Moving want to turn local server into offsite backup

[BairdGoW]

This is my first post. I currently live in CA and am moving to AK. For the last 4 years I have had a matx build with integrated graphics running a Dell Perc 6i Raid controller with 8x 1.5TB hard drives in raid 6. I use it to store everything from movies to school work. I want to leave my server here in CA and be able to access it and back up to it from Alaska. I as well want to be able to shut down and wake up the server so that my parents electrical bill isn't so high. My friend is telling me just make a basic ftp. I am worried about security with that. As well I know linus always talks about unraid but from what I understand that defeats the perpose since I have a raid card and also looks like even if i did use it with my raid card it might erase everything during initialization on unraid. My question is what is the safest and most secure way to do this while using my raid card? If you think i should ditch the raid card and get a host bus adaptor and run unraid instead I am open to hearing your arguments as well.
Thanks so much,
Baird

[brwainer]

If all you want is basic file upload and download, FTP works but you should really setup SFTP - same functionality but more secure. There are SFTP servers and clients available for every OS.

 

If you want more features, look into things like OwnCloud, Resilio Sync (used to be called BitTorrent Sync), and Crashplan. 

 

Since you have a raid card and a working RAID volume already set up, I wouldn't bother too much with changing the OS to a software RAID OS like UnRAID, FreeNAS, or anything else, unless you specifically like the features of those OSs.

 

As for turning the system on or off remotely, that can get tricky - mostly in the realm of turning it on. Does the motherboard have IPMI? If so you can just use that to turn it on. If not, your next best bet is to try Wake On Lan. A different option would be to set the computer to boot whenever the power comes back on, and then use a remote controlled power outlet, like the one Linus used for the alarm system prank. The final option would be to find or make something that can press the power button or short the power button pin to start the system.

[tt2468]

4 hours ago, BairdGoW said:

This is my first post. I currently live in CA and am moving to AK. For the last 4 years I have had a matx build with integrated graphics running a Dell Perc 6i Raid controller with 8x 1.5TB hard drives in raid 6. I use it to store everything from movies to school work. I want to leave my server here in CA and be able to access it and back up to it from Alaska. I as well want to be able to shut down and wake up the server so that my parents electrical bill isn't so high. My friend is telling me just make a basic ftp. I am worried about security with that. As well I know linus always talks about unraid but from what I understand that defeats the perpose since I have a raid card and also looks like even if i did use it with my raid card it might erase everything during initialization on unraid. My question is what is the safest and most secure way to do this while using my raid card? If you think i should ditch the raid card and get a host bus adaptor and run unraid instead I am open to hearing your arguments as well.
Thanks so much,
Baird

You could use SCP for file transfers. It's way more secure than ftp or sftp, and it is as easy to use as ssh. In fact, if the server has ssh, it should also have scp functionality. You can use winscp to login, which is basically an scp look-alike to filezilla. I would also recommend installing fail2ban if you are opening up scp/ssh, as you are not going to be there to manually take back your server if the user/password is hacked.

[BairdGoW]

On top of fail2ban, I know I need to black list every port except one I choose that is not the default port. Do either of you know of a good guide that shows how to do this. And is it better to set a static ip or buy a domain name.

[BairdGoW]

4 hours ago, tt2468 said:

You could use SCP for file transfers. It's way more secure than ftp or sftp, and it is as easy to use as ssh. In fact, if the server has ssh, it should also have scp functionality. You can use winscp to login, which is basically an scp look-alike to filezilla. I would also recommend installing fail2ban if you are opening up scp/ssh, as you are not going to be there to manually take back your server if the user/password is hacked.

i have windows 10 on the server. will fail2ban work with windows 10

[tt2468]

2 hours ago, BairdGoW said:

i have windows 10 on the server. will fail2ban work with windows 10

No. Awesome protocols like ssh and scp dont run on windows. Only linux.

[Scheer]

4 hours ago, BairdGoW said:

And is it better to set a static ip or buy a domain name.

You don't need either, just use a dynamic dns service such as http://www.noip.com/free

 

Or you can get a domain name (~$15/year), and use software or the feature on your router to automatically update it with the current dynamic IP. The only advantage of this would be to eliminate the goofy domain name like mydomain.no-ip.com and just have mydomain.com

[RezidentSeagull]

25 minutes ago, tt2468 said:

No. Awesome protocols like ssh and scp dont run on windows. Only linux.

You can get around the lack of SSH by using PuTTY for Windows, which has SSH and SFTP components to it.

 

And heck, if Microsoft rolls out it's Linux Bash subsystem, you might even be able to do it with native support (no clue when that's coming though)

[tt2468]

41 minutes ago, RezidentSeagull said:

You can get around the lack of SSH by using PuTTY for Windows, which has SSH and SFTP components to it.

 

And heck, if Microsoft rolls out it's Linux Bash subsystem, you might even be able to do it with native support (no clue when that's coming though)

Hes talking about having an ssh server, not client. 

[RezidentSeagull]

37 minutes ago, tt2468 said:

Hes talking about having an ssh server, not client. 

Ahh... Okay, then he's still in at least 50% of the same pickle that he was in at the start