Best NAS for office backups

[MrBaker89]

Good Morning, 

 

I have been tasked by my GM to find a backup solution for the 50 computers that we have running on our domain. 

 

I am looking at using Macrium Reflect with a Monthly backup schedule. I need a minimum capacity of 10TB.

 

Can anyone recommend something fast and robust?

 

TIA

[Electronics Wizardy]

Look at veeam for the software, I have used it a good amount, and it workes pretty well without issues.

 

If your on ad, Id personally go redirected users, then you don't have to worry about backups of the systems, just the server.

 

Is this nas rack mount? 

 

Depends on your software, Id probably go with another windows box, like a dell r540, and put some big hdds in it. If you just need a smb/nfs sharae, Id just get a synology, get something like a 4 or 8 bay rackmount box.

 

 

[remakethegame]

Veeam or Acronis would do the job. You either backup every system separately via agents and scheduled jobs, or you can force your users to save the data on shared folders and the backup shared folder itself. If you have complete Windows infrastructure, I would rather backup necessary files than the system itself. It is much easier to reinstall the windows from scratch or deploy a pre-build image than restore it. 

If you need to locate the backup on-premises, then you can either buy a new/refurb server with a bunch of disks and setup a RAID array or DIY server with software RAID to cut the costs. 

If you are considering cloud as an option, you can use something like duplicati and Backblaze/Wasabi as the cloud storage providers.  

[MrBaker89]

Thanks guys, 

 

We are using a Domain but files are stored locally for the user apart from 3 Network drives we have attached to the main server. 

 

I was thinking I may just back up the User folder on the C:\ drive as that would contain their Outlook data file, Archives and documents etc. 

[MrBaker89]

I was thinking of getting a 2 bay NAS with 2 8TB Seagate Ironwolf pro drives. 

 

Would these cope with backing up 50 user folders on a Sunday? 

[Sir Asvald]

3 hours ago, MrBaker89 said:

I was thinking of getting a 2 bay NAS with 2 8TB Seagate Ironwolf pro drives. 

 

Would these cope with backing up 50 user folders on a Sunday? 

It all depends on how much data the users have on their PCs and 16TB is not a lot for 50 users.

 

3 hours ago, MrBaker89 said:

Thanks guys, 

 

We are using a Domain but files are stored locally for the user apart from 3 Network drives we have attached to the main server. 

 

I was thinking I may just back up the User folder on the C:\ drive as that would contain their Outlook data file, Archives and documents etc. 

Why is the data stored onto the PCs? what happens if the hard drives fails all of a sudden? What is the main server? if it is the DC, do not use it as a file server it is never recommended you should use a seperate server.

[Electronics Wizardy]

On 10/5/2020 at 2:15 AM, MrBaker89 said:

Thanks guys, 

 

We are using a Domain but files are stored locally for the user apart from 3 Network drives we have attached to the main server. 

 

I was thinking I may just back up the User folder on the C:\ drive as that would contain their Outlook data file, Archives and documents etc. 

Id really look into doing redirected users, will make this much easier to manager and put all the data in one place.

 

Also why backup the outlook files, there just synced from exchange, I wouldn't worry about those.

 

On 10/5/2020 at 2:34 AM, MrBaker89 said:

I was thinking of getting a 2 bay NAS with 2 8TB Seagate Ironwolf pro drives. 

 

Would these cope with backing up 50 user folders on a Sunday? 

How much data we thinking? But should probably be fine. Make sure you have good software to manage this. Id really stuggest just doing redirected users.

 

Mightaswell backup daily, a week is a lot of data to lose, and incremintal backups are fast and can run fully in the background.

 

What is your network speed, the ironwolf pros are probably overkill, id go exos or standard ironwolf. THe pros are normally the same cost as exos, so I don't see a reason to get them.

 

How long do you want to keep changes? How did you calculate the needed storage space?

[MrBaker89]

On 10/7/2020 at 1:29 AM, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id really look into doing redirected users, will make this much easier to manager and put all the data in one place.

 

Also why backup the outlook files, there just synced from exchange, I wouldn't worry about those.

 

How much data we thinking? But should probably be fine. Make sure you have good software to manage this. Id really stuggest just doing redirected users.

 

Mightaswell backup daily, a week is a lot of data to lose, and incremintal backups are fast and can run fully in the background.

 

What is your network speed, the ironwolf pros are probably overkill, id go exos or standard ironwolf. THe pros are normally the same cost as exos, so I don't see a reason to get them.

 

How long do you want to keep changes? How did you calculate the needed storage space?

Thank you for your reply. 

 

Outlook saves the archive file to the local user. 

 

I have never worked with redirected users only a domain with users stored locally on the client Pc not the server. Is this something that is difficult to setup or that would require major changes to our domain? 

 

To backup all user profiles would be 16 - 20TB.

 

Network speed is 1.0Gbps

 

I would set the backups to delete the previous backup and replace with the latest copy. 

 

 

 

[Sir Asvald]

27 minutes ago, MrBaker89 said:

 

 

 

 

I'll add my 2 cents here

 

 

Outlook saves the archive file to the local user. 

 

 

Save everything on an file/nas server. Users do stupid things on their PCs. 

 

 

I have never worked with redirected users only a domain with users stored locally on the client Pc not the server. Is this something that is difficult to setup or that would require major changes to our domain? 

 

My previous places of work, they had 2 file servers and then tape backups, one for backups and one for user/server storage. On the user/server we would create a home drive for the users where they would save their data onto that, from that, the second server would perform backups onto it's drives and then on tapes.

 

To backup all user profiles would be 16 - 20TB.

 

Get 2 of same servers but the backup server with a bit more storage.

 

Network speed is 1.0Gbps

 

That is standard.

 

I would set the backups to delete the previous backup and replace with the latest copy. 

 

Not a good idea to be honest, it can cause you a lot of stress if you do that.

 

There is a feature called "shadow copy" which allows the server to make multiple copies of the saved data which allows you to go back to it if a file was accidently deleted.

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 hours ago, MrBaker89 said:

I have never worked with redirected users only a domain with users stored locally on the client Pc not the server. Is this something that is difficult to setup or that would require major changes to our domain? 

 

Basically set a gpo, then setup a shared folder with the correct permissions, and the next time the user logs in, it will move the user profile contents to the network location, and it works pretty seamlessly. Set this up and work and its being working well.

 

Make sure to test it first.

 

THis is what id do here if it was me. Then you don't have to worry about the pcs them selves failing

a

 

6 hours ago, MrBaker89 said:

would set the backups to delete the previous backup and replace with the latest copy. 

 

Really have a few copies atleast, might as well, and remove the issue of a file is gone cause they deleted it. or changed it

 

6 hours ago, MrBaker89 said:

Network speed is 1.0Gbps

your not doing all the backups on one day then, gotta spread them out over a wekk.

 

5 hours ago, Sir Asvald said:

There is a feature called "shadow copy" which allows the server to make multiple copies of the saved data which allows you to go back to it if a file was accidently deleted.

make sure your backup software supports this though, most have their own utility to restore backups and won't use the shadow copy gui that is built into windows.

[MrBaker89]

My boss doesn't want to go for redirected/roaming users. 

 

We have decided that we do not require a full disk backup only important files and mail archive. This will cut the required storage capacity by a tremendous account. 

 

I am looking at something along these lines: 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Synology-DS418play-Solution-Installed-IronWolf/dp/B07SJH5J5W?ref_=ast_sto_dp

 

EDIT:

 

I think I have found a better solution

 

https://www.ebuyer.com/807730-synology-ds418-4-bay-desktop-nas-enclosure-ds418

 

https://www.ebuyer.com/390985-wd-red-plus-2tb-3-5-sata-nas-hard-drive-wd20efrx-cmr-wd20efrx?reevoo_page=2#reevoo_embedded_reviews

 

I would occupy all 4 bays with the above WD red plus drives.