natedogg624 Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 You're my favorite group of nerds and wanted to get some input on my setup. I'm sorry most of you are freezing. Anyways, I'm creating a layered backup system and the last step I'm trying to solve is an off-site backup of my files. Currently I have my files saved to a raid-1 NAS setup with an external hdd attached to the server station that backups those files every night. For you asset management, network guys, what do you use for your off-site backup? This isn't a huge corporate business thing, just about 4-6Tb of storage with potential to grow to 8Tb. I'm just thinking an external hdd attached to another computer (mac/pc - still undecided) using some automated program. Would that work or is it more complicated than I'm imagining? Would mac automator work, or time machine, or are their programs better suited? If I hook it up to PC what's the optimal solution for that os? Do you recommend daily or weekly backups for this off-site hard drive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 I'm a believer in off-site backups like Carbonite, Dropbox, etc. and I've had to test it a few times. External hard drives can and do fail, homes burn and flood, and it's easy to forget to perform backups if you don't have a sophisticated setup that powers itself on regularly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wojo72 Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 I second Scott's suggestion. I use Dropbox but don't have a favorite. Just make sure that you use reasonable encryption on any data that you don't want others to see.Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonik Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 If you only have one location but a decent link to the net then Scott's answer is the way to go. Do it during off hours. Use one of the cloud backup services. Carbonite and Mozy come to mind first for a small business. Simple, reliable and reasonably inexpensive. A hard drive attached to a computer that you swap out and carry around is a bad idea for many reasons. You will forget, you will drop it or some crack head will steal it out of your car when you stop for beer on the way home. As for frequency, weekly is also a bad idea. If you need this backup, it is going to be because something really bad happened. You don't want to add to that by having to say "It's going to take a week to rebuild our network and then we will also lose a weeks worth of data, so ummm yea this is basically a two week loss for the company'. That would be a resume generating event, as it should be. Neither Mac Automator or Time Machine are acceptable for this job. If you go cloud you will get software from them for this. If you have multiple locations speak up, then my answer changes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natedogg624 Posted January 21, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 Okay so a cloud solution is the way to go now? Are they reliable enough to the point where a particular reputable service like Carbonite is not going anywhere for the foreseeable future and pricing comparable long term to a physical hdd? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 Okay so a cloud solution is the way to go now? Are they reliable enough to the point where a particular reputable service like Carbonite is not going anywhere for the foreseeable future and pricing comparable long term to a physical hdd? I think so. I started with Carbonite 5 years ago and loved it, but found that Dropbox not only fulfilled my off-site backup needs but also solved my problem of needing to share documents across multiple computers, tablets and phones, across multiple family members and friends. Dropbox is SO integrated into SO many other partner products and plugins, I would be shocked if they went under without us seeing a year or more of writing on the wall. I get 1 Terabyte of online storage for about $100/yr which is roughly what I'd spend on a networked storage device of similar capacity, and it wouldn't benefit from being hosted off-site. It takes several days to upload/sync your files at first, but once done, it stays pretty caught up if you have a remotely decent internet pipe. You can also throttle how much it uses to avoid killing your spouse's Netflix experience. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wojo72 Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 Did I mention encryption? Sorry......can't help it due to my piss poor choice in career. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smccrory Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 Did I mention encryption? Sorry......can't help it due to my piss poor choice in career. Fair point. Here are Dropbox's defaults:https://www.dropbox.com/securityYou can also encrypt individual files and directories on the client side using WinRAR and many other tools but it'll often reduce accessibility to those assets on mobile clients. The perennial trade between convenience and security. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wojo72 Posted January 22, 2016 Report Share Posted January 22, 2016 (edited) Stuff like this is why I opt to encrypt prior to uploading but Scott is right. The encryption makes it a real pain in the ass to access your data from other devices. Make a judgement call on how sensitive your data is and act accordingly. http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/14/6976429/dropbox-says-it-wasnt-hacked-released-passwords-were-stolen-from http://www.alphr.com/dropbox/1000326/how-secure-are-dropbox-microsoft-onedrive-google-drive-and-apple-icloud I'll shut up and go the fuck to sleep now. Fair point. Here are Dropbox's defaults:https://www.dropbox.com/securityYou can also encrypt individual files and directories on the client side using WinRAR and many other tools but it'll often reduce accessibility to those assets on mobile clients. The perennial trade between convenience and security. Edited January 22, 2016 by Wojo72 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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