Clone NAS drive with (e.g.) Acronis?

[stevech]

I'm thinking of trying this, to get a solid backup of my NAS OS drive volume (non-RAID), before I take-a-chance on the major NAS OS (DSM) upgrade. (Synology DSM 4.3 now).

1. Shut down NAS (and it's attached USB3 backup 2TB disk). The 2nd drive in the NAS is a separate file system/volume for Time Backup (last 6 months of file versions)
   
2. Remove primary volume disk. It's 2TB. Probably has multiple partitions. It's Linux/Extfs4 I think.
   
3. Connect via SATA or USB3 to windows PC.
4. Run Acronis True Image and choose CLONE (I've done clone of windows drives very frequently).
5. Clone from that drive to a USB3 or SATA connected 2TB target drive.
6. Put the clone into the NAS and see if it will boot the NAS OS and appear identical.

I do have lots of backups, but not a clone that's bootable, as I do by habit with Windows - as an anti-malware tactic.
I think Acronis will clone without rejecting the disk format being perhaps non-MBR.

 

[htismaqe]

I don't know if Acronis can handle EXT4 filesystems can it? If not, you could always clone the drive RAW. Cloning it RAW would probably be better for multi-partition too (my QNAP has 2 or 3 hidden partitions on the main drive, including swap).

The methodology looks sound, I've just never tried it.

 

[sfx2000]

Might be an opportunity to dump the shares (Samba, DLNA, etc) over to an attached external, then nuke and pave, apply the update, and then restore the files...

I get a bit worried about an image backup, not knowing what Synology does with the filesystem owners/groups and do they run any of their software on the drives, or all in a dedicated Disk on Chip.

One could end up with an add hybrid update...

BTW - does Acronis need to have the file system mountable in order to clone? If so, most NT based OS's won't have a file system driver for EXT3 or EXT4... so that might be a problem.

 

[htismaqe]

I use DriveImage XML rather than Acronis and it DOES require the file system to be mountable in order to backup the filesystem. However, it can clone a drive physically, sector-by-sector (RAW) and I've used it in the past to clone EXT3/4 drives from a Windows machine.

 

[stevech]

I'm assuming that the clone doesn't care about file systems - a partition is just a bunch of sectors?
Not doing file system backup.
That is, CLONE is not a drive image in the sense that Acronis et al do backups called images. Acronis and others have an additional option: clone, the entire drive.

I do have a USB3 backup of all the shares, but I want to just clone the drive rather than start from scratch.

(N/A but I have some freeware for windows that will mount an extfs drive. I used to use it when I ran my USB3 backup connected to the NAS formatted extfs to be faster. Now I leave the drive as NTFS and the backups take longer, but oh well.)

 

[htismaqe]

Ah, then what you're talking about and what I'm talking about are the same - backing up the physical drive, sector by sector. DIXML calls that "RAW" mode. I can't imagine why it wouldn't work.

 

[stevech]

I'll find out!

Yeah, I'm used to the terminolgy
"clone" means sector verbatim. I guess it'll copy boot block and partition if they exist.
"image" means backup selected partition(s), writing into a file, which means parsing the file system to some extent.

 

[sfx2000]

I'll find out!

Yeah, I'm used to the terminolgy
"clone" means sector verbatim. I guess it'll copy boot block and partition if they exist.
"image" means backup selected partition(s), writing into a file, which means parsing the file system to some extent.

Comes down the the ISO stack, eh?

Samba/DLNA servers are App layer... so are your files to a large extent...

Go down to the block layer, it's all physical...

In any event, I think you're taking a fairly prudent approach - backing up data somehow/somewhere before pushing a major firmware release on a NAS box - most times it's ok, sometimes it's not... so having a backup is always good...

 

[stevech]

I have several backups!
My cloning goal is to have a bootable backup with which to revert if I must!

 

[htismaqe]

Could save you a ton of time. It's a good idea, IMHO.

 

[sfx2000]

Could save you a ton of time. It's a good idea, IMHO.

I agree - excellent idea...

Remember, Linux does have powerful tools that one can use to clone partitions or entire drives to ether another drive or image files - a quick google check found this from Arch Linux's most excellent knowledgebase/wiki..

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Disk_cloning

 

[stevech]

indeed. But to do a gawd-awful
# dd if=/dev/sdX of=/dev/sdY bs=512 conv=noerror,sync
With the NAS shut off and the to-be-cloned disk removed, I'd have to boot my Linux Mint drive on my PC.
May as well use Windows/Acronis clone, methinks. It has a GUI.

And I'd get the wrong /dev/sda? <ha!>

 

[sfx2000]

Indeed - and even with GUI's, sometimes things go wrong - I watched a guy replace a bad disk in a RAID1 array, and when he brought it online to rsync the mirror - went the wrong way and mirrored the new empty drive to the old "good" drive - and it happened almost instantly...

So, lesson learned there - paying attention is very critical - and if you have a way to test/verify the cloned disk or image, that's a must do before making any changes to the parent disk.

 

[htismaqe]

That's one reason I like to backup partitions with a program that supports VSS. It's working from a copy instead of the actual partition itself.

 

[stevech]

VSS won't help if one does a backwards clone! oops,

 

[htismaqe]

LOL

 

[sfx2000]

VSS won't help if one does a backwards clone! oops,

Well, in my case, it was a Man-Machine Interface Error with the IBM Field Tech - just goes to show...

And Free sometimes has an intangible cost.. it's not that they're better or worse, but Ease of Use has a value-add all it's own.

SteveCH asked for something that is "cheap", and Linux has Free Tools, but sometimes it's better to get something like Acronis Drive Image/SuperDuper/CopyCopyCloner...

 

[stevech]

Yeah, data risks... I don't buy cheap drives, use refurbs, etc. I don't use freeware for drive backups.

Yes, freeware can work. Paid-for products can have bugs. But so far. Acronis has come through for me when I needed it. Such as quickly booting a cloned OS drive on my PC when despite my best care, malware got in and I could not get rid of it in an hour. I cannot say drive failure led me to use clones or backups. Not in the last 8 years or so. Luck, or better QA in drives, or whatever.

My data and my time are more important that saving a few bux.

The Time Backup file versioning in my Synology has really saved my butt many times when I hosed up a file or had to revert due to honking up some C code on a project (consulting work). Or my financials.

 

[sfx2000]

Yeah, data risks... I don't buy cheap drives, use refurbs, etc. I don't use freeware for drive backups.
My data and my time are more important that saving a few bux.

True, true...

What did you settle on then?

This would be useful for others that might run across this thread.

 

[stevech]

I used to consider WD as best of breed. Still think they're a better risk than Seagate, on average. But like most tech, they all have lemons; can't-work-well products. Hitachi used to be exceptional. Today, I can't say. I rely exclusively on Samsung for SSDs - which are the best thing since sliced-bread.

My NAS is Synology. Good backup tools (I use several, primarily their Time Backup for versioning back 6 months). Its folder backup to USB3. And to a big SD card for VIP files.

PC drive imaging and drive cloning (I do both): Acronis True Image. Love it. Hate it. The UI has gotten much better in the 2015 editions. Price varies wildly per retailer and season.

I re-habituated to store only certain work-in-process on the PC's SSD (500GB). For speed, e.g., big multi-file C programming. 100% of work in process is also copied to NAS by automation from the below...

PC Desktop VIP work in process backups to NAS: Centered Systems' SecondCopy. Love it. I use it for current projects and living documents. Once the project is done, I remove that task.

SafeHouse Software's SafeHouse (free version) for encrypted virtual disk for private medical/financial info. By far, quickest UI to mount/open and use files. One click, password, go.

ADrive for on-line backups where if it's private or proprietary, I encrypt via winzip before uploading. So only I know how to decrypt. I used OpenDrive for years, but ADrive's 100GB for $25/yr is irresistible. (I tried/rejected most of the others: AWS, Googledrive, Dropbox, Crashplan, and many more. Some don't do passworded access to shared files; some are backup-only; some are resellers of others'. I use encrypted zip on ADrive for VVIP and off-site storage (anti-theft-of-NAS), and sharing with password access. Biggest risk with these companies is the disgruntled employee or contractor.. just ask Dropbox or OpenDrive.

I rate my greatest data loss risk as: Theft Of NAS (et al). Next-greatest risk: human error. I feel that for SOHO, drive failure in a 2-bay, 2-volume is way down the risk list, with 1-2-3 backups. Risk of drive failure goes up with the drive count! Ask any small-NAS RAID5 user.

1-2-3 philosophy in backups, or more
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheComputerBackupRuleOfThree.aspx