I work remotely for our main office. There we have a ReadyNAS Duo with its own IP address.
I have been put in charge of backing it up to my remote PC (Windows 7). I've tried reading the documentation, but am unclear of the easiest way to do this. I'd just like a bi-weekly automatically scheduled backup of the ReadyNAS to my remote pc.
You will want to look into a backup software for your windows machine, if you are wanting to image/backup the whole PC. Since you are wanting to run the backups remotely, you will want to see what protocol you are wanting to transfer the data over. I would recommend a secure connection with a VPN, and then running the backup of your choice.
I want to actually backup the whole NAS to my remote PC (or a drive connected to my PC). Not my PC to the NAS. (I just use carbonite for my pc backup.) Sorry if that was not clear. The NAS is used like a server in the main office and at the time is not backed up. Would I still install the software on my remote PC and just connect into the NAS somehow to image it?
I will have to check on the router but it *might* be a building-wide system shared by many tenants.
If it is, what software/method do you recommend?
Thanks also for your help. I stink at 'server' stuff.
The backup would be much faster if it were done locally in the main office. That could be done by connecting a USB drive to the Duo. That doesn't protect against disaster, but probably should be part of the backup strategy.
How do you connect to the home office network? Are you using a VPN of some sort?
Thanks. They are actually going to start a local backup there too, but I would like to do a weekly one to my remote location.
Honestly, now I just use "logmein.com" to connect into the main office when I need it. Most of my work I do remotely on my own local files. (We make products for the blind.)
I guess I could setup a VPN system, but was hoping it would be as simple as just "dialing" into the NAS's IP or ftp'in it.
I really appreciate your help and patience with me.
How fast is your internet connection (both uplink and downlink speeds if you know them)? More than likely you will want to make an initial backup on site, and then only backup files that have changed.
FTP is a possibility, though getting reliable incremental backups with FTP can be tricky.
Using a VPN connection makes the transfer more secure, and also gives you more options (CIFS or NFS). Though this would require VPN support in the home office. Do you know if that is available?
Also, what firmware is running on the ReadyNAS? (your backup setup depends on the duo platform, knowing the firmware is the easiest way to be certain of that). Is your PC running Windows? Or is it a Mac?
I use FileZilla for general use, but I think there are some freeware programs that are specifically aimed at using FTP for backup. I haven't tried them though, so I can 't recommend them one way or another.
I suggest using "explicit FTP over TLS" as this will work with ReadyNAS and creates a secure/encrypted connection.
If you are launching the backup from your site then the main office will need to forward some ports in their router to the NAS (there are several posts here on setting up FTP, they should be pretty easy to find by searching).
I suspect that you will find that this approach will be time consuming, Another option you all should consider is to use 2 USB drives for backup in the home office, and rotate one of the USB drives off site (to the home of one of the folks working there). That would also provide a reasonable disaster plan, and is probably easier.
