Neal Spangler

Work Infrastructure

Snapshots, a second NAS and an offsite transfer

I added hourly and nightly history and a second-NAS mirror for shared files, then configured an offsite transfer. I also replaced unreadable database dumps and used separate checks to read backups back.

Synology NAS
Synology NAS Photo: DYVER, CC BY-SA 4.0
48hourly snapshots kept
5nightly snapshots sharing unchanged files
8.7 TiBoffsite seed target in Backblaze B2

The problem

The inherited nightly cloud-database dumps were encrypted to a key nobody had, so they could never be restored. One share was storing every backup twice. An old NAS still held company data that had to be merged before it could be wiped.

What I did

  • Hourly and nightly snapshots of the shared drive. Nightly copies hard-link unchanged files. A test script proved the links survive the NAS's permissions.
  • Added a second-NAS mirror with a deletion cap to stop an unexpectedly large delete. A separate size-and-time comparison checks the copy against the source.
  • Configured a Backblaze B2 transfer with a progress monitor that posts to chat and removes its own timer when the job is done.
  • Replaced the unreadable cloud-database dumps with readable dumps to the NAS, and moved the doubled-up backups out of the snapshotted share.
  • Merged the old NAS into the new share with byte-for-byte checks and a quarantine for anything unmatched, then reused it as a backup target.
Diagram
Layered backup tiers The shared-file backup design includes hourly snapshots, nightly hard-linked snapshots, and a second-NAS mirror with a deletion cap and separate verifier. A Backblaze B2 transfer was configured and the offsite seed started; completion is not established by these records. Snapshots, mirror and offsite transfer Live drive shared files people work in Hourly snapshots undo an overwritten file Nightly snapshots unchanged files hard-linked Second NAS mirror with a delete cap, separate verifier Offsite transfer Backblaze B2, seed completion unverified quick undo site loss
File history, a second-NAS mirror and a configured offsite transfer.

What I took from it

A successful backup job did not prove its files were readable. I replaced the encrypted database dumps and added a read-back check. Starting an offsite transfer is a separate step from proving a recoverable copy.

Infrastructure

Company files left Dropbox for storage the shop owns

Checked the Dropbox copy on the shop's NAS, filled missing folders and moved computers over in waves.
Privacy