Backup / replication software

[jimmyjimjim]

After a lot of procrastination, I've bought myself a qnap NAS. Multiple reasons, but primarily to have image backups of my PC so I can recover if everything goes badly wrong.

I'm using the free version of Veeam windows agent for this, which is fine - one backup job allowed, set to whatever schedule I need.
This will also work fine for the wife and kids' laptops in due course.

With that out of the way, it occurred to me that I have a few folders that I'd like to replicate separately on the NAS. Qnap have their own software (netbak replicator) that monitors a folder and copies changes over. Very nice. Except it only does the one folder. I've, ideally, 3 that I'd like replicated. I could sort of do this by rearranging the file structure, but it would still only get pushed to one location, and I'd like the folders to have different targets, so I can set different permissions.
If I can't do real time duplication, I'm fine with multiple backup jobs to different locations, run nightly. The veaam free client allows just the one job, so I checked the paid version; after laughing at their pricing I started looking for alternates. I'll have another play with netbak tomorrow, but are there any free or cheap alternatives to look at?

While pondering this, I also see 'qsync' from qnap that might also work, so I'll try that tomorrow, too.

I'd prefer to use a single product for everything, so if anyone has a recommendation, please let me know.

[simon_harris]

the big thing with any of these solutions is to not just assume it is working because you configured it. you need to check regularly to make sure you are getting the backups you want.

TBH for anything really important I do a manual copy over to my qnap because I have been let down too often by the automated tools.

[jimmyjimjim]

Yes, I just found the first job failed. Primarily because it hadn't run yet, having been set for once a week at a time already expired (as a test - which obviously failed dismally).

Edited the job, set it more frequent.

I'm playing with the SMTP notifications, and the push notifications to see if I can get them to confirm when tasks complete.

I work for a company that does some stuff with text messaging - I might get that set up as well, just for a laugh.

[dapprman]

I use Netback Replicator, however I don't do the folder monitoring, but kick of Instant Backups, works very well with the only downside being unable to resize the window. Not even sure how to kick of folder monitoring, unless it is Auto-Backup, in which case it allows me to go down to file level across all my drives.

[threadlock]

For years I've used SyncBack, which seems to cover most situations. There's still a free version that I used to use (https://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/index.html) but for the last few years I've used the paid-for version to back up a work server to Google Cloud every night.

[eeLee]

SyncThing. It's truly excellent.

It's a shame your NAS is not Synology, it runs natively on there and will sync between devices. From the mention of Veeam, I assume you're using Windows, try Macrum Reflect Free version too (QNAP seems to have a SyncThing in store so ..... good).

I would separate backup of machine and data. I would also write my files into something like OneDrive which allows some versioning.

[jimmyjimjim]

I've found Qsync does everything I want it to do, complete with settings for disabling automatic deletion of content of the NAS when you delete local content on the PC, it also allows multiple folders and destinations, so it's pretty much 100% what I wanted.

I've disabled netbak; I can see that it has its place if you want to backup a folder in hurry, or on demand - I may well end up using it for that in due course.

If I find it doesn't do something I'd like, I'll look into SyncBack and SyncThing - thanks for those.
I'm looking at onedrive for some things.