Which NAS can back up to other NAS?

[wakelamp]

Hi,
We run a small business from home in sunny Australia with 4 PCS, 2 of us and a small white dog.

In the article "How To Choose the Right NAS for You" NAS for You" by Tim Higgins, he discusses the need for NAS backup and states " I recommend buying only NASes that have built-in capability to do scheduled backups, preferably to both local, USB-attached drives and networked shares. "

Based on this we are planning on having 2 identical NAS A and B on our Network and backing up from A to B. What would people recommend?

(We would also like Gigabyte Ethernet and for it to work with Vista)

regards and thanks Paul

 

[Dennis Wood]

The QNAP units do a version of rsync which will allow one NAS to synchronize on a schedule with another with encryption. This works locally, as well as over the internet meaning an office unit can backup to a home unit and vice versa over a high speed internet connection. They also support scheduled USB and on the TS509, eSATA based backup. That said, the firmware for their 4 and 5 drive units is not ready quite yet IMHO for prime time and there are issues there to be addressed.

I'd take a look at the Synology NAS units as no one seems to be complaining here about them. The QNAP unit performance is good, but again, there are bugs there that need to be fixed...a few major ones. Once they're fixed, I'd likely steer you in their direction.

Vista will work with any NAS..so no worries there.

As far as your white dog...just scratch his belly and feed him treats. He doesn't care about your NAS choice

 

[wakelamp]

Thank-you for your time and the reply

(Small white dogs are always useful (especially in Hack !)

 

[thiggins]

Based on this we are planning on having 2 identical NAS A and B on our Network and backing up from A to B. What would people recommend?
l

The Buffalo LinkStations also have NAS to NAS scheduled backup.
The D-Link DNSes can backup local folders or networked shares via the Download schedule function.

 

[Osamede]

The QNAP units do a version of rsync which will allow one NAS to synchronize on a schedule with another with encryption. This works locally, as well as over the internet meaning an office unit can backup to a home unit and vice versa over a high speed internet connection. They also support scheduled USB and on the TS509, eSATA based backup. That said, the firmware for their 4 and 5 drive units is not ready quite yet IMHO for prime time and there are issues there to be addressed.

I'd take a look at the Synology NAS units as no one seems to be complaining here about them. The QNAP unit performance is good, but again, there are bugs there that need to be fixed...a few major ones. Once they're fixed, I'd likely steer you in their direction.

Vista will work with any NAS..so no worries there.

As far as your white dog...just scratch his belly and feed him treats. He doesn't care about your NAS choice

The backup capability is precisely the biggest aspect of the QNAP that this more or less broken at this point. many of the options are extremly slow transfer rates (despite its having "gigabit ethernet") or failed.

So if that is a concern i would steer away from QNAP at this point. I have one myself, but that is the truth.

Cant speak for Synology...

 

[claykin]

Netgear Readynas series

 

[mvitiello]

This is the perfect thread - I just wish it was longer. I am generally a newbie with this stuff but I think this is the most important NAS discussion - period. I am amazed, after reading the problems that can occur, that anyone would buy a single NAS and assume that the internal raid conf. will provide adequate backup.

I would like to purchase two 1TB NAS devices and have one device do scheduled backup off the other (media streaming, web access, etc. all a plus). Any additional thoughts on this type of setup, suggestions or discussions of possible hardware would be great. I am taking a look at the previously suggested hardware now and will post any good info I find too.

Thanks also for the good info so far on this.
michael

 

[yoh-dah]

This is the perfect thread - I just wish it was longer. I am generally a newbie with this stuff but I think this is the most important NAS discussion - period. I am amazed, after reading the problems that can occur, that anyone would buy a single NAS and assume that the internal raid conf. will provide adequate backup.

I would like to purchase two 1TB NAS devices and have one device do scheduled backup off the other (media streaming, web access, etc. all a plus). Any additional thoughts on this type of setup, suggestions or discussions of possible hardware would be great. I am taking a look at the previously suggested hardware now and will post any good info I find too.

Thanks also for the good info so far on this.
michael

I can't speak for the other NAS, but the ReadyNAS comes with a built-in Backup Manager where you can schedule your backups with other ReadyNAS system(s). Typically we recommend that you set up a rsync job between the two ReadyNAS in a LAN environment, then take one offsite and perform future rsync incrementals between the two over VPN. You will and should set up VPN endpoints where your data will safely tunnel through the public network.

Here's a quick write-up (a little out of date, but you'll get the general idea) on how to do this: http://www.readynas.com/download/documentation/support/rsync_howto_nastonas.pdf.

Good luck!

 

[QNAPIvan]

QNAP NAS supports to back up the data from one NAS to another remote NAS with encryption option. It can also back up to another standard Rsync server or to receive the backup data from Rsync server.

Here is a brief introduction & how-to for your reference.
ftp://csdread:csdread@ftp.qnap.com/NAS/Doc/RR-A-s.ppt

Cheers,

 

[Dennis Wood]

An important note to add to the QNAP pdf manual regarding opening ports 134, 443, 873, and 22 on your router:

Remote replication with SSH only requires your SSH port, and the rsync port be open. Port 134 and 443 don't need to be opened! In other words, when setting up remote replication:

1. Make sure SSH is enabled on the receiving NAS (Remote Login Option) and preferably set the port number to a random port of your choosing. This will reduce port scanning/probing.

2. When defining the backup job, check off the SSH option. It's not a bad idea to use a random port here for rsync...just note what you're using and be consistent with each defined replication job.

3. Don't open port 134, and 445 on your router and route to the NAS IP as the manual describes. At the receiving end router, just open the SSH port, and rsync port you've defined earlier, and forward these ports to your NAS unit's IP. The sending unit does not need any ports opened on the router...just the receiving one!

4. Make sure you use strong passwords for the NAS unit's admin accounts.

 

[maxwell]

All Synology NAS series support scheduled and incremental remote backups using rsync.

You can setup multiple backup plans with different target servers and different schedule plan.

The target server can be normal Linux server supporting rsync or other Synology NAS servers.

The SSL encryption is supported and can be turn on/off for different backup plans.