Budget means od backing up the HPE PL Microserver gen8

Computer Hardware & Server Infrastructure Builds
1

Hi,

I have actually joined the forums as I thought it was the best place to ask this.

I have a well-known HPE PL Microserver Gen8. Running the latest TrueNas Scale CE 25.04. Booting from ODD 256GB SATA disk and four 3 TB WD RED CMS (not in the pool yet, but more likely Raidz1).

I will be using it mainly for a backup of my daily driver as well as a storage for photos likely immich. In the future, adding more stuff as I learn and discover TrueNAS.

I’m currently on a very low budget, about £10, which covers electricity. I even consider switching the server off if not needed.

I was thinking that 3-2-1 backup should suffice in my case, maybe even skipping the offsite rule.

My ideas are:

Two pools of mirrored 3 TB and backing up one to another or;

3 x 3 TB raidz1 main pool and two 6 TB disks configured as two extra pools that I would shove in one by one, make a backup and remove. Then one of those drives I can take to my work or something. This seems like tedious work, but also the safest.

I plan eventually to get another Microserver and configure it so it will power up for backup and shut down when completed to save energy. But that’s when I save enough money.

What would you recommend? Are my ideas good enough for now, or am I missing something?

Thanks for your time.

2

Thanks for joining the forums. TrueNAS can easily replicate data between pools but it was not really designed to have pools remove and put back in. If you only remove the drives and put them back in while the system is off then you won’t get any errors.