btrbk VS Homeserver

That's still easier using snapshots and something like btrbk. Snapshot the directory at start, prune if there are too many snapshots (or snapshots get too old).

I'm on Arch, but you might still find it useful: Btrfs snapshots Arch Wiki - Incremental backup to external drive GitHub - btrbk

the smoothest backup tool i have seen for Linux is btrbk works real nice and is customizable for almost all use-cases BTRFS rocks :)

I recommend redundancy and regular verification is you want to insure your data against corruption. If you do that, you can forget about things like ECC. My setup is a NUC server running Ubuntu with a USB3-connected storage drive running BTRFS. I use btrbk to auto-snapshot and auto-replicate via incremental sends to my BTRFS backup drive, and RotKraken to track integrity of the data with a monthly verification run so that I notice corruption in time to correct it.

In pondering my backup strategy, I was wondering if I could use BTRFS snapshots and a backup tool like btrbk, which is a nice integrated snapshot/backup solution I've used happily on desktop Linux. BTRFS needs subvolumes for snapshots, so I couldn't backup the host itself (which wasn't installed with a / subvolume like other distributions I've used), but it could snapshot the VMs and containers, which have their own individual subvolumes. Then btrbk can send that snapshot in an incremental fashion to external storage.

I then installed btrbk and tried to follow the instructions to create snapshots of root and home on the SSD and then send/receive those to the HDD. I mainly used https://github.com/digint/btrbk and https://mutschler.dev/linux/fedora-btrfs-35/, but I don't use luks.

For anyone using btrfs on their system, I heartily recommend btrbk, which has served me very well for making incremental backups with a customizable retention period: https://github.com/digint/btrbk

btrbk is the best solution I know.

I use BTRBK to make and copy the BTRFS snapshots to my HDD. I schedule it to run every 3 hours using a Sytemd unit file through my own script to avoid running the backup at inconvenient moments:

Most ATX cases support M-ATX mobo's too! So if you don't care about it being a midi tower thats your cheapest option. Just pick one that has enough drive bays, I always go with Fractal Design. If you want to go smaller you'll have to start looking for more niche cases/manufacturers. I suggest planning your other hardware first, then finding a case that fits it. Btw, I'm also interested in low power consumption. If you haven't seen this yet, it's great. It's essentially a TLDR from a german/dutch forum dedicated to low power machines. I'm going with the Fujitsu 3643-B, as that has 6 sata, 2 x16 PCIE 3.0 slots, and supports ECC memory. If you don't care about ECC and only need 4 sata ports, the Fujitsu D3643-H is the way to go. Both these boards can run full systems at 5W idle, which is insane. Good luck!

I have been tinkering in home servers and found this guide to be especially helpful. The guide has everything run on Manjaro through a lengthy docker-compose file.

Hi All! Thanks alot for your valuable inputs. based on your comments, and suggestions - and after some research - i think i have settled on the following "path". First of all - i can see that a SoC system might not be the smartest option - there the size and the fact that they are not very flexible - makes me think that this might not be the smartest way to go. so i found this site: https://github.com/zilexa/Homeserver/blob/master/Recommendations.md And it looks like there has been alot of research that i can reuse. now - in the link - a suggestion is made to buy the asRock desk mini 310, but - when i search - the processors for the LGA115x socket -is not that cheap / available in denmark - so i found this https://www.asrock.com/nettop/Intel/DeskMini%20H470%20Series/index.asp the Desk Mini H470 - sold as a barebone. it doesnt have ECC, but this is not a big concern for me. then i will add some RAM and based on the suggestions - i think 16GB will be the sweetspot have not yet decided what i will choose here. i guess a 1x16 will be smartest - so that i can add another 16 later on. for the OS + and main files ( personal files, as well as my music collection ) i will add the 2TB nvme from Samsung the PM9A1. next - i have decided to "scrap" my 8tb disk - and then go with a 2.5" 4tb - the Samsung Samsung QVO 870. this will host all my movies / tv series etc. no backup is needed here. i did a quick online cart - and theese are the prices - ( in danish ): Barebone Asrock: 1558,- Samsung PM9A1 M.2 2000 GB PCI Express 4.0 TLC NVMe : 1597,- Samsung MZ-77Q4T0BW 870 QVO SSD, 4000 GB, 2.5": 2590 SORAM GSkill D4 2400 8GB C16 Rip (F4-2400C16S-8GRS): 169 all in all :5.929 which is approx: 796,89 Euro. Any thought on this? alternative ways i should look?

Check out https://github.com/zilexa/Homeserver

These scripts are totally inspired from zilexa/Homeserver.

This is the docker-compose.yml