Backup NAS - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 06, 2025, 04:49:47 pm
content: I am looking for simple and fuss-free storage on my network for backup purposes. The requirements will be:* SMB shares* Standalone push (or pull) to (or from) another NAS - rsync not appropriate here* Web configurator* Run from a VM under Proxmox* No RAID (although RAID1/mirror might find a use)Currently I use a couple ofXpenologyboxes which are good. Xpenology is a kind of fork (term used very loosely!) ofSynology DSM. One of the boxes is the primary destination for network backups (pushed via a variety of means, typically Syncback or similar). That primary box pushes any changes every night to the second box.Works fine but.. Xpenology. I am looking at alternative solutions and one that caught my eye is Open Media Vault. I've installed it in a VM and it is simple to install, not quite so simple to set up (annoyingly, Google's AI solved an issue that had held me up for an entire day) but otherwise looks OK. But it's sole backup strategy seems to be using rsync. It's quite likely that whatever storage is downstream of it won't be another one of the same, so can't guarantee rsync will be available. Whilst I would no doubt use rsync if it was there at both ends, the box needs to be able to push or pull entirely on its own.On that basis, OMV isn't a good fit. It has a plug-in system but there are no file transfer plug-ins that I could find (presumably because everyone sees rsync and considers it job done).I am about to look at TrueNAS CE, which seems to have many apps but no simple file sync tools. There is syncthing, but it looks very much like a flash rsync and needs both ends to have the tool installed.Any others I should be looking at? I am also using Windows, but it requires RDP (or equiv) to configure, and nothing reliable is going to be running W10+.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 13, 2025, 06:48:26 am
content: TrueNAS is pretty much the industry standard. However it's not recommended running it in a VM, but not to say it can't be done with some preparation.I strongly recommend you start with this video. Tom uses XCP-ng but the same principles apply to Proxmox.If all this won't suit you, perhaps just a basic Windows or Linux machine set up as a file server would be your best option here.

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 13, 2025, 07:57:54 am
content: Thanks. I am setting up in a VM just so I can try a few things on one box, but if it turned out to be The One I would dedicate a box to it.I use Windows too, but 10+ is a no-go, and 7- will eventually run out of hardware it can talk to.

author: macboy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 05, 2025, 10:32:18 pm
content: I know it's been a few weeks but this topic is still 3rd from the top so I think it's fair game.Having no rsync on the other end (or a very different incompatible vintage) is a valid concern. But remember that rsync is a very old and very common Unix utility, and should be present or available on virtually all *nix systems. Even if it isn't available on the far end, you can still make use of its powerful delta-finding features for backups. If you mount a share from the other server on the OMV box, then you can run rsync completely locally with the source being the mount point of the share and destination being the local backup directory. It will be a little less efficient at comparing file metadata than running in the usual way but it will work.Can I ask: if not planning to use rsync, then how will you do the "pull" of data from the other system?

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 06, 2025, 07:11:46 am
content: That's an idea to mount the remote and treat it as a local resource. I'll have a look at that, thanks.Pulling data would depend on whatever is wanting it. PCs and servers would have some app doing it (perhaps the backup app mounting a backup), and storage would generally have something push onto it.

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2025, 05:27:40 pm
content: I had installed the latest OMV (7) but there is no remote mount plugin. In desperation I tried to install manually:Code:root@omv1:~# apt install openmediavault-remotemountReading package lists... DoneBuilding dependency tree... DoneReading state information... DoneE: Unable to locate package openmediavault-remotemountIt is not in the plugin list and I cannot find anything on t'web about the plugin missing, just lots of stuff about how to set it up. So remote mount is not a solution for my requirements on OMV.