Thank you for making these videos! You really helped me to setup a dedicated truenas server in my storage room, with exactly 0 background in networking. This syncthing setup was the last step which allows me to remove all mechanical SSDs from our workstations in the office, to dump them in the NAS and to sync the boot drives of the PCs automagically! You are the man! 🤘
Thanks! Superb video. Makes it really easy to understand. Looking forward to pushing the sync through tailscale network. Any thoughts or videos on how to ensure that data is encrypted whilst it travels between two servers? Again, very much appreciated!
Thanks m8. I'm not running Syncthing, but I do love your tutorials. Now I am considering running it after such a nice mellow presentation. Thanks, from outback NSW Australia. James.
My understanding was that Syncthing was not a great solution for backups. If you have an issue on your home server (your files get corrupted/other) the changes will be pushed to your backup. I would recommend setting up RSYNC with a CRONjob to back-up to your backup server.
Send Only / Receive Only option, File Versioning. Send Only on your main machine, Receive Only on your back up server. Also, whats good about syncthing is it's network based. If you are away, coffee shop, vpn wifi? Your files are still sync'ed. A back up and a sync are not the same thing though...
You are exactly correct. Even the Syncthing documentation advises against using it as a backup. They say : "Syncthing is not a great backup application because all changes to your files (modifications, deletions, etc.) will be propagated to all your devices. You can enable versioning, but we encourage you to use other tools to keep your data safe from your (or our) mistakes."
I've always had issues with cloud based things like google photos, amazon photos or whatever on my phone, I never quite got them set up as I wanted them, this program is a life saver. Literally my folder structure and everything is in my pc with all the changes I do on the phone appearing on the pc as well, I wish I knew about this program years ago man, so much wasted time trying to organize what I had. As for backups just copy paste everything on an external drive every month or so and for extreme cases you still have google photos. FOR ME, it's pretty much the perfect setup 😊👍🏻
well, just stumbled upon your channel and seeing the quality of the videos i thought "great another high quality tech youtuber, with a tendency to splurge on homeservers ", then i saw the subscriber count, after seeing very little comments, just one phrase came to mind WTF? Your following will skyrocket soon, stay motivated for a few months and you'll have a few hundred thousand subscribers and all that. Good luck
I agree inspired me to build my first truenas server and will use syncthing as well - I have a raspberry pi and external usb will use that as the backup system
I like the versioning options! My nightmare is that you're editing a file, and the editor crashes, your file gets set to zero length. You go to fetch it from trash, but it's not there because it wasn't actually "deleted" per se. There's no point in a backup solution that /immediately/ copies your broken file to the backup! But this looks good, I will be installing soon.
It would be awesome if there would be an option to state that certain directories should use root priviledges to read files, i.e. to backup the whole /etc directory. The backup task fails for me as certain files, like the .stignore or .stfolder files can't be written and even after I add them manually and change the owner of those files and add those files to the .stignore file, the task fails as not all configuration files can be read by the "normal" user. I did enable the "Ignore Permissions" checkbox in the advanced settings though this didn't solve that issue also. Seems like I need to install this tool via root explicitely on all machines
Great guide for sync of files. But it isn't really a backup with e.g. versioning. I use a Raspberry Pi 4 with two 5TB drives, using Rasberian OS and rsync to backup my Synology. I choosed a Raspberry Pi 4 because of the power consumption 🙂
Not only does it do win, mac & linux but it also runs on android and u can for eg sync your phone pics back to ur server at home (or set it to run only on wifi).
Thank you! As for your question...that's a tough one. It greatly depends on what devices/OS you have in your infrastructure. For MacOS, it really is hard to be Time Machine. Windows has some good options in Acronis and Paragon. If you are like me and have everything from Linux, Mac, Windows, NAS machines, and dedicated hypervisors...things are tricky. I have heard good things about Synology systems as they have made great strides in the recent years with their Linux-based OS, but you'll pay a premium for their hardware. My recommendation is to give Syncthing a try as it really is an impressive piece of software that crosses multiple platforms.
But that won't protect you from encryption viruses. It would just copy the changes but that would that be seen as a delete and end up in the recycle bin??
Exquisite video. Some time back, I watched TechnoDadLife's video on this topic, and I was just realizing that I need a backup server. Then, this video clarifies to me how bad I need it now.
Hey there. How does syncthing handle very large files? I ask as your use case with a home server suggests you might have experience of that. I'm looking to sync large video files when collaborating with another youtuber, however all the tutorials I've watched demonstrate with small files. Many thanks!
11/5/24 - so helpful thanks as my son and I try to figure this out. I'm on a Mac, using the S T Mac OS, How do I create the file to share to my server from an external hard drive (volume)? I haven't been able to crack the code on that. THX
I did some tests with send only and recive only and if you delete a file it delets the file too on the send only side!.. you have to set the option 'ignore delete' in the advanced settings but I have read that this is a ugly hack and deprecated.. so you have to use versioning but thats not nice to look in the .stfolder for deleted files.. I'm not sure if Syncthing is good for backups
Hi, I have a distro based on DEBIAN Q4OS I need to connect 4 hard disks with windows and mac backups and I would like to create a server with raid sharing of all hard disks and including a continuous and incremental backup also of smartphones and ipads in the family ... I was thinking about nextcloud and openmediavault but something else would probably be missing to perfect everything and example the folder search on different file systems I forgot ... I also have nvidia shield which can act as a nas if it would be enough without paying plex .Advice? Thank you.
Syncthing is designed primarily to be a backup system while OMV is a primary NAS server OS. I like Syncthing because it is lightweight and I can throw it on any computer that has file systems that I want backed up. For example, my primary Windows PC runs the Syncthing client applet on it to backup my Adobe Lightroom catalogs.
@@RaidOwl Thought OMV had a syncthing plug in.... BTW, on your living room server, did you tweak the UI to make it easier to operate at a 10-15 foot distance? aka the couch? I have a similar PC but I struggle to see certain things even when blowing up text/icons....
OMV does have a Syncthing plug-in. I run TrueNAS and that also has a Syncthing plug-in. Thats the cool thing about it; is that it runs on most systems to provide easy backup services. I just scale it in Windows and it works decently enough for me lol.
@@RaidOwl yeah even scaled, not everything scales with it so I am squinting on some things... I wish someone would make a console like UI shell for windows for living room setups
I really love your content, and the way you present and deliver it. 🤔 Why does nobody cover how to fix the "Not Secure" error for google (Windows users), or have I simply missed it somehow in my desperate search? I don't yet have a pc to dedicate solely to Syncthing so I'm using my personal pc until I can move it to a dedicated pc, but the "Not Secure" error peeves my OCD and makes me want to refrain from using it (As was the case for the CentOS server I deployed,😅 and my internet provider quickly shutdown.). I believe the error is being caused by an ssl configuration error, but my tech knowledge is spotty because I'm fairly new to it. Did you have and/or solve this error with your setup?
Not secure just means that site is using a self hosted cert. that’s totally normal for self hosted stuff. You can get rid of it by setting up your own certbot or use a reverse proxy with some Lets Encrypt certs.
Thank you for acknowledging me, in my knowledge-seeking journey (both here on TH-cam and online.) I've found that content creators seem to be like "Well I dropped you a breadcrumb, figure out the other 99.9999% yourself.". I do understand that it can be hectic to respond and help every individual with their specific problem, but it's nice to be acknowledged. Not to say all are, but sadly about 95% of those I have encountered have been. 🤔 So it's secure, but I'm just seeing a false positive so to say? My limited knowledge doesn't include either of those, do you have a video that you can point me to? I really like how you lay out the information/detail in your videos.
@@jeremyhenderson163 Yeah it's more like a "hey this website might not be who they say they are" message. But since you're hosting it yourself you can be 100% sure its legit. If you see that message when browsing online then thats an actual red flag.
🤔 That prompts another question. By using Syncthing (v1.27.2) via the browser, am I still "running a server"? I don't understand the difference between "a server" and how syncthing works, or if they are even different? I ask because my "home" internet provider has already shut me down once, after launching a couple of diy servers (TrueNas, several distros of Linux, etc.) for testing. 😇😇😇
I have to ask, what is your day job? If it is not in IT, how did you stumble into home labbing? Sorry if you've addressed it in a video I haven't seen yet. Great information btw! Ty!
I believe you use truenas and nextcloud, how do you go about setting those to be synced to you syncthing server. As nextcloud directory will have its own user and permissions and I don't know if the directory structure will be copied in a organized way. I was hoping to see those?
You would basically just create an SMB share of your TrueNAS/Nextcloud filesystem and mount that to your Syncthing server. From there your Syncthing box/VM will watch that share/mount and do its thing.
Amazing video! you deserve more visits! Do you know anyway to sync 2 different Nextcloud or Truenas servers with the same data in different locations (one in the house of my parents, another in my house)?
Thanks! So if you watch that video you'll notice I'm connecting to my backup using its static IP; meaning you'll have to expose your backup server to the internet. I'll be making a video soon on how to expose services/machines to the internet safely using pfSense and HAProxy soon so hopefully that will help. For more about networking I'd strongly recommend checking on Lawrence Systems on TH-cam, hes great.
@@RaidOwl Thank you for your answer. Yes, but I don't want a "backup" a want real time sync between 2 servers. I have no idea how to do that...I only saw backup tutorials.
So basically i need to add sync thing to TrueNAS scale and then the windows pc and it should then be able to do what you described right? Sorry for being such a noob. Regards John
@@RaidOwl From what I see it might be over $100 maybe the rout you went in this vid might be better lol would love yo see a vid if and when you pick it up.
Haha yeah it’s certainly a rabbit hole. You can definitely go with a Synology system though. They are a bit more expensive for the hardware you get but their software is pretty solid and easy to use.
@@seamydobbsno1 From a budget standpoint, it makes more sense to install TrueNAS on an old tower. Even though I have worked with both static and dynamic IPs, I struggled a bit getting TrueNAS setup with the Plex plugin. Since then, AdGuard and other plugins have been really easy. For giggles, I watched install tutorials for AdGuard not on TrueNAS and it was a lot involved and way more than a few easy clicks like on TrueNAS. Even if I separated my servers one day, I like using TrueNAS as the bottom layer. I would also go for Proxmox depending on what I want to run.
@@bluestreak711 Hey. Yeah I finally settled on an unraid server a while back whilst running plex as a docker container and its worked great. With various other containers operating for downloads and backups etc. For someone with little experience in servers it was quite easy and a good learning experience.
i found your video very intresting and am planing to use syncthing will be using a synology nas and have every one to sync to there own home folder and was wandering how would you sync to server with out allowing any one to del files on there pc and have it del on server look forward to any suggestions
I cant get this to work at all in anyway. Been f'ing with it for a week. Getting real annoyed with it. I just want a way to back up my phone outside of google. Syncthing just wont work though.
I'll admit to the downvote. Your explanation of how syncthing works is flawed. You can connect syncthing attached to many end points. It doesn't have to be a one to one like rsync.
I don’t believe I ever claimed it’s 1:1. I even said you can have many devices running. Just because my demo only showed one device doesn’t mean that’s the only way to do it.
Still helpful after all these years thanks man, this guide is helping me with my syncthing setup
Thank you for making these videos! You really helped me to setup a dedicated truenas server in my storage room, with exactly 0 background in networking. This syncthing setup was the last step which allows me to remove all mechanical SSDs from our workstations in the office, to dump them in the NAS and to sync the boot drives of the PCs automagically! You are the man! 🤘
Thanks! Superb video. Makes it really easy to understand. Looking forward to pushing the sync through tailscale network.
Any thoughts or videos on how to ensure that data is encrypted whilst it travels between two servers?
Again, very much appreciated!
Untrusted devices in Syncthing are encrypted at rest as well as in flight so you should be good there. Thanks so much for the support!
Thanks m8. I'm not running Syncthing, but I do love your tutorials. Now I am considering running it after such a nice mellow presentation.
Thanks, from outback NSW Australia.
James.
My understanding was that Syncthing was not a great solution for backups. If you have an issue on your home server (your files get corrupted/other) the changes will be pushed to your backup. I would recommend setting up RSYNC with a CRONjob to back-up to your backup server.
The versioning built into Syncthing helps alleviate that issue but to each their own.
Send Only / Receive Only option, File Versioning. Send Only on your main machine, Receive Only on your back up server. Also, whats good about syncthing is it's network based. If you are away, coffee shop, vpn wifi? Your files are still sync'ed. A back up and a sync are not the same thing though...
You are exactly correct. Even the Syncthing documentation advises against using it as a backup. They say : "Syncthing is not a great backup application because all changes to your files (modifications, deletions, etc.) will be propagated to all your devices. You can enable versioning, but we encourage you to use other tools to keep your data safe from your (or our) mistakes."
I've always had issues with cloud based things like google photos, amazon photos or whatever on my phone, I never quite got them set up as I wanted them, this program is a life saver.
Literally my folder structure and everything is in my pc with all the changes I do on the phone appearing on the pc as well, I wish I knew about this program years ago man, so much wasted time trying to organize what I had. As for backups just copy paste everything on an external drive every month or so and for extreme cases you still have google photos. FOR ME, it's pretty much the perfect setup 😊👍🏻
well, just stumbled upon your channel and seeing the quality of the videos i thought "great another high quality tech youtuber, with a tendency to splurge on homeservers ", then i saw the subscriber count, after seeing very little comments, just one phrase came to mind WTF?
Your following will skyrocket soon, stay motivated for a few months and you'll have a few hundred thousand subscribers and all that. Good luck
Thank you, I really appreciate that.
So true!!
I agree inspired me to build my first truenas server and will use syncthing as well - I have a raspberry pi and external usb will use that as the backup system
Thanks! Other videos just weren’t explaining it well with yours, I now can use syncthing.
I like the versioning options! My nightmare is that you're editing a file, and the editor crashes, your file gets set to zero length. You go to fetch it from trash, but it's not there because it wasn't actually "deleted" per se. There's no point in a backup solution that /immediately/ copies your broken file to the backup! But this looks good, I will be installing soon.
At 10:39 where port 22000 came from?
It would be awesome if there would be an option to state that certain directories should use root priviledges to read files, i.e. to backup the whole /etc directory. The backup task fails for me as certain files, like the .stignore or .stfolder files can't be written and even after I add them manually and change the owner of those files and add those files to the .stignore file, the task fails as not all configuration files can be read by the "normal" user. I did enable the "Ignore Permissions" checkbox in the advanced settings though this didn't solve that issue also. Seems like I need to install this tool via root explicitely on all machines
This is a lot better and easier then nextcloud thanks man...
Thanks for the video. Just a comment: You go from hardware directly to Syncthing. What O.S. did you use? How to configurate Raid to drives?
Great guide for sync of files. But it isn't really a backup with e.g. versioning.
I use a Raspberry Pi 4 with two 5TB drives, using Rasberian OS and rsync to backup my Synology.
I choosed a Raspberry Pi 4 because of the power consumption 🙂
Sync is often confused with a real backup. I spotted a tab for versioning on the ST interface at 5:20
Not only does it do win, mac & linux but it also runs on android and u can for eg sync your phone pics back to ur server at home (or set it to run only on wifi).
Great channel! Thanks for the detailed walk-through. For a more robust time machine style backup, what are your thoughts?
Thank you! As for your question...that's a tough one. It greatly depends on what devices/OS you have in your infrastructure. For MacOS, it really is hard to be Time Machine. Windows has some good options in Acronis and Paragon. If you are like me and have everything from Linux, Mac, Windows, NAS machines, and dedicated hypervisors...things are tricky. I have heard good things about Synology systems as they have made great strides in the recent years with their Linux-based OS, but you'll pay a premium for their hardware.
My recommendation is to give Syncthing a try as it really is an impressive piece of software that crosses multiple platforms.
But that won't protect you from encryption viruses. It would just copy the changes but that would that be seen as a delete and end up in the recycle bin??
Syncthing is just awesome.
Yes, yes it is
Exquisite video. Some time back, I watched TechnoDadLife's video on this topic, and I was just realizing that I need a backup server. Then, this video clarifies to me how bad I need it now.
Yeah I'm thinking about building a new backup server and moving this one offsite. I'm that paranoid haha.
Hey there. How does syncthing handle very large files? I ask as your use case with a home server suggests you might have experience of that.
I'm looking to sync large video files when collaborating with another youtuber, however all the tutorials I've watched demonstrate with small files.
Many thanks!
Thanks for doing the advanced-addresses part! I was using the GUI IP and obviously it wouldn't work.
11/5/24 - so helpful thanks as my son and I try to figure this out. I'm on a Mac, using the S T Mac OS, How do I create the file to share to my server from an external hard drive (volume)? I haven't been able to crack the code on that. THX
I did some tests with send only and recive only and if you delete a file it delets the file too on the send only side!.. you have to set the option 'ignore delete' in the advanced settings but I have read that this is a ugly hack and deprecated.. so you have to use versioning but thats not nice to look in the .stfolder for deleted files.. I'm not sure if Syncthing is good for backups
Hi, I have a distro based on DEBIAN Q4OS I need to connect 4 hard disks with windows and mac backups and I would like to create a server with raid sharing of all hard disks and including a continuous and incremental backup also of smartphones and ipads in the family ... I was thinking about nextcloud and openmediavault but something else would probably be missing to perfect everything and example the folder search on different file systems I forgot ... I also have nvidia shield which can act as a nas if it would be enough without paying plex .Advice? Thank you.
What about using this for windows network sharing alternative?
great video, thanks!
How does Syncthing compare to like Open Media Vault?
Syncthing is designed primarily to be a backup system while OMV is a primary NAS server OS. I like Syncthing because it is lightweight and I can throw it on any computer that has file systems that I want backed up. For example, my primary Windows PC runs the Syncthing client applet on it to backup my Adobe Lightroom catalogs.
@@RaidOwl Thought OMV had a syncthing plug in.... BTW, on your living room server, did you tweak the UI to make it easier to operate at a 10-15 foot distance? aka the couch? I have a similar PC but I struggle to see certain things even when blowing up text/icons....
OMV does have a Syncthing plug-in. I run TrueNAS and that also has a Syncthing plug-in. Thats the cool thing about it; is that it runs on most systems to provide easy backup services.
I just scale it in Windows and it works decently enough for me lol.
@@RaidOwl yeah even scaled, not everything scales with it so I am squinting on some things... I wish someone would make a console like UI shell for windows for living room setups
I really love your content, and the way you present and deliver it. 🤔 Why does nobody cover how to fix the "Not Secure" error for google (Windows users), or have I simply missed it somehow in my desperate search? I don't yet have a pc to dedicate solely to Syncthing so I'm using my personal pc until I can move it to a dedicated pc, but the "Not Secure" error peeves my OCD and makes me want to refrain from using it (As was the case for the CentOS server I deployed,😅 and my internet provider quickly shutdown.). I believe the error is being caused by an ssl configuration error, but my tech knowledge is spotty because I'm fairly new to it. Did you have and/or solve this error with your setup?
Not secure just means that site is using a self hosted cert. that’s totally normal for self hosted stuff. You can get rid of it by setting up your own certbot or use a reverse proxy with some Lets Encrypt certs.
Thank you for acknowledging me, in my knowledge-seeking journey (both here on TH-cam and online.) I've found that content creators seem to be like "Well I dropped you a breadcrumb, figure out the other 99.9999% yourself.". I do understand that it can be hectic to respond and help every individual with their specific problem, but it's nice to be acknowledged. Not to say all are, but sadly about 95% of those I have encountered have been. 🤔 So it's secure, but I'm just seeing a false positive so to say? My limited knowledge doesn't include either of those, do you have a video that you can point me to? I really like how you lay out the information/detail in your videos.
@@jeremyhenderson163 Yeah it's more like a "hey this website might not be who they say they are" message. But since you're hosting it yourself you can be 100% sure its legit. If you see that message when browsing online then thats an actual red flag.
🤔 That prompts another question. By using Syncthing (v1.27.2) via the browser, am I still "running a server"? I don't understand the difference between "a server" and how syncthing works, or if they are even different? I ask because my "home" internet provider has already shut me down once, after launching a couple of diy servers (TrueNas, several distros of Linux, etc.) for testing. 😇😇😇
I have to ask, what is your day job? If it is not in IT, how did you stumble into home labbing? Sorry if you've addressed it in a video I haven't seen yet.
Great information btw! Ty!
Yep, it’s IT haha. I do application development and support. Primarily creating web apps using .NET and java.
I believe you use truenas and nextcloud, how do you go about setting those to be synced to you syncthing server. As nextcloud directory will have its own user and permissions and I don't know if the directory structure will be copied in a organized way. I was hoping to see those?
You would basically just create an SMB share of your TrueNAS/Nextcloud filesystem and mount that to your Syncthing server. From there your Syncthing box/VM will watch that share/mount and do its thing.
Amazing video! you deserve more visits! Do you know anyway to sync 2 different Nextcloud or Truenas servers with the same data in different locations (one in the house of my parents, another in my house)?
Thanks! So if you watch that video you'll notice I'm connecting to my backup using its static IP; meaning you'll have to expose your backup server to the internet. I'll be making a video soon on how to expose services/machines to the internet safely using pfSense and HAProxy soon so hopefully that will help. For more about networking I'd strongly recommend checking on Lawrence Systems on TH-cam, hes great.
@@RaidOwl Thank you for your answer. Yes, but I don't want a "backup" a want real time sync between 2 servers. I have no idea how to do that...I only saw backup tutorials.
So basically i need to add sync thing to TrueNAS scale and then the windows pc and it should then be able to do what you described right? Sorry for being such a noob. Regards John
Yep it’s a pretty cool software. Feel free to join the discord if you have questions. Link in the description.
Will you show how to create one way sycn?
What do you think about using a raspberry pi w/ an Argon 40 EON as a back up instead of using a computer similar to this one?
Just saw the Argon 40 EON. It looks cool. It’s def an option if you wanna go that route. I’ll prob pick one up lol.
@@RaidOwl From what I see it might be over $100 maybe the rout you went in this vid might be better lol would love yo see a vid if and when you pick it up.
Just put in my order. Expected by December so we shall see.
I thought that syncthing was just for syncing files, not for backup.
Both!
Thanks for your video
remember to support them and donate
Are your NAS Solutions and Plex server operating as separate virtual machines essentially on your server?
Yes they are. I know you can run jails within TrueNAS for Plex and Syncthing but I just like keeping them separated.
@@RaidOwl Thank very much for the replies. My God I thought this would be simple, buy a simple synology and bam, but man have I opened a can of worms.
Haha yeah it’s certainly a rabbit hole. You can definitely go with a Synology system though. They are a bit more expensive for the hardware you get but their software is pretty solid and easy to use.
@@seamydobbsno1 From a budget standpoint, it makes more sense to install TrueNAS on an old tower. Even though I have worked with both static and dynamic IPs, I struggled a bit getting TrueNAS setup with the Plex plugin. Since then, AdGuard and other plugins have been really easy.
For giggles, I watched install tutorials for AdGuard not on TrueNAS and it was a lot involved and way more than a few easy clicks like on TrueNAS.
Even if I separated my servers one day, I like using TrueNAS as the bottom layer. I would also go for Proxmox depending on what I want to run.
@@bluestreak711 Hey. Yeah I finally settled on an unraid server a while back whilst running plex as a docker container and its worked great. With various other containers operating for downloads and backups etc. For someone with little experience in servers it was quite easy and a good learning experience.
i found your video very intresting and am planing to use syncthing will be using a synology nas and have every one to sync to there own home folder and was wandering how would you sync to server with out allowing any one to del files on there pc and have it del on server look forward to any suggestions
There is a setting in Syncthing under the Advanced section that does just that. We have a discord if you want to join and discuss it.
When you bought this case?
When did you buy*
Just an extra comment, why don't you do a full tutorial on trueNAS scale. That is where I am having problems. Anyway, thanks.'
James.😄
Whats that mall PC=CASE?
would caution running as root...
I cant get this to work at all in anyway. Been f'ing with it for a week. Getting real annoyed with it. I just want a way to back up my phone outside of google. Syncthing just wont work though.
Dang :/ feel free to join the discord and we can try to get your sorted
thanks handsome
I'll admit to the downvote. Your explanation of how syncthing works is flawed. You can connect syncthing attached to many end points. It doesn't have to be a one to one like rsync.
I don’t believe I ever claimed it’s 1:1. I even said you can have many devices running. Just because my demo only showed one device doesn’t mean that’s the only way to do it.