Help! Qnap, Work backup to Home Network!

Mortymoose

Mortymoose

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Good Morning Networking types,

Firstly, As always, My skills in any form of networking are ziltch! Nada! Nothing.

I bought me one of those Qnap 2 bay NAS boxes, I want to install it at home.

What I would love to do, is use one of the two drives in it to backup (incremental) data of three laptops at work. It's not massive amounts of data. All three laptops are W10 machines,

Would this be possible?

If so, how would I set this up and what apps/software would I need for this?

I have included an image of my current home network/.

Moosenetwork.jpg

As always, I thank you!

:cool:
 
I assume the Qnap has software inside it that does the backups.

Then I assume you would share the folders you want to backup in windows on each of the laptops then tell then as to backup those folders?
 
Rickster said:
I assume the Qnap has software inside it that does the backups.

Then I assume you would share the folders you want to backup in windows on each of the laptops then tell then as to backup those folders?
Click to expand...

The only reason one would spend that kind of money, yes...
 
If it was mine...

I would not use the two drives as standalone and would rather set them up as a mirrored pair to have some protection against drive failure.
Then I would use something like Veeam for Windows which you can download free and set up the QNAP as a backup repository for the laptops, and schedule my backups using that.
 
Kola_CT said:
If it was mine...

I would not use the two drives as standalone and would rather set them up as a mirrored pair to have some protection against drive failure.
Then I would use something like Veeam for Windows which you can download free and set up the QNAP as a backup repository for the laptops, and schedule my backups using that.
Click to expand...

+1 for this.
Haven't used the Veeam app specifically, but this method is the template that I've used in the past for achieving what you're looking to do.
 
Kola_CT said:
If it was mine...

I would not use the two drives as standalone and would rather set them up as a mirrored pair to have some protection against drive failure.
Then I would use something like Veeam for Windows which you can download free and set up the QNAP as a backup repository for the laptops, and schedule my backups using that.
Click to expand...

The Qnap is at my house and the three laptops are at work, I need to get the laptops to see the Qnap at 02H00 and send a backup to them...... I have a major fear of fire in this old business...
 
Mortymoose said:
The Qnap is at my house and the three laptops are at work, I need to get the laptops to see the Qnap at 02H00 and send a backup to them...... I have a major fear of fire in this old business...
Click to expand...
In that case, you may want to update your network topology diagram to change that "W-i-r-e-l-e-s-s" part to instead read "Internet".. you know, for science :)

Doing this over the internet opens up a bunch of significant security concerns. While there is an option with port forwarding etc, it's not worth the risk. That's a big reason for cloud backup providers becaming popular - look into that option instead? Far fewer headaches, effort and there are some that promise "zero knowledge" storage, eg SpiderOak etc.

If you're set on doing it to your local QNAP, then be sure to add in an (encrypted) VPN, to create a tunnel for secure communications, that will also let the laptops see the QNAP share as if it were on the same LAN as them.

But this is getting more complex and for data security reasons, it seems like something you may want a pro to set up?
 
Damn, think I will goto a cloud based solution like Mr.Backup..... Will keep the Qnap and turn it into a media server or a brick to give my braaigrid more height....

Thanks for all the advice peoples! :)
 
Mortymoose said:
Damn, think I will goto a cloud based solution like Mr.Backup..... Will keep the Qnap and turn it into a media server or a brick to give my braaigrid more height....

Thanks for all the advice peoples! :)
Click to expand...
Setup up an FTP server on the QNAP (https://www.qnap.com/en/how-to/tutorial/article/set-up-your-own-ftp-server-in-an-easy-way/).
Then just add the FTP folders to the laptops and use something like SyncBack (or whatever software you prefer) to schedule regular backups to the FTP server. If it is on the same network it won't use data and will be fast. If not of course it all gonna depend on data and connection.

Anyways, that what I would do with my limited knowledge of the QNAP.


You can also use something like Resilio Sync:
help.resilio.com

QNAP

Follow these steps to install and update Resilio Sync on a QNAP NAS running QTS version 4.0 or later. If you have BitTorrent Sync (v 2.3.x) installed, settings and folders will be moved to Resilio ...
help.resilio.com help.resilio.com

But just make sure you know what you are doing with stuff like Resilio and Syncthing so you don't cry later you lost data.


Instead of something free like SyncBack:

Allwaysync Pro https://allwaysync.com/ also works great but cost 26$ (can install on more than one PC).

Goodsync https://www.goodsync.com/php/pums/rfprepay.php?lang=en&lic=goodsync also works but think you need to buy a licence for each pc. (i think)
 
Mortymoose said:
Damn, think I will goto a cloud based solution like Mr.Backup..... Will keep the Qnap and turn it into a media server or a brick to give my braaigrid more height....

Thanks for all the advice peoples! :)
Click to expand...
Try "Syncthing"
Works perfectly for me
 
Been using Crashplan Pro for a couple of years now. It's great.
 
Mortymoose said:
Damn, think I will goto a cloud based solution like Mr.Backup..... Will keep the Qnap and turn it into a media server or a brick to give my braaigrid more height....

Thanks for all the advice peoples! :)
Click to expand...

Backblaze
 
Get 3 x Office 365 personal plans for the 3 laptops (R89 * 3 per month), gives you 1TB per user and you're upgraded to the latest Office suite. Documents and desktop automatically backed up to the cloud.

Change Qnap to Plex server.
 
Mortymoose said:
The Qnap is at my house and the three laptops are at work, I need to get the laptops to see the Qnap at 02H00 and send a backup to them...... I have a major fear of fire in this old business...
Click to expand...

OK that changes things a little.

I will still run the Qnap drives as a mirrored pair at home.
The laptops I will backup over the internet to a cloud provider, and since I am already an AWS and Azure user that is where I will go. In your case there are likely other cloud providers which will work better for your purposes but I do not really use any of them.

Did not read all the other posts after my first one so very likely someone has already helped with advice.

Oh, update your network diagram... ;)
 
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