Key Takeaways
- Using RAID in NAS setups is crucial for data resiliency, but it shouldn’t replace backups altogether due to the potential risks of data loss.
- The 3-2-1 backup rule is vital for protecting your data from disasters or system failures, ensuring you have multiple copies stored securely.
- Never solely rely on RAID for backup needs, as it’s still susceptible to various failures like corruption or controller issues.
Network-attached storage (NAS) consists of a few drives and pools to offer high-capacity data storage solutions. When using mechanical drives, it’s recommended to use some form of RAID to provide resiliency against any failures that will eventually occur. Losing a drive is a common scenario that can risk the loss of stored data unless using a RAID and an effective backup solution. What RAID shouldn’t do is replace backups altogether as if the RAID should corrupt or enough drives fail outside of tolerance, you will risk losing everything.
What is RAID and why should you use it?
RAID stands for a redundant array of inexpensive disks and is precisely what the name implies. With multiple drives, a single array can be created to store lots of data and provide resilience against potential faults. The most basic type of RAID is RAID 1, also known as a mirror. Using two drives, data is duplicated across both drives. This does mean an entire drive is reserved for parity, cutting overall capacity by half, but allows for quick recovery should a drive fail in the RAID. It’s a good pick for a dual-bay server if you don’t have too much data to store.
For more drives and larger NAS deployments, you’ll move up to RAID 5 or RAID 6. These have a tolerance of one and two drive failures, respectively. Using RAID is a great way to bring all your drives together inside a NAS and create simple storage pools for all your data. The benefit of RAID is shielding your NAS against data loss. Should a drive or two fail during operating and are within the RAID tolerance, you can rely on the OS to rebuild the RAID using a new replacement drive.
Related
What is RAID (and how to set it up in a NAS)
RAID is worth checking out if you desire fast transfer speeds or want to protect your data against drive corruption (or even both, at the same time)
Why is RAID not a backup?
But if RAID is such a good feature to use for storing data, why is it not considered a backup? Unlike making copies of your data, RAID is still susceptible to other failures. Should you encounter more drive failures than the RAID type allows for, you’ll risk losing all the data stored on the array. Data can become corrupted through firmware failures or system glitches. The RAID will not be able to recover the data without relying on a backup for reference. There’s even the possibility of the RAID controller failing.
Never rely on the RAID for your backup needs. I follow the 3-2-1 backup rule and you should too.
Follow the 3-2-1 backup rule
Source: XDA
The 3-2-1 backup rule is an important one to follow. This is what will ensure you can recover from natural disasters or system failures. Whether you’re storing an expansive game library or sensitive data such as photos and videos, following this rule will shield your data from loss. For those unfamiliar with the 3-2-1 backup rule, it consists of 3 data copies, 2 storage devices, and 1 backup stored off-site.
You’ll need to create at least three copies of the data you wish to have fully backed up. All copies should be stored on at least two storage devices, and one should be kept off-site. A storage device would be an external drive, PC, NAS, server, or even cloud storage. Cloud storage platforms can count as off-site locations due to their reliance on massive data centers likely hundreds of miles away.
Related
How to follow the 3-2-1 backup rule for NAS and protect your data
Keep it secret, keep it safe
#NAS #RAID
source: https://www.xda-developers.com/always-back-up-nas-even-if-you-use-raid/
