It's pretty simple: the backup host has the backup disk attached via a usb cradle. There's a file in the root directory of the backup disk file system that gets touched when the drive is rotated. A cron jobs emails me if this file is more than 3 months old. When I rotate the disk, I format the new disk and recreate the restic repos for the remote hosts. I then move the old disk into a fireproof safe. I keep four drives in rotation, so at any given point in time I have the online drive plus three with progressively older backup sets in the safe.
And then, after a year what do you do with the oldest hard drive ? Does it enter the cycle again, do you destruct it or do you use it in a failsafe environnement ?
The procedure looks OK and I would like to make it more organised myself, just trying to find the right balance.
The drive enters the cycle again. I use the drives until they show signs of failure (SMART monitoring/testing), or until I need to upgrade for capacity reasons.
I'm using "recertified" (really, used) drives that I've written about here: https://marcusb.org/posts/2024/03/used-hard-drives-from-tech.... They are inexpensive and, so far, have been very reliable. (And, yes, I've done restores from the backup sets.)
