We are using a ReadyNAS Pro 6310 (1Gb, Firmware RAIDiator 4.2.31) as the primary backup device for our Windows Server.
We use Macrium Reflect to write full and incemental backup sets to the ReadyNAS according to a schedule. The backup script also includes commands to wake the ReadNAS prior to backup and then to shutdown the ReadyNAS on completion so it is live to the network only when necessary. A full backup file generated by Macrium Reflect and backed-up to the ReadyNAS can be ~ 140Gb (single file).
We also have portable USB 3.0 drives connected directly to the ReadyNAS front and rear USB 2.0 ports . Using the ReadyNAS power timer and local ReadyNAS Jobs, we wake the ReadyNAS at another time and write some backups held on ReadyNAS to the portable USB drives. Throughout the week we swap-in another set of portable USB drives and store the original set off-site (as part of a rotation scheme).
In theory the use and rotation of the portable USB drives seems good, however, in practice we cannot get it to run reliably.
Our problems include :
. Slow USB writes ~ 3Mb/s
. USB drive connected but not recognised as connected in Volumes - USB Storage
. Can't reliable mount / unmount connected USB drives via Volumes - USB Storage
We have tested with System - Performance Fast USB writes disabled (and enabled) without success.
If we do get a successful backup session running we achieve ~ 30MB/s which is fine for overnight backup work.
The poratble USB drives test fine for writing when directly connected to a Window PC via its USB 2.0 port.
We have tried different brands of portable USB 3.0 drives, different cables, cold booting the ReadyNAS, ensuring the drives show as mounted in Volumes - USB Storage, reformatting of the USB drives but we cannot isolate the problem.
We have three remaining thoughts / things to try before we look to retire the ReadyNAS :
1. Increase the RAM from 1Gb - 4Gb in case the ReadyNAS is simply running out of resorces ?
2. Seeing if there is a way we can write separate command scripts to the ReadyNAS via PUTTY / PLINK to force a clean mount of the connected USB 3.0 drives (ignoring FrontView)
3. Seeing if there is way we can invoke a backup to the connected USB drives using separate command scripts to the ReadyNAS via PUTTY / PLINK.
We have root access to the ReadyNAS.
There appears to be several threads in the community associated with poor writing speeds to connected USB devices.
If anyone in the community has had experience with this problem and has a solution proven solution we would like to hear about it.
Your Pro doesn't have any USB3 ports so the USB hard disk doesn't need to be USB3 (though USB3 is backwards compatible with USB2 so it should work fine).
Does your USB disk have an in-built timer to put itself to sleep. If so, it would be best to disable that.
We are formatting our portable USB devices with NTFS.
The majority of our portable USB devices are Toshiba Canivo 1Tb USB3.0 or Toshiba Canivo 2Tb USB3.0. These give us the capacity we need in a small form factor device.
We note from Toshiba's labelling the power requirements for either is shown as 5.0V DC, 1.0 A.
Regarding disabling the sleep timer, we would need to carryout some investigation to see if this feature exists / can be disabled for the Toshiba Canivo. Given we are always waking-up the NAS via WOL or the NAS's Power Timer and then running the backup job immediately we would expect the portable USB drives to be re-woken-up by this activity in anycase.
