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Push vs. Pull Rsync backup
This FAQ How do I backup data between two ReadyNAS OS 6 systems describes how to setup a backup job on the source NAS to backup to another NAS. I have seen some posts where users are setting up ...
BJB wrote:
I have seen some posts where users are setting up the RSYNC job on the destination NAS and "pulling" the data from the source. I didn't see an FAQ for this method.
It is pretty straightforward, you just need to reverse the source and destination in the faq. Ignore step 16, it doesn't apply.
BJB wrote:
What are the pros and cons of the two different kinds of setup?
One advantage of the "push" backup is that the source NAS will make a snapshot, and then back up the snapshot. That ensures that all the files are coherent (copied at the same time instant), and that a file can't change while it is being backed up.
If the backup NAS is on a power schedule (as mine are), then the "pull" backup ensures that the backup NAS is actually running when the backup starts, and that it won't shut down until the backup is finished.
I was going to set this up when I realized something. My new RN424 NAS (now blank) should be my new source NAS for my video folder and my old NAS RN104 should be my "backup" NAS for this folder so I am writing to, and streaming from my new NAS in the future.
So I realized I need to copy that one video folder from the old NAS to the new NAS to start and then copy all new files to the new NAS going forward. Should I just do an explorer or teracopy for this one-time copy? Settying up a sync I don't think makes sense as in the future it will be going the other way?
I then think I need to free up some space on the old NAS so there is room for future Syncs of this folder from the new NAS as new videos are added.
So once I add new files to the new NAS I need these files copied to the now backup folder on the old NAS which up until these new file adds were identical. Can I keep what is there on the old NAS and add to it when I setup the sync or will it need to be an entirely new folder to get the sync going? If it needs to start with a clean folder then I will need to make sure is room for a one-time sync and then delete my original folder afterwards (which is scary to do..). Would prefer the sync just ADD files added to the new NAS to my old NAS so I can keep my original folder and files as they are...
Geez this sounds complicated...
Thanks again for the help and any suggestions.
BJB
BJB wrote:
So I realized I need to copy that one video folder from the old NAS to the new NAS to start and then copy all new files to the new NAS going forward. Should I just do an explorer or teracopy for this one-time copy?
Personally I've just used rsync share-by-share backup jobs to get the folders onto the NAS. Using explorer or teracopy will double the network load, since everything would be copied through the PC. Teracopy is more robust than explorer.
BJB wrote:
So once I add new files to the new NAS I need these files copied to the now backup folder on the old NAS which up until these new file adds were identical. Can I keep what is there on the old NAS and add to it when I setup the sync or will it need to be an entirely new folder to get the sync going?
You can use the existing shares on the old NAS as the backup destination, there is no need to create new shares (or empty existing shares). It would make sense to turn snapshots off for the initial backup from the RN424 to the RN104.
Is the rsync backup setting the same for my inital "copy it all" sync from old NAS to new NAS as it is for the "copy just the new files" from the new NAS to the old in the future for backup purposes from that point on?
Of course other than the backup jobs are in different directions.
So Rsync never overwrites or deletes files, it just copies what is missing?
Thanks,
Bill
There is a small difference between the backup settings for push and pull.
If the backup source is a local share, you need to put a / in the path field of the source. Otherwise the backup is nested (for instance a backup to destination share Music will end up in Music/Music. That / isn't used when the backup destination is a local share.
BJB wrote:
So Rsync never overwrites or deletes files, it just copies what is missing?
There is a setting that lets you delete files in the destination that are no longer on the source. I use that setting (with snapshots enabled on the destination share). But it is not on by default.
If a file is modified, then an incremental rsync backup will overwrite the version on the destination. As noted above, enabling snapshots on the destination share is one way to deal with that.
The backup job settings will have "schedule full backup" set to "first time" - there is no setting for "never". I don't know of any workaround for that with OS-6.
It's possible that reversing the source and destination won't reset the backup job flag that tells the NAS that it's never been run. But I wouldn't plan on that. If you have a small share, you could see if a full backup is run by simply leaving snapshots turned on in the destination share (with quotas enabled for the volume). If the snapshot space for the destination share goes up, then files were overwritten.
If the snapshot space does go up, then you do need to turn off destination snapshots on the remaining backup jobs when you reverse the direction (turning them on if you want them after you run them once). Otherwise you will quickly run out of space on the RN104.
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