NAS box - sync and backup overnight to remote location?
 

At work we have a number of remote locations. What I'd like is the ability to have each location sync and backup to our head office overnight. What I don't want each location to have to do is leave at least 1 PC on overnight. We do leave our file sharing PC on in head office 24/7

Is it possible to have the NAS box set to sync and backup overnight without the local PC being on?

I've been playing around with Tonido lately and although I can sync and backup to the HO PC, my home PC has to be on - at least, I haven't worked out how to do it with it not being on.

All help appreciate

You've not said what you're trying to sync. Does each remote location have a server or NAS on which all data for that location is stored? Or are you trying to back up the users PCs.

If there is a server/NAS in each location then can't you just configure the PC in the Head Office to initiate a sync of each NAS. A small robocopy job would do it.

We have 8 machines which all save to one machine that we leave on 24/7.

What I want is for a NAS box at each location to have a mirror of the "My Documents" on the machine we have on all the time. Without the locations having to leave their computers on all the time.

What would be even better (which is what Tonido allows me to do) is restrict each location to different folders on the machine we leave on all the time. So Location 1 only sees Location 1 files and folders and so on.

Tonido will allow me to sync but I think I have to leave both machines on. I haven't tried it as we don't have a NAS box to play around with yet.

If you have a vpn to all the remote locations then just use robocopy to mirror the drives from the main office end pc that is left on over night.

If you want to hide a folder from general prying eyes then you can share it with a $ on the end of the name. As you know its there, you will be able to mount it thus:

\\site1\sharename$

Let me know if you need more info

J

take a look at rsync - http://everythinglinux.org/rsync/ this will save me explaining it on here.

Have a look at Freenas 7


Mart

ReadyNAS has a software option called Replicate, which lets you replicate one NAS to another.

http://www.readynas.com/?cat=93

If its VPN its doable.

I do it with a pair of Readynas Duos via a pair of Draytek Vigors on a semi-permament link using rsync

Problem is our upload speed is 500Kbps so its only restricted to the basics.

I use shadow (its crap, I know) to backup stuff from PCs to NAS, then another backup routine on the NAS to put critical/select stuff into a second backup folder on the NAS, which in turn is sent to the remote NAS overnight.

The above sounds simple now I've typed it, but its not that straight forward. Mainly down to the ReadyNas Duo being somewhat counterintuitive.

Of the 5 or 6 locations only 2 don't have drayteks. I've been trying to set up a PPTP VPN but just keep getting error 800: unable to connect.

I set up a profile in the router and having chatted with a IT tech guy, he was able to log into the file server in the office. Yet, when I do it from home I get error 800.


Whatever I put in place has to just work - I can't have the locations ringing me and telling it it doesn't work etc.

Really appreciate the help guys. Many thanks

How does the ReadyNas Ultra compare to that from Synology or Qnap?

I've gone for a QNap NAS box.

Finally got the PPTP working (didn't change the IP starting IP address!)

Getting there slowly. Just got to work out a good replicate and back up system.

I've just been playing with QNAP real time replication. Looks quite straightforward to setup if you have the IP link available between boxes. If you are running a WAN over VPN links, the upstream available will be your bottleneck. It depends how much data needs to be transferred each night.

This replication - does it overwrite the NAS box with whatever the NAS box is looking at or does it sync between the two locations?

I can use Rsync as well I think with the QNap. I need all the locations to sync with each other. I think each location at most will have about 2gb. Bit concerned if that will take more than overnight???