Our company recommends QNAP network attached storage (NAS) quite heavily due to how inexpensive the hardware is, feature rich and flexible it is. Recently we have received a request to design and showcase a system for backing up a constantly growing data set. The data in question is a big digital image library that is the livelihood of the business. The files are generated on workstations, and are placed in a specific folder. The owners wanted to automate a process of selecting the new files and uploading them onto NAS, so the files can be deleted from workstation, but be safely added to the central repository for safe-keeping and potential future sales. One of the requirements was to find the new files quickly, as they had negative experience with backup software that would take a long time trying to backup all the files every time. This is where RSYNC can trully shine as it will sync only new or changed files without ever re-uploading files that have been sync-ed already.
Since the image library scattered across different computers was around 2TB in size, we chose QNAP 459PRO II. In RAID 5 configuration the total usable size of the system filled with 3TB hard drive is slightly under 9TBs. This way there is enough room to grow and the price tag is under $1500.
After initial configuration of the system, we’ve created a share and gave domain users right to write to it, then enabled RSYNC backups to the NAS:
Home –> Application Servers–> Backup Server
Create a user-name and password for authentication purposes – this will prevent unauthorized RSYNC access.
After this we’ve downloaded and install RSYNC for Windows called DeltaCopy which was isntalled into the root of the drive C:\ on all workstations where files had been stored. Now it is time configure the DeltaCopy client to connect to the QNAP Backup server.
Click on “Add new profile” and fill Profile name, IP address and Virtual Directory Name. Now here is what you need to know: “Virtual Directory Name” is where you put in the name of the share where you want to store the files on the QNAP. In our case it was called “backups”.
Next – add the folder that you want to sync to the QNAP (in our case the files we want to backup are in G:\CAMERA).
Next you tab into the OPTIONS screen and uncheck “remove deleted files from server“. If this setting is checked, next time you remove a file from your folder and the sync runs – the removed files will also be removed from the QNAP!
In AUTHENTICATION tab enter the same username and password that you’ve entered on QNAP in “Backup server” properties.
The last piece of this simple puzzle is to automate the entire process. However, if you try to use the built-in scheduler and find out that the job never runs – you may want to modify the schedule as outlined below.
Here is how a typical, automatically created schedule task looks like. In the line where it says “C:\DeltaCopy\Images.dcp” we need to change the line so it looks like this: C:\DeltaCopy\DeltaC.exe Images.dcp
Once you change that line, provide your account credentials and save the schedule task – it will run at whatever day and time you’ve specified.
Viola! You have working RSYNC from a workstation to your network attached QNAP storage device!
