We have ReadyNASRN3138 NAS and recently we added another ReadyNASRN3138 to our rack and now both are connected!
1. How do we clone our current NAS with the new one correctly(with the same file paths and Contents)?
2. How to setup both of them to run simultaniously and if a one goes down, other one should be able to comes up and run our servers(VMware EXSI) with no issues.
Please Help!
Thanks in Advance
Model: RN3138|ReadyNAS 3138 Series 4- Bay (Diskless)
Re: How to Clone ReadyNAS to Newly Added ReadyNAS?
Hi,
i have been struggling with a similar problem of backing up a ReadyNAS to another ReadyNAS and found the only reliable way is to create a Backup job of Share to Share on each ReadyNAS.
This is a domestic setup on my home network not in a comercial setting.
i found i can backup /data to a USB - /Media/USB_HDD_x but not to ReadyNAS _x/data as there is no root access as such. would make it so easy if it was possible. So in the end created back up jobs for a each Share and activated them all at once, they then go in a queue.
There was ReadyNAS Replicate but it looks to be no operational now as of 1 jan 2018 but I was weary of using anything outside my local network as that service looked to be in the cloud.
Re: How to Clone ReadyNAS to Newly Added ReadyNAS?
Replicate and ReadyDR aren't high-availability - with both, the backups need to be restored before the backup can be used. So neither is suited for this.
Share-by-share backup jobs using rsync are a good way to transfer the data - although it takes more backup jobs than you might like. The main drawback is that iSCSI Luns can't be sent incrementally - if anything in the LUN changes, the entire LUN is re-sent. Since you need a coherent backup, you should run the backup jobs on the main NAS. Then they will create a snapshot of each share, and the backup from the snapshot. That handles the case when share (or Lun) is changing while the backup is running.
You'll need to manually keep the NAS configuration in step (when you add a share to the main NAS, you'll need to add it to the backup, and create a backup job for it). The backup NAS will need to have it's own hostname and IP address.
Automatic cutover is the hard part here - there is nothing in the NAS to support that. And since the data on the backup will be older than the main NAS, I think you'd to restart the VMs anyway (or at least remount their storage).
The manual procedure would be to reset the backup NAS hostname and IP address to match the failed NAS, and then do whatever is needed on the VMs. If the cutover is only needed for the VMs. then it's probably better to leave the NAS hostname and IP address alone, and remount the storage on the VMs. I suppose you could automate that with scripts.
wrote:
There was ReadyNAS Replicate but it looks to be no operational now as of 1 jan 2018 but I was weary of using anything outside my local network as that service looked to be in the cloud.
Use of Replicate was extended for existing users until the end of this year. That gives time for folks to switch over to ReadyDR (if they use x86 OS 6 NAS). ReadyDR isn't a cloud service, and doesn't run over the Netgear VPN.
Re: How to Clone ReadyNAS to Newly Added ReadyNAS?
Replicate was a misnomer -- it was "ReadyNAS backup and restore". A true replication system is sorely needed. Unless you are in an AD environment, you not only have to manually create shares on the backup device and backup jobs for any new shares on the primary, you have to do the same for users and groups.
Re: How to Clone ReadyNAS to Newly Added ReadyNAS?
wrote:
Replicate was a misnomer -- it was "ReadyNAS backup and restore". A true replication system is sorely needed.
I agree on both these points.
wrote:
Unless you are in an AD environment, you not only have to manually create shares on the backup device and backup jobs for any new shares on the primary, you have to do the same for users and groups.
I suspect that most folks who have lots of user accounts are using AD, since it would be too painful to do anything else even with a single NAS.
But mainly I wanted to add that "do the same for users and groups" means create users/groups on the backup NAS with matching UID/GID - since a single backup job can be used for all the home folders.
