Backup NAS

This is exactly my point earlier about people not wanting to faff about, even if they do know how to.  I haven't thought about my new backup Synology NAS since Phil set it up remotely for me a couple of months back (thanks Phil!) after I had got it into some sort of non-functioning mode, except that I did check yesterday that Monday's backup job had put a Sunday CD rip into the backup (it had).

In this case I would probably keep no relevant data on the internal drive of the US and only rely on external storage, e.g., on a nas or file server, which is readable and writable and easily accessible. But I do not face this specific problem ... I do not have a SU in my system.

Questions on backups tend to be sliceable into two sub-questions: 1) what should a backup scheme support? and 2) how to implement these desiderata? Answers to the second question can get technical, of course.

But everyone who cares about data safety and recoverability should have a rough idea of what a backup scheme or system should support him to do.

And it goes without saying that different users will have different data, different safety concerns and different answers to this question.

To me, it is crucial that a backup scheme allows me to manage backup copies of my data in at least two different physical locations in a seamless fashion: provided that I have an internet connection, I want to be able to backup local data (not necessarily music data, of course) to those locations. But I also want to be able, from a remote location, to start an incremental backup of my music library at home on a LAN drive (also at home) or on a remote drive (e.g., in my office), for instance. And of course I would like to be able to retrieve data from backups, e.g., if I fancy to listen to some specific piece of music when I am abroad. All this should be doable with small, fast tools. Ideally, from the command line and without the need to start clumsy graphical interfaces over remote connections.

I have found that these goals can be easily achieved with a few backup drives attached  to small computers which run 24/7 and which are accessible via ssh. Given this physical setup, the above desiderata can be implemented in terms of simple, fast rsync scripts. I have found that rsync scripts are a very flexible and effective means of implementing specific backup functionalities.

Best, nbpf

You buy a NAS with a USB port (most do!), reload the data from the USB drive to the NAS, and from there to the UnitiServe.

Then you use the NAS for backup.

Or plug your USB drive into your computer and from there to a share on the NAS and then to US??

Simple SMB folder sharing under both OSX (since Apple rewrote their SMB support code) and Windows (since Windows tries by default to put everything behind Homegroups) is not trivial nowadays and is probably not something that most users are up to doing... 

Just trying to point out that it's OK taking a snapshot of the data but getting it back on there needs to be considered carefully.

Phil

At this time we do not plan to add the Downloads folder to the backup schedule - it is presumed that you would be able to re-download the files in the event of data loss.

Best Regards

Phil Harris

As with my reply to Daveas - there are caveats and gotchas to be aware of ... just be careful recommending / suggesting workaround solutions when people who read those solutions at a future date might not be aware that it might not be a trivial task to restore the data...

The solution that we recommend gives an easy restore route that most people can manage to handle.

Phil

I must say that I think Naim are being totally illogical here.

For what reason does Naim assume that it is easier to re-download music files from multiple different providers, some of whom are forgotten or who have ceased trading or whose record of one's purchases have been lost, than it is to take multiple CDs off one's own shelf and load them into a Naim server again?  Obviously I can (and do) keep local copies of downloaded files and I can back them up in multiple ways, but people pay the big premiums for Naim servers over a NAS because they are the fit and forget while you enjoy the music option, regardless of cost.

If Naim is serious about streamed music being anything other than CD rips, then backing up the downloads folder on Naim servers should be treated in exactly the same way as CD rips. Otherwise, for example, as the proportion of downloads compared with CD rips increases, people will find less and less reason to pay the extra money to buy a Naim server.

I am glad to have a Unitiserve, but my biggest criticism of it is that it doesn't back up my downloads folder.  Why ever not? It is a trivial bit of firmware for Naim to write. You could even make it optional for those who think differently to me, if there are any such people out there?

best

David

My guess is that, for some reasons, Naim is not interested in selling USs and they are not really supporting this range of products.

Chris, if you are just copying and not doing more, it might be financially better to just get an external hard drive that is the same size as your Unitiserve HD ?

David H

Agree with you on this.  I want the US to treat Download folder in the same way as ripped CDs, and as you say as people have more downloads and fewer CDs it will make less and less sense to treat them differently. 

As well backing up both stores, it would be really helpful if the US created a 320k version of my Downloads folder as well as CDs.  That would be really neat functionality saving me the aggro of doing it through dbPoweramp and endless copy / pastes and folder comparisons to get the SD card in my car to have a copy of my music collection. 

David W