HN Explorer

Ask HN: What is your backup strategy for desktops\laptops, NAS and cloud?

17 points by badpingjohn ↗ HN
Having to backup several machines and a NAS, and with redundancy in mind: Do you backup the desktops\laptops locally to the NAS and then backup from NAS to cloud? Or do you also backup each machine separately to the cloud? Do you also keep a local cold backup?

I’m not asking which specific cloud storage vendors you use (like S3, B2, Wasabi etc.) or which specific tools you recommend (rsync, restic, dupli-city/cati/cacy etc.) although it’s always interesting.

13 comments

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thedanbob
I backup all my home computers to my NAS and my work computer to an external drive. All my really important documents are also synced between all my machines with syncthing. I don't consider any of my data important enough to backup the NAS as well but if I did I'd probably use a second NAS at work.
finaliteration
In that scenario I would backup locally to the NAS and do a backup straight from the laptops to a cloud provider (Backblaze, iDrive, etc). That way if a corrupt file gets accidentally backed up to the NAS it won’t necessarily propagate through the entire backup chain like it might if you were copying the NAS directly.

My current strategy is to backup my laptops (macOS) locally using Time Machine for a full backup with a fast recovery time and then sync important files to a cloud backup provider in case of a major disaster.

badpingjohn
> That way if a corrupt file gets accidentally backed up to the NAS it won’t necessarily propagate through the entire backup chain like it might if you were copying the NAS directly.

That's a very good point. Thanks.

kwhitefoot
I have a set of Bash scripts using Rclone to backup from my laptop to another laptop via Google Drive.
massysett
I have a Macbook and a Mac Mini. The Macbook backs up to the NAS with Time Machine, and the Mini backs up to an external drive over USB with Time Machine. Both back up with Backblaze as well, and the Documents folder is on iCloud.
mflower
Large drive on one machine in my house, every computer in my house backs up to there using Restic. I keep hourlies for 2 days, weeklies for 2 months, monthlies for a year, and one extra year.

I also back up to Backblaze B2 using Restic and do the same thing except no hourlies.

duxup
A Synology system for local backups.

Backblaze for the cloud.

badpingjohn
Do you backup only the Synology to the cloud or do you backup each machine separately to the cloud?
duxup
Everyone backs up to both.

I probabbly should / could get the Synology to backup to the cloud after it does it's local thing but I haven't looked into it ;)

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