How to backup ts-509p

[cdrsteve]

I have a QNAP 509 that is populated with 5 WD 1T RE3 drives. I have almost finished moving all of my media files to the NAS and am now thinking of solutions for backing up this RAID 5 array. I will have around 2.5T of data to backup and not sure of all my options. Is another NAS, such as the 409P my best option or are there other (LESS EXPENSIVE) options? Really don't want to sink another chunk of change for another full NAS just to be used as a back up device. I already have 4 additional 1T RE3 drives available so all I need is another box and I am good. I am told that ESATA is not a viable solution because of a 2T access limit on the 509. I am open to any suggestions or ideas no matter how far out there I just need a method to back up my media so I don't have to go through the laborious process of ripping my library again Thanks in adavance!!

 

[MrFixit]

cdrsteve,

Currently I use Retrospect Professional (running on my main PC) to control backups to my TS-509, from my main PC and other networked PCs, and from my TS-509 to external firewire drives attached to my main PC. A product such as Retrospect (and there are many others – just Google) allows you to define a backup set that can have more than one (physical) volume as the backup destination. This makes it easy to overcome the 2TB limit (which of course also applies to 32 bit XP) i.e. you can spread your data over more than one drive / volume, but have the backup considered as a single unit.

While such a solution obviously requires that the main (or backup manager) PC has to be powered on (but it is not necessary for you to be actually logged in to the GUI) and running Retrospect Professional (according to your defined schedule) it does allow for an automated and reliable solution which offers incremental backup (not just simple synchronisation) while also allowing you to restore a snapshot (a file set defined at a given backup session) for recovery purposes i.e. it handles the marshalling of all the files required from the history of incremental backups performed.

Does this help?

 

[archivalbackup]

cdrsteve,

I am in a very similar situation at the moment, and almost learned the hard way after putting 3 weeks into transfering everything digital I have onto the 509 and then having a major system fault (pretty confident a bad drive is to blame).

Anyway, my plan (and i'll post back on progress) is to setup a FreeNAS box and have the Qnap do an rsync backup to my FreeNAS server.

 

[cdrsteve]

cdrsteve,

I am in a very similar situation at the moment, and almost learned the hard way after putting 3 weeks into transfering everything digital I have onto the 509 and then having a major system fault (pretty confident a bad drive is to blame).

Anyway, my plan (and i'll post back on progress) is to setup a FreeNAS box and have the Qnap do an rsync backup to my FreeNAS server.

Well I finally bit the bullet and picked up a second 509P and populated it with 4 WD 1TB RE3 drives to act as a backup NAS. Had some initial problems running a rsync between the two 509's but I think I have them worked out now. Just finished backing up about 1TB of video files and now starting a 600GB tv shows backup. So far so good. This has been an expensive project but I rest a whole lot easier knowing I have a good backup on hand!! r/Steve

 

[SirBC]

Well I finally bit the bullet and picked up a second 509P and populated it with 4 WD 1TB RE3 drives to act as a backup NAS. Had some initial problems running a rsync between the two 509's but I think I have them worked out now. Just finished backing up about 1TB of video files and now starting a 600GB tv shows backup. So far so good. This has been an expensive project but I rest a whole lot easier knowing I have a good backup on hand!! r/Steve

I'm doing the exact same thing. Except, in a moment of clarity while having coffee one morning, I realized that I didn't really need either of the 509's running RAID 5. Since I am backing-up the main NAS every night to my "mirror" NAS, I didn't need the redundancy that RAID 5 offers. Also, since I am using the main NAS solely as a media server I didn't really need the (slight) read performance that RAID 5 offers. So I converted them (one at a time, because you will loose your data in the process) to Linear Disk Volumes, and I gained about 1TB in the process.

-Dave

 

[cdrsteve]

I'm doing the exact same thing. Except, in a moment of clarity while having coffee one morning, I realized that I didn't really need either of the 509's running RAID 5. Since I am backing-up the main NAS every night to my "mirror" NAS, I didn't need the redundancy that RAID 5 offers. Also, since I am using the main NAS solely as a media server I didn't really need the (slight) read performance that RAID 5 offers. So I converted them (one at a time, because you will loose your data in the process) to Linear Disk Volumes, and I gained about 1TB in the process.

-Dave

Dave,
Following in your footsteps! I think I have a bad or marginal drive in one of my 509's that I need to sort out. Once that is done, I plan to drop the RAID's alsor r/Steve

 

[thiggins]

If you have a choice of JBOD or RAID 0, use JBOD. An error on any drive in a RAID 0 array will kill the entire array. An error in a JBOD array will affect only the drive that has the error.

 

[cdrsteve]

If you have a choice of JBOD or RAID 0, use JBOD. An error on any drive in a RAID 0 array will kill the entire array. An error in a JBOD array will affect only the drive that has the error.

Thanks Tim. Had already taken that approach and all is working perfectly at this point. rSync jobs are running smoothly though I have a couple shares to modify to get everything truly to my liking. I am truly happy to get this all working and to have my media files safely backed up to the backup 509. Thanks to all for the guidance!! r/Steve

 

[archivalbackup]

grrr.... not sure what I want to do now =(

another 509 just for backup would be a bit much for me, and I want to have a geographically distant backup location as well, so I would not get much use out of a second 509.

If the 209 supports 2GB disks, I suppose I could just setup a raid 0 since all it needs to be is a backup, or a 409 as linear.

But based on the cost, and number of computers I have laying around, I am going to get the disks and try rsynching to FreeNAS first, which if successful I will deploy at a friends house (after taking an initial sync locally) so that if say my house burned down I still have all the data.

 

[corndog]

My recommendation would be to get an older Netgear ReadyNAS for your backup. A second-hand 1100 would be great, and also an old NV - before the NV+. They're quite a bit slower than the QNAP, but hey - this is for backup. And they'd be a lot cheaper too. You might even find them as reliable (if not more) as your QNAP.

 

[SirBC]

If you are considering backing up your data to a friends house you may want to consider this:

http://www4.crashplan.com/consumer/index.html

I've used it in the past and it has some nice features, including the ability to filter files you want to backup using regular expressions. If your friend leaves his computer on 24x7, it may be cheaper to just send him a 2GB drive and you'd be good to go. One of the nice features is the ability to do the first backup locally (mush faster) and then move the HD to the remote location and do incremental backups.

-Dave

grrr.... not sure what I want to do now =(

another 509 just for backup would be a bit much for me, and I want to have a geographically distant backup location as well, so I would not get much use out of a second 509.

If the 209 supports 2GB disks, I suppose I could just setup a raid 0 since all it needs to be is a backup, or a 409 as linear.

But based on the cost, and number of computers I have laying around, I am going to get the disks and try rsynching to FreeNAS first, which if successful I will deploy at a friends house (after taking an initial sync locally) so that if say my house burned down I still have all the data.

 

[archivalbackup]

If you are considering backing up your data to a friends house you may want to consider this:

http://www4.crashplan.com/consumer/index.html

I've used it in the past and it has some nice features, including the ability to filter files you want to backup using regular expressions. If your friend leaves his computer on 24x7, it may be cheaper to just send him a 2GB drive and you'd be good to go. One of the nice features is the ability to do the first backup locally (mush faster) and then move the HD to the remote location and do incremental backups.

-Dave

Just wanted to post back that I went the FreeNAS route and everything is working very well right now. More details in this thread: http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?p=7983&posted=1#post7983