How do you go about backing up with shares to externals?

[WhazZzZzup17]

I'm a past Flexraid user and in the past, I would just simply backup a full disk. Meaning if I had 10TB disk full of work files, I would simply sync my 10TB disk with an external 10TB disk and we're good.

 

However, I'm struggling on the concept of backing up with my Unraid shares. Meaning, I have elected 3 - 10TB disks that to store work files separately and filled via most free/highwater so they're filled differently (70%, 22%, 55%).

 

My work folder will show roughly 14tb, and I can't simply copy and paste this folder to a 10tb external for backup. Unless there is a way to backup individual disks, I don't know how to do this properly. I'm assuming there is a way to access the disks instead of shares, which would help with backing up full disks, however, I think I read somewhere to never do this because it can destroy your data if you accidentally move from a share to a disk. 

 

How would I back this up properly, whereas I know what hasn't been backup ed properly?

[JorgeB]

Unless there is a way to backup individual disks,

If you can do this you can enables disk shares, each disk is then accessible at \\tower\disk1, \\tower\disk2, etc.

 

 

[WhazZzZzup17]

7 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

If you can do this you can enables disk shares, each disk is then accessible at \\tower\disk1, \\tower\disk2, etc.

 

Can I still enable disk shares, if I elected to use shares instead?

 

Also, what risk am I at in terms of doing this? I think I read somewhere a while ago that this was a bad idea because if I accidentally move a file to the disk instead of going through shares, it could destroy the data. Or am I wrong on this?

[JonathanM]

1 hour ago, WhazZzZzup17 said:

 

Can I still enable disk shares, if I elected to use shares instead?

 

Also, what risk am I at in terms of doing this? I think I read somewhere a while ago that this was a bad idea because if I accidentally move a file to the disk instead of going through shares, it could destroy the data. Or am I wrong on this?

You can certainly have both enabled. The risk comes from the way user shares show the same content as the disk shares, but in a different path.

 

As long as you don't mix the two when moving data, there is no risk. Copying from disk2 to shareA is possibly risky, copying from disk1 to disk2, no problem.

 

If either the source or the destination is a non-array member like another computer or an unassigned disk, there is no risk.

 

/mnt/disk1/shareA

/mnt/disk2/shareA

/mnt/cache/shareA

are all part of

/mnt/user/shareA.

 

If you try to move something from /mnt/cache/shareA to /mnt/user/shareA, it will be corrupted.

 

Once you understand why there is a risk, you can be aware of what not to do, and work around it.

[WhazZzZzup17]

It sounds like you already answered this, but I just want to confirm to make sure I understand it one last time.

 

If I have a share folder (WORK) and it uses disk1, disk2, disk3 and I have a total of 10 disks.

 

Are you saying that, since I have disk1 at 70%, disk2 at 20%, and disk3 at 50% full, I can simply enable disk shares,  cut the 20% of files from disk 2 folder and move it to disk 3 folder? Thus not having an issue. And then of course, that would mean I could copy disk 3 folder as well, which would be at 70%, to my external hard drive

 

As long as I don't copy/cut from disk to share folder or share folder to disk folder? If so, that is awesome.

 

 

[JonathanM]

41 minutes ago, WhazZzZzup17 said:

Are you saying that, since I have disk1 at 70%, disk2 at 20%, and disk3 at 50% full, I can simply enable disk shares,  cut the 20% of files from disk 2 folder and move it to disk 3 folder? Thus not having an issue. And then of course, that would mean I could copy disk 3 folder as well, which would be at 70%, to my external hard drive

Sorry, but I'm a little lost with your description.

 

If you are saying that you want to move /mnt/disk2/WORK/*.* to /mnt/disk3/WORK, then yes, that is perfectly fine. However, I don't see a need to do that, because you can backup /mnt/disk1/WORK to the first external 10TB, and backup /mnt/disk2/WORK and /mnt/disk3/WORK to the second external 10TB. When you fill /mnt/user/WORK to beyond 20TB, you will need to add a third external 10TB and just backup each disk to their own external.

 

Do you have any other shares defined besides WORK? Every root folder on every data and cache disk is a user share, and conversely each disk can hold a portion of any user share you wish. If the root folders on disk have the same name, they will be shown merged in that share name.

 

Clear as mud?

[WhazZzZzup17]

5 hours ago, jonathanm said:

Sorry, but I'm a little lost with your description.

 

If you are saying that you want to move /mnt/disk2/WORK/*.* to /mnt/disk3/WORK, then yes, that is perfectly fine. However, I don't see a need to do that, because you can backup /mnt/disk1/WORK to the first external 10TB, and backup /mnt/disk2/WORK and /mnt/disk3/WORK to the second external 10TB.

Gotcha, so I think what I was saying as correct.

 

I woudnl't do that, but I was curious incase I wanted to clear disk2 and use it for something else.

 

Looks like I understand now. Just don't mess with the original root folder, but I can transfer subfolders within the root from disk to disk. And this would work great copying a full disk to an external.