PiKeeper is a Raspberry Pi NAS project that was the first really useful idea I came across when I was trying to work out where to start with a server. DarkHand’s concerns mirror ours: large amounts of data, little cost, data redundancy. Helpfully, it’s exactly what we’re after as a backup solution with no frills. A cheap computer, with a couple of hard drives. Nothing fancy. Better yet, DarkHand sets things up so that not only are the files backed up, the harddrives can be removed and plugged into something else on a whim. This is not something you can do with most of the more complicated solutions, and it also means external harddrives you already have are perfect for the job. I reference this project in my Server 101 article as the foundation for setting up your own digital infrastructure.

Bright ideas worth noting: smartd triggers a lockfile on disk errors, and the rsync script checks for it before syncing—won’t read from or write to a failing drive. Also, throw your router on the UPS too; internet during outages is nice. With the low power draw, DarkHand was getting 4+ hours of runtime.