Rsync Advice

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stevehaley wrote:

I am looking for some advice.

I need to backup a windows 2012 server to my Readynas running OS 6.6.1 over a 20mb PFSense site to site VPN. I have read as much as I can but i am still a bit confused as I am not a Unix guru and have some questions which hopefully some kind person can answer

 

1. Does it matter which is the server? Is it better to pull from the readynas or push from the Windows server?

 

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Not if both are always on.  If you want to NAS to come on only for the backup, then initiate it from the NAS, scheduled right after the power-on.  It will not shut down in mid-backup if it's the one controlling it, so you can set it to power down soon after

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2. Can you Rsync an existing directory pair without having to start from scratch with a full Rsync copy?

 

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You can use an existing directory in NAS-to-NAS RSync, so long as the copy method left the dates intact.  Whether that will work on whatever you use on Windows, I can't say,

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3. What is the best Rsync wrapper for Windows server 2012?

 

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I did not have a lot of lucj with DeltaCopy and the NAS initiating.  All files were always copied.  I've not tried others.

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4. Is Rsync the best solution? Have seen Resiio BTSync etc but that appears better for one to many and would rather stay with an industry solution if practical.

 

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Because of the problem mentioned above with DeltaCopy, I changed to SyncBack Free and use its clone option.  That's initiated by the Windows machine, so won't be the best solution if you need the NAS to power on before the copy.