What are some best practices for backing up a whole family’s computers, and phones, and vast quantities of high resolution pictures and videos of the family?
I finished building my first NAS a few weeks ago and have largely familiarized myself with the interface, but have some questions to ensure that I’m not missing anything important or could setup something better before adding my family for automatic backups along with some general questions I’m curious about but aren’t strictly critical. Please excuse me if some of the latter are “stupid questions” as those I have left are ones I couldn’t definitively find online and with a few only mentioned for a confirmation that the setup is adequate.
Questions:
- Although TrueNAS Scale recognizes the ECC RAM as ECC what is the best way to monitor for any issues? While any errors are automatically corrected, I’ve read that a large number of them can indicate a failing stick and would like to set an alert. I’ve read that “rasdaemon” can monitor that, but also that you shouldn’t add packages into the TrueNAS shell. What is the best approach?
1a. There is an entry in the app store for Elasticsearch that may be able to monitor that with some setup, but is that a good approach as it may require adding packages via the TrueNAS shell which I’ve read is a bad idea. Has anyone used this or alternatives and is virtualizing Linux to run a monitoring tool a better approach? The two sticks of RAM were from the same company on Amazon but have different colored PCBs, so I did want to monitor them a bit for any potential variation.
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Is it standard practice to buy a DNS or just to use VPNs, e.g. OpenVPN or Tailscale for predominantly family backups. The former may have some added simplicity for Photoprism, as it’s entirely browser based on the client side but also comes with additional security challenges so I thought to ask. I found a $4/ year domain that could work, but figured I’d ask what others did. I did read that some need a domain for casting to television apps, but I think I could work around that by having my family in another state just hook up a hdmi cable to a computer to view the family albums if you think security would be an issue.
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What is the preferred automatic backup software for phones to the server? So far Syncthing and Foldersync seem like the leading contenders. I tried Nextoffice, but while on their app I could select folders for backup it only backed up images and videos- not documents or other files. I could not find the expert mode toggle that could theoretically allow for more. What process do you use? Also, what computer backup software do you prefer if not the same? I’ve read Veeam Community edition works but would enjoy a recommendation from someone who has actually needed to recover files using a server-hosted backup before.
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When booting up I looked at the text and it lists “error: compression algorithm inherit not supported” “error: unknown device 1107296509” and loops both a few times as part of the boot process. Is this normal? It did not show either on initial boot before using the offered dataset encryption. Would it be advisable to turn encryption off or are those errors just normal?
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Do you generally prefer apps or virtualization? Also, if I did go the DNS route as noted in question 2, would it be a good idea to virtualize Caddy or Mint and run it off of that? How likely would the ISP be to care? There wouldn’t be more than the 10 members of the extended family using the system for backups.
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My hdd’s are chilling in the low 30*C range, but my SSDs are between the low 40’s to 50’s. being further away from the coolers. Would it be advisable to add a small fan between the PSU and HDDs to intake air and push it towards the SSD area- I’m concerned it could mess up the pass-through airflow towards the CPU and case rear or hit one of the power cables if the case is jostled, so are those SSD temperatures actually fine? I can add a picture if you think it would help- my extra 140mm fan from the multi-pack does not fit.
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I sprung for the 2.5Gbe motherboard, but although both it and the router support 2.5Gbe- the latter in a single port, as well as the RG45 Cat6a cable, why might the wireless speeds below even regular internet download speeds? A hardline into the router gets close to the expected 1Gbe from its remaining ports, so is that just a limitation of router technology and do I require a switch for faster speeds or is there something I may have misconfigured?
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My last question was just a curiosity about the system permissions, access control and how much things should be locked down and general best practices for SMB sharing with families with directories to prevent accidents. I’m currently thinking read and execute access for the family group to allow perusal and retrieval and sharing of documents in a backup but please correct me if I’m incorrect about the need for execute permissions. Should a dataset have its owner changed from the default root to something like the Family group and would that cause any issues? Also, should I bother with ACL functionality if no non-family is likely to use the system?
Thank you very much for sharing your wealth of knowledge and/or experience. I hope that you have a great evening!
System Specs:
Intel 14700k (with Be Quiet cooler)
W680-ACE MB (2.5Gbe, ECC support)
64Gb OWC ECC RAM
Super Flower Leadex VI 1000W PSU
LSI 9306
4x 18TB SAS drives (refurb)
32Gb Optaine Boot drive
1Tb Gen4 L2ARC
4Tb App SSD (borrowed from future build for parents)
Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL case
4 Arctic cooler 140mm fans