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Request for review of basic backup plan RN10200 OS 6.6.1 (Newbie)
I really would appreciate some assistance by anyone who is familiar with backing up a NAS 102. What I need is a review of what I have done and any corrections necessary. My goal is to have an independent backup to avoid the loss of data on my NAS via ReadyCloud, as in the latest incident of March 30th. (I have very little experience with a NAS, so patience and good directions are necessary.) I use an iMac and have attached a 5GB USB3 drive to the top rear USB port of the NAS102, Firmware 6.6.1. It is formatted to NTFS. So here is what I have done:
1. Created a “backup” in the Admin section of ReadyCloud.
2. Backup “Data” share which contains all my shares to my USB HHD.
3, All is then backed up to the USB HHD and visible on the drive via ReadyCloud.
Questions:
1. Is this backup scheme what I need to reach my goal? If not, detailed suggestions.
2. Can I disconnect the USB drive until I want to another manual backup? If so, is there a menu in ReadyCloud or Admin to safely eject the drive or can I just pull the USB connection? Location of eject, if there is one?(I can't find one.)
3. I am concerned that if I leave the drive connected to the NAS that ReadyCloud can “accidentally” delete my access to this backup as in the March 30th incident. Finally, I am concerned with leaving this drive on 24/7. Quality of the drive is not as good as my NAS HHD’s.
4. Finally, assume the NAS loses access via ReadyCloud, will the data on the backup be visible and usable if I plug the drive into my iMac or even a Windows machine which I can get access to?
Thank you so very much in replying to this request. I know to the initiated, that this must seem mundane and the answers are buried somewhere in the forums. I’ve been looking through the forums and things can get real technical. Thanks again!
6 Replies
Backups are important, and I think it's great when folks ask for review of their backup plans.
One thing to consider: USB drives can fail. And if you do incremental backups (which run the fastest), you can run into problems if sectors go bad on files that aren't changing. I've sometimes run into this - getting read errors when I finally do need to get the files back.
There are two adjustments to your strategy that can reduct this risk (and you can do both).
-You can rotate two USB drives in your backup plan. That gives you two independent backups (one a bit older than the other).
-You can also periodically wipe do a full backup to the USB drive. The web ui backup has an option for this, you can also just delete all the files from time to time.
A variation on the second suggestion is regularly test the drive (for instance with disk utility on the mac).
BadBob wrote:
1. Is this backup scheme what I need to reach my goal? If not, detailed suggestions.
If you are backing up to the NAS with TimeMachine, those are backed up to hidden folders that might not be copied.
Otherwise, you are backing up the full data volme, which should reach your goal.
You should disallow snapshot access on the NAS shares (not the snapshots themselves, just the access). You can't back up the snapshots efficiently, and if snapshot access is allowed I believe the backup job will attempt to back them up.
BadBob wrote:
2. Can I disconnect the USB drive until I want to another manual backup? If so, is there a menu in ReadyCloud or Admin to safely eject the drive or can I just pull the USB connection? Location of eject, if there is one?(I can't find one.)
You do need to eject the drive before you remove it. There are two methods
- You can set up the backup job to eject when done
- You can manually eject (system->volumes, then click on the settings wheel next to the USB volume)
BadBob wrote:
3. I am concerned that if I leave the drive connected to the NAS that ReadyCloud can “accidentally” delete my access to this backup as in the March 30th incident. Finally, I am concerned with leaving this drive on 24/7. Quality of the drive is not as good as my NAS HHD’s.
Another option you have is to connect the USB disk to the Mac, use the built-in OSX file sharing service to share the USB drive. You can then adjust the backup job on the NAS so it will copy the files over the network to the MAC.
Or, you can use a Mac utility to copy the full data volume from the NAS to the USB drive instead of using the NAS backup jobs. For instance, FreeFileSync.
Either way you are isolating your backup from the ReadyNAS itself. Plus you can use native OSX formatting for the USB drive.
BadBob wrote:
4. Finally, assume the NAS loses access via ReadyCloud, will the data on the backup be visible and usable if I plug the drive into my iMac or even a Windows machine which I can get access to?
That depends on how the USB drive is formatted - and unfortunately the NAS doesn't support the native OSX filesystems. One option is to get the paragon NTFS software for OSX, and format the USB drive to use ntfs. Then you can read (and write) to the USB drive from both OSX and Windows systems.
It is important to verify that you can read the backup, so this is an important step.
Stephen,
I have some questions already. I really like the idea of:
" you can use a Mac utility to copy the full data volume from the NAS to the USB drive instead of using the NAS backup jobs. For instance, FreeFileSync."
The question then becomes, if ReadyCould goes down and I lose access to the NAS, I assume my backup will be useless to restore the NAS as it is in OSX format.
" unfortunately the NAS doesn't support the native OSX filesystems. One option is to get the paragon NTFS software for OSX, and format the USB drive to use ntfs. Then you can read (and write) to the USB drive from both OSX and Windows systems."
So, it would appear that my best and simplest bet is to get the Pafagon NTFS software for OSX, share my USB drive via my MAC and do my backups that way. Yes/No? Also would I use the NAS web ui to back up to the USB drive?
Finally,
You do need to eject the drive before you remove it. There are two methods
- You can set up the backup job to eject when done
- You can manually eject (system->volumes, then click on the settings wheel next to the USB volume)
My USB volume does not show up under system>volumes
Thanks so much!
BadBob wrote:
The question then becomes, if ReadyCloud goes down and I lose access to the NAS, I assume my backup will be useless to restore the NAS as it is in OSX format.
You'd recover the NAS files over the network as well - access the full data volume on the OSX (which is done using the NAS admin account), and reverse source and destination folders.
One caveat is that it can be tricky to restore the home folder(s). The file ownership isn't automatically restored, so you need to access each home folder using that user's logon, and then upload the files for that user.
FWIW, you'd run into this same caveat when you restore the backup made directly from the ReadyNAS.
BadBob wrote:
So, it would appear that my best and simplest bet is to get the Pafagon NTFS software for OSX, share my USB drive via my MAC and do my backups that way. Yes/No? Also would I use the NAS web ui to back up to the USB drive?
NTFS formatting gives you the most recovery options - you can access the files via the NAS usb port, via a windows system, or on the MAC. Though you can build a good backup plan without that. Paragon NTFS is inexpensive though, and there are MAC users here that use it. Note I use Windows myself, so I can't offer much practical advice on the MAC side of things.
You can use the web ui to back up over the network to the MAC-connected USB drive. It can be a bit tricky if you want to schedule the backups, since the MAC needs to be running, and the USB drive needs to be shared when when the backup is scheduled to run. You also need to set up the file sharing on the MAC.
Something like freefilesync might be a bit easier to set up. But either way can work.
BadBob wrote:
My USB volume does not show up under system>volumes
Sorry, found the eject under System>overview.
Looks like I misled you on the location.
But the drive should show up as a volume on the volumes tab. How is it formatted?
Stephen,
Thank you so very much for your kind and well thought out reply. I will be examining it more in detail to see what I need to do.
I was very concerned about making this post, as some other forums that I have read, some replies are down right nasty, condesending and insulting. It is a pleasure to know that some people are just kind and helpful. Thanks again.
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