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Re: Sync to USB drive instead of clear and full backup

GL1zdA
Guide

Sync to USB drive instead of clear and full backup

Is there a way to sync a folder on the ReadyNAS to an USB drive instead of having it cleared and fully backuped? I have a large share on the NAS and a 2 TB USB drive attached. On this share new files will often be created and old deleted and this will quickly fill the USB drive when using incremental backups. Clearing the whole backup and then copying over 1 TB of files which were already there doesn't seem like a great idea.

 

I've found a workaroud here: How to sync NAS and USB drive , but maybe there is a cleaner way of doing it in the current firmware?

Model: RN10200|ReadyNAS 100 Series 2- Bay (Diskless)
Message 1 of 10

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StephenB
Guru

Re: Sync to USB drive instead of clear and full backup

local rsync backup would be a good feature.  I suggest posting it in the idea exchange ( https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-for-ReadyNAS/idb-p/idea-exchange-for-storage?topic-zo... )

View solution in original post

Message 6 of 10

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mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: Sync to USB drive instead of clear and full backup

As that linked thread indicates you can use Rsync. With Rsync only the changes are copied across on incremental backups and you can remove files on the backup destination that were deleted on the source.

Message 2 of 10
GL1zdA
Guide

Re: Sync to USB drive instead of clear and full backup

Okay, I have configured it that way and launched the backup. After 24 hours it still haven't completed. The size is about 1 TB and almost no files have changed (something like a dozen files added on the backed up share) - I know rsync is quite intelligent, but it seems forcing it to talk locally over TCP/IP is to much overhead for the little RN102. What is more, most of the admin UI is unresponsive - it won't for example load anything in the shares tab.

 

Does it matter what FS is on the USB drive? This drive was my archive drive before I bought the ReadyNAS. It is NTFS formatted. I have copied all files from it to a share on the NAS (through a local backup job) and the new backup job is set up to copy files from this share to the USB drive using remote rsync with all default settings.

Message 3 of 10
StephenB
Guru

Re: Sync to USB drive instead of clear and full backup

If this is the first time the backup job is running, it will do a full backup (overwriting files that are already there).

 

I recently rebuilt my RN102 using rsync to restore data from my pro-6.  It ran at approximately 1 TB a day.  I haven't used rsync to usb on the RN102, but it is possible you simply haven't waited long enough for the first backup to complete.

Message 4 of 10
GL1zdA
Guide

Re: Sync to USB drive instead of clear and full backup

Okay, although it failed (i've setup it to backup to the /USB, but it used the backuped up share name so it run out of space), but copying nearly 1 TB took 80 hours. I've tested before copying data NAS->USB via the admin UI and it took about 40 minutes to transfer 100 GB, so the overhead of doing it the recommended way is over 10 times which is unacceptable. Any chance we get local rsync in an update? Or maybe a local rsync backup can be easily hacked through ssh?

Message 5 of 10
StephenB
Guru

Re: Sync to USB drive instead of clear and full backup

local rsync backup would be a good feature.  I suggest posting it in the idea exchange ( https://community.netgear.com/t5/Idea-Exchange-for-ReadyNAS/idb-p/idea-exchange-for-storage?topic-zo... )

Message 6 of 10
Bruce_In_Philly
Aspirant

Re: Sync to USB drive instead of clear and full backup

Sync instead of backup to USB

 

Rsync to a USB attached drive instructions are here:

 

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Backing-up-to-your-ReadyNAS/Backup-ALL-local-shares-to-USB-drive/td...

 

Check Pixel81 instructions.  They work.  I could not get the input to accept "FILES & FOLDERS TO BE EXCLUDED:
- Select the ‘+’, enter the following in the “Name:” text box, select ‘Apply’:
/data/._share"   But other than that , it works for me.  Way Way better than the backup feature... I just wanted a sync'd USB drive, formatted NTFS so I can remove the drive and plug into any machine.

 

Peace

Bruce in Philly

Message 7 of 10
StephenB
Guru

Re: Sync to USB drive instead of clear and full backup


@Bruce_In_Philly wrote:

 

 

Check Pixel81 instructions.  They work


Yes, you can use localhost and a remote rsync destination.

 

Though that's not quite the same as being purely local rsync (which you can't do).

 


@Bruce_In_Philly wrote:

I could not get the input to accept "FILES & FOLDERS TO BE EXCLUDED:

You no longer need that bit anyway.

Message 8 of 10
GL1zdA
Guide

Re: Sync to USB drive instead of clear and full backup

That's what I did, but it was painfully slow. Apparently, rsync works different when working over the network and locally and doing it using "localhost" as a target causes to much overhead.

Message 9 of 10
StephenB
Guru

Re: Sync to USB drive instead of clear and full backup


@GL1zdA wrote:

That's what I did, but it was painfully slow. Apparently, rsync works different when working over the network and locally and doing it using "localhost" as a target causes to much overhead.


Possibly, though rsync uses a lot of CPU resources, and it might have been slow locally too.

 

Either way, a lot of users want to use rsync locally to USB, and the localhost work-around is clumbsy.

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