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readynas backup
Hi I have a readynas 312 with 2 2TB hard drives setup in Raid 1. I have hourly snapshots setup on my shares and I also have a USB external hard drive hooked up for daily backups.
I realize that raid 1 is not considered a backup solution it is mainly for drive failure, but I don't see how the USB drive is any different. It's just a copy of the raid drive. Basically if something gets corrupted on the raid drive it will also happen to the USB drive.
Is there some way to setup the USB backup to archive deleted or altered files? I just don't see how the USB backup is anymore of a backup than the RAID in the NAS.
Thank you
poko2121 wrote:
I tried to do Rsync backups for the USB drive but during the setup of the backup it didn't give me any option to select the method of backup. Am I missing something here?
For rsync, you can create a share on the USB drive, and use localhost (or 127.0.0.1) for the IP address.
poko2121 wrote:
Our old server was setup with crashplan, but I haven't figured out how to use crashplan with the readynas yet.
Crashplan can be installed on the NAS (I have it running on my pro6 with OS 4). Memory can be a problem (and Crashplan uses 32 bit Java, so it is limited to ~ 4 GB).
poko2121 wrote:
Crashplan wouldn't allow backing up network drive from a computer
Actually it does work - see https://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/4/Backup/Backing_Up_A_Windows_Network_Drive
Though it is "unsupported", so is running headless on a linux machine. I've found that Crashplan support will engage on failed backups, etc - though they won't help with the actual setup of the "unsupported" process.
This is simpler to set up than installing directly on the NAS (esp with the per-user installation), and doesn't have the memory issues that you can run into with the crashplan on linux.
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With RAID-1 if a write is made it will be made to both disks. The data on both disks is exactly the same.
A backup contains a copy of some of your data from some point in the past.
Sure snapshots allow you to access your files as they were at a point in the past but they are on the same device.
We have an explanation of why RAID is not a backup here: Preventing Catastrophic Data LossA backup is a copy of your data on another device, and preferably you would have at least one off-site backup at all times.
Just to be clear, if the primary copy of your data is on your PC, then the copy on the NAS is a backup. It is not the RAID that is the backup, but rather that this is a copy of the data that is not on the primary device the data is on.
A USB disk you can take off-site to provide some protection against losing your data as a result of fire, flood or theft (obviously a thief would have your data if they still your device, unless its encrypted and they don't have the encryption key, but you wouldn't have lost the only copy of your data if you still have a backup).A USB disk is a separate device so may still be readable when an array in the NAS has failed.
Generally a primary copy of data, plus a few backups (with one off-site at all times) would be recommended. It does depend on how you value your data though. You may have some data e.g. irreplaceable family photos and videos that you keep multiple backups of, but other data that you don't value as highly that you don't keep as many backups of.
Right, I understand that. And my preferred setup is the Raid 1 NAS file server + USB backup + cloud backup.
My main concern is that the daily usb backup doesn't give me much time to recover from a corruption. Since it backs up daily it may backup a corruption on the NAS before I can get to it.
I was wondering if there was a way to setup the USB backup to archive changed or deleted files rather than have it just be an exact copy of the NAS. So that I could go back and recover files from 2 weeks ago if necessary. I also noticed that snapshots are not backed up to the USB drive.
Thank you
poko2121 wrote:
Basically if something gets corrupted on the raid drive it will also happen to the USB drive... I just don't see how the USB backup is anymore of a backup than the RAID in the NAS.
If you are using the built-in backup, then the USB drive is simply another copy of what's on the internal disks. You are correct in thinking there are limitations to that approach.
Some cases where it helps:
(a) the NAS itself bricks - perhaps corrupting the RAID array.
(b) Recovery from a user error - for instance you accidently delete a share.
(c) If you are replacing a drive, and the remaining drive also fails the volume is lost.
In all these scenarios, the USB backup is likely intact.
poko2121 wrote:
Is there some way to setup the USB backup to archive deleted or altered files?
If you use rsync, you can set up the backup job to keep deleted files (in fact that is the default). You can't archive altered files easily (unless you rotate multiple USB drives).
My approach is to back up to another OS6 NAS, with snapshots turned on for the destination shares. As long as there is enough space for the snapshots, that provides the ability to roll back to older versions. My cloud backup software (Crashplan) also gives me the ability to recover old versions of files.
StephenB thank you for the good points. Yes my next job is tackling cloud backups. Our old server was setup with crashplan, but I haven't figured out how to use crashplan with the readynas yet. Crashplan wouldn't allow backing up network drive from a computer and the readynas doesn't have an app for crashplan backups.
I tried to do Rsync backups for the USB drive but during the setup of the backup it didn't give me any option to select the method of backup. Am I missing something here?
Thank you
poko2121 wrote:
I tried to do Rsync backups for the USB drive but during the setup of the backup it didn't give me any option to select the method of backup. Am I missing something here?
For rsync, you can create a share on the USB drive, and use localhost (or 127.0.0.1) for the IP address.
poko2121 wrote:
Our old server was setup with crashplan, but I haven't figured out how to use crashplan with the readynas yet.
Crashplan can be installed on the NAS (I have it running on my pro6 with OS 4). Memory can be a problem (and Crashplan uses 32 bit Java, so it is limited to ~ 4 GB).
poko2121 wrote:
Crashplan wouldn't allow backing up network drive from a computer
Actually it does work - see https://support.code42.com/CrashPlan/4/Backup/Backing_Up_A_Windows_Network_Drive
Though it is "unsupported", so is running headless on a linux machine. I've found that Crashplan support will engage on failed backups, etc - though they won't help with the actual setup of the "unsupported" process.
This is simpler to set up than installing directly on the NAS (esp with the per-user installation), and doesn't have the memory issues that you can run into with the crashplan on linux.
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