Using an old Raspberry Pi and USB drive for automated backups
The plan is to reuse an old B+ and a 500GB USB as a backup device after running several home services for about a year. The would act as an NFS server and normally remain powered off through a . A custom program would turn on the Pi and drive, then wait until the storage becomes available.
It would start a PBS on the Proxmox host, run the backups, and verify them. Afterward, it would stop the , shut down the Pi through SSH, confirm that the Pi no longer responds, and finally cut power with the . A notification is also planned for success or failure.
This is a cost-saving design idea, not evidence of a tested and reliable setup.
Key points
- The proposed backup device is a B+ with a 500GB USB .
- A would power the backup hardware only when it is needed.
- Once the NFS storage is ready, a PBS would run and verify backups.
- The and would shut down cleanly before power is cut.
- The is still a proposal and has not been shown working.