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Forum Discussion
Can I backup from an onsite ReadyNAS to another offsite ReadyNAS?
Hi all I am the proud owner of two ReadyNAS systems. My work one is a RN-104 with 22TB and my home one is a RN-626X with 72TB. Is there any way of automatically backing up data from one system to...
Rsync is the best protocol for NAS-to-NAS backup in most cases, local or through ZeroTier. First, it's a Linux native protocol, so file permissions are retained better. But it also handles incremental backups better that the others, including the ability to delete files on the backup that have been deleted on the primary unit. Note that if you do enable deletion, you should check on your snapshotting on the primary and backup units to be able to recover from accidental deletions. My personal choice is limited snapshot retention on the primary and longer retention on the backup. Rsync can be a little slow for the first backup, but it's definitely best thereafter.
An exception here is if you have any large VeraCrypt, BitLocker, or other "container" files (including those used by a virtual machine) that will have changes made inside of them. Rsync will either back up the whole container file, not just the changes inside it, or won't back up changes at all (if you've configured it a static size and so the file date doesn't change). If it backs up the whole file, that could fill your backup NAS with a lot of snapshots of older versions. The consequences of no updated backups are obvious. ReadyDR's native use of snapshots will effectively only and always back up the changes.
I have several VeraCrypt containers, and keep them in a separate share both because they work better with strict sync off (which is controlled by share) and so it's easy to use ReadyDR for that share, even though most of them rarely change.
Also, you should know that ZeroTier doesn't push anything through ZeroTier central. It just uses it like an "operator" to get the two devices connected (it's much like ReadyCloud in that regard). That means that if the NAS is local, using the ZeroTier address will still do a backup strictly locally. So if you have the backup NAS local for the first backup, you can save a lot of time and bandwidth.
One last point on ZeroTier. The versions that are ReadyNAS specific are very old and may stop working at some time. If that happens, you'll have to delete the old one and use the standard Debian install of a newer version via SSH. That version will have no GUI, so you have to configure it via SSH as well. As the ReadyNAS OS gets older and older, I hope that doesn't become an issue with installing a later version.
Hi again
I am using File Backup as this is the only one that I can chose where it goes in the remote NAS. Is there a better way than this?
SadNation wrote:
Is there a better way than this?
Yes. rsync also lets you control the destination share.
Here's some screen shots from one of my daily backup jobs (backing up Music to another Music share). These are "pull" backups - running on the destination NAS.
I also use custom snapshots on the destination to give me some retention (e.g. the ability to recover an older version of a file). Longer retention will result in more disk space being dedicated to snapshots. Personally I use 3 months for most shares. I never use the default "smart" snapshots, as they have unlimited retention - over time you need to delete snapshots manually if you use the "smart" settings.
You can also use snapshots on the source share of course.
If both NAS are on all the time, then a push (the primary NAS controls it) is generally better, as it will take a snapshot and then back up from the snapshot, insuring nothing changes while the backup is ongoing. But if you want to put the backup NAS on a time schedule, then you'll want a pull job (controlled by the backup), as with StephenB's example. The receiving (backup) NAS will extend the off time until a pull job is complete, but not a push. And if you are doing it over ZeroTier, use the destination NAS Zerotier address, not it's name.
Sandshark wrote:
If both NAS are on all the time, then a push (the primary NAS controls it) is generally better, as it will take a snapshot and then back up from the snapshot, insuring nothing changes while the backup is ongoing.
Yes (and my own backup NAS are on a power schedule, so I use pull).
Though if the work NAS is always running, but isn't being used off-hours, then you can use either a push or a pull off-hours.
If you decide to use a push backup, then make sure you put a single / in the source path. That is shown here in step 16:
Sandshark wrote:
And if you are doing it over ZeroTier, use the destination NAS Zerotier address, not it's name.
For push, it would be the backup destination, but for pull it would be the backup source. Either way, use the ZeroTier IP address for the remote NAS.
FWIW, I always use IP addresses in my backup jobs, and not hostnames. I've found that works more reliably.
I don't see quite the same screen.
I try to use
remote
remote: Rsync server
Host ip (the ZeroTier managed IP)
Port - not sure about this one
Share - I can't seem to make this find anything to back up, I get Connect as and then I can enter admin and password but no paths or folders come up
Login - admin
Password my password
I am using ZeroTier 1.1.14-nt3 if that helps. Both of NAS's are using ReadyNAS 6.10.8.
I get all of the helpful info about push and pull but I don't quite seem to have cracked the basics yet! Thanks all for your help so far!
SadNation wrote:
remote
remote: Rsync server
Host ip (the ZeroTier managed IP)
Port - not sure about this one
Share - I can't seem to make this find anything to back up, I get Connect as and then I can enter admin and password but no paths or folders come up
Login - admin
Password my password
Put in the IP address of the remote NAS in the host field, then click next.
After you go through the wizard, edit the backup job settings and you will see the screens I posted.
Hi all
I am stoopid! Once I turned rsync on read/write in the shares as well as in the main settings, each NAS could see the other NAS's shares! I think I have it all set up now so thank you all for your help!
Hi again!
Now I have got this working (both NAS's are down on my floor doing the first backup), is there any easy way of seeing how fast/slow the transfer is going other than the In Progress display on the Netgear Admin page?
Unfortunately, no. The only thing you can see is how much total space is in use.
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