Recommendations on Backup Build & Software

[Midshipman]

Apologies if this is answered elsewhere (please link me!).

Short version: I'm looking for recommendations on the build + software for a backup system to my FreeNAS server.

I have a FreeNAS build. I'd like to build a backup to the FreeNAS server which is semi-automated. My questions involve hardware and the appropriate software configuration. Ideally, I imagine, the "best" setup would be a second FreeNAS system built using the same high-end hardware as my primary system, placed in a remote location with an automatic replication task through the internet. For the moment though, I don't have that ability. More than likely, my near-term solution will involve a small portable system that I bring into my house, do a backup to, and then keep in my car or at work the majority of the time. (Protection against a fire, tornado, or a fire-tornado.)

1. Should I even bother having the backup system running FreeNAS? Or since this whole shindig is going to be a bit manual anyway, am I okay going with a low-price Raspberry Pi running some flavor of Linux? I would attached storage via a spare on-hand "ProBox Drive Enclosure" I have: https://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-ProBox-HF2-SU3S2-SATA-Enclosure/dp/B003X26VV4. Since I'm ONLY using this for one-way backups, I don't think I care too much about performance, so having a Pi hooked up to that enclosure via USB should be fine . . .
2. Assuming I don't go with FreeNAS+Replication, what would I use? I see "Crashplan" as an option. Will that work with a Raspberry+Linux system? I visited the Crashplan website and a cursory inspection mentions accounts and such . . . I don't want to have anything to do with the internet. I played around with Bittorrent Sync a bit some years ago. Perhaps that's an alternative?
3. No matter what, I want these backups 100% one-way, versus synced. I don't want any changes or data corruption or issues on my hacked-together backup system to ever migrate back onto my primary system.
4. Whatever software I use, I want to ensure it does a data validation at the end.
   
5. Is there a way to configure FreeNAS to detect when my portable backup system is connected to my network and do a backup? Alternatively, I'd be okay logging into my FreeNAS server and commanding a manual backup as long as it was push-a-button simple once I setup and save some options.
6. Stretch goal: If I did get a remote location, such as convincing my workplace to let me keep my backup system there, it'd be great if I could automate the backups and have the ability to remotely monitor them through the internet.

No matter what I do, it'll need some guides that are easy to follow and assume absolutely no familiarity with Linux or BSD or any other non-Windows software. :)

 

[joeschmuck]

If you are running FreeNAS now then you shoul dbe somewhat familiar with it. Doing an automated backup is very easy but since you have no plans for the backup system to reside at a place with power and internet connectivity, that leaves you a bit limited in what you can do,

You mentioned Crashplan and yes it is over the internet but it is a viable option if you have reasonable internet speed. It could save you money vice building a new system. I really like Crashplan and have tried it, backed up my entire system to it and it took about a week to do it but it worked which is what mattered. But I quit that because the free trial ended and I just built a backup server out of my first FreeNAS system.

If you like your data then you need a reliable backup which would be basically another FreeNAS machine. It doesn't need to be a large system or very fast but it needs to meet the minimum specs and it needs to have a storage capacity at least equal to what you have now. If you had 8TB of storage now then you could purchase two 8TB drives and mirror them. Remember, this is a backup so it doesn't need to be ideal.

As for easy instructions... Well it's never easy when you first start but there are threads on how to do this stuff. It will take a lot of reading on your part but you will find out most of it is not that difficult.

Now here is one recommendation I could give you but I couldn't tell you if it will work since you provided no information about your current FreeNAS system...

If you have an open SATA port then power off FreeNAS, connect up the spare hard drive, power on, create a new pool/vdev out of the new hard drive (do not add it to your current pool!!!!). Now you have a hard drive you can copy the data to. It offers single hard drive protection. You could also connect up a pair of matching drives in a mirror. I'd also invest in a good quality removable drive tray setup for the number of drives you plan to use. This would facilitate the least expensive way to go and it is all a manual operation. A single command could be used to copy all the data over or if you have only specific areas you want then a simple script so you can still just enter one command.