Just curious as to how many people have backups of the data they keep on their UnRaid servers, either by duplicating it on another UnRaid server or having backups in some other way.

 

My UnRaid server is my backup and secondary storage repository, as my primary data source is stored on NAS's.

The important thing is that you have your data backed up.    If you already have everything stored somewhere else and are using UnRAID as your backup, then you're good.

 

But many folks seem to treat UnRAID as a primary data store and don't bother to back it up.

 

NOT a good idea ... as they often learn when they have a catastrophic failure.

 

I've commented this extensively on this forum ... mostly summarized here:  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31020.0

 

 

I use unRAID as my primary data storage and the really important stuff ( pictures, tax docs, etc... ) i have backing up to crashplan

Since I have posted about this many times, here is a link to one such post.

Its very true, whether people build a server for UnRaid or buy a brand name NAS that employs some kind of RAID, people think this is good enough, its not. As many people have said, 'It's not a matter of IF a hard drive will fail, but WHEN'. Using a cloud service like crash plan is an excellent way of duplicating data. It would behove Limetech I think to include USB support in the next version of UnRaid to make it easy for users to mount an external USB drive for backups.

As I've noted several times, backups are essentially "insurance" for your data.  As with any insurance, you should have insurance for what you can't afford to lose ... and whether you choose to insure other things is a personal choice. 

 

My very simple rule:  Assume your server is going to catastrophically fail tonight.    Ask yourself what you'd be upset about losing.    Anything in that category should be backed up.

 

 

My backup strategy is split two ways, data I can’t lose and data that if lost will make cry a day or two but can mostly recover with some time and work.

 

Data I can’t lose is weekly backup up to another Unraid server, but for most of my servers I have no backups, plan to install dual parity when available, although not a backup I believe the risk of losing data will be low enough.

 

If I could afford it, both in cost and space, I would backup every Unraid server to another.

 

Its very true, whether people build a server for UnRaid or buy a brand name NAS that employs some kind of RAID, people think this is good enough, its not. As many people have said, 'It's not a matter of IF a hard drive will fail, but WHEN'. Using a cloud service like crash plan is an excellent way of duplicating data. It would behove Limetech I think to include USB support in the next version of UnRaid to make it easy for users to mount an external USB drive for backups.

The plugin Unassigned Devices can be used for backup to USB disks. http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=38635.0

My backup strategy is split two ways, data I can’t lose and data that if lost will make cry a day or two but can mostly recover with some time and work.

 

Data I can’t lose is weekly backup up to another Unraid server, but for most of my servers I have no backups, plan to install dual parity when available, although not a backup I believe the risk of losing data will be low enough.

 

If I could afford it, both in cost and space, I would backup every Unraid server to another.

 

Agree that once dual parity is implemented, the risk of loss will be significantly mitigated => still not a substitute for backups, but a LOT better and much lower risk than with a single parity drive.

 

I have ALL of my data (~ 45TB and growing) backed up to at least two different places -- another UnRAID server and a set of external drives that I store in a fireproof, waterproof, data-rated safe.