Scheduled RN424 backups pulling a file-by-file copy from a windowsPC data folder
I have used a few Readynas units for years and continue to use Veritas System Recovery to image drives to my NAS units. I also have original files on my one NAS that I am now trying to backup to a second. But that is another issue.... Recently I have wanted to also have a file-by-file copy of a few windows PC data directories (not the OS, not even the OS hard drive, a secondary drive) onto my NAS. Should be simple?
I was surprised at the conflicted recommendations within the Netgear documentation.
The manual says to share the windows folder and use the OS6 backup utility to setup and schedule a backup. But then the Netgear Article "How do I back up data from a Windows AMB share to a ReayNAS OS 6 system" says using OS6 backup is NOT recommended for "window shares" as files in use can cause the backup to fail....and to use windows backup! That certainly is not automatic and not my preferred choice at all...
I just want to know what is the recommended best practice to backup a few data folders on a file-by-file basis on a local PC on the same network as my NAS on a regular basis (even weekly would be fine). It would do one complete backup, and then copy any added or changed files the next time it runs, say weekly.
Of course I can manually copy them or something, but I want it to run automatically like my images. The PC and NAS wakes up, the imaging program runs, that is just what I want the file-by-file copy backup to the NAS to do.
Should be pretty basic....maybe am I reading too much into the FAQ?
Thanks, BJB
Model: RN424| ReadyNAS 424 4-Bay with up to 40 TB total storage
The manual says to share the windows folder and use the OS6 backup utility to setup and schedule a backup. But then the Netgear Article "How do I back up data from a Windows SMB share to a ReayNAS OS 6 system" says using OS6 backup is NOT recommended for "window shares" as files in use can cause the backup to fail....and to use windows backup! That certainly is not automatic and not my preferred choice at all...
Well, Windows will deny file access to the NAS if Windows has given something else exclusive access, so people should be aware of that. Still, you could use that method anyway. You can configure the backup job to send you an email alert when it fails, so you would be able to rerun the backup manually to catch up.
Personally I use Acronis for image backup. It allows me to specify a batch file to run when the image backup completes. That batch file does an incremental backup of some PC folders to a NAS share.
Another approach is to use freefilesync on the PC.
Re: Scheduled RN424 backups pulling a file-by-file copy from a windowsPC data folder
StephenB,
Great to hear from you! Veritas image is similar to Acronis.
I use alway sync from PC so that is an option.
But if I am backing up pictures, music, and documents say at 1AM, I am thinking 95% of the time a NAS pulled backup would work. And the NAS will remember to do it more often than me!!!
But if I am backing up pictures, music, and documents say at 1AM, I am thinking 95% of the time a NAS pulled backup would work. And the NAS will remember to do it more often than me!!!
I agree - you could just use the NAS pulled backup approach. If it did occasionally fail, it probably wouldn't result in a lot of data loss. If you configure email alerts when the backup fails, you can just manually run it after you close whatever program is blocking the backup.
Acronis allows me to schedule the image backups, so I am also making them (with the side job to archive some folders) unattended. The other option I mentioned (FreeFileSync) also supports unattended background jobs.
Re: Scheduled RN424 backups pulling a file-by-file copy from a windowsPC data folder
Unless the NAS is on a power schedule or you are worried about too many PC's backing up at the same time, a push from the PC's probably works better. The Windows file backup on the NAS is not well suited for documents that are spread between different directories -- you need a separate job for each. A PC backup shouldn't have that issue. If all your users are "nice" and keep everything in their folder under "Users", then maybe it works; but even with that, you probably get a lot more than you need in the backups.
I've used EaseUS Todo BackUp Free for that.
Whatever you do, don't try one of the Rsync solutions for Windows (including built-in beta support in Win10). They drove me nuts: not maintaining proper permissions, failing to properly recognize changed files, just locking up, you name it.
Re: Scheduled RN424 backups pulling a file-by-file copy from a windowsPC data folder
Thanks to you both for great input. Sounds like I will just have to set a reminder to run a PC based push sync. Dont need headaches of other direction is glitchy.
