shared by unRAID.

See here:  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=14187.msg143941#msg143941

 

I also have two servers, with different sized disks, but the same "user-shares" I keep synced using the "rsync" command built into unRAID.

 

Joe L.