RAID1 - Backup and safety questions: 48h delay for mirror? Encrypt drives completely differently? reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceidiots · 2023-12-16 15:57 Hello! My data is important. Memories and whatnot. Wouldn't want to lose it. So I'm in the process of getting a laptop with 2 NVME ports (to run a RAID1 setup, to backup, just in case). * PROBLEM WITH THIS:However, there might also be a software-wise issue that corrupts the drive. Given the RAID1 instant mirror nature, that would corrupt both drives, rendering the RAID1 safety absolutely as useless as a single drive system * **QUESTION:So I wonder if I could set up RAID1 with a 48h delay function.** Another concern I have, is that this will be a Windows laptop. As such, if it gets stolen, thief will be able to access my data. Unless I encrypt the drives with BitLocker. * PROBLEM WITH THIS:I've heard how terrible BitLocker is when Windows might mess up/corrupt your drives by sheer unlucky chance. Therefore, if that happens, I'm facing the same issues as above again: RAID1 instant mirror would corrupt both drives. * **QUESTION:Can I set up BitLocker to encrypt each drive independently and differently? So if BitLocker messes up whilst encrypting, it only messes 1 of the 2 drives?** This all sounds like this is the safest and most convenient approach to safety (fails) + safety (theft). But is it even possible to do this? Thank you ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-12-16 16:01 RAID is not a backup. And you might want to ask subs like /r/HomeServer /r/Homelab /r/DataHoarder etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Casseiopei · 2023-12-16 16:14 Bitlocker is reliable, whoever you heard from is in idiot. There is no such thing as a “delayed RAID”. That’s not what RAID is. You can’t bitlocker them separately, you’re trying to create your own problems. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EspritFort · 2023-12-16 16:21 >Given the RAID1 instant mirror nature, that would corrupt both drives, rendering the RAID1 safety absolutely as useless There's a misunderstanding here over the R in RAID. The array provides **service uptime**, it does not and cannot serve any data protection purposes. With a redundant array you ensure that your data stays *available* during hardware failures. This has nothing to do with a backup, which is what you appear to be looking for. >Another concern I have, is that this will be a Windows laptop. As such, if it gets stolen, thief will be able to access my data. Unless I encrypt the drives with BitLocker. There are plenty of way to encrypt data that don't involve Bitlocker. Bitlocker just happens to be the proprietary integrated solution. Veracrypt? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rocketsx12 · 2023-12-16 16:49 These are all valid concerns but the solution is a proper backup not RAID1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CatoDomine · 2023-12-16 17:12 Repeat after me "RAID is not a backup." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceidiots · 2023-12-16 18:01 Thanks for your effortless effort. Repeat after me: if my Disk A failed due to hardware reasons (as it has happened to me many times in the past), RAID1'ed Disk B would be available and thus serve as a B A C K U P. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Klionheartnn · 2023-12-16 18:08 It has been said already, but to reiterate: you are looking for backups, not RAID 1. Or, possibly, RAID AND backups. But you sound more concerned about data corruption than with hardware failures, so definitely start with Backups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PaulEngineer-89 · 2023-12-16 18:40 Backups are backups. As far as encryption if the data is already encrypted backups have nothing to do with that. The purpose of RAID is say you have a web server, say a commerce web site. If the hard drive fails your commerce web server is down until you replace the hard drive and restore from backups. With RAID it just switches drives and continues operation. But it does NOT protect against a power supply failure, power outage, motherboard failure, network failure, or software problems. Given a choice between RAID and two physical servers (with redundant network ports, VM or container failover, network redundancy, and real backups) RAID is WAY down on my list of concerns. I have dealt with many failures over the years. With SSDs RAID is way down on my list of concerns. It’s more of a cheap convenience. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bozzie4 · 2023-12-16 19:04 No, it's not a backup, still your live data. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ABeeinSpace · 2023-12-16 19:30 RAID 1 mirrors in real-time. That’s how it works. RAID is not a backup because it will very happily write garbage to both drives. If you’re using RAID with the expectation of there being a backup at all times, you *will* lose data ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceidiots · 2023-12-16 19:42 Got it. Thank you, Bee. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Other-Technician-718 · 2023-12-16 20:20 You could see it in an other way: if you accidently delete a file, it's gone from all disks in a RAID. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- adamshand · 2023-12-16 20:49 > So I wonder if I could set up RAID1 with a 48h delay function. There's no way to make RAID do this. However, if you just want to protect your data (as opposed to keeping the machine running when a drive fails, which is what RAID is for) you'd be better off to use the second drive as a backup destination. The easiest thing to do would be to rsync your from your first drive to your second drive once a day. If you want to get a bit more protection, you can use one of the rsync tools that uses hard links to preserve versions. Or use the second drive as a destination for actual backup software like kopia or restic. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CatoDomine · 2023-12-16 21:50 My apologies for being short and flippant. But the fact remains that RAID cannot be relied upon as a backup to preserve your data except in the very narrow case of single storage media failure. The cases in which one could lose data outside of something that effects only a single disk, are legion. Here are some examples: * Accidental deletion * Filesystem corruption * Ransomware infection * Lost encryption keys * etc If you want to *backup* to second internal drive you could use any backup software with said drive as the target. Unfortunately, I do not use Windows so I can't recommend a backup software for you. **Caveat**: having a permanently attached disk as your backup target does NOT alleviate many of the problems that you may need a backup for. Theft, catastrophic hardware failure and ransomware come to mind. There is an old adage in the Sysadmin community that states "If you don't have 3 copies, you don't have data". Backup your stuff on a removable drive and leave it at home. maybe more than one removable drive. If your data is of great importance consider an off-site or cloud backup solution as well. With something like [idrive.com](https://idrive.com) you can backup 100GB for $3/yr ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MadMakz · 2023-12-16 22:51 raid is not a backup. it's redundancy. let raid do its raid thing and do a 48h delayed backup to whatever external and/or remote location ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Accomplished-Lack721 · 2023-12-17 00:30 What you want isn't RAID1. What you want is a backup. Also, no matter wha you do with your RAID ... have a backup. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- pigers1986 · 2023-12-17 01:15 A1: No - RAID1 is exact copy of data on at least two drives - your proposal does not make sense. Just use script/automation to copy that data to other location. A2: Yes , just change bitlocker password on 2nd drive via context menu - and do not forget to check RECOVERY KEY for bitlocker encrypted drives ! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceidiots · 2023-12-17 08:43 Hello, Adam. Thank you for the clarification. This is indeed something that would suit me. Now, a few questions about it: \- Is Rsync supported by Windows? What type of software would I need in order to carry out this task? Kopia or Restic are Open Source? Reliable stuff? \- In order to add up to the safety part: is there a chance to do this onto an external drive? I was looking at something very fast like an external M2 drive (although times have changed and I see that USB 4.0 standards are up to 5GBps). What do you suggest? \- Last but not least, I need both drives encrypted. I assume that if the first is encrypted and then rsynch-ed to the external one, the external one is by extension encrypted too? ​ Thank you for your answer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceidiots · 2023-12-17 08:48 Thank you ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceidiots · 2023-12-17 08:49 Got it. Thank you. I'm into it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceidiots · 2023-12-17 08:49 Got it. Thank you. I'm into it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceidiots · 2023-12-17 08:50 Understood. Thank you. I'm into it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceidiots · 2023-12-17 08:50 Will do. Thank you for answering. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceidiots · 2023-12-17 08:52 So you can't set up two different passwords for your two different drives on your laptop? I'm basically trying to avoid problems. As in: Bitlocker+Windows fuck up somewhere, I end up with two equally fucked up drives. Best solution would be to have 1 drive and 1 external backup, encrypted differently? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceidiots · 2023-12-17 08:53 Thank you for your detailed answer. It makes sense now. Sorry for misunderstanding. I intended to use Bitlocker as it is the basic Windows software (herein assumingly the most time-proof and verified one) instead of adding external 3rd party layers of 'danger' to my data. I basically always try to stay as simple as possible with my computers; never adding extra or external stuff when unneeded. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaceidiots · 2023-12-17 08:54 Got it. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- adamshand · 2023-12-17 09:15 > Is Rsync supported by Windows? Yes. But I'm not a Windows guy ... > Kopia or Restic are Open Source? Reliable stuff? They are commonly used and recommended open source software. If you want something simpler, look at rsnapshot or rdiff-backup. > is there a chance to do this onto an external drive? You can use these tools to backup to any drive you can access locally or via ssh. No need for a fast drive unless you need your backups to happen very quickly. I'd recommend getting a larger, cheaper drive which will allow you to keep backups for longer. > Last but not least, I need both drives encrypted. I assume that if the first is encrypted and then rsynch-ed to the external one, the external one is by extension encrypted too? Rsync just copies files. So assuming it's reading unencrypted files, the files on the destination will be unencrypted. Kopia and Restic will backup unencrypted files and store them in an encrypted vault on the destination. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Casseiopei · 2023-12-17 12:49 You can’t encrypt them separately in RAID. Again, there is absolutely no reason for anything you are trying to do. Even if you could do what you’re asking, you’re making it more complicated and prone to failure. You can’t bitlocker RAID drives separately. The point is that they act as one. That’s RAID. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- daedric · 2023-12-17 19:25 You could use syncthing to mirror the 2 FOLDERS (and not drives) with file versioning. But as it has been said, raid is not a backup, it's a redundancy tool.