Unraid and time machine

So when unraid 5 come out with support for afp and has support for time machine will this work?

I have my iTunes and my iPhoto librarys on unraid not on my Mac. Will time machine be able to back these up to another drive on unraid?  These are the two things that are most important to my wife andif I lose these I am a dead man. I just don't know if time machine will back up files that are on a network to a network drive.

I don't think TM will do this. You can set a an rsync cron job to copy the files from one unRaid drive to another.

Time Machine will not back up network volumes.

So if your iTunes/iPhoto libraries are on your unRaid, they will not be backed up. Your best bet, if you're really concerned about this data, is to setup something like Crashplan which costs a few bucks a month and allows you to backup your data to a central server on the internet. There are a few threads on these forums talking about it.

Then again, the iTunes/iPhoto library are protected by the unRAID array, which is a good thing (if a drive dies). But if you accidentally delete things or some other disaster happens, you won't be protected

I like the rsync cron job idea but i have no idea how to do that.

Crashplan is way to slow, 500 gigs of music and 70 gigs of pictures.

I don't know the details of how to do this. You'll need to add a crontab command to your go script.

You can google on how to setup rsync, but there are a few caveats that you should be aware of:

1) if using rsync, you will need 2 computers.. Your unRAID computer that has your media and your rsync "target" (where you will store your rsync backups).

2) You will need the space (500+70+extra for incremental backups) space on the 2nd "target" computer

3) The 2nd ("target") computer will need to run rsync in "server" mode (or "listening" mode to accept connections from your unRAID server)

4) I wouldn't add rsync to the go script unless your 2nd computer is on all the time. You could run it periodically or on demand (telnet into your unRAID server and run it when you want to do a backup).

rsync can be used to copy locally within a single host. A second machine is not required.

I don't believe I said it couldn't be done..

It appears as though the OP wants to secure his iTunes library and photos even more.. if these libraries are already on the protected unRAID array, I don't see any real advantage of just doing an rsync to a different folder.. If you lose the server, you've lost the data..

If this data is sensitive and you're worried about it, you're best off copying it somewhere ELSE.

I was going to install SNAP and copy everything to an external drive or just to another drive on unraid.  I will take the chance of having everything on one server for now.  I just want it backed up to a second drive.

I don't believe I said it couldn't be done..

 

It appears as though the OP wants to secure his iTunes library and photos even more.. if these libraries are already on the protected unRAID array, I don't see any real advantage of just doing an rsync to a different folder.. If you lose the server, you've lost the data..

 

If this data is sensitive and you're worried about it, you're best off copying it somewhere ELSE.

I thought I would jump in here as I gave this some thought a while back when deciding between WHS and unraid.

While I do sync all my important data and photos off the server (s3rsync and amazon S3) I have adopted the WHS approach of storing important files in different locations across multiple disks (files are stored on disk1 and in a bk directory (disk2) and bk2 (disk3) directories on specific drives). The reason for this is that hard disk space is cheap and storing 20gb or so of important files across three 1tb disks means that apart from in the very worst case scenario I should be able to access the really important files asap.

I don't believe I said it couldn't be done..

 

It appears as though the OP wants to secure his iTunes library and photos even more.. if these libraries are already on the protected unRAID array, I don't see any real advantage of just doing an rsync to a different folder.. If you lose the server, you've lost the data..

 

If this data is sensitive and you're worried about it, you're best off copying it somewhere ELSE.

 

I thought I would jump in here as I gave this some thought a while back when deciding between WHS and unraid.

 

While I do sync all my important data and photos off the server (s3rsync and amazon S3) I have adopted the WHS approach of storing important files in different locations across multiple disks (files are stored on disk1 and in a bk directory (disk2) and bk2 (disk3) directories on specific drives). The reason for this is that hard disk space is cheap and storing 20gb or so of important files across three 1tb disks means that apart from in the very worst case scenario I should be able to access the really important files asap.

 

 

Completely agree.  There are some files which are irreplaceable and storing them on multiple hard drives in the array is a good idea.  That's one thing nice about unRAID's approach in not striping - each disk is usable on it's own if you dismantle the array (shameless plug, but sometimes this is overlooked).  Personally I also make backups of pictures onto "the cloud".

You can set a an rsync cron job to copy the files from one unRaid drive to another.

Anyone know how to do this, or is there a plugin I can install and tell it what I want copied?

Time Machine will not back up network volumes.

This article is older, but says it's doable?

Time Machine will not back up network volumes.

 

This article is older, but says it's doable?

This allows target not source selection.

If I use Time Machine to back up some data is this also backed up with the parity drive?

If I use Time Machine to back up some data is this also backed up with the parity drive?

Its not backed up per say, but it is protected just like anything else in the array.

So if the TM drive dies, I can replace it and rebuild it from the parity drive?

Yes. As long as the TM disk is in the array.

So if the TM drive dies, I can replace it and rebuild it from the parity drive?

Yes, you should be able to do just that