Backup selected directories to external USB Disk

[blueskiesoz]

Greetings, I am a long time QNAP NAS user who has recently built a new NAS based on N4F and it works great - thanks to all who have contributed! One of the nice features of the QNAP is that the Web GUI has a section that allows you to backup selected directories of the NAS to an external USB drive, which you can then store offsite for DR purposes. I have written a BASH script which uses rsync to do that on my N4F NAS, but it requires me to login via SSH and execute the script. It would be nice if there was a section is the web GUI that provided such functionality. Just a thought...

Blueskies...

[raulfg3]

I have written a BASH script which uses rsync to do that on my N4F NAS, but it requires me to login via SSH and execute the script

You can add your scrip in the cron job to execute when you want.

PD: Personally I use FreeFileSync to do manual sync of my folders

[blueskiesoz]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I had already thought of that. The use case is thus: once a week I backup critical directories of the NAS to an external USB and I have 2 of these drives which I rotate between home and my locker at the office (you know, worst case scenario the house burns down). I like to be able to connect the USB drive, see it auto-mounted in the GUI, go to the "Backup" screen which has my preconfigured directories for backup showing, press the "Backup" button, maybe see some progress indicator, and then see that it is finished with a success or failure indication. I don't want a cron job running periodically "in case" the USB drive is connected.

Just an "On Demand" facility. My script works fine, it's just a little clunky when compared to the QNAP interface. If I could find time to familiarise myself with the N4F code, I'd give it a go myself, or get my son to do it

Blueskies...

[hazzey]

I have a very similar setup. I have an USB drive at work that I take home once a month to backup everything that I need. I do this through the GUI currently. I just have a scheduled rsync-local job that I run manually after I connect the USB drive. This isn't the simplest process, but it is completely done through the GUI.

Is this what you are looking for?

It doesn't have the automount or progress bar though. Are those what you are looking for? (polish?)