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Forum Discussion
Which ReadyNAS for business backup?
Hi,
We currently have a home-made backup solution entailing several large old Dell 220S units connected to servers, running scripts to copy changed files from all three of our offices across the internet to the 220S units (it's more complicated than that, but that is the general gist of how it is currently set up), we end up with every version of the changed file on the backup store. This has worked fine but the data requirements have just exploded in the past three years so now we don't have room for sufficient backups and versions, and would like to replace this rather dated (although solid) system for a much simpler and smaller ReadyNAS system.
We would be looking for a slim (1U if possible) rack mount at head office and perhaps something like the NV+ V2 in the smaller office which is to be on the end of 25Mb fibre internet. The plan is to copy the backups from head office to the smaller office for off-site backup, the files will first be compressed as a zip file then copied across the internet to the ReadyNAS at the small office, where we would like it to be uncompressed back to the original files and directory structure. Some scripting maybe on a server could do this for us - if we have two pairs of 4TB mirrored drives we could use one as a zip file landing zone and also Active@Disk and Windows Backup server disk image storage, a local backup server uncompresses the zips to the other 4TB mirror. There would also be an external USB drive attached for a portable backup of the ReadyNAS for off-off-site backup (probably a self-managed encrypted disk device).
My questions really are would the NV+ V2 be suitable for what could be quite regular and heavy backup usage, is there something of a similar price point and size that would be more suitable, and what should we be aware of when introducing such a device to Windows Server 2008 R2 / SBS2011 domain environments. We are looking to spend up to about £800 including disks per unit, maybe a bit more on the rack mount version (which should hopefully be the same product but in a different format). Only a handful of people in our IT department would have access to these backup devices, the general staff should have no access. Can the web front end be password protected or even hidden from view?
I own a ReadyNAS NV+ V2 and found it to work very well for my needs at home, but have never used it in a production environment.
Hope someone in the know can help with these queries, thank you.
We currently have a home-made backup solution entailing several large old Dell 220S units connected to servers, running scripts to copy changed files from all three of our offices across the internet to the 220S units (it's more complicated than that, but that is the general gist of how it is currently set up), we end up with every version of the changed file on the backup store. This has worked fine but the data requirements have just exploded in the past three years so now we don't have room for sufficient backups and versions, and would like to replace this rather dated (although solid) system for a much simpler and smaller ReadyNAS system.
We would be looking for a slim (1U if possible) rack mount at head office and perhaps something like the NV+ V2 in the smaller office which is to be on the end of 25Mb fibre internet. The plan is to copy the backups from head office to the smaller office for off-site backup, the files will first be compressed as a zip file then copied across the internet to the ReadyNAS at the small office, where we would like it to be uncompressed back to the original files and directory structure. Some scripting maybe on a server could do this for us - if we have two pairs of 4TB mirrored drives we could use one as a zip file landing zone and also Active@Disk and Windows Backup server disk image storage, a local backup server uncompresses the zips to the other 4TB mirror. There would also be an external USB drive attached for a portable backup of the ReadyNAS for off-off-site backup (probably a self-managed encrypted disk device).
My questions really are would the NV+ V2 be suitable for what could be quite regular and heavy backup usage, is there something of a similar price point and size that would be more suitable, and what should we be aware of when introducing such a device to Windows Server 2008 R2 / SBS2011 domain environments. We are looking to spend up to about £800 including disks per unit, maybe a bit more on the rack mount version (which should hopefully be the same product but in a different format). Only a handful of people in our IT department would have access to these backup devices, the general staff should have no access. Can the web front end be password protected or even hidden from view?
I own a ReadyNAS NV+ V2 and found it to work very well for my needs at home, but have never used it in a production environment.
Hope someone in the know can help with these queries, thank you.
8 Replies
- I would recommend the RN3130 for the 1U rackmount and the RN314 for the desktop. I feel these products would be best suited to your needs though over your budget.
The NV+ v2 is an End of Life product. We have no rackmount models that run the same OS as this.
The current model that replaced the NV+ v2 is the RN104.
The RN314 has a much faster processor than the 104, 4x the RAM, a 5 year warranty vs 3 year warranty, and comes with lifetime chat support vs 90 days after purchase software support
The web admin interface is protected with a password (which obviously we recommend you change away from the default e.g. when you use the setup wizard).
When you get the NAS I would recommend you install one disk (if purchasing diskless), update the firmware, verify the update is successful, power down and do a factory reset with all the disks in place. Following this procedure will give you a clean setup on the latest firmware.
You should also examine your use case to see whether bitrot protection and snapshots will be suitable or not. We use a CoW (Copy on Write) filesystem called BTRFS. If files will have a huge number of modifications on the NAS then using CoW and snapshots you will see a lot of fragmentation. We link disabling/enabling CoW to disabling/enabling bitrot protection so you may wish to disable bitrot protection and snapshots if your use case is inappropriate for use with CoW.
You can't disable CoW on files that already exist which is why it is important to make the decision on whether to use it or not when setting up the NAS. - Thank you very much for your speedy reply, I will have some things to look into when I'm back at the office tomorrow.
- You're welcome.
I should also mention that the RN3130, RN314 and RN104 all run ReadyNAS OS6. - I've had a couple of days to explore the RN314 and so far I'm very impressed, the web interface is clean and looks very professional, the LCD display on the unit is useful and functional (much like the display on my APC UPS).
I have gone for four Hitachi HUS724030ALE640 disks in two RAID1 Flex-RAID configurations, they are Enterprise disks so should be rock solid in a NAS environment. Waited for it to complete the initial sync on the X-RAID it started when I first turned it on (it said Factory Reset on the display, I didn't seem to get a chance to choose what I wanted), would it have caused any problems if I had stopped this sync and changed to Flex-RAID? - You could have stopped the sync, switch to flexraid and re-create the volumes you wanted. That would have saved you some time.
- Ah well, thought so but didn't want to upset anything (if something went wrong later I didn't want this to be the cause). I will know for next time, thank you.
- OMG too many options.
As a long time Netgear user, I am looking at a ReadyNAS but which one? I want raid 5 (3+redundant)
Business or home? About how many users? What uses (backup, media streaming, file consolidation, ???jfseaman wrote: OMG too many options.
As a long time Netgear user, I am looking at a ReadyNAS but which one? I want raid 5 (3+redundant)
Do you have a ReadyNAS? Which one?
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