Unfortunately no one can be told what fun_plug is - you have to see it for yourself.
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I've read many of the threads here on the backup vs. RAID1 discussion, but couldn't find any that answered my question...
Most of the threads I read assumed the data on (at least one of the drives in) the DNS was original and the discussion was about whether RAID1 or some form of rsync copy to the other drive was a better way to back up the DNS. In my case, the DNS ONLY contains backup data: I am doing incremental image backups (client initiated) from all the Windows boxes on my network each night.
I bought a DNS-323 a few months ago and set up RAID1 with 2 500Gb drives to back up 3 PC's on a small home network. Since I fixed a couple of Windows scheduler and networking issues, it seems pretty reliable.
I just bought a DNS-321 for another client with the intention of doing the same thing on a 6PC network. However, I'd like to add the ability of having an offsite backup (removing 1 drive periodically and storing it somewhere). A couple of ways of doing this come to mind:
1. Set up RAID1 with 2 drives as I did with the 323. Use a 3rd drive to occasionally swap out with one in the array and let the DNS (automatically or manually) rebuild the array.
2. Ignore RAID capabilities: install only 1 drive in the DNS and swap it out occasionally with a 2nd drive which is kept offsite.
Thanks for any comments on these options or any other ideas I might have missed....
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1. Others have commented on this possibility, and some have had it work OK. Most people in this forum, however, recommend against swapping drives in and out of a DNS-323 (or -321) when it's in a RAID configuration. What tends to happen is that the DNS gets confused and formats the "current" drive instead rebuilding the data onto the "outdated" drive that you just stuck back in the device.
2. This is definitely the better option. The two drives should swap in and out ok, but the unit might end up formatting them when you put them in.
There are also automated solutions. Consider having the second drive offsite in a server. That server could initiate backups over the Internet regularly. This is basically what I've done with the DNS-323 as the server--it sits offsite and initiates backups from remote computers. If you're familiar with Linux, you can try setting it up youself. See the BackupNetClone website (http://backupnetclone.sourgeforge.net).
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Also have a look at the rsync time machine backup highlighted at the bottom of my post.
Last edited by index monkey (2009-07-01 11:40:17)
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