I am preparing to backup this NAS for the first time and am selecting appropriate equipment. I plan to plug an USB HDD in the rear of the RN424 and backup to that destination. To that end, I have some questions:
1) For backing up the ReadyNAS to a USB HD, what backup protocol (Windows/NAS, FTP, other) should I use? This NAS is used by several Windows PC and to a lesser degree, one Linux PC.
2) I plan on using a WD Blue 6TB drive inserted in a Cable Matters USB3 hard drive dock. Will this work?
3) At this time, the size of the NAS content is about 4TB. What are my options when the NAS content (currently 3x 6TB drives) eventually exceeds the single 6TB backup drive?
4) How should I format the destination drive when it is connected via USB to the RN424? Does the ReadyNAS do this automatically?
5) In a related question, when I backup a PC over the network to the NAS, using Windows backup, does the format matter?
thanks
Model: RN424|ReadyNAS 424 – High-performance Business Data Storage - 4-Bay
Do you want/need to be able to plug the USB drive into a PC to get to the data if the NAS fails? If yes, format the drive as NTFS. You can do that in Windows or on the NAS.
Do you want/need versioning for your backups? If yes, none of the "backup" protocols are best, ReadyDR is. But it's not compatible with wanting to access the data via a PC. If not, or if you do need PC access, RSYNC is best, as it can be set to only copy files that are new or have changed.. There is a trick to setting up RSYNC to a local USB drive -- use "external" protocol to device 127.0.0.1 (the loop-back IP address).
A blue drive in a USB chassis will work, but check out some of the USB drives that are pre-made. They can be cheaper. Some folks buy USB drives and remove the HD to put in a NAS because it ends up cheaper than the drive alone.
While more expensive to start, backing up to a second NAS is a step in future-proofing your backup scheme. But you can add a second USB drive and set different shares to backup on different drives. You can even use a VPN and make the backup remote.
The format you use to backup your PC does not matter. But unless you jump through hoops, it's going to use SMB. I use Acronis True Image myself, but there are free options that are decent.
While you didn't ask, consider not turning on SMB access to the USB drive or backup NAS. That will probably block any ransomware.
I'd add that if you aren't using versioning it is a good idea to use two USB drives (rotating them regularly - perhaps weekly). That gives you a secondary backup. If you can conveniently store one of those drives off-site, then you'd also have some protection against disaster (theft, fire, etc).
There is another approach here. You could potentially add internal drive(s) to one or more desktop PCs, and back up the NAS over wired gigabit ethernet. If you do that, I'd suggest using PC tools to do the backup (instead of using the NAS backup jobs). That avoids the need to share the backup folders on the network. If your long-term plan is to get a second NAS (for instance an RN214) for backup, then you could get NAS-purposed internal drives (WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf), and shift them to the backup NAS when you get it.
