Backup one server to another


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I want to backup one unRAID servers share to another unRAID server in my house. I am not terribly proficient at the command line, what is the best/easiest app to use for this purpose? I will need to do an initial copy of about 20TB and then periodic syncs to update the backup with new and changed files.

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Do you want to do this from within the server, or do you have a Windows client you can use (perhaps even a VM on the server) ??

 

If you have Windows, I'd use the free version of SyncBack ... which lets you easily do this from a GUI, and you can easily schedule periodic backups at whatever interval you want.

 

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Rsync is good for this. Once you figure out the switches parameters you want to use. Add in source and destination paths you're good to go. If you want syncs after the fact trigger the Rsync command with cron. I'm by no means fluent in Linux. I did manage to move all my data over to a backup server with Rsync. I have yet to setup a cron to sync though. Rsync will definitely be the most lightweight solution.

I said this before and maybe it's just a pipe dream but being able to backup one unraid server to another via the gui should be something that's built into the gui. Everyone is constantly told unraid is not a backup plan. I'm sure it would encourage more users to buy a second unraid license and build a second box if it's as easy and loading up another unraid USB stick and selecting shares that should be backed up to another box.

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3 hours ago, ashman70 said:

I could do it from a windows box, just wondered if there was something I could do on the server that didn't involve the CLI.

 

5 hours ago, 1812 said:

crashplan and done.

 

I use to be anti-crashplan.  But now I use it for local and remote backups. It's in a docker, easy to use GUI interface, versioned backups. The backup computer can run any number of different os's. 

 

 

But, I would like to see a built in solution for duplicating one unRaid server to another. 

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Personally I prefer to do it through Windows -- simply because I treat my UnRAID servers as essentially just NAS boxes.

 

I have a scheduled task that (a) turns on the backup server;  (b) runs a SyncBack profile that backs up my other two servers; and then (c) turns off the backup server.    I've got it set to do this once/week; but clearly could change that schedule to any interval I want.

 

Since I have an always-on Windows box, I just use it (if it's sleeping the scheduled task will wake the system to do this);  but if I didn't, I'd just add a Windows VM to my main UnRAID server and do it the same way.

 

But if there was a built-in function for this, I'd probably use it.

 

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  • 3 months later...

Plus 2 to an integrated GUI UnRaid Backup Server to Server program!

 

Gary can SyncBack be run from a Parallels VM?  Does SyncBack "compress" the data or is it merely a bit for bit copy?

 

Having "screwed" up my primary Server by putting the disks in the WRONG :x WAY, I'd love to backup my Movies (Share) to another Server.  In reality, I don't think I would need to update that Share (Movies Folder) very often, unless I add more "new" movies to the Share.  The question this poses is whether or not the Share could theoretically be backed up to a single disk or would have to be duplicated across multiple disks per the Share criteria of UnRaid?  

 

Also, for those who use CrashPlan via docker, the "free" Home Version will be phased out shortly and you will have to pay for the service as a small business.  Just got that notice about 10 days ago.

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I use rsync with the CA User Scripts plugin. It wakes up my other server (is a Windows box currently but will be another Unraid at some point in the future).

 

I wake up the other server using etherwake, check it's all up and running and mount the share then use rsync to sync folders that I specify in a list (text file). I did it this way as it's easier to add/remove paths. I set rsync to backup anything deleted on the target to a subdir with that days date and also log all activity to a log file, again named with the date. I then schedule to run every night. It also shuts down the Windows box once complete. If you wanted you could easily email you the log output as well.

 

So far this method is working perfectly and has the added benefit of the backup directory on the target so that I have incremented deletion of files (simplisticly obviously). My next task is going to be to make it delete anything older than a week from the backup to prevent lack of space.

 

For the original poster, I went into this with virtually zero knowledge of how rsync works so it's not that hard to pick up. Rsync with the -n command will also let you do a dry run so no changes are made. I used this functionality for the first 2-3 nights just so I could check it was working how I expected it to.

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