Someone on Lemmy posted a phrase recently: "If you're not prepared to manage backups then you're not prepared to self host."
This seems like not only sound advice but a crucial attitude. My backup plans have been fairly sporadic as I've been entering into the world of self hosting. I'm now at a point where I have enough useful software and content that losing my hard drive would be a serious bummer. All of my most valuable content is backed up in one way or another, but it's time for me to get serious.
I'm currently running an Ubuntu Server with a number of Docker containers, and lots of audio, video, and documents. I'd like to be able to back up everything to a reliable cloud service. I currently have a subscription to proton drive, which is a nice padding to have, but which I knew from the start would not be really adequate. Especially since there is no native Linux proton drive capability.
I've read good things about iDrive, S3, and Backblaze. Which one do you use? Would you recommend it? What makes your short list? what is the best value?
My current strategy might be a bit over the top,but it works.
I have two main entities that contain data worth backing up - the NAS and to a much smaller extend my Proxmox cluster (which is partly within my house,partly at Hetzner).
User PCs do not have any User data saved, they all work with network drives mapped to the NAS, only irrelevant amounts of data are stored on them that gets backed up via Free File Sync. For the Notebooks I use the same concept as we are using a WG VPN 99,9% of the time anyway,but some important folders get also synched via Free File Sync for offline use if no mobile connection is available.
For proper backups I have basically three classes of data that I maintain: Prio 1: The real real important stuff. Photos of once in a lifetime events, important documents, etc. Prio 2: The stuff you still don't want to loose. All other photos, the scanned documents, home folders, VMs/LXX backups, configurations, etc. Prio3: Everything else,mostly data that could be downloaded again. Easily. Movies, etc.
Prio3 data is currently only living in the NAS and does get backed up once in a while on a external hard drive. It's mainly backed up as I am lazy and in case the NAS craps out I don't want to reload all the stuff...that would take months.
Prio2 data gets backed up fully: For the NAS data: It gets backed up to B2 with versioning according to my needs (usually 3d,2w,3m,1y,but that depends highly on the source). Additionally full external hard drive backups every few weeks. (I would kill to get my hands on a proper tape drive again,I had one back in the day,but it was used and old and died) Some data is also stored on Synology C2 atm,but I will replace that soon with another cloud provider, likely Hetzner.
For Proxmox: Basically the same, but I use TUXIS instead of B2 and Hetzner instead of Synology C2. Additionally I have a old PC with Proxmox backup server which turns on once a week and safes the whole cluster before turning off again. In the future this PC is planned to replace the External hard disk's,but currently hard drive prices are insane.
For the P1 data: Same as above,but it's definitely staying on a second cloud provider. Additionally I also create archive blue ray disk's every few month. (Usually every 4). These go into the safe deposit box at my bank and additionally to a second storage location.
And of course I have detailed instructions about this in my will so even if both my wife and I die my kid can figure it out.