Home Lab Series Part 7: The 3-2-1 Backup Strategy

You have spent hours configuring Jellyfin, tweaking Home Assistant, and organizing your dashboard. What happens if your SSD dies tomorrow? If you don't have a plan, you lose everything.

In the IT world, we have a saying: "Data that does not exist in two places does not exist at all." Today, we make your Home Lab bulletproof.

The 3-2-1 Rule

This is the gold standard for backups. Memorize it.

• 3 Copies of Data: Your live data + 2 backups.
• 2 Different Media Types: e.g., On your Server SSD + On an External USB Drive.
• 1 Offsite Copy: In the Cloud (or at your friend's house).

Level 1: Proxmox Snapshots (Local)

Since we are using Proxmox (from Part 2), backing up your entire server is incredibly easy. You can schedule it to happen while you sleep.

1. Plug a large USB HDD into your server.
2. In Proxmox, go to Datacenter -> Storage -> Add -> Directory. Select your USB drive and mark it for "VZDump/Backup".
3. Go to Datacenter -> Backup -> Add.
4. Schedule: Daily at 03:00.
5. Selection: All VMs.
6. Mode: Snapshot (This means the server stays on while backing up).

Now, if you accidentally delete your Home Assistant config, you can just click "Restore" and be back online in 5 minutes.

Level 2: Offsite Backup (The Cloud)

If your house burns down, your server and your USB backup drive both melt. You need data offsite.

We recommend using a Docker container called Duplicati. It encrypts your files before sending them to the cloud, so Google/Amazon/Backblaze cannot see what you are storing.

The Duplicati Stack

services:
  duplicati:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/duplicati:latest
    container_name: duplicati
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=America/New_York
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - /path/to/important/data:/source
    ports:
      - 8200:8200
    restart: unless-stopped

Once installed (http://[IP]:8200), point Duplicati to Backblaze B2 or Amazon S3 Glacier. It costs pennies per month for huge amounts of storage.

The Fire Drill: Test Your Restore

A backup is not a backup until you have successfully restored it.

This weekend, do a drill. Delete a non-critical file. Try to restore it using Duplicati. If it takes you 4 hours to figure out how to get the file back, your backup strategy failed. Better to fail now than during a real emergency.

Conclusion

You have now reached "Home Lab Nirvana." You have services running, remote access enabled, and a safety net if things go wrong.

Coming Up in Part 8: We will look at Home Automation Hardware (Zigbee & Z-Wave) to start connecting your physical world to your digital server.