Hi,

 

I've been playing with the 3 disk version of unraid and I really like it. I'm going to upgrade shortly.

 

I do have a question.

 

If I buy two USB sticks and get license for both. If one fails, do I need the unraid configuration or will the second USB stick figure out the configuration? If not what files do I need to backup every time I make a change to my array so that if the stick fails I can recover?

 

If it is nesessary to backup configuration data of the USB stick would it make sense to add a feature where the configuration data is backed up into the disk array and unraid would look for it if it didn't have any existing configuration on its USB stick?

 

thanks

 

-Stefan

It is on the wiki, but maybe not explainatory enough.

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=Backing-up_%27config/super.dat%27_and_%27config/disk.cfg%27_Files/re

/Rene

If I buy two USB sticks and get license for both. If one fails, do I need the unraid configuration or will the second USB stick figure out the configuration? If not what files do I need to backup every time I make a change to my array so that if the stick fails I can recover?

No the config data is not stored anywhere else.  You should backup the contents of the 'config' directory of the flash to somewhere, e.g., your pc from time to time.

 

If it is nesessary to backup configuration data of the USB stick would it make sense to add a feature where the configuration data is backed up into the disk array and unraid would look for it if it didn't have any existing configuration on its USB stick?

Yes we should add this feature - I' put it on Ye Olde Laundry List:

- automatic save/restore of Flash 'config' directory to a designated hard disk file

 

I really like that nothing is on the harddisks regarding the OS.

suggest: - automatic save/restore of Flash 'config' directory to a designated harddisk/flash file

configuration being stored, as backup, on one of the disks is a great idea, and how several hardware RAID implementations work I believe. You have the option of "loading configuration from the disk". This would be a nice backup. And you could always manually copy the folder elsewhere, if the config folder is all that's needed if moving from one flash drive to another.

 

Just my 2cents

what about saving to a flash drive?  This way if your first flash dies you can still access the date from a windows machine to place it on a new flash with unraid on it.

I like the backup to flash.

-or the backed up files could be in the daily statusmail from the unraidserver. It takes up very little space in the mailbox, and ond can easyli manage how many and which generations of files to keep.

Another option since were talking about tiny amounts of data here is upload to the internet. That gets it completely off site which is always a good thing with backups of any sort.

 

Wouldn't be hard to do at all.

Another option since were talking about tiny amounts of data here is upload to the internet. That gets it completely off site which is always a good thing with backups of any sort.

 

Wouldn't be hard to do at all.

 

Too bad Mozy doesn't allow backups of network drives and they don't have a Linux client.

 

 

Bill

Mozy and its remote backup competitors work well for backing up the unRAID configuration, IF you consider remote backup your second line of defense.  Local backup is the first line, and most important, whether backing up or syncing local data to backup locations like your unRAID server, or backup of unRAID info to a local drive.  Then point Mozy (Carbonite, JungleDisk, etc) to the local copy of the flash drive.

 

I like SyncbackSE for this, extensive features and flexibility (networking, FTP, logging, notifications, etc etc), inexpensive, flexible licensing plans.  I have their $30 personal use plan covering up to 5 home computers.  I have SyncbackSE check the flash twice a day for changes, and Mozy or its ilk replicate the changes offsite.

 

Good point.  I could run a simple backup of my smaller network files (unraid flash, itunes licenses, etc.) and put them on my local drive, then have Mozy/equivalent pick up that data each day.

 

Next weekend ...

 

 

Bill