OK - Help me setup my new pool, the RIGHT way.

[ser_rhaegar]

That's a backup strategy? What if that one is also bad, or doesn't include the last two hours of work that you just lost?

I have to say, my mind is officially boggled right now. Four of the people on this thread alone have had problems at some point with Time Machine over AFP, and three of them still trust it.

For the record, I think Time Machine is wonderful, and I frequently recommend it for onsite backup to direct-attached storage.

That's the first step to recover. If it fails, use your replicated copy of offsite backups from FreeNAS. But I find it hard to believe that each snapshot would run during a TimeMachine backup for the entirety of your snapshot retention period.

Also it isn't a backup if you don't test it. You should know if your snapshots, replicated copy or offsite copy are bad before timemachine takes a crap. If you don't, your backup strategy is flawed. And at minimum you should have a copy offsite.

I've had issues and I've recovered each time using snapshots from the same day. I run snapshots 3 times a day, 6 hours apart. My macs which run timemachine are not on 24/7. There is always a snapshot outside of the timemachine interval for each day in my setup.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

But I find it hard to believe that each snapshot would run during a TimeMachine backup for the entirety of your snapshot retention period.

That's not the point. In my experience, it's almost always recovering something recently lost that saves me hours of work. You have good reason to be confident about long term retention of the bulk of your data, because you've gone to a lot of trouble with your backup strategy, with snapshots and replication and regular testing. But the part that gets the data from your Macs to your NAS is the weakest link. I don't understand why you'd go to all that trouble without looking for something better for the initial transfer.

But it's your data and your time, and I wish you the best for both.

 

[ser_rhaegar]

That's not the point. In my experience, it's almost always recovering something recently lost that saves me hours of work.

My experience is opposite. Especially considering you'd have to lose your file and then also lose your TM backup before you notice the file issue and before another TM backup and FN snapshot occurs. It's a narrow window depending on how TM and snapshots are configured and a rare double failure occurrence.

The lost file would also need to be from an application that doesn't use OS X's file versions feature. Sublime Text and VI are the only two I can think of that I use that don't support file versions.

I don't understand why you'd go to all that trouble without looking for something better for the initial transfer.

This setup is wireless. My primary home use of my laptop is on the couch. Plugging a wired device in makes it difficult to have the laptop in my lap without damaging the USB port (legs hit the cable sticking out). I could periodically go downstairs to my desk and plug it in to a drive, but that would be less effective than my current setup as it would be about once a day and require manual intervention that may or may not be reliable.

Also while on the road, I VPN home. TM runs over the VPN and keeps my laptop backed up on the road. If I used a USB drive on the road and my laptop was lost or stolen, chances are the USB drive is with it.

 

[SilverJS]

Gents,

While I thoroughly appreciate the number and enthusiasm of responses, I fear the discussion might have digressed more towards AFP and TimeMachine than I had originally intended. Might I kindly ask that we get back on topic, namely the proper pool setup and such?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Yes, sorry about that.

 

[cyberjock]

Honestly, a choice in pool setup is as personal as your choice of underwear. There is no "right" way. There are "stupid" things you can do (like 10 disks with no redundancy at all), and there are things you can do that are very conservative (such as 6 disk RAIDZ3). But there is no "right" way.