User has been Auto deleted - all data lost

This post is offered for semi-tech-illiterate users like me in our ongoing effort to figure out reasonably manageable ways to preserve data.

I have had a ReadyNAS Ultra 6 Plus for almost seven years. I have been manually backing up shares on that NAS volume to swappable 4-8TB drives in an eSATA external enclosure attached to my Mac. Point number one is to have a backup of data that one doesn't want to lose on external drives that are disconnected from power and the network and stored apart from the source on or offsite to whatever extent one considers prudent.

For several reasons, including less manual involvement on my part in backing up to an eSATA FirmTek enclosure that I have used for years, I got a ReadyNAS 628 with both USB and eSATA ports to replace the aging, legacy U6P as a primary NAS—currently most often used as a Plex and iTunes media server. If something were to happen to the primary NAS, I want to be able to switch to a backup NAS without much delay and without having to restore an entire backup. The shares on the 628 are backed up to the U6P using rsync, which automatically creates a snapshot to back up from just in case something happens to the source share during the backup.

I have not wanted the backup NAS to be cluttered or filled with earlier versions of files, so I configured the rsync process to delete files and folders on the backup NAS that had been deleted on the primary NAS since the last backup. That meant that my ReadyCLOUD user home folder was deleted from both the primary and backup NASes before I realized there was a problem. This showed me that my backup scheme was vulnerable to a risk that I want to avoid.

As dumb luck would have it, I have been using ReadyCLOUD only for remote access. The cloud user home folder has been empty after I chose not to use the home folder because of an entirely unrelated issue that I experienced a few months ago. There was another way to accomplish the pretty much the same thing, but that meant I was not going to get the benefit (or be exposed to the risks) of the ReadyCLOUD service's automation of parts of the process.

Because the automated backup as configured by me has been vulnerable to data loss on both the primary and then the backup before my discovery and intervention, I am planning to use custom snapshots only on the backup NAS to version changes to the backup NAS, which will still keep the backup NAS sufficiently tidy. With custom snapshot settings, older snapshots are automatically deleted after a duration of one's choosing—hopefully far enough out that one recognizes the problem a snapshot has been saved to remedy. (This is also one way to avoid using up storage space with backups of snapshots made on a primary source.) To that end, I have been helped by StephenB's contribution to a good discussion available at https://community.netgear.com/t5/Backing-up-to-your-ReadyNAS/Documentation-for-Replicate-specifically-backup-and-restoring/m-p/1236915#M13940.

(I have not considered whether to use cloud storage for additional backup because, even though there is a fiber optic line to the box on the pole on my property line, CenturyLink claims it doesn't have the equipment needed to get a signal in excess of 7mbps down/1 up to my house.)

Finally, I also find helpful jak0lantash's posting in the aftermath of the ReadyCLOUD incident available at https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS/My-recommendation-Don-t-use-ReadyCloud-user-home-shares/m-p/1258463#M127461. It helps us think about what priorities each of us may have and what trade-offs we are willing to make regarding data redundancy and backup and what questions or concerns we may want to seek answers to from the knowledgebase or the community.