{"id":143183,"date":"2022-03-19T06:00:59","date_gmt":"2022-03-19T06:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techweekmag.com\/?p=143183"},"modified":"2022-12-13T20:39:29","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T20:39:29","slug":"guide-how-to-set-up-a-basic-home-backup-server","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stereoreviewer.com\/tech\/uncategorized\/guide-how-to-set-up-a-basic-home-backup-server\/","title":{"rendered":"Guide: How to set up a basic Home Backup Server"},"content":{"rendered":"

Information is the main value of the modern world.\u00a0And in order not to lose it, we should take care of backups of sensitive data.\u00a0Today we will talk about what is important to know for creating your own home backup server.<\/p>\n

Backing up data is an important thing, but people tend to neglect it: firstly, they are often too lazy to do this, and secondly, there is not always free space for backups.\u00a0But, as always, problems happen as if according to the law of meanness.\u00a0When you lose data, it turns out that the last backup was made a long time ago, or it didn\u2019t exist at all.\u00a0And even if you regularly and regularly create backups on a special hard disk partition, there is no guarantee that it will not fail tomorrow or in a month.\u00a0All this leads to a logical conclusion: we need a special home backup system that will do everything quickly and with minimal involvement from you.\u00a0Let’s talk about what is important to know for creating your own home backup server.<\/p>\n

Globally, there are two key characteristics to consider: how often you need to create backups and how much space is required for this.\u00a0The last question is easy to answer.\u00a0Firstly, every year storage in terms of gigabytes of capacity costs less and less, and secondly, you need to think carefully about what exactly you want to copy.\u00a0If the data is easily replenished (say, movies and music downloaded from the Internet, or software distributions), there is no need to create copies of them – if necessary, you can always re-download them on the Internet.\u00a0And such data can take up a lot of space.\u00a0In general, if you remove all unnecessary, it turns out that backups do not need such a large storage.\u00a0For most cases, a server with a 2 TB disk is enough to back up data from one or even two home computers.<\/p>\n

The optimal backup scheme looks like this: you need to create several directories on the backup disk – the same number as computers are used in your home.\u00a0After that, you need to give access via local network to the directories from the corresponding computers and for each select specific areas to be backed up.\u00a0Then you need to create backup copies on the server and periodically (ideally daily) supplement them with incremental copies: this means that all changes in the selected areas that have occurred since the last check are added to the main copy.<\/p>\n

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For automatic and regular backup, there are many programs in which it is enough to set the time and frequency.\u00a0Perhaps the most popular of them is Acronis.\u00a0This is a clear and fairly intuitive application that, among other things, can backup an image of the system disk – a useful thing when Windows crashes again.\u00a0It is better to allocate more time for the creation of the first copy and leave it to run, for example, overnight.\u00a0Then everything should go faster: as a rule, daily changes from two computers are backed up in half an hour or an hour.\u00a0Keep in mind that incremental archives create a chain of copies, and for correct operation it is necessary to have access to all links of this chain.\u00a0If a drive fails or another problem occurs, the data can be rolled back to its original state.\u00a0In this sense, Acronis is not very convenient.\u00a0Alternatively, you can use the Cobian Backup application (unlike Acronis is free) or UNIX utilities like rsync (there is an analogue of cwRsync for Windows).\u00a0The disadvantage of the last two solutions is that not every ordinary user can handle them.<\/p>\n

Next, you need to determine what, in fact, your server will be.\u00a0There are two main options for the development of events here: assembling the server yourself or buying a ready-made solution.\u00a0True, it is worthwhile to understand that although it will be cheaper to assemble the server yourself, not everyone knows how to do this and is ready to spend time and energy on it.<\/p>\n

Ready solutions<\/h2>\n

If you want to take the path of least resistance, you should stick with a ready-made car – especially since their choice today is greater than ever.\u00a0Simple servers for home needs are produced by a variety of companies.\u00a0These are Altos, and Zyxel, and HP, and dozens of others.\u00a0A home backup does not require a powerful processor or many disk shelves.\u00a0You can stop at the base model from a well-known manufacturer like Altos T110 F5, Altos XN3004T or the like.\u00a0The latter is an example of classic network attached storage (NAS).<\/p>\n

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There are also solutions from other manufacturers.\u00a0For example, the Western Digital WD My Cloud Home is also designed for home storage (only one 3.5-inch drive can be installed in it).<\/p>\n

Another alternative is the Zyxel NAS326.\u00a0This is a home (and not only) NAS with two hard drive bays, a simple processor, an Ethernet port and a USB 3.0 connector.<\/p>\n

We assembled the server ourselves<\/h3>\n

If simple ways are not for you, and you want to assemble the car yourself, there are several parameters that are important to consider.<\/p>\n

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1. Motherboard<\/h3>\n

So, it’s definitely not worth saving on a motherboard by buying the cheapest one.\u00a0And pay special attention to the number of SATA connectors, they should be enough for all the drives that you plan to use.<\/p>\n

2. Processor and RAM<\/h3>\n

When choosing a processor, be guided by price, energy efficiency, stability of its work and customer reviews.\u00a0Performance is the last thing here.\u00a0Of course, remember that the processor must fit the motherboard socket.\u00a0As for RAM, 4 GB of DDR3 memory is enough.\u00a0There is no need to overpay for more modern modules.\u00a0However, do not forget to check their compatibility with the motherboard – most modern models of motherboards only support DDR4 or DDR5 memory.<\/p>\n

3. Cooling and power<\/h3>\n

The most important characteristic of a home server for backups is the noise level, so choose coolers based on their volume as well.\u00a0The same applies to the power supply – it should not just be enough, it should be quiet enough so as not to cross out all your efforts to choose quiet fans.<\/p>\n

4. Drives<\/h3>\n

In a home server for backups, it makes no sense to use solid state drives.\u00a0Besides the fact that they are more expensive than conventional hard drives per gigabyte of memory, such drives have a much smaller resource.\u00a0Well, their high performance is simply irrelevant for our tasks.<\/p>\n

There are no universal recommendations for choosing a brand and model of drives.\u00a0Someone is closer to Western Digital, others agree only on Seagate, and still others are crazy about Toshiba.\u00a0The whole difference is only in our head, so choose a brand you trust.\u00a0But whatever drive you choose, constantly monitor its status, and if critical information is stored in backups, use several drives combined in a RAID array.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Own home server for backup does not require deep knowledge in IT.\u00a0Today, for every case, there is a clear and ready-made solution that will save you from having to assemble the machine yourself and set up the copying process for a long and painful time.\u00a0Ready-made low-cost home-level servers and intuitive applications with a clear interface allow you to organize a backup and secure your data even if your knowledge is minimal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Information is the main value of the modern world.\u00a0And in order not to lose it, we should take care of backups of sensitive data.\u00a0Today we will talk about what is important to know for creating your own home backup server. Backing up data is an important thing, but people tend to neglect it: firstly, they […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10404,"featured_media":143189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1509,1],"tags":[784],"class_list":["post-143183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","category-uncategorized","tag-guide"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoreviewer.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoreviewer.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoreviewer.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoreviewer.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoreviewer.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoreviewer.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoreviewer.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoreviewer.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoreviewer.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoreviewer.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}