Like many I have one storage device in my PC that I use for everything. I also have a secondary storage device that I currently use as a location for daily disk images.
To save creating overly bloated images of my primary drive with files that Syncthing sync’s, is it a good idea to perhaps put Sync’d files on the secondary drive instead?
I just figure Syncthing folders are already duplicated on other machines, so there’s no real need to image the files as well. I have plenty of backups on various machines!
I don’t really understand your question or your setup, but where (on which computers) to sync which files is entirely up to you. You might want to elaborate a bit, at least for me to understand.
Just remember this:
Synchronized files are redundant copies which saves your bacon in case a device is stolen or breaks.
Synchronized files can not be considered backup. For example, if malware encrypts the files on one of your devices all of your copies are toast…
Sorry if I didn’t write well, I was just going out the door when the thought occurred to me
So I have Syncthing installs on many machines/servers, but my query just related to one machine (my main workstation).
What I’m considering doing is putting folders/files to be sync’d, on a secondary drive. So one computer, has 2 drives - primary drive with OS + apps, secondary drive with just SyncThing folders/files.
Doing so, reduces the size of my daily disk image (primary drive only), as I have around 400GB of Syncthing’d folders/files. More importantly, it makes the disk image much quicker, which is good.
The purpose of the disk image is to provide the ability to restore the system config to a replacement drive, in the event of the primary drive failing. The more smaller the incremental backups, the more better
So in summary, I’m proposing to have a dedicated storage device within one machine that is solely used for Syncthing folders/files, and wonder if it’s practical?
Just to reassure
A Syncthing instance is running on a NAS, that creates its own snapshots of Syncthing folders/files, which is then in turn sent to 2 other servers throughout the day, and is also sent to backblaze every 3 hours during the working day. There are also 2 additional servers (one off-site) that take weekly backups. I perform test restores once a month, as a backup is only good as it’s recovery eh
As long as you are syncing between devices this is fine. If you plan on syncing WITHIN a device, things get harder. If that is the case I recommend some other tool, like for example Unison.
I think the secondary Drive method is not a bad idea. Here is just another suggestion for comparative purposes.
On my local workstation I have a Cloud Drive mounted to a folder in my home directory.
Syncthing replicates my data to that location successfully.
So, if you are sitting at your workstation and you click on that folder it will show you all of your data it will just be in the cloud rather than on your local Drive.
When you do an image backup of your local Workstation in theory it should not try an image everything on your Cloud Drive it should just image the folder that exists on your drive so it will eliminate Imaging all of your data that you have synced.
On the other hand, most people don’t like doing it this way because the whole purpose of using the software is to keep it off the cloud. I don’t view it that way. I keep copies on a Cloud Drive and then I backup One Cloud Drive to another.
What I do is I encrypt my data in the cloud so the cloud providers cannot read my data which makes it secure and I don’t have to worry about them reading any of my files.
You might want to elaborate a bit, at least for me to understand.