Creating a new NAS/Server and Backup procedure for me. Does this make Sence?

Software & Operating Systems
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Hello All,

New to this forum, so not 100% if this should go here but here is where I’ll start it.

Background:
I have just started my YouTube channel, built my new editing station/main workstation. And am repurposing my old PCs to other roles in the operation. 1) Since I am stuck on Comcast, and to get the higher speed, and be free of the painful data cap! I am “required” to use their modem/wap unless I want to pay a significant PITA charge to use my own modem (which I own) and my WAP (which I own). Unfortunately, I trust Comcast as much as far as I can throw the entire company. This was made worse when I reset the internal side of the gateway to the normal 192.168.1.x for my printer and Comcast texted, E-Mailed, and phoned me to tell me that I had changed my side of the Router addressing and the password.

So, the first machine to build is going to be a new router using pfSense. The second machine is going to be a NAS for part 2 of my backup & storage system. Currently, my old system is an Intel I7- 2600K, MSI Motherboard, 16GB RAM DDR3, Generic VGA card for Video. The Motherboard has two controllers for SATA 2 Controllers so hard drives and SSDs are well supported. Plan to install a 10Gbe NIC since the new case for both machines are rack mount and plan to be mounted in the same rack as the router (MicroTick CRS309-1G-8S-IN) SFP+ Switch. I plan to use Fibre on most of the runs.

The other PC I have is currently only the AMD Ryzen 1800 that I got a fantastic deal on. I have no other hardware for that system yet.

Network Data Streams:
The general use of this network is for the editing, storage, uploading, and downloading from remote locations of RAW video information usually shot at 4K30 200mbps camera output files into Davinci Resolve, Photographs into Adobe Suite, and general use of the Microsoft Office Suite. All machines will also be backed-up over the network. Also, gaming and software for system timings will be run on test systems as necessary. The network should also support both PC and Apple environs.

Backup Procedure:
The proposed backup procedure is the following; All Main Workstations will have a Hard drive for item libraries, stock footage, and original footage, photos, and audio files. Both the hard drive and the scratch disk (SSD) are configured in Raid 1 and multiple file retention is turned on as well, so emergency backup is first stored on the local machine.

A utility will mark all files opened by Davinci and Adobe to copy the source files to the “scratch” disk. On login to the network, the “scratch” disk will be regularly backed up to the multi-retention RAID 10 on the NAS and is therefore backed up automatically. At midnight, the NAS will connect to the contracted remote storage facility, and backup all files changed since the last backup. Once every two weeks, a complete backup is performed to the remote location. The remote storage location is contracted to make a backup of the current partition of “our” data nightly and store it for one week.

The original data is backed up from the camera to the phone and/or the wireless box stored in the car (2 TB). That data then is copied to the general network when back to the main facility. Where the SDs are cataloged and stored until the story that was filmed is published, then those SD cards are formatted and recycled. The data will by that time be well into the backup stream of the network system.

This Backup Procedure should guarantee the 1-2-3-Backup Standard suggested by the industry.

I was thinking of using the Intel 2600K for the NAS, and the AMD for the router.

Note: All systems are currently attached to a UPS of at least 1000W. And manufactured by APC or Cyberpower.

Anything that I am forgetting about?

Any other suggestions?

I know this was ungodly long, so thanks for looking and reading this far if you made it.

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… or you could just install e.g. Debian and use linux as a router like literally billions of other router devices out there and not have to care as much about network card chipsets and drivers (/me ducks).

… or you could save that slot for something useful / e.g. a network card… those cheap mellanox 10 gig cards are usually pcie 2.0 x8 - half of the lanes on your CPU.

assuming windows / mac … which utility / what backup software did you have in mind?

… or you could just have another nas instance at someone’s home – and pay for them to get a better internet connection and chip in a few bucks for electricity… and when you need to, go there, stuff the system into a car, and bring it back to your lan.

It’s a waste of your AMD system to use it for routing - make your i7 do routing too, and keep your 1800x as a backup router / virtualization host or something like that.

You should also ensure you’re able to access your backups when your primary systems are gone - i.e. practice restoring your system.

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I was looking at using pfSense since it is still an Opensource solution and I am not as familiar with linux to configure it for use as a router from scratch as I am with using pfSence. In the future, when I get more familiar with Linux, this will always be a possibility.

As for using the Generic VGA Video Card, Neither system has any onboard video capability. so I assume some form of video output would be needed to control the system(s). I just figured that I wouldn’t need anything more than VGA. I had already planned on using a 10Gbit networking card. My Main system already has a 10 Gbit card on the motherboard, and the switch is a 10Gbit switch.

The process of copying over the source files from the source library to the scratch disk is part of the video editing software that I am simply “turning on” the use of the word “utility” was a poor choice of words on my part.

As for the remote system, I am paying less than $100 a year for the online backup system to back up my NAS since there is currently only me or perhaps one other person using the NAS. Paying for a backup locally and spaying for their internet and another PC is significantly more expensive. As for getting a restore copy if for some reason it is needed, I can pay for the cost of the backup drive, and they will send me a copy of the backup files on the external HDD and ship it next day if I want. No, it is not perfect, but right now it is more cost affordable.