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On 13/12/2019 21:30, Michael Everitt wrote: > LOL, I invariably agree with you, but I also charge you to write the how-to > for setting this up correctly and effectively .. > > (or to find a newbie's guide online if you prefer!). > > It would be unfair to say it needs to be Neil-proof (hi Neil!) .. however, > you shouldn't need to be an expert in linux internals or filesystems to > perform the functions we know ZFS is capable of .. :P Not so fast friend! I had Neil in mind when I replied because you're absolutely right, ZFS is *way* too complicated to just leap into and fully commit. Luckily though you don't have to go full root-on-ZFS to get a lot of value out of it and we are talking about backups after all where data integrity is king. Just to be clear, root-on-ZFS and native snapshotting is out of the question until distros mainstream it with lots of documentation and lovely GUI tools so normal users can get all of the benefits without having to put any extra effort or thought into it. We are nowhere near there yet but since 19.10 Ubuntu and all derivatives (like Neil's beloved MX Linux) package it - even Debian has it via Apt now. So getting and installing ZFS on most sane deb based distros now isn't any more difficult than "apt install zfs-linux". And while replacing your root filesystem with a ZFS one isn't for the faint hearted, replacing all your other bulk storage except the SSD your OS runs on definitely *is* an option. Your 6Tb USB drive is an obvious candidate - rather than setting it up as a creaky old ext4 or xfs partition make it a zpool instead. Copy-on-write, native encryption, end to end data checksumming all for free - which is a pretty good start for your backup storage device, no matter which tools or programs you end up using to do the actual backups. Once (easily) setup it's transparent to the end user as well, the backup disk or disks will just act like normal available-to-linux storage so even Neil (sorry Neil!) can't go wrong. I don't really have any recommendations for simple end user backup programs (take your pic I guess, they're probably all pretty good?) but I do unequivocally recommend thinking about the underlying storage a bit. And by thinking I mean "convert it all to ZFS and never look back". Ubuntu have belatedly figured this out and are currently working hard to properly integrate root-on-ZFS for the coming 20.04 LTS release at which point it should *hopefully* be fully mainstream ready. There will be a less slick but considerably more functional equivalent to the Apple TimeMachine backup tool integrated with the native ZFS features if all goes well and that will basically be an end to all discussions about backups from then on. Really I guess I'm saying that ZFS isn't scary and only for storage admins and gentoo nerds any more. I recommend installing the software and testing out making a first zpool on a random USB stick to get started. Happy to provide instructions if anyone's brave enough to stick their toe in the water... -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG https://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq