Hi, I’m looking for some advice to point be in the right direction for my data storage and backup.

Currently I just have Jellyfin and Immich set up on my laptop that runs Windows. At the moment my storage capacity requirements are pretty low (just close to 1TB). But I am concerned about data integrity, especially all my Photos and work files.

At the moment I have an old HDD and a new SSD that I backup to every month(two separate copies).

In a few months I will be going overseas. I plan to have a copy of all by data with me but I would also like to have it in my home ‘server!?’

Do I set up a machine new machine to hold the data? Or can I just continue using my laptop. Increasing storage requirements, resilience and ease of management when not physically available are a concern.

Again, I’m very new in my selfhosting journey and as Linux or sysadmin is not something I have exposure to (apart from memes on Lemmy) I would love to all of your suggestions for idiot proof setups. I’m willing to learn and tbh learning about docker and editing config files have been pretty fun so far and would switch to Linux if work permitted.

  • MalReynolds@slrpnk.netEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    Seems like data integrity is your highest priority, and you’re doing pretty well, the next step is keeping a copy offsite. It’s the 3-2-1 backup strategy, 3 copies, 2 media (used to mean CDs etc but now think offline drives) 1 offsite (in case of fire, meteor strike etc), so look to that, stash a copy at a friends or something.

    In your case I’d look at getting some online storage to fill the offsite role while you’re overseas (paid probably, but a year of 1 or 2 Tb is quite reasonable) leaving you with no pressure on the selfhosting side, just tailscale in, muck around and have fun, and if something breaks, no harm done, data safe.

    I’ve done it for what seems like forever and I’d still be worried about leaving a system out of physical control for any extended period of time, at the very least having someone to reboot it if connectivity or power fails will be invaluable, but talking them through a broken update is another thing entirely, and you shouldn’t make that a critical necessity, too much stress.