NAS upgrade for bus. needing easy USB backup

[Xander]

So this small office has been getting by with a NAS and it's served them well. They've been getting more worried about having another backup -- it's already RAID but my words about "disaster recovery" have been sinking in. Online backups are impractical given their files sizes so they want to be able to swap a USB drive into it weekly and alternate, keeping one off-site.

Their existing Dlink DNS-325 had a firmware update and I was glad to see it included a USB backup feature. YAY! ... I thought until I tried to use it today. Awful, terrible, bad. Reads like you just configure it with source/destination and then it tells you to push the little button next to the port but that dismounts the drive. So I plugged it back in, push the button to Mount the drive and .... nothing. It even said in the status at one point, "Backup successful" without having moved a single file over.

SOOOO.... we're looking at replacing it with one that innately supports USB backup and is user-friendly (as their receptionist will be getting the task assigned to her). Ideally, I'd like for her to swap it out at the end of the work week, push a button and it backs up over Friday evening (whether it starts the backup from the button push or a schedule doesn't matter).

They generally use Staples.ca (as I think they have an account or quick shipping) but I'm open to hearing other ideas.
Front-runner at the moment: http://www.staples.ca/en/Buffalo-2-...rive/product_326538_2-CA_1_20001#revs_content. Its Amazon write-up says it supports scheduled USB backups.


Added bonus if I can simply take the RAID disks out of the DNS-325 and pop it into the replacement without having to reconfigure disks, etc.

 

[Markverhyden]

I've fiddled with a couple of those low end NAS's and seem to remember that they are configured using mdadm. So they will most likely mount up in a *nix. Though I would be very careful about just popping them into a new box. Never know what they are doing under the hood.

Synology is a great option that supports backup to a USB attached drive. It's a bit more expensive than those low end retail NAS's but with way more features. Well worth a few extra clams. I just did a DS414slim a few weeks ago. It uses notebook HD's. Selected that since the customer was really complaining about space issues and they only had two users.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Wouldn't the simplest thing be for example give someone permissions to to root of the drive, map it as a network location on their system, and plug an external drive in their system and drag and drop the files? If you wanted, toss a backup program on their system and have it do a backup from the nas to the external. Might be easier than fighting with the nas os.

 

[Xander]

That's an option and not far off from how they did things pre-NAS, but that would use up a chunk of their network bandwidth while that runs (versus just copying from NAS to an attached USB drive) AND they don't want any of their PCs running outside of business hours.

 

[Vicenarian]

Synology DS214 / 214+ with 2 WD Red HDDs

 

[JustInspired]

Synology DS214 / 214+ with 2 WD Red HDDs

Seconded. Stay away from the light... Err, I mean the Buffalo.

 

[Martyn]

Another for Synology. Raid 1 with 2 WD Reds plus 2 x external usb drives. Whilst you cannot setup rotating drives you can setup to back to both external drives and will back to what is attached so you take one off site. Just did one last week.

 

[AlexanderCS]

And a fourth for Synology. Backs up to external HD on a schedule, you can plug in different drives and keep the single schedule/task.

User friendly interface if they (or you) need to fiddle around, too.

EDIT: Should also add that this is what I'm using for a couple of places and I'm pretty happy with it.

 

[deachus]

I build my own small NAS. Here's the typical specs

Windows 7 Pro SP1 x64
Intel based mATX motherboard
Intel Core i3 or Xeon E3
8GB or 16GB DDR3 Memory
Raid 1 for small shops or businesses, RAID 10 for larger clients
WD Red 3TB or 4TB drives
Corsair 80+ Gold PSU's
Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO Copper Heatsink/Fan

I build my own NAS boxes because i can then use Storagecraft ImageManager on the NAS to replicate the backups on the RAID1/RAID10 array to as many external drives as I want (typically 3-5 externals) that my clients swap daily and take offsite each night. I have ShadowProtect backup software installed on all my clients servers and necessary workstations which backup nightly over the LAN to the RAID backup array on the NAS.

I love this setup and haven't had any issues with my boxes. The cost to build these NAS boxes are the same and sometimes cheaper than buying a Synology or similar NAS but gives me a lot of flexibility on how to configure it and the ability to use ImageManager which I love. ImageManager is free if using ShadowProtect to backup your servers/workstations. I perform a full backup once per week then incremental's the 6 remaining days of the week. I then configure how many backup sets to save before Shadowprotect deletes the oldest backup set.

I've been using Vantec Nexstar HX USB 3.0 enclosures with WD Red hard drives in them for my external backup devices. The USB 3.0 enclosure has awesome throughput making the backup replication pretty quick. Once all your drives are configured within ImageManager, you just plug in your first external and flip on the power switch and Imagemanager does the rest. It replicates to the external whatever backups are sitting on the internal backup array. Next day you power off and unplug the external, plug in and power on your second external and walk away. ImageManager will then replicate to that drive.

With ShadowProtect handling your backups as long as all your servers are backing up to the NAS, you can take that external and restore your servers to dissimilar hardware in the event of a catastrophe. I've had to do it twice and had the server back up and running in under an hour on a new server just with that external backup drive and the ShadowProtect recovery environment bootable USB I created.

I will never use or recommend anything else for backups. I was using Symantec BackupExec prior and the time to perform the same backup job was 3 times longer than Shadowprotect takes. Recovery of a system or individual file is so painless now.

Its saved mine/clients butt many times and is very easy to use.