backup server

This is NOT a support request, more of a brag.

Needing a backup system, I was enamored of the low power requirements to run the bpi-m5.  But they have no sata ports to drive bigger SSD's. But I bought a 5 stack of 4Tb TMSC built SSD drives at $200/copy, figuring on using a USB3.2 hub and startech's usb3.2 to sata adaptors, a big drive cage and a 50 watt 5 volt psu. More than 3 drives plugged in was too much current for the hub, itgot hot & shut down, so I bought another hub & glued it to the otherside of the drive cage. Problem solved. Printed the shelves to hold the drives and a BPI-m5.  I configured the 5 SSD's into a software raid6 of 11TB. A friend that is really good at shell scripts knocked up an rsync based thing that could go thru the user trees of all my machines, currently itself, this box, and all my cnc stuff in the garage, several 3d printers, a total of 8 machines, soon to be 9, making a backup of /home/gene or /home/cnc since cnc is first user on the pi running my big but old Sheldon lathe. This draws around 15 watts idling, up to 19 watts running, and does it all in 28 or 29 minutes.  So that is something else these pi clones can do, and do very well.

I've run it 7 or 8 times in two weeks, adding another 3d printer to the $systems list each time. Its used 4% of the 11TB so far.  Using rsync the only expansion in storage is the backup copy of any file thats been changed since the last run.

I love doing odd stuff  like this just to see if it can be done. And it has succeeded beyond my expectations. That rpi4b running that lathe was another such "project".  Started with an rpi3b which wasn't quite fast enough but its been running for over a decade, almost a decade since I switched it to a rpi4b.  There, when the lathe is off, linuxcnc controls that too, the pi and monitor show as a 23 watt load.  Whats not to like?