Using Wake-on-LAN for a NAS backup

After recently upgrading my main storage server bit by bit, I found myself with a pile of parts that basically added up to another storage server. I had a capable Network Attached Storage (NAS) solution for files and media, but I needed a second server running on-site as a backup for the main NAS. What I did not want, however, was to pay for a second server running 24/7 gobbling up energy. This article explains how to set up a pair of servers in a primary/backup configuration so that the backup will synchronize itself with the primary server each day, week, month, or however often you like. Once the two are synced, the backup server will turn back off until needed again, thus saving most of the energy costs. This approach has an added benefit in the event of a ransomware encryption attack, because the backup server will most likely be turned off at the time of the attack, making it more likely to escape encryption.

Hardware Configuration

The two servers I describe in this article are used in a home lab and are non-critical. If you are using servers for a business, school, or professional agency, you will have different needs and, ideally, a more expansive budget that could point you toward a different solution. This article is intended as a proof of concept – and as a way to explore some of the tools available in the Linux environment. This basic approach might very well be feasible for other secondary or off-site backups with slight modifications.

The main NAS server has six 6TB HGST SATA drives in a RAIDZ2 pool with approximately 24TB of usable storage space (Figure 1). The pool can lose two drives and still retain all of the data, but obviously doing this means 33 percent of the disks' raw space is unavailable. Being in a RAID array means that there is redundancy, but redundancy is not the same as a backup. Both servers have 10Gb networking, and the primary NAS runs a Proxmox virtual environment [1], which uses SMB to share to the backup.

[...]

Use Express-Checkout link below to read the full article (PDF).

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • Amahi

    Install a home server to make your data omnipresent.

  • BackupPC

    BackupPC handles backups over the network for a ranges of platforms. Find out more about this user-friendly, configurable, high-performance open source backup system.

  • Box Backup

    The Box Backup network backup tool is a simple and secure solution for traveling clients. We'll show you how to get started with this open source tool.

  • At the Touch of a Button

    Duplicati lets you create backups of your data in next to no time – both locally and in the cloud.

  • Admin Workshop: Backups

    Data always seems to get lost at exactly the wrong moment, but the right backup strategy can help you restore those missing files.

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News