I am currently using GNOME Backups (aka Déjà Dup Backups) to backup all my files to a “backups” folder in my Dropbox. This is not a good solution - first because I want to stop paying for dropbox, second because I don’t want to keep everything in the cloud, third because everything is stored twice on my laptop and storage is precious.
I therefore want to manage back-ups locally instead. I would like to keep using Déjà Dup, as it has worked really well and effortlessly.
My initial idea is very bare bones. I could keep an old laptop running 24/7, connect a hard drive, and use SSH file transfer in Deja Dup in order to store everything on that machine. That said, I have a few concerns as well.
- Is this a good way of doing things? Should I be doing something else instead?
- I’m not always at home - will it be a problem if the Backup software cannot find the folder because it’s not on the correct network, or will it have the sense to wait until it’s connected to the correct wifi?
- Will the old laptop use a lot of power, or is it regrettable for any other reason? Is it possible to make it automatically hibernate for example during the nigthtime? Or to have it spend very little power unless anything is connected via SSH?
- Would it be better to get a dedicated device, like a Rasberry Pi or something? I don’t have all too much faith in my old laptop not making noise with the fan running at random times.
It looks like my partner will be getting a new laptop running Linux soon enough as she has to hand in her work computer, so it would be good timing to get a proper solution into place.
Thank you in advance!
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You have a lot of risk with this approach.
3-2-1 backup is the guide today:
3 copies of the data
2 different media
1 copy is off-site
Now I overlook the 2 different media requirement. I just keep 3 local copies on 3 different devices, and one online (look at Backblaze/storj.io or another provider).
Yeah, I had heard of this, but I kind of figured I could ignore it as I’m not dealing with tremendously important stuff. But then again it would really suck to lose it. I think I’ll keep a separate backup in my office at work, running locally from the docking station. :)
If it’s worth keeping, it’s worth backing up (kinda obvious in hindsite, haha).
Yea, I had the same mindset as you until I lost a bunch of music when a RAID array puked.
Now I have 3 local copies and an online backup.
I think an old laptop is a good choice if you have access to some. Laptops are built to be power efficient. And with the screen off you should be in the same ballpark with a Raspberry Pi. And you can keep using your workflow with Deja Dup or whatever you like. Letting them go to sleep and waking them up for example via Wake on LAN depends on the exact model. Some can do it, some can’t.
For the remote access, you’d need some access from the outside of your network. Either do a port forward on your router (and DynDNS) or install a VPN tunnel to get in.
I’ve had a similar setup running for some time. The only downside I can see is the external disk via USB. I don’t think it’s as reliable as an internal drive… I ended up connecting two or three external drives and some other hardware. And every few months, the USB would have some hiccups and reset the bus, occasionally disconnecting a device or an harddrive. Maybe that was my setup, maybe you sholdn’t be running several disks 24/7 over a cheap USB hub, idk. I just lived with the occasinal hang and restarted the abomination every few months. After some years I built a proper NAS and now they’re connected via SATA. But my first solution was super cheap and it did the job so I can’t complain.
I mean “officially” you’re not doing it right. You’re supposed to follow the 3-2-1 rule and use enterprise hardware for important data.
And keep in mind there are other options. You could buy a dedicated NAS. (They usually consume more power than a laptop or Raspi.) Or just use an external disk and connect it directly to your machine once a week and let DejaDup write the files there without any servers involved. Or maybe your internet router has an option to plug in an USB stick or disk and share it within the network. Some do.
One last thing on cloud vs local: Both protects you from a simple harddrive crash. But if your house burns down, you should pay attention to have your backups stored at a different location. If the backup sits next to your computer on your desk, they might both be gone.
Thank you! There’s a lot of useful advice here.
I don’t really need remote access, as long as backups are made when I’m home. I imagine it would be difficult, both because it seems difficult but also because I have internet through a 5G router rather than a more proper connection. But I’m also just happy to keep things more local.
The USB concern is a good point. I’ll probably still go for an external hard drive, but I’ll keep it in the back of my head while setting it up.
A NAS is probably not a good solution for me, also because I want to keep things tiny and lightweight. But just running a completely local solution might not be the worst idea - I was afraid I would forget/neglect to connect frequently unless it’s on the wifi, but if I channel it all through a docking station it would at least be able to back up every time I work at my desk. And if I set up the same system at work I can keep an external backup as well, which I somehow hadn’t thought about. Would solve the house burning down problem. Well, parts of it, anyway.
Thanks again! I always tend to come up with very half-baked solutions for things, which is fun, but with this in particular I appreciate the opportunity to run it through others before making any potential mistakes. :)
I think that’s fine. Sometimes you learn stuff along the way. You can start with a half-baked solution and upgrade things or change them if it doesn’t work out. As long as you’re able and willing to invest the time to tinker, I don’t think there is any harm in it. Usual advice applies, don’t tinker with critical data and don’t spend a lot of money and learn you can’t use it, after the fact.
Btw, some years ago I saw some people using udev rules or something to automatically trigger the backup process to start once a certain external harddisk got attached. That might be a solution if you want it to start on its own. I just can’t find any recent tutorials on how to do it. But maybe your Gnome Backups has some mechanism to automate stuff.
Your best advantage with dropbox is that it’s not at home.
Backups tend to play their biggest role when something catastrophic has occurred such as a house fire, theft or ransomware.
Laptops are typically built with power efficiency in mind, so as long as you’ve configured it to save power it should be fine. Look into a feature set called “Advanced Power Management”.
Your #2 question has some ambiguity. It’s ultimately influenced by how you’re configuring it and what tools you’ll be using. I’m not familiar with the tool you mentioned.
For your question #4. Keep in mind that you’ll need to factor in the age of hardware and confirm the health of the HDD. Having a newer piece of hardware controlling the show like a pi would possibly be more reliable but there’s too many unknowns here to be certain.
Since you’re working with just Linux systems you could probably get away with copying the /home partition and storing it in multiple places.
It’s wise to check hash values of the files copied to confirm they didn’t get corrupted in flight.
It’s also possible that you’ll encounter insidious malware that intentionally messes with your backups. So if you’re using SSH for example it may attempt to use the stored credentials to do awful things to the server.
So using a service like crashplan for critical stuff might be easier.
Thank you!
I would get a new hard drive, so the laptop would just be in charge of managing the backups. So if it fails it only needs to be replaced, but the backup itself wouldn’t be lost.
And yeah, this is why I’m a bit reluctant to set up SSH access beyond the home network, other than of course my lack of competence to do so. I am fairly certain everything going on inside my home network is safe enough for my risk profile (holiday pictures, half baked articles, and shitty R scripts, mostly).
But the not at home argument is of course a good point, and one that I knew about but somehow neglected. I want to avoid the cloud, but I think I will set up a separate backup at work. :)
Thanks for the comment - it’s a really good checklist of things to be aware of going forward!
What exactly do you want to back up? If you share what you are looking to accomplish I can make a software recommendation
I personally would look to a nas. It doesn’t have to be budget breaking and you can get a used machine with some sata ports. The reason I think the laptop is not a good idea is that it is limited on expandability. It would be better to get a machine with around 4 drives in raidz1 or raidz2. You can find a range of used hardware that could fit your needs.
