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Forum Discussion
NAS-to-NAS network backup? That won't do stupid things?
I recently experienced my first HD failure since switching to a NAS (Duo v1) and wired/wireless network for file storage three years ago. My backup regime included a direct USB link to an external HD and via a third-party software to my Mac's HD. This means I'm now struggling with restore issues: http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=67464
As it was executing its last backup, the HD failure caused the NAS (ReadyNAS duo, 4.1.10, 2x 1 TB) to drop its server connections. The software thought the demounted shares no longer existed and so "synced" the data by erasing the entire backup! I had thought the "keep deleted files" option was checked, but it was not; 250+ GB of files were erased without a single dialog box or warning.
So now I am looking for a new third-party backup application. It will run on either my Mac or Windows 7 PC, directing backup of several shares from my new NAS to my old one (deliberately using two separate NAS instead of just making one redundant). I use CIFS/SMB as a protocol for my mixed Mac/PC network. The aim is that in the event of another HD failure I can simply switch to the backup NAS to keep working, and when I get a new drive painlessly (given what i'm going thru "painlessly" is key) restore files back to the main NAS.
What in your experience is an easy-to-configure software to do frequent NAS>NAS mirroring over the network? It should definitely have safeguards against accidental erasure in the event of network problems like the one I experienced.
hopefully I will get more responses that when I tried this a while back! (http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=36994)
Thanks
rinypa
As it was executing its last backup, the HD failure caused the NAS (ReadyNAS duo, 4.1.10, 2x 1 TB) to drop its server connections. The software thought the demounted shares no longer existed and so "synced" the data by erasing the entire backup! I had thought the "keep deleted files" option was checked, but it was not; 250+ GB of files were erased without a single dialog box or warning.
So now I am looking for a new third-party backup application. It will run on either my Mac or Windows 7 PC, directing backup of several shares from my new NAS to my old one (deliberately using two separate NAS instead of just making one redundant). I use CIFS/SMB as a protocol for my mixed Mac/PC network. The aim is that in the event of another HD failure I can simply switch to the backup NAS to keep working, and when I get a new drive painlessly (given what i'm going thru "painlessly" is key) restore files back to the main NAS.
What in your experience is an easy-to-configure software to do frequent NAS>NAS mirroring over the network? It should definitely have safeguards against accidental erasure in the event of network problems like the one I experienced.
hopefully I will get more responses that when I tried this a while back! (http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=36994)
Thanks
rinypa
10 Replies
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- for NAS-to-NAS you could use Frontview backup, or get a replicate license.
- right. that's what I used to to backup to my ext. USB drive. But frontview backup has no restore functionality, and when browsing the drive on my PC I notice it copied all the ._DSSTORE and shadow files that the Mac OS puts on there. So I think there is probably something better out there...
- To restore a backup made using Frontview backup you'd reverse the backup and destination in the backup job and rerun the backup job.
rinypa wrote: ... As it was executing its last backup, the HD failure caused the NAS (ReadyNAS duo, 4.1.10, 2x 1 TB) to drop its server connections....
Is that normal? I thought the X-Raid redundancy should have kept the Duo (ver 1) fully functional if one HD failed.
Isn't that the point?
I am worried now ..
Aloke
That option works the other way (assuming rsync backup via Frontview). Checking it means delete the files on the destination that are no longer on the source.rinypa wrote: I had thought the "keep deleted files" option was checked, but it was not; 250+ GB of files were erased without a single dialog box or warning.
Yes, the point is to keep the data available even if one hard drive fails. Though there are some types of failures (for instance an interface failure that hangs the SATA bus) that will result in lockup.alokeprasad wrote: rinypa wrote: ... As it was executing its last backup, the HD failure caused the NAS (ReadyNAS duo, 4.1.10, 2x 1 TB) to drop its server connections....
Is that normal? I thought the X-Raid redundancy should have kept the Duo (ver 1) fully functional if one HD failed.
Isn't that the point?
In any event, X-Raid redundancy is not a substitute for backup. There are many failure modes (including NAS failure, and fire,theft, etc) that can result in data loss. So it is important to have a backup plan in place even with RAID.- I get that. I'm not arguing about the need for external BU.
But why did the server connection drop when his HD failed? It wasn't a failure of his Duo's network interface.
His data was not kept available when his one HD failed. That's bothering me. - StephenB gave the example of a SATA interface failure which is quite different to a network interface failure. You may get some clues as to what happened by looking at the logs (but they are rather technical and intended to be reviewed by support rather than end users).
- Thanks Stephen and mdgm.
This appears to be an outlier (in the sense that it (probably?) wasn't a failure of the HD caused by head crash) and that the OP lost the backup data but not the data on the Duo. - I'd say it was an outlier.
Across a population of ReadyNAS machines I have now seen about 6 hard drive failures (no data loss, either, by the way).
In no cases do the network connection go down. - Hi all, just to clarify what happened.
I was using a a mac-native third-party backup software to run my backups NAS duo v1 > desktop HDD over the network. My NAS had only one HD. I began having network connection drops to both PC and Mac clients, which I had never experienced before, simultaneous with the error count on the HDD shooting way up (so I can't see how the events were not connected). In one of those drops the mac backup software seems to have erased the backup on my desktop HDD. No data on the NAS itself was erased.
I sent my logs to the backup software developer who could not find an explanation and claimed the problem should not have happened (yet it did).The other backups that I rain through the Frontview rsync interface to an external HDD were fine and I'm lucky I kept up with those.
It has been a long time since I got my duo so I used the opportunity to invest in second NAS and I now run backups from there to the duo using frontview's rsync client. I am still looking for another third-party software to supplement this.
mdgm: thanks for the instructions on restoring backups, incredibly obvious but I hadn't thought of it.
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