Unraid to Unraid Backup - Help needed to find a simple method.

I have 2 Unraid Devices, my Main Device and a 2nd unit I want to use as a backup unit.

Currently both units are on the same network, but I will eventually move the Backup Unit to a remote site.

I have been working on the problem on and off for weeks. I can not find a simple way to backup my Unraid. Everything I have tried does not work, or requires so much configuration that it also does not work.

I am going around in circles.

If I wish to use a paid offsite service, no problems there, lots of choices there. Only problem is it takes so long to upload my files due to a slow upload connection. Which was way I am wanting to do a Unraid to Unraid solution.

Any help any one can give me would be appreciared.

This is what I have done.

1-- Install all three Unassigned Devices plugins.

2- I setup a Unassigned Devices Share to the share on my second Unraid server:

3- Unraid includes the rysync program which was written to handle any type of file transfer on UNIX like systems. It is a very powerful tool and is virtually bullet-proof in use! I use the following command to copy between my two servers:

rsync -avhPX /mnt/remotes/ELSIE1_Media/All\ Movies/ /mnt/user/BackupMedia/All\ Movies/

...|Switches|

............|...............Source................|

....................................................|........Destination..............|

The command is that simple. This one will copy any new or updated file from the source directories (it will recursively scan the entire directory for the source directory) to the destination directory (duplicating the source paths as required) . Notice that the source and destination are complete paths as defined on the computer from where the script is started. Rsync could care less where the source and destination are located. In this case, the source is on the remote computer and the destination is the local computer.

It can be run from the Command line in the GUI Terminal. (I have this command stored in a text file on my Windows Desktop. I use the copy-any-paste to put it into the terminal windows.) You could also use it in a BASH Shell script and run it from the terminal. (I basically used this command to move 20TB of data between my two computers when I decided I want to back up my media files. YES, it took a few days!!! TMUX-- google this for info -- is included in one of the Unassigned Devices plugins which allow you to close and resume the terminal window which means you can start the command and close the terminal and reconnect later to check the progress.)

If you want to automatic the process, you should look into the User Scripts plugin to implement this.

Hope this helps....

EDIT: IF you need more help with rsync, just google and you will get dozens of pages.

Edited September 1, 2025Sep 1 by Frank1940

Thank you. I will give this a try.