I've been using UnRAID for the past four months. Thankfully none of the two drives I have in there kicked the bucket, yet. Actually, there's three drives if I include the cache drive.

 

But while nothing has happened, I would really hate for a power surge to destroy both drives... And my data alongside. My server doesn't have a UPS, which is also worrisome.

 

So...that brings me to my question - if I had a failure with my server, what are the chances of my data being completely zapped? Let's assume that the data I cared about is not on cache (which is a single, simple 128GB Samsung SSD) and is completely stored to the array (two, Seagate and Toshiba, both 500GB, drives). What are the chances of one  OR  two getting completely fried off?

 

The drives have been running for about an year. I've repurposed my desktop machine into an UnRAID box.

There are a lot of things that could happen to cause you loosing your data.. It is easier to think about it the other way?

 

Whenever one disk fails, you loose nothing.. In all other circumstances you might loose erverything,. like:

 

- power surge frying mainboard and drives

- flooding

- fire

- Theft (maybe the most likely cause)

 

If you want to remove those issues you should adhere to the backup way of working:

 

 

3-2-1 backup rule:

 

- Always have 3 copies of your data

- Store them on two different kinds of media

- Make sure one set is off-site

 

Personally I do not completely adhere to the rule but get close to it:

 

- Unraid with two parity drives

- Crashplan copy of the complete system continuoulsy syncing, Crashplan copy is off-site

 

Whenever one disk fails, you loose nothing.. In all other circumstances you might loose erverything,.

 

Well this is only true if one of your drives is the parity drive.

Otherwise even if only one drive files, whatever was on there is gone.

Whenever one disk fails, you loose nothing.. In all other circumstances you might loose erverything,.

 

Well this is only true if one of your drives is the parity drive.

Otherwise even if only one drive files, whatever was on there is gone.

Not true roland, since its in a parity protected array you can still access the emulated data drive and can rebuild it on a new drive.

Whenever one disk fails, you loose nothing.. In all other circumstances you might loose erverything,.

 

Well this is only true if one of your drives is the parity drive.

Otherwise even if only one drive files, whatever was on there is gone.

Not true roland, since its in a parity protected array you can still access the emulated data drive and can rebuild it on a new drive.

I think roland was making the point that unless the OP has a parity drive, no drive is protected. And I think it is a good point since the OP doesn't actually mention a parity drive. In fact, the OP leaves me with the impression that he has 2 data drives and a cache drive and nothing else.

 

But even more important, does the OP have backups of the most important and irreplaceable files? The only thing that counts as a backup are additional copies of the files. Doesn't matter if you have parity or not. And even if you do have parity, there are many ways to lose files short of an actual drive failure.

 

The OP should consider a backup plan.

Thankfully none of the two drives I have in there kicked the bucket, yet. Actually, there's three drives if I include the cache drive.

 

Only two drives?    Is this parity plus one data drive -- or two data drives with no assigned parity?

 

If you don't have a parity drive, then you have NO protection for your data.  If a drive fails, the data's gone ... barring any data recovery efforts that might suceed.    But this largely defeats the purpose of using a fault-tolerant server !!

 

 

... My server doesn't have a UPS, which is also worrisome.

 

A UPS should be considered a MANDATORY accessory for a fault-tolerant server.  There is NO reason to take the risk of power surges or spikes, or sudden losses causing a problem with your data.    Get a UPS !!  And don't buy the very low cost units that don't have AVR ... just as a UPS should be considered a mandatory item for your server, AVR is a feature you absolutely want on your UPS.    There are plenty of good units in the $100 range that have AVR and ample power for an UnRAID server.

 

 

This was my point exactly.

 

I think roland was making the point that unless the OP has a parity drive, no drive is protected.

 

I try to be clearer next time. From the OP I suspect it is a 2 disk (no parity) setup, but there is not enough detail in the post.

And of course, all the other points are very valid and important, UPS and Backup should always be part of the solution.

 

 

Sorry, had to be clearer. One parity and one data, both 500GB. So I only have 500GB available.

 

Thanks for everyone's input. So I guess I should start backing up. Maybe invest in Crashplan Pro.

With 500gb and one device I would backup to the cloud in crashplan... will be cheap compared to other options... When data increases this starts to be impossible because of the amount of data..

With 500gb and one device I would backup to the cloud in crashplan... will be cheap compared to other options... When data increases this starts to be impossible because of the amount of data..

 

Could you elaborate? I thought Crashplan Pro had unlimited data. My internet has plenty of speed, so time isn't a roadblock.

 

Or is there a data limit?

No data limit that I'm aware of. I've currently got 12.6TB uploaded to Crashplan with no issues.

 

SR

The time required to do all the uploads will be weeks / months!

 

Took me 3 weeks to upload 2TB worth of critical data. So your 500GB will be take 10 days or so.

Thats it... Upload is really slow and so would downloading for a restore be..

 

Also crashplan is -not- unlimited.. You need gigabyes of ram per terrabyte that you backup, at some point your server will not be able to deliver... I habe a 32tb of data and crashplan was really just to slow to be of use..

 

 

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Doesn't matter of upload time - I've heard Crashplan offers initial 'seeding' of backup. So I can just send them a hard drive filled with my data. Assuming it doesn't fall into malicious parties, I think I'll be pretty safe.

 

I just need it to upload constantly and before the drives kick the bucket. Crashplan seems like a nice.... idea.

With only 500GB to backup, the upload speed isn't really much of an issue.  Most modern broadband connections get at least 5MB/s of upload speed ... that's about 300Mb/minute, or a bit over 2GB/hour => about 50GB/day.  It's unlikely you're adding or modifying anywhere near that much.

 

Yes, the initial backup could take a week or more if the disk is full ... but even that isn't all that long.  Certainly beats not having a backup !!

 

Patience is a virtue...

Unfortunately Crashplan server is no where as fast as the theoretical speed.

My initial upload started around 30Mb/s but it gets slower and slower and now it hovers around 5Mb/s (that's bit / s).

And I'm on 100Mbps connection (consistent).

 

I'm with garycase - beats not having a backup.

However, the slow speed of restore etc means I still take security of my unRAID server (doubled up as backup server) very seriously.

... My initial upload started around 30Mb/s but it gets slower and slower and now it hovers around 5Mb/s (that's bit / s).

And I'm on 100Mbps connection (consistent).

 

Even 5Mb/s isn't all that bad => note that's what I assumed in my previous note.  It's nice if you get faster; but it's not really very common to be much above 10 or 20 uplink rate ... download is a different story => that's usually far faster.    My connection is about 75 down, 12 up, and I'm quite happy with those rates.

 

In any event, as noted above, Patience is a virtue 

... and backups should be considered absolutely mandatory for anything you don't want to lose.

 

Unfortunately Crashplan server is no where as fast as the theoretical speed.

My initial upload started around 30Mb/s but it gets slower and slower and now it hovers around 5Mb/s (that's bit / s).

And I'm on 100Mbps connection (consistent).

 

I'm with garycase - beats not having a backup.

However, the slow speed of restore etc means I still take security of my unRAID server (doubled up as backup server) very seriously.

 

Exactly the same with me... I am also at fiber 100/100 Mbit.. I did not even get 10% of that speed to crashplan.. With other traffic I can saturate the connection so thats really their side..