I'm looking into a onsite and offsite backup solution for a two-laptop household (with each a 256GB) plus 100-150GB of files on an external drive. Here are my current plans. Any suggestions to improve these will be greatly appreciated.
1. Each person has a iCloud account, syncing ~/Documents, ~/Desktop, photos etc., and also a iTunes Match account syncing music. We'd still like to keep the original photos and audio files, and not only trust Apple to keep them safe.
2. I'm planning to buy a Synology or QNAP NAS with either one bay or a RAID1 two bay, the HDD will be encrypted (I assume ext4 formatted, as the cheaper NAS solutions don't provide Btrfs yet due to CPU limitations).
3. This NAS should host (full system) Time Machine backups from both laptops, and also provide a share for movies, archived work projects etc.
4. Additionally to the Time Machine backups I'm considering using Arq, CCC, SuperDuper or anything else you can suggest to clone the user folders (including at least parts of ~/Library, as they include mail archives) to the NAS via wifi, at least once per day. Ideally one should not need to wait for completion of the cloning (meaning not destroying anything in case one needs to rush to work with the laptop or wanting to go to sleep, and cannot wait 15 more minutes).
5. The NAS should be responsible for backing up these cloned folders (I assume 100GB each, mainly attributed to music and photos) plus the movies etc. on the NAS to the cloud (and taking care of the encryption). I have no preference on cloud backup providers yet. This backup should be versioned, keeping files that were deleted locally (and on the NAS in the cloning process) for at least a month.
6. I do not think it's necessary to backup/clone the Time Machine backup on the NAS to the cloud. In case the NAS and the laptops all get stolen or my house burns down, I will still have the user folders in the cloud, and reinstalling apps on new laptops is the least of my worries. So the Time Machine backups are only used in case the SSD of a laptop fails and to feel safer when updating MacOS.
7. The reason for not directly backing up the laptops to the cloud is that my internet connection is slow (75 Mbps downstream, 7.5 Mbps upstream). Wifi to NAS is 10x faster, and with laptops only being active for an hour or two each day in the evenings, it feels smarter to first clone to the NAS and then not worry if it needs an hour or longer to upload to the cloud. (While we use our laptops at work, we cannot use the internet connections at work for backing them up)
8. As for cloud backups, I'm wondering if it's possible (and suggested) to use something cheap like Glacier for uploading movies and music (as most likely at least 90% can be re-purchased in a few years), and another provider for all other data (photos and documents).
9. Additionally I will connect an external HDD to my NAS about once per month, clone the NAS and keep that external HDD safe offsite in my office drawer until the next month.
Given the circumstances (laptops, wifi, slow internet upload), do you think this is the optimal backup strategy, or how can it be improved? Will local cloning software and/or NAS cloud backup software have to reupload large database files like from Apple Photos or iTunes, or can they identify the changes/additions and only upload these? Which apps and cloud backup solutions can you suggest? And is there any reason why Synology or QNAP NAS are the better option (besides Synology having the easier/better UI and QNAP better hardware given the same budget)?
Thanks for your help!
1. Each person has a iCloud account, syncing ~/Documents, ~/Desktop, photos etc., and also a iTunes Match account syncing music. We'd still like to keep the original photos and audio files, and not only trust Apple to keep them safe.
2. I'm planning to buy a Synology or QNAP NAS with either one bay or a RAID1 two bay, the HDD will be encrypted (I assume ext4 formatted, as the cheaper NAS solutions don't provide Btrfs yet due to CPU limitations).
3. This NAS should host (full system) Time Machine backups from both laptops, and also provide a share for movies, archived work projects etc.
4. Additionally to the Time Machine backups I'm considering using Arq, CCC, SuperDuper or anything else you can suggest to clone the user folders (including at least parts of ~/Library, as they include mail archives) to the NAS via wifi, at least once per day. Ideally one should not need to wait for completion of the cloning (meaning not destroying anything in case one needs to rush to work with the laptop or wanting to go to sleep, and cannot wait 15 more minutes).
5. The NAS should be responsible for backing up these cloned folders (I assume 100GB each, mainly attributed to music and photos) plus the movies etc. on the NAS to the cloud (and taking care of the encryption). I have no preference on cloud backup providers yet. This backup should be versioned, keeping files that were deleted locally (and on the NAS in the cloning process) for at least a month.
6. I do not think it's necessary to backup/clone the Time Machine backup on the NAS to the cloud. In case the NAS and the laptops all get stolen or my house burns down, I will still have the user folders in the cloud, and reinstalling apps on new laptops is the least of my worries. So the Time Machine backups are only used in case the SSD of a laptop fails and to feel safer when updating MacOS.
7. The reason for not directly backing up the laptops to the cloud is that my internet connection is slow (75 Mbps downstream, 7.5 Mbps upstream). Wifi to NAS is 10x faster, and with laptops only being active for an hour or two each day in the evenings, it feels smarter to first clone to the NAS and then not worry if it needs an hour or longer to upload to the cloud. (While we use our laptops at work, we cannot use the internet connections at work for backing them up)
8. As for cloud backups, I'm wondering if it's possible (and suggested) to use something cheap like Glacier for uploading movies and music (as most likely at least 90% can be re-purchased in a few years), and another provider for all other data (photos and documents).
9. Additionally I will connect an external HDD to my NAS about once per month, clone the NAS and keep that external HDD safe offsite in my office drawer until the next month.
Given the circumstances (laptops, wifi, slow internet upload), do you think this is the optimal backup strategy, or how can it be improved? Will local cloning software and/or NAS cloud backup software have to reupload large database files like from Apple Photos or iTunes, or can they identify the changes/additions and only upload these? Which apps and cloud backup solutions can you suggest? And is there any reason why Synology or QNAP NAS are the better option (besides Synology having the easier/better UI and QNAP better hardware given the same budget)?
Thanks for your help!