rsync between Synology NAS

A while ago, I devised a complicated system where I could drop files in a web interface running on an LXD container and the files would then magically appear in a directory on a remote NAS in the morning. It turned out to not be very robust, and I gave up on it after a while.

Also, really there should be no need for it - underneath, it was just using rsync to move the files, so why not just do that direct from one NAS to another? Well, mainly because my NASs are all Synology - which I love, and they’ve been great, but in an effort to make them usable by muggles, Synology tend to somewhat complicate things for Linux command line wizards.

rsync episode IV - a sudo hope

With all those earlier rsync bumps out of the way, I was ready to try my first rsync backup at the command line to sync my movies directory on the NAS to a (NTFS formatted) USB drive plugged into the same NAS. This is to be one of the simplest since there’s no remote server involved, just copying from mount point directory to another - so no drama with remote permissions.

rsync / Synology / @eaDir

The reason I’ve been figuring out rsync is to setup my backup strategy. Eventually this will partly be managed with scheduled tasks (ie cron jobs) running rsync. I wanted the SSH in and try this out, since I didn’t know some basic things like the mount points of the shares.

Mount points

My first issue was to find the paths to all my data. This turned out not to be a drama. Each of the volumes you create when the NAS is set up are just in the root directory. This includes any USB drives plugged in.

rsync basics

I’ve started down the path of improved storage management, including embracing the 3-2-1 mantra. I’ve settled on a RAID6 NAS for local, mirrored to an off-site NAS, and an offline local USB drive.

While I’ve been setting those up, my services have been live, so files have been changing on my main storage, which I’ve then switched to the bigger NAS, and I’ve been trying to keep data in sync by remembering what changes have been made where, and manually replicating them. That’s not sustainable and not the plan.