Best way to backup 5TB of data on NAS

swamp2 wrote:

I'm basically in the same boat. I have > 4TB of used space on my ReadyNAS NVX. I would like the least expensive solution possible to have 2 backup sets of my data. One set will be colocated with the NAS and use rsync once a week or so to keep the backup current. The other (hopefully identical solution) will be done every 6 months or so and taken off site for storage. Maybe not the ideal schedule for everyone and every application but should be super conservative for my needs. -Obviously the simple solution I have been using of a single 4TB external USB drive is no longer viable -I do not want to have to own 3 NAS devices to meet this goal -I strongly prefer not to split folders, manage multiple external HDs and the like -I've tried a two drive bay, hardware RAID0, external drive enclosure but it is not recognized with the full capacity by my NAS (http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=73113) This is getting a bit complex and frustrating. Sure lots of money will solve the problem immediately. I'm hoping there is another option. Thanks in advance.

I wouldn't use RAID-0 for this anyway; it is too fragile. You could use the enclosure you already purchased if you connect it to your PC, and do the backup over the network using a robocopy script. robocopy will do incremental copies.

Or get an RN102 with 2 3TB drives (jbod) to get automatic daily backups, and use the enclosure for the 6-month snapshots.

^ Thanks, but doesn't JBOD also create a single large "virtual" drive? I suspect my NVX will not recognize this enclosure set to JBOD with 2 3TB drives.

The RN102 is a ~$200 NAS, so the NVX wouldn't see the drives, only the shares. By JBOD I am meaning using each disk independently (one volume each). This is the standard use of the term (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-RAID_d ... hitectures).

The problem with creating a single volume with RAID0 is that when a drive fails, all the data on all the drives is lost.

As far as the enclosure goes, the easiest answer there is to plug it into your Mac and back it up over the network. My robocopy idea would be windows-only, but there are likely other mac-based tools that would be equivalent. You could also try to mount it on the NVX with ssh I guess.

^ Thanks again. I'm aware of JBOD. When using JBOD on my Vantec enclosure it states that the drives will appear as a single drive with the sum of the capacities.

Backing up over WiFi with 4+ TB would probably be a multi week process and isn't feasible from my perspective. It already takes about 3 days over USB.

Again the problem with an additional NAS is that I would need 2 of them, one for weekly BUs one for off site BU. That is another $400 plus the $400 for drives.

The first world probles of "data insecurity"...

swamp2 wrote:
Thanks again. I'm aware of JBOD. When using JBOD on my Vantec enclosure it states that the drives will appear as a single drive with the sum of the capacities.

I think that is sometimes called SPAN. It will have the same flaw as RAID-0.

swamp2 wrote:
Backing up over WiFi with 4+ TB would probably be a multi week process and isn't feasible from my perspective. It already takes about 3 days over USB.

I agree WiFi wouldn't work, you would need gigabit ethernet. That would be faster than USB. I guess you are saying that you are unwilling to get ethernet for the Mac?

swamp2 wrote:
Again the problem with an additional NAS is that I would need 2 of them, one for weekly BUs one for off site BU. That is another $400 plus the $400 for drives.

Well, I wasn't suggesting two, only one (making the assumption that it was practical to do the off-site on the mac using the existing enclosure). Another option for off-site is cloud backup (for instance Crashplan that would be ~$60 per year).

Crashplan's lower tiers will be painful to backup or recovery 5TB. We've started putting clients with that much data on Zetta.net. I've been able to recover ~3TB a day with them over a 300 Mbps connection.

I think swamp2 is a home user, so he won't have 300 mbps internet. He is also wanting the cheapest way to back up, not the "best".

Crashplan runs about 12-15 mbits for me, which is fast enough to keep up with my backups. I have about 7 TB there. The de-duplication helps with Acronis backup. Full recovery would certainly be take 1-2 months (which is why I am only using it for disaster recovery).