Hi, I have been playing with OMV 5 for a few weeks now, and have benefitted greatly from the experience and advice of the people on this forum. Than you. Now I want to ask for some more.
What do you recommend for a storage and backup strategy, given the desired goals, equipment, and skill levels outlined below?
I am building a NAS for home use. I have an i5 based HP desktop system with 12GB mem (non ECC) and 8 sata-3 connections; 2 on MB, 6 on PCI x4 riser card. Not counting 2 sata-2 on MB originally intended for ODD 1 and e-sata/ODD2. I trust the system and it has been handling omv fine.
I purchased 4 x 4TB new WD Red Plus drives for this. I have 2 Samsung EVO 860 2.5in 500GB SSDs, not new, smart ok at present. Also have available some old sata spinners: 1 each of 3.5in and 2.5in 1TB HDDs.
1 ea of 3.5in and 2.5in 500GB HDDs.
1 ea of 2.5in 250GB HDD, 2.5in 750GB HDD.
Actually now that I think of it, 1 more 2.5in sata 1TB HDD presently in use as USB-connected backup drive for wife’s laptop.
My desired objectives:
1) Establish something to carefully back up our 3 or 4 Windows PCs and iphones. Would like to have automated, full+incremental backups. Approx 250GB on 2 systems, 500GB on the third. Drives get bigger so consider 500GB as the backup source standard. For sizing Assume 75% full, though it’s not that much today.
These systems are presently backed up by usb-connected HDDs, some automatic, some when the user thinks about it. Each has Office 365 w/OneDrive personal 1TB cloud sync storage. (FWIW most also have access to random free Google Drive and/or Dropbox, Box accounts, limited amounts of storage between 8 and 50GB.)
2) Provide robust onsite storage for 21+ years of digital family photos and videos. Presently just under 100GB. Want to be able to periodically dump new photos from iPhones here. Keeping these safe is more important than most data on PCs.
This should be backed up on-site and also in cloud. Presently have Google photos storage (unlimited photos, full up on video allowance) , Amazon Prime photos (same as Google). These sync automatically from phones at present. Also have the 1TB ea user in OneDrive.
3) Have a random collection of music files, ripped CDs etc. Would like to be able to access as a share via PC or phone to manage, add to, organize. Would like to be able to access, search and stream via SONOS app to speakers. Likewise to stream and listen to on phone, ideally even when remote. These are for fun, not critical data, would not be heartbroken to lose.
My initial plan and build was an old 120GB SSD for system disk, and a the 4 x 4TB configured as RAID6 with two data drives and two parity, yielding about 7.5TB effective for user storage. This worked but I screwed up a symlink and filled up the system disk when loading data; Live and learn. The old SSD turned out to have Smart EOL warning, so I’ve abandoned that one. Have just rebuilt with system in 16GB usb stick based on advice here, with flash plugin enabled. Works, interesting approach, though I’ll feel better if it were genuine SLC flash in sata dom, industrial usb like innotec, or just good quality ssd. It’s all flash. I’m gaining experience from the usb approach right now.
I have not reconnected the storage drives yet. Been reading many threads about approaches to preserve data and avoid disappointment from considering RAID as backed up enough and secure. Message received. Interested in how to use it for fault tolerance for some components that are part of a bigger set of technology and processes that considers faults inevitable.
I am tech savvy and love to learn and tinker, however after this thing is fully designed and built for production, I want it to be stable and dependable. Will play with other systems, do not want to play with this one, once in use and loaded with data.
ZFS has attractive characteristics, but I can to OMV after first considering TrueNAS, scared away by lack of ECC on my current platform and level of administration skills required. Yet I have recently read recommendations here about it.
I am open to any and all suggestions; there is much I do not know. What would you suggest, enlightened ones, for an approach to setting up storage, given my goals and current resources?
What approaches do you recommend for backup?
How to use the cloud I have? What should I add or use instead? (I also have some cloud storage where my domain, email and website are hosted, though unless the terms have changed, they did not want it used as general storage last time I checked. I hosted client sites there for others, and it is a very reliable host, now in Google data centers, for better or worse.)
Ask me anything. I will shut up now, and hand the microphone over to you! Thank you in advance!