Is RAID overkill for backup ?

[Big Jim]

Customer currently has a QNAP NAS in the office with 4 x 6TB drives in RAID10
then another one at home in the same configuration with a daily backup that runs after hours

they have filled them up in quite a short space of time (~2 years)

So I am now looking at the best options for them.
They essentially have 2 main folders, the main active one is currently 2TB and the archive "y" one is around 6TB.

I have given them the option of replacing all 4 drives in the "live" NAS or replacing 2 drives and switching to 2 x RAID 1 arrays.

with regards to the backup NAS, I was leaning towards just connecting a larger external drive for the live files, obviously this means the larger archive folder will only be backed up to a single drive, would this be unwise ?

 

[mmerry]

 

[Sky-Knight]

Came here just to make sure the RAID is not a backup meme happened... it did... now I can move on.

Two NAS's, that can be a backup... but a single copy isn't an ARCHIVE it's a single copy.

The "backup" system needs to have 1.5-2 times the storage of the protected system, so it can maintain appropriate VERSIONING of the appropriate data. It's not good enough to be able to restore to a single state, you need to be able to restore to a known good state at a known point in time!

RAID requirements for the archival system are separate, but if the two systems doing this work are in the same geographical location... WTF is this? 3-1-1 rule applies. 3 Copies of all critical data, one in production, one on premise backup, one off premise backup. Many insurance providers are starting to demand 3-1-2, and tossing in versioning requirements and testing... What is the plan? Oh wait...

The Business Impact Analysis (BIA) hasn't been run...
The Business Continuity Plan (BPC) hasn't been made...
The Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP), therefore also doesn't exist...

And until you have a DRP worth a crap, thinking about RAID levels in a NAS is a huge waste of time.

I know the above three situations are true based on the question you've asked. BIA / BPC are BUSINESS Processes and do not involve technical assets. DRP does involve technical assets but is directed from the previous efforts. The owner of the place owns the mess and it's his responsibility to do that planning. If you're being made to do the planning, CHARGE FOR IT, because you're being a vCTO and you should be compensated as such.

 

[lcoughey]

A backup will be able to restore files if:

1. files are deleted and not noticed for a week
2. the systems are stolen or destroyed by fire
3. multiple drive failure that makes the RAID unrecoverable, yes, we get recoveries from RAID 10, RAID 6, RAID 50 & RAID 60

 

[sapphirescales]

It depends on how much they value the data and how long they intend to keep the drives. Personally I use RAID 6 on my NAS (technically SHR-2 since I'm using a Synology NAS). It's an 8-bay with 14TB drives. RAID 10 isn't significantly safer than SHR-2 in an 8 bay setup but if it was a 4 bay setup I would definitely do RAID 10. You have to take into consideration how hard it is on drives to rebuild an array with parity. If those drives are old, the chances of one of them failing when rebuilding the array is much higher. Rebuilding a RAID 10 array is much less risky, as you're basically just moving data directly from one drive to the new one.

In any case, the NAS should NOT be your only backup. I also back up to the cloud, to an external drive, and to an external drive that I keep in a safety deposit box in the bank. If my NAS dies or the RAID array fails to rebuild after a drive failure, I've got 3 other backups of my data so it's not a big deal.

 

[Blues]

When you save to a RAID and backup to a RAID I think both being RAID10 is probably overkill. Really what kind of client is this and what is the true objective to know what is best though I think most answer can be found through your own knowledge and bits mentioned in this thread.

 

[Sky-Knight]

SHR and SHR-2 aren't special, they're just filesystem level RAID instead of disk level. This stuff is baked into modern filesystems such as ZFS and btrfs, and virtual filesystems like ceph.

They're rather cool because you can mix and match drive sizes, and the striping isn't consistent which helps all sorts of things.

RAID at all in a Synology is a rather bad idea as a result UNLESS you want RAID10, which is there for performance. I'd not use RAID10 on a NAS ever honestly, the only place I use it are systems that need to run virtual machines.

 

[HCHTech]

What are their retention settings? Maybe you could loosen those up as a stop-gap to putting in larger drives. I mean, they already made the decision at one point to setup 2 units identically, I would treat them as already on that train and just propose swapping in 12TB drives, hell, even 18's.

 

[Big Jim]

I'm not sure about the retention setting, I'll look into it that when isetup the hdmi again. I'm not sure how important the backup is, it hasn't been working for a few months as far as I can tell, I have been trying to do a remote session with the owner when he is WFH and he has put it off due a few weeks, he finally emailed me randomly yesterday so I jumped at the opportunity and that is when I discovered his drives are all full.

I've given him all options I'll wait to hear back from him. He normally just buys the drives himself and gets me to do the configuration.

 

[sits]

Also, make sure that QNAP is kept updated and not accessible publicly.

They've had way too many security issues over the last few years, especially compared to Synology.

 

[RUSSIL CASTILLO]

Replacing all drives in the live NAS makes sense for maintaining RAID10 performance. For the backup NAS, using a larger external drive for live files is okay, but backing up the archive folder to a single drive might not be the safest long-term solution.

 

[wkt_1]

Replacing all drives in the live NAS makes sense for maintaining RAID10 performance. For the backup NAS, using a larger external drive for live files is okay, but backing up the archive folder to a single drive might not be the safest long-term solution.

device can get coruupted and and put the data on risk

 

[HCHTech]

I'm not sure how important the backup is, it hasn't been working for a few months as far as I can tell,

They're Synologys - setup notifications so you know what's going on (or not going on, as the case may be)!

 

[Sky-Knight]

View attachment 16494

They're Synologys - setup notifications so you know what's going on (or not going on, as the case may be)!

No BIA... No BCP... No DRP...

The lack of notifications is just another symptom of a failure to care about the future of the business, and that care coming from the IT side of the fence is not only inappropriate, but ineffective.

They plan to fail, because they fail to plan!