Backing Up A NAS

[Ph4lanx]

Hi guys,

I'm after some advice here with regards to backing up my NAS.

I currently have a Synology DS211j that I am running with 2 x 1TB HDDs in a RAID 1 configuration.

I wanted to add something to allow me to run a weekly backup of the NAS just as an "in-case". I have wittled it down to two options...

1. Buy a USB-powered external HDD of the same size, plug it in and setup a weekly backup to it.

2. Buy another internal HDD of the same size, plug it into my SATA docking station that I have and plug that into the NAS for a weekly backup. However it would need its own power.

My dilemma is this. Would you leave the SATA docking station constantly plugged in and be OK with it? Bear in mind it would be sat on a desk so dust would collect on top of it. That's my problem, and the reason why I'm leaning towards the external HDD which is fully enclosed.

I know the docking station would allow me the ability to whack in another, larger drive in the future when I upgrade the disks in the NAS as well to be able to match it. What do you think?

 

[cyber69]

I would personally buy a 2TB external USB drive and plug it directly into the Synology unit and leave it to backup overnight and then store it 'offsite' somewhere - like a relative's house.

 

[kae2]

I would personally buy a 2TB external USB drive and plug it directly into the Synology unit and leave it to backup overnight and then store it 'offsite' somewhere - like a relative's house.

This is exactly what I do with my microserver.

For pure paranoia, I have two external drives that are rotated off/onsite.

 

[Ph4lanx]

Well I would like it to backup once a week, so taking it offsite is a bit of a lug for me.

But you're saying you'd buy a dedicated drive rather than a docking port one?

 

[kae2]

Well I would like it to backup once a week, so taking it offsite is a bit of a lug for me.

But you're saying you'd buy a dedicated drive rather than a docking port one?

Then you would lose everything if you had a local "disaster". Fire/flood etc.

Yes, dedicated drive, easy to transport.

 

[Disco Boy]

How easy is it to take out a drive from your RAID 1 NAS?

The reason I ask is because you could just buy another 1TB drive and swap one drive over at the end of every week and then re-mirror the array to the new drive, job done.

 

[Ph4lanx]

Then you would lose everything if you had a local "disaster". Fire/flood etc.

Yes, dedicated drive, easy to transport.

True, perhaps I can just carry the USB drive with me during the week to work, etc. - Would you happen to be able to recommend a decent one?

How easy is it to take out a drive from your RAID 1 NAS?

The reason I ask is because you could just buy another 1TB drive and swap one drive over at the end of every week and then re-mirror the array to the new drive, job done.

Not very easy I'm afraid. Each disk is mounted with four screws inside the chassis. It's not a hot-swappable drive unfortunately.

 

[DoubleCheese]

Backup to the "cloud"? Amazon S3 or Carbonite?

 

[Fourstar]

Backup to the "cloud"? Amazon S3 or Carbonite?

Lets say he has a shiny superfast FTTC or Cable connection with 10Mb upload. Sending his 1TB to the cloud will take 10 days 24/7 maxing out his connection. If he has a more normal 1Mb that would be 100 days!

Backing up to the cloud is great for important docs or a smallish photo library but not practical for large media libraries.

I also use the 1TB hdd in a USB enclosure for backups though haven't got round to taking them off site..

 

[DoubleCheese]

Lets say he has a shiny superfast FTTC or Cable connection with 10Mb upload. Sending his 1TB to the cloud will take 10 days 24/7 maxing out his connection. If he has a more normal 1Mb that would be 100 days!

Backing up to the cloud is great for important docs or a smallish photo library but not practical for large media libraries.

I also use the 1TB hdd in a USB enclosure for backups though haven't got round to taking them off site..

Aboslutely, it'll take an age to upload it all, but once its there its safe and off site.

Another alternative is to get a 1 or 2Tb external drive and make a backup of the NAS. Then buy a PogoPlug and have this and the external drive at a friends or relatives house (they'll need to agree to have it on all the time and connected to their Broadband connection) and have it backup to the drive. As its already got an up-to-date backup of the NAS it'll just be incremental updates which it most Broadband lines should be able to cope with.

 

[Disco Boy]

Aboslutely, it'll take an age to upload it all, but once its there its safe and off site.

Very safe... The only downside is that his weekly backup would take 10 days to complete

 

[ecksmen]

Very safe... The only downside is that his weekly backup would take 10 days to complete

Not strictly speaking true, many online backup services use compression and other techniques to reduce the raw transfer amount.

I have circa 40GB of on line backups, and its ever growing.

 

[Sh4rkie]

Ideally two 1 or 2tb external devices and take one offsite while the other keeps a backup.

That said do you really need to back everything up? Films and music would be a pain to lose but not irreplacable, family photos and docs would be however. Across a 10tb raid array i use at home (6tb usable, 2tb lost to parity, 2tb hot drive) less than 200gb of it is critical. I use 2 x 2tb sata disks external to my HP Microserver and rotate them weekly / month basis at my missus house or work in case of a fire. Even then i'd be happy to lose a months worth of recent data vs 15 years worth if i didn't rotate the disks often and some critical happened at home (theft as well as the usual fire etc.).

 

[KIA]

Very safe... The only downside is that his weekly backup would take 10 days to complete

Incremental.

 

[Arthalen]

Incremental.

Or De-Duplication. Very effective method of backing up.