Data that doesn’t get lost
The backup strategy is built around one concrete disaster scenario: "the boot disk dies." Non-overlapping sets make sure each file is backed up exactly once — and an offsite copy survives even a total local loss.
Mirror first, then back up
On the host, the app data sits on a ZFS mirror of two SSDs: a failed disk is therefore not a restore case but a swap during operation. A mirror is no backup, though — it faithfully mirrors deleted or encrypted files as well.
Non-overlapping sets
Databases, app data and boot configuration are each backed up once with the right tool. No duplication — recovery stays simple to reason about.
Databases orchestrated
All databases are dumped on a schedule by a dedicated service, with retention across days, weeks, months and years. A dump that fails to complete reports itself instead of quietly going missing.
Encrypted & versioned
App data lands end-to-end encrypted and versioned in the backup (Kopia) — protection from mistakes as much as from ransomware.
3-2-1 offsite
An additional encrypted copy of the irreplaceable data lives off-site in the cloud — deliberately upload-only, with no read-back.
Dead man’s switch
Every backup job actively reports success. If a report goes missing, monitoring raises an alert — a silent failure is noticed at once.