Backup and restore a Nas326

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lucesan
lucesan Posts: 16 image  Freshman Member
First Comment Friend Collector Fifth Anniversary
in Personal Cloud Storage

Hi,

I have a NAS326 with two 2tb drives in basic mode and I'd want to create one single volume in raid 0 and restore all my previous data and configuration. I'm doing now a complete backup of both internal drives on a 4tb external drive using Backup Planner. Can I then restore all my data from that to the new raid 0 volume? I'd get all my shares and packages back? Or is it better to recreate the shares and manually copy my data?

Thanks for any help and advise.

All Replies

  • Zyxel_Barry
    Zyxel_Barry Posts: 120 image  Zyxel Community Virtual Assistant
    5 Answers First Comment Friend Collector

    Hi @lucesan,

    You're looking to migrate your Zyxel NAS326 from a basic disk setup to a RAID 0 configuration and restore your data and settings. Here's a guide to help you through the process:

    Backup and Restore Process

    1. Backup Data to External Drive: You are currently backing up your data using Backup Planner to a 4TB external drive, which is a good first step. The Zyxel NAS supports NTFS and ext3 filesystems for external drives, but not exFAT. For optimal performance, ext3 is recommended.
    2. Understand Data and Configuration Separation:
      • The NAS's firmware configuration is stored on an internal flash disk.
      • The configuration of packages and shares is primarily stored on the hard drives themselves, alongside the packages.
      • When you change the disk configuration (e.g., from basic to RAID 0), you will likely lose your installed packages and their configurations. Custom shares will also need to be re-enabled.
    3. Create the RAID 0 Volume: After backing up your data, you will need to re-initialize your NAS with the two 2TB drives configured in RAID 0. This process will erase all data on the internal drives.
    4. Restore Data: Once the RAID 0 volume is set up, you can then restore your backed-up data from the external drive to the new RAID 0 volume.
    5. Reinstall Packages and Reconfigure Shares:
      • You will need to reinstall any packages you were using. Zyxel has discontinued its package server for the NSA series, but alternative repositories exist (e.g., zyxel.diskstation.eu). You might need to install MetaRepository first to access these.
      • You will need to recreate your shares manually on the new RAID 0 volume.

    Recommendation:

    It is generally better to recreate the shares and manually copy your data from the external backup. While Backup Planner can restore data, the change in volume type and the loss of package/share configurations on the original disks mean a full restoration of the previous environment (including shares and packages) is unlikely to be seamless. Manually recreating shares and then copying the data ensures a clean setup on your new RAID 0 volume.

    Information Collection Guide:

    To provide further assistance, please confirm the following:

    • Have you already created the RAID 0 volume on your NAS326?
    • Do you have a list of all the packages you had installed on your previous basic volumes?

    This AI response aims to provide initial troubleshooting steps and identify information needed for further diagnosis. Feel free to share additional details based on the suggestions above — this will help community members offer more targeted assistance.
    If you have feedback or idea about this AI assistant, share them in Community Feedback.

  • lucesan
    lucesan Posts: 16 image  Freshman Member
    First Comment Friend Collector Fifth Anniversary
    edited January 17

    The nas is doing now the planned backup of volume 1, but it's taking forever. I launched it yesterday evening and it's still at 27% this morning.

    I thought that restoring from a planned backup would have restored also the shares and packages configuration. Isn't that so? If not, it's completely useless to do it, having already a copy of my data stored in another drive.

    Is there no easy way to completely restore my nas, including data, shares, packages and settings, from a backup?

    thanks.

  • Mijzelf
    Mijzelf Posts: 3,038 image  Guru Member
    250 Answers 2500 Comments Friend Collector Eighth Anniversary

    Is there no easy way to completely restore my nas, including data, shares, packages and settings, from a backup?

    Depends on what you call easy. Of course if can be done. The data is on the NAS, and so it can be backed up and restored. But the NAS has 2 different default backup methods, one for the config (in the webinterface) and one for the user data (the backup planner). No default way to backup the packages. The design was always to reinstall the packages after a wipe. (And even then, AFAIK the manual is silent that you have to backup your databases in MySQL separately. If you reinstall it, the data is gone.)

    You will definitely not be able to simply put back your configuration, and have the shares restored. Shares are coupled to their volume. So every share will have to be re-created on the directory which you restored. Maybe with exception of the default shares, Videos, Photos, … . Although I wouldn't be surprised if they point to empty directories, and the existing directories are not shared.

    You are using Backup Planner to backup now. Have you ever tried to restore a backup? When you search the forum there are several people who failed in putting a backup back.

  • lucesan
    lucesan Posts: 16 image  Freshman Member
    First Comment Friend Collector Fifth Anniversary
    edited January 18

    Hi,

    thanks for your reply.

    No, I haven't try to restore a backup before (first time I try to restore my nas in almost 10 years) and I have quite the impression it won't work as expected. It took forever and it does not seems reliable at all.

    What do you mean with "you have to backup your databases in MySQL separately. If you reinstall it, the data is gone"? What's in the database and how do I backup it?

    It's probably easier to start form scratch, but could you please tell me what I have to expect after I create the raid 0? I need to immediately reboot the nas? My password and config will reset automatically? Or I might try to restore my data even before rebooting? I'm a little confuse there…

    Thanks for any help.

  • Mijzelf
    Mijzelf Posts: 3,038 image  Guru Member
    250 Answers 2500 Comments Friend Collector Eighth Anniversary

    What do you mean with "you have to backup your databases in MySQL separately. If you reinstall it, the data is gone"? What's in the database and how do I backup it?

    There is a package PHPMySQL, which is needed by WordPress, and maybe some other packages. This package (PHPMySQL) is a full blown MySQL database server, which can be used for a lot of purposes. When you uninstall or reinstall (which is basically uninstall+install) this, the database is destroyed. When the database is not too big, it can be exported via the webinterface of this package.

    could you please tell me what I have to expect after I create the raid 0? I need to immediately reboot the nas? My password and config will reset automatically?

    As soon as you create the raid0 volume, it's ready for use. No need to reboot. Your password and config will remain, although your shares config is obsolete at that moment. (You know, new volume, other shares).

    Or I might try to restore my data even before rebooting?

    There is no need to reboot after creating a new volume. You can immediately start using it. However, when you remove the current disks, or delete the current volumes, your installed packages are gone. So if you are dependent on Backup Planner to restore your backup, you can't restore.

    And as Zyxel_Barry explained, ZyXEL has shut down their package server. I have a backup of the last content of that server here, but the NAS can't use that backup out of the box. I wrote a package MetaRepository to make that possible. If you have installed MetaRepository, it is possible to add my backup as extra repository, and then you can install the packages again.

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