Would you recommend ReadyNAS Replicate add-on

When it works, its a nice feature.
When it doesn't work it becomes apparent that its poorly documented.
I'm in the forum at this point because I have an issue with Replication and have not found any documentation regarding the log file error codes.
It's easy to setup and use.
Versioning is not documented so I have no idea how it works.
Snapshot is not well documented but I can guess how it works.
I've had to restore, this is a sore spot...
Each replicate job is a new folder that is linked to the previous, to restore I copied the file I wanted to an external USB drive. If any one of the links is broken the copy will fail and then you are stuck. You can't move or consolidate the resulting replicate jobs that I know of. This is another area that lacks documentation.

Not sure if I would buy again. Let's see how support responds to my email request and then I'll reply back.

I use Replicate to do the back up for my small business.

I had a colleague working remotely and he had a Netgear NVX at his workplace. His files were backed up to my Pro and my files were backed up to the NVX. It worked well and provided security by remotely backing up two machines.

I am glad that I am running Replicate and I feel it does offer some advantages over paid cloud storage (fast restore by bringing the two devices together).

I use versioning and I have backed up small numbers of files this way without problem.

I am yet to perfect the art of moving data via a USB hard Drive to the remote device and doing a major update of data that way. This is my next objective - I wish the documentation was better.

Sometimes it appears to me that Replicate decides it needs to back up all of the data again rather than an incremental back up - never worked out if this is real or what.

I do wish the replicate sequence was initiated by the Source device rather than the Destintation device. Occasionally the Destination device has been off for some reason. As the destination initiates the session, I only notice it when I realise that I do not have emails. I always know when my source is down as this prevents me from getting to my data. This limitation also means that they cannot implement a report on exception scheme.

I have stopped using other commercial backup software - I still do a local backup to a USB hard drive hanging off of the Pro (frontview backup). This does not have versioning. It is intended to cover data losses during the day and in case of local problems is easier to access than going to my remote site.

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

Has anyone successfully (or unsuccessfully) done a restore? How about a versioned restore, e.g. a file that was say, 2 versions old?

Poor documentation, no support on this forum, expensive license for each unit, feels like a BETA-version so far.

I don't trust either the units I have (ReadyNAS NV+ v2) or the sync tool (ReadyNAS Replicate) so far.
I am still waiting for some help with my support case: viewtopic.php?f=138&t=64788

I would not recommend ReadyNAS Replicate today, maybe in a few months when it might be more reliable and stable.

linusdunkers. Replicate on the Duo/NV+ v2 is a fairly new product. Replicate for the x86 units (Ultra/Pro) has been around a lot longer.

My post was regarding ReadyNAS Replicate for ReadyNAS NV+ v2, answering the questions below:

Are you glad you bought it and would buy it again if you went back in time? - No and no. Not until the problems are solved and the expected functionality is in place.
Has it been reliable? - No. There have been numerous of problems for me regarding ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS NV+ v2.
Is it easy enough to setup and use? - Easy if you just follow wizard but not well documented what difference the "advanced" options actually make.
Have you ever had to do a restore? - Not been able to make a "real" backup so far, so no possibility to test restore.
Do you use versioning and how to plan target NAS storage space - I have used default setting "unlimited" so there will be unlimited versions with incremental backup but the documentation about how this is done is nowhere to find. I have my main NAS device as a backup device near the computers I run backups on, then I use a secondary backup NAS to replicate the data to another location if something would happen with my apartment (fire etc) destroying both main NAS and computers.

pszilard wrote:

I have a few clients that I had installed ReadyNAS's and with the recent Replicate 2 announcement, I am wondering if I should look into this option. I fully understand that all the problem postings may not represent a greater number of happy users, so that is why I am asking to hear back from all users. Happy or unhappy alike. My questions are: Are you glad you bought it and would buy it again if you went back in time? Has it been reliable? Is it easy enough to setup and use? Have you ever had to do a restore? Do you use versioning and how to plan target NAS storage space Looking forward to the flood of responses :)

Some initial thoughts, I'm tired & may post more later:


It's been a long and hard road getting it up & running reliably. Replicate is one of those things where it truly is the small things that make all the difference. It is extremely poorly documented and the support is, IMO, extremely unhelpful. The Netgear forum overall is a goldmine and the staff that regularly work this forum are excellent....except for when it comes to replicate. I don't know if maybe there just isn't enough demand/traffic that they don't assign staff to monitor it frequently or what....but I feel like I'm pissing in the wind asking for help here with Replicate.

I mean; check out my other thread re: files on the destination NAS being invisible; I believe I discovered the issue is that - for whatever insane reason - if you keep the default replicate job names, you often won't be able to see the files that are supposed to have been backed up on the remote NAS.

Think about that; you've invested probably a minimum of $2K in hardware & software (on the low end!) and when you go to browse your "backup", it's EMPTY. Doesn't exactly make you feel warm & fuzzy...

Anyway, I'm embarassed to say that yes, I do still keep Replicate as an option because it's so cost-effective. For clients that are smaller businesses but have, say, 200GB of data; most off-site storage companies would charge around $200/month for that, based on my limited research. Obviously, a system involving two ReadyNAS and Replicate enables you to create your own off-site backup for a virtually unlimited amount of data, and your only ongoing costs are going to be more hard drives! That's pretty sweet.

I guess I'm kind of bitter that it's been SO difficult to get it up & running, yet there were so many dumb, stupid things that should have been made obvious by netgear; for example, in my initial troubleshooting less than a year ago, after days of going back & forth with Netgear tech support via email, the netgear tech told me that having jumbo frames enabled will cause replicate to fail.

WTF?? If this is true, why does this not appear ANYWHERE in ANY documentation? Or did the tech just make that up?

Bottom line is......now, after hours and hours of frustration, troubleshooting, etc. yes it is working reliably.

Oh, another big quirk/problem; I have several different replicate jobs carefully scheduled in sequential order during the night when nobody is in office and wouldn't notice if bandwidth was a little slow. Well, if "Job A" takes longer than usual because of a larger amount of changed data and runs into Job B's time slot, Job B will just fail; it won't run again later or try to restart - it will just fail and will run again the next time you have it scheduled or manually run it, which, in my case is 24 hours later.

That is, IMO, a pretty darn big oversight/flaw.

Also if you have multiple jobs scheduled, there is no way to log into the Replicate portal and tell it to "run all." If one or more jobs fail, you have to either wait until it runs again automatically - and of course ensure that it completed successfully this time - or manually run each job, wait until it completes, run the next one, etc. Again, another big oversight. Such awful execution.

Unfortunately, I do not believe that there is anything similar to replicate on the market, or else I'd strongly consider it.

Anyway, sorry this has turned into a long rant, but looking back over what I wrote, I really am frustrated with what is basically zero documentation and support for what could be a pretty amazing product. I believe that Replicate could save a lot of businesses a lot of money, but the execution and support are so poor.....which is made all the more frustrating by the fact that Netgear makes such fantastic hardware and supports it fairly well!!!

I am intrigued by the comment by pszilard "recent replicate 2 announcement" - is there a link to this.

BMach wrote:
I am intrigued by the comment by pszilard "recent replicate 2 announcement" - is there a link to this.

I am curious about that myself - I am not seeing anything on this when I google.

http://www.netgear.com/business/product ... fault.aspx

Apparently replicate now works on non-x86 units such as the Duo & NV....