not sure if this is a naive/stupid question. If so, please apologize.
Scenario: I would like to run a small Owncloud installation on a Linux host. Encrypted data files will be saved on an external NAS. I will run backups frequently from the oC installation and database as well as of the encryption keys for each user NOT the stored data files). The users will use client software installed on Windows PCs and therefore have at least one synced copy locally available.
My question now is: Do I necessarily need a NAS with a RAID5+? What happens if the NAS dies? Can I simply hook up another NAS and things will be restored automatically (?) from the local PCs (maybe after a restart of the server)? If not, is there be a possibility to provide maximal convenience with minimal interaction for the users?
IMHO you can't trust on the local copies, but generally the idea is not bad ... I would avoid the individual PW encryption and rather use master key encryption.
I don't want it to be understood as a backup of most precious files It's about collaborating between people, so one of the prerequisites would be to have a safe and a working copy anyway. And sometimes to have less important files quickly sync'ed between 2 PCs. Therefore the safety requirements wouldn't be too high. All I want to avoid is to have users share files along projects with others and having to redefine everything after a crash.
Thanks for the encryption hint. I am going to dive into this to understand the pros and cons of both.
The encryption app of owncloud is a bit tricky. If all the servers are under your own control, there is very little benefit and you get a huge pack of potential problems. So rather user transport encryption (and perhaps hard-disk encryption). However, if you decide to use it, you make a full recovery procedure just for testing.
RAID5 is very nice, but it is no backup. If a single disk fails, it gives you a bit more flexibility when to change the failing disk
