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  • I have done a weird thing with backup... I've stopped doing backup, and instead use syncthing to provide backup.

    I never need full disk image or system backup, I've been fine with thinking of the operating system and applications as ephemeral and reinstallable, for many years I've only been thinking that files, the data itself, is important enough to need backed up.

    First use of syncthing was: make sure really important files are in more than one place. By which, I mean all devices are encrypted hard drives and I have a folder that used to be in Google Drive which contains every receipt and letter received since 1995, and all the house conveyancing, and every payslip and tax form, and every legal matter, and all health things, etc, etc... basically everything admin in my life. This is sync'd to every laptop / desktop / server I have... and as most are off, it's trivial to keep it all safe, there's always a version cold somewhere.

    Second use of syncthing: Replace Google Photos by having photos sync from my device straight to my NAS, and then process them there and make them available on my phone and other devices through a web UI.

    Third use of synching: Replace all backup with syncthing by having multiple NAS devices at different locations, initially sync'd in the same location (because copying 35TB of data takes a while), and then separated to two distinct locations, both obviously having syncthing on it. Have the remote "backup" NAS configured for Wake-on-Lan, and use that to turn on the backup each month and then it will automatically sync via syncthing, when my monitoring reveals the network goes quiet (finished syncing) then I get an alert and I log in and turn off the backup. In essence, a remote cold backup kept up to date each month, and local backups on multiple devices kept up to date whenever they are turned on.

    Syncthing also appears to happily sync 100GB files (though it does take a while initially and I guess you really don't want to modify these files), and folders containing 250k files. You do need to raise inotify watchers, but it all works.

    And this is what I did with the old spare NAS.

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