A friend of mine and I both have unRAID servers set up and we are toying with the idea of setting up an offsite box to hold our data just to be safe. My question is this, what is the easiest way for us both to backup our data to this box? We live close enough that the initial transfers can be done on each of our networks but im more so concerned with potential duplicate data. I assume the easiest way would be for each of us to have a separate share on the box and dump data onto it but im not sure what the best route to accomplish that would be.

 

Any insight?

How much storage do you need to backup both of your servers?

 

A friend of mine and I both have unRAID servers set up and we are toying with the idea of setting up an offsite box to hold our data just to be safe. My question is this, what is the easiest way for us both to backup our data to this box? We live close enough that the initial transfers can be done on each of our networks but im more so concerned with potential duplicate data. I assume the easiest way would be for each of us to have a separate share on the box and dump data onto it but im not sure what the best route to accomplish that would be.

 

Any insight?

 

You could set up a separate share on each others...

 

you backup to him... he backs up to you

 

 

We would probably need around 6-10TB of storage

I connect to a trusted relatives house through a home VPN that I setup. I would recommend setting up your own folder on your friends unRAID server that only you have the password to (I don't want people going through my personal stuff...) Then make the initial transfer at your house because transferring through a VPN goes about 512 KB/s (1 GB ~ 30 mins). After the initial transfer, I connect to the VPN and use "SyncToy" to backup the really important files (pictures ect.). SyncToy will then only copy over the new files. Since I do not copy over everything this method works pretty well for me. Just start it at night and it is usually done in the morning.

With only 6-10TB involved, I'd just do a "backup-to-each-other" process, as already suggested.

 

Just set up a VPN between you & your friend's homes (as suggested above); and then run an automated script that lets you each back up to the other's system (to a dedicated folder on each).

 

As also suggested, the FIRST time you do this, you should move one of the systems to the other's home, so it can be done at maximum network speed (Gb I presume).    After that, the updates are likely not an issue at internet speeds.

 

I do that with a friend via crashplan

Seconded for crashplan.

 

It will allow you to mix and match both models as much as you want. Backup to each other and also each backup offsite either to a shared box you both have somewhere else or to crashplan themselves (or both!).