I'm a longtime user and donor to FFS. It's my favorite tool for a wide range of copying purposes. I'm trying to solve an offsite backup challenge and wanted to see whether FFS could currently do this (I don't think so) or if it is something that might be added in the future.
The FEATURE REQUEST would be to be able to generate a CATALOG of a drive/directory (file names, dates, sizes, optionally hash) and then allow that catalog/index/manifest to take the place of the physical drive for purposes of a later synchronization, WITHOUT the actual drive present.
Just like a regular sync it would highlight what's different/new and allow me to choose what to sync but in this case it would allow me to point that sync somewhere else like a blank drive, thus generating a differential backup?
My use case for it is that as part of a 3-2-1 backup strategy I keep a drive (call it Drive 2) at an offsite location with a copy of everything that's on my primary system (Drive 1). It's a location that I visit every couple of weeks. That means either not updating the drive as often as I'd like, or bringing the drive back to my house to run FFS and update Drive 2, but not having an offline backup during the 2 weeks till I return, or else needing a third drive to rotate offsite. With this catalog feature though, each time I'm headed there I could instead bring a smaller cheaper drive like a thumb drive or just a spare bare drive, put on it everything that's on Drive 1 which is not in the Catalog of Drive 2, and leave that with Drive 2 at the offsite location. Then a couple of weeks later, do the same thing again, potentially bringing back the SD card that's out there and cycling it again.
Ideally the user could even load multiple catalogs, viewing them as a consolidated whole so that at week 4 I could load the catalog for Drive 2 and for Thumbdrive 3, and sync to Thumbdrive 4.
Does that all make sense and does it seem like something that would be useful? I especially like the idea of not having to transport the offsite drive back and forth so often while still keeping a full copy of all new data at that location. Thanks for your consideration!
Feature Request - Syncing based on a CATALOG/MANIFEST of a drive not present
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- Joined: 22 Apr 2016
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FFS can't do that unfortunately. But, why not have a hot mirror onsite that you take to the offsite location to sync to the offsite drive? That will run a compare and only sync the changes as well. Or even better is have a rotating offsite backup where you run a full mirror/update, then swap that drive out with the offsite and then run the backup again on that drive. This adds another copy of the data.
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- Joined: 22 Apr 2016
The hot mirror option means that I have to have a computer and do work at the offsite location which I'd prefer not to do. Think bank safe deposit box and the like.
The rotating offsite backup would be the natural next best option but I'd still prefer what I've described for a few reasons. I already have 3 x 18 TB drives for the setup. The live drive, the onsite backup and the offsite backup. If I don't find a solution like I'm describing then what I'll default to is the rotating option, taking the onsite backup to the remote location and bringing the offsite backup back and just having them switch roles. But every time I do that it'involves the wear and tear of transport and the risk of damage. So I balance that with the need for a reasonably up to date offsite backup.
The approach I'm describing means I can have a fresh offsite backup every time I go out there while only physically swapping the drives every few months or maybe once a year. The part that gets transported back and forth is the comparatively small/cheap/durable SD/thumb/spare drive, etc.
The rotating offsite backup would be the natural next best option but I'd still prefer what I've described for a few reasons. I already have 3 x 18 TB drives for the setup. The live drive, the onsite backup and the offsite backup. If I don't find a solution like I'm describing then what I'll default to is the rotating option, taking the onsite backup to the remote location and bringing the offsite backup back and just having them switch roles. But every time I do that it'involves the wear and tear of transport and the risk of damage. So I balance that with the need for a reasonably up to date offsite backup.
The approach I'm describing means I can have a fresh offsite backup every time I go out there while only physically swapping the drives every few months or maybe once a year. The part that gets transported back and forth is the comparatively small/cheap/durable SD/thumb/spare drive, etc.
