Storage Config for Best Data Loss Prevention?

1st Official Post

    I am new to OMV and am trying to figure out the best way to set up my server.

    I have intel i5-4570, 8GB DDR3 Ram, LSI 9272-8I. 4 HP 4TB HDD's, 160 GB HDD for boot drive.

    It will mainly be used for jelly fin server. Would like to have pi hole and a steam catch running on it as well.


    So Every thing I read on here about raid makes it sound like at some point the raid array will get corrupted or fail in some way. If that happens then all the data on the array is lost because the data is striped across the array. If this is real possibly I would like to then stay away from raid.


    The idea that iv come up with is to use unionfs to create 2 volumes 8TB each. Then use rync to more or less mirror the volumes. This will give me 8TB useable. I think this will be able to have 2 drives fail as long as they are in different volumes without any data loss. That isn't really any different that raid 6 or 10, where this set up is different I would also be able to have 3 drives fail and only have partial data loss. Now I'm not really worried about drive failures I'm more worried about an array failure. With this set up from what I under stand all the drives are independent from each other and I can plug them in individually and see what data is on that drive where as with a raid array if I plug in just one drive the data is useable because parts of the data are stored on the other drive.


    So I think think this will give me full redundancy and more or less a backup in the same server.

    Let me know if this is a good way of setting this up or if you have a better way. Like I said I am very new this.



    • Official Post

    Yes. The approach is correct. For a home media server it is not necessary to configure Raid. Raid is used to have continuous access to data regardless of a disk crash. This is generally not necessary for this use.

    I disagree that Raid arrays get corrupted, mdadm is a safe system. The problems that I have seen in the forum with Raid are due to a bad use of the software, or lack of experience to solve a disk change, etc.

    Keep in mind that Raid is NOT a backup. It does not protect you against:

    - Accidentally deleted files.

    - Malware that encrypts data.

    - Theft or fire.

    - Failure of more discs than those allowed by the particular Raid.

    The best backup is an incremental backup that is not at the same address as the server.

    A copy on the same server is fine. If the original disk fails, you have the copy. If the copy is versioned it is better, you can access previous versions of the files (protection against malware), if the copy is far from home even better (protection against theft, fire).

    It all depends on which system you feel comfortable with.

    PLEASE make sure you keep a version history of backups using rsnapshot, borg, restic) to protect from ransomware. There is no use in restoring encrypted files you can not decrypt.


    I recently had to tell someone his backups are useless

    If you got help in the forum and want to give something back to the project click here (omv) or here (scroll down) (plugins) and write up your solution for others.

    When talking about best data loss prevention, keep in mind what happens in case of a fire. If you store 3 backup copies all in your house, you are very vulnerable to such things. Therefore there should be another backup at some other place. Like at a friends or your parents place. Encrypted of course.


    By the way, as already mentioned, Raid hast nothing to do with data loss prevention but with service availability. Data loss prevention is about backups.

  • spenc7

    Added the Label resolved

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

Register Yourself Login