Backing up N5200 to external USB drive

[mtcsltd]

I'd like to backup the raid array to an external HDD, something like a Lacie 1Tb Big Disk.

The N5200 has a USB2 port on the rear of the unit. Can I plug in the external HDD to this and get the N5200 to backup the data to the external drive, or does the external drive simply become part of the raid array ?

There's also an e-sata port - would the same apply to that ?

Would I have to plug the external drive in to one of my PC's and then backup the shares on the 5200 through the network ?

I've read the user guide but it looks to me like the Nsync utility will only copy to another N5200 or an FTP server, and i'd prefer to avoid backing up over the network.

[Thecus - Yvon]

N5200 can operate in dual mode. When connecting to a regular USB disk or thumb drive or, N5200 is acting as USB host. When connecting to a PC thru its USB Type B connector on the back panel, N5200 can act as a USB disk. This feature allows user to transfer files without using network connection.
When you create RAID, you can assign a portion of space on the RAID to be used as USB disk. When connecting N5200 to a PC using the supplied USB A to B cable, the PC will recognize this space as unformatted disk. At this point, the PC can format this portion of disk and create file system on it. Since this disk is created on the RAID, it will be protected by the RAID level you select.
Also the eSATA HDD act same with the N5200 acting as USB host, and both need under FAT32 format.

[mtcsltd]

Thank you!

I will try this shortly.

[mtcsltd]

Originally Posted by Thecus - Yvon

N5200 can operate in dual mode. When connecting to a regular USB disk or thumb drive or, N5200 is acting as USB host. When connecting to a PC thru its USB Type B connector on the back panel, N5200 can act as a USB disk. This feature allows user to transfer files without using network connection.
When you create RAID, you can assign a portion of space on the RAID to be used as USB disk. When connecting N5200 to a PC using the supplied USB A to B cable, the PC will recognize this space as unformatted disk. At this point, the PC can format this portion of disk and create file system on it. Since this disk is created on the RAID, it will be protected by the RAID level you select.
Also the eSATA HDD act same with the N5200 acting as USB host, and both need under FAT32 format.

When I connected using the USB A to B cable I was indeed able to see an unformatted disk on my PC. However, when I connected using the type B cable, nothing happened on my PC - it did not detect any device at all, so I couldn't see the data in the shares without using the network. Fortunately the network is gigabit so didnt tale long to transfer my data, however i'd like to be able to use the USB B cable in the future. Any suggestions as to why it would not work?

[Thecus - Yvon]

If we see the unformat the disk and formated the disk complete, please try to reboot the N5200, perhpas N5200 didn't detected this new partition.

[mtcsltd]

Originally Posted by Thecus - Yvon

If we see the unformat the disk and formated the disk complete, please try to reboot the N5200, perhpas N5200 didn't detected this new partition.

Hi Yvon,

Unfortunately I can't format the unformatted part of the disk as when I reconfigured to Raid 6 I decided to give 100% over to the shares.

Mike

[Thecus - Yvon]

Dear Mike,

Does this 100% assign to Data Percentage or Target USB Percentage?

Data Percentage: For network drive using.

Target USB Percentage: The volume from USB B type link to PC.

Yvon

Originally Posted by mtcsltd

Hi Yvon,

Unfortunately I can't format the unformatted part of the disk as when I reconfigured to Raid 6 I decided to give 100% over to the shares.

Mike

[mtcsltd]

Originally Posted by Thecus - Yvon

Dear Mike,

Does this 100% assign to Data Percentage or Target USB Percentage?

Data Percentage: For network drive using.

Target USB Percentage: The volume from USB B type link to PC.

Yvon

Hi Yvon, I assigned 100% of space to data. I won't be using the USB facility.
Thanks.
MIke

[Rt_Tackle70]

I'm actually interested in doing the same thing as mtcsltd started in this thread - I would like to setup my N5200 so that it backs up the RAID array to an external USB Harddrive. Ideally, I would like this to be 100% automated by the N5200 itself (no external back up software on another PC) - just my N5200 backing up it's RAID array every night @ 3AM to an external USB HD.

Has anyone had any luck setting something like this up? It doesn't look like the Nsync function supports this.

Thanks in advance for your help,
jg

[BRoche]

That is wat I've been looking for too.
There was someone on http://thecususergroup.proboards106....ead=1180594056
had a script to do it, but I was hoping for something in the N5200 firmware.

[Stefan Huebner]

as for my experience ... regarding the published script @ http://thecususergroup.proboards106....ead=1180594056

the n2100 doesn't have cp -u - does the n5200? I wouldn't think so if it's also based upon busybox, as busybox doesn't support it...

And that's what makes the script blow up, as it has to recursively copy each file, testing with

if [ "$sourcefile" -nt "$targetfile" ] ; then
    cp -fp "$sourcefile" "$targefile"
fi

...

[omega]

Yes, the N5200 is running a real OS, so cp isn't part of that crappy busybox and of course it supports "cp -u".

But instead using cp you should use rsync, as this tool was just invented to do things like this.
At least for the N5200 there is a rsync package available.

With rsync this a one-liner:

rsync -a --delete /this/is/your/source /raid/data/usbhdd/sdf1

where /raid/data/usbhdd/sdf1 is your mounted USB partition.

Andreas

[Stefan Huebner]

Well it is - also on the N2100 if you installed the rsync module. But wasnt rsync designed to do those incremental backup jobs over the net? Doesn't it calculate md5sums before actually starting to copy things around? For N2100 this is too much cpu-consuming... For the CeleronM of the N5200 it might not be that large of a problem. I agree. But it still blows up the time needed a great bit.

When using rsync also take care it doesnt zip the files before the transmission (which would be a transmission inside the RAM).

[omega]

No, rsync is a swiss army knife for file copy tasks. There are many many different options to the rsync exe, so there is almost nothing what can't be done in this respect.

With rsync you can do:
1) normal file copies, without the incremental feature
2) copy only files with newer date in the source as in the destination
3) copy file from the source if the MD5SUM is different from the one in the destination
4-9999) read the man page, luke

All these modes are controlled by command line switches, e.g. you need to turn on md5 checksums.
Normal operation is just comparing the times.
And especially creating backups to another disk where only some files changed rsync is your tool.

And rsync can copy file just from one directory to another in the same filesystem, or copy files over the network. No limitation here.

Conclusion: there is no reason why not to use rsync on the N2100. It is not slower than just normal cp.

Andreas

[Stefan Huebner]

OK, I guess then we just need to recompile an optimized version for N2100. Because the same amount of data went much faster via "cp -rf".

Thanks for the RFTM, don't get this one too often these days Mostly I have to tell people to rtfm...

[themanwhoknows]

any new solutions to this problem - did the new firmware bring any helpful changes? I'd really appreciate any hints regarding N5200-to-external USB HDD-backup... if possible without custom coding...

thx