Advice on backup and replication

Thanks for your detailed reply.

Ixa wrote:
You could use the built-in backup feature of the NAS. Check this article and the sub-articles linked into it: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/23420/~/how-do-i-create-a-backup-job-on-my-readynas-os-6-storage-system%3F

So I could configure the source as a "Remote" device (the Windows share on the server) and the destination as a "local" device on the ReadyNAS. That would allow me to back up the data from the server to the ReadyNAS using the ReadyNAS backup jobs.

Looking at your other links, the continuous protection feature seems to only work if you store the data on the ReadyNAS - which we wont be doing.

Ixa wrote:
You could use ReadyNAS Replicate here. Kindly check this article and the sub-articles linked into it: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/23836/~/what-is-readynas-replicate-and-how-does-it-work-with-my-readynas-os-6-storage

Yes I think Replicate will work fine. If I used it on the main office initially to replicate then transferred it offsite, will it use the VPN connection we have in place to connect internally or will it route itself via the internet connection?

Ixa wrote:
Since you mentioned that you have a VPN connection, if ever that VPN connection goes down and you still have internet access, ReadyCloud would be useful. You could just give remote access to certain users to remotely access the shares via ReadyCloud.

That solves one part of our problem (main site connection or VPN offline) but not if the branch office connection goes down.

After more thought, Im thinking that I may do this by utilising Windows Backup to create backups from the server that are stored on the main office ReadyNAS as these are created in a VHD format by default.

I can then use Replicate to transfer these VHD files from main to branch office and if we have an issue with the connection, we can mount the latest VHD file at the branch office to extract files from. Well, maybe.

Any further ideas welcomed.

Paul..