RSYNC backup tips

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PNGum wrote:

If someone has two ReadyNAS OS6 devices, any tips on setting up RSYNC backups on ReadyNAS #2 to "pull" from ReadyNAS #1 to ReadyNAS #2? Any tips for the RSYNC "Advanced" tab?

 

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It works better to use the remote IP address than the name (which means you should assign the remote IP address in the router, so it is consistent).

rsync needs to be enabled for the source (remote) share.  Read-only is sufficient.  The rsync service needs to be enabled on the destination (local) ReadyNAS, but the service doesn't actually need to be enabled.  I enable it anyway (as read-only).

If you have created user accounts (or have made your own groups), then it's best if they are matched on both NAS (have the same UIDs and GIDs). 

On the advanced tab, I set "remove deleted files on target", and leave the other settings clear.  This results in the destination NAS share being a mirror of the source.  I also have snapshots set up on the destination NAS, scheduled so that the deleted files are preserved in the snapshots if I need them.  This approximates what you'd get with a versioned backup tool.

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PNGum wrote:

If someone has 10 shares on the ReadyNAS #1, do they FIRST need to re-create those 10 shares on ReadyNAS #2, and SECOND create 10 backup "pulls" for each share-to-share from ReadyNAS #1 to ReadyNAS #2?

 

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Yes.  The destination is local, since it is "pull", and the share needs to exist in order to set up the backup job.

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PNGum wrote:

What are the key differences between an RSYNC backup and a Windows/NAS (Timestamp) backup?

 

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One is already touched on - the advanced setting for rsync allows you to create a mirror of the source on ReadyNAS #2.  There is no efficient way to do that with Windows Backup - the only way is to delete the entire destination before you run each backup.

The other fundamental difference is that Rsync is looking directly at the linux file attributes, and it will preserve those.  Windows backup depends on the file attributes advertised by SAMBA.  Those map to the linux attributes, but they don't exactly match. 

In general, Rsync does a better job of incremental backups (and does that quite quickly). Though it can be slower when making the initial full backup. If you are backing up over the internet, Rsync-over-SSH is secure, and you should use that (not "vanilla" rsync, and not Windows).