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Hello!

I am new here, hope you don't mind my ignorance!!I am looking for some detailed steps/instructions to implement and achieve my data backup goals for a personal/home based setting.

  1. I Have quite a few kinds of devices in my home. couple of windows laptops, couple of iPads, couple of iPhones, an android phone, may be a macbook pro in the future.

  2. I don't find it practical to connect separate USB external hard disks to each of these devices to back them up. So, what i am thinking to achieve instead is - if all of these devices can connect to a NAS, use one big drive say 6/8 TB and create individual folders to create separate backups of each of the devices, that is the ideal solution i am looking for.

  3. I haven't decided yet on what model of NAS do i need. Any recommendations welcome!

  4. I am planning to use this NAS device just for backing up my multiple devices in one place. I am not looking for active file sharing among the different devices.

  5. Also create a backup of the 6/8 TB NAS drive to an external USB disk.

  6. Looking for using a free/open source backup software to achieve my goals above. I tend to lean on to veeam software.

  7. Want to know how i can isolate the NAS and prevent ransomware attacks

If you are looking at a NAS then Synology has some nice devices with software for almost all devices for backups. You could then use the same device for Veeam backups.  You just need to configure it correctly.


Hi @alphaXplorer -

Welcome to the Community. I think Chris is spot on for what NAS to use. Many in the tech community tend to utilize Synology NAS.

As far as Backup software...well, there is not 1 solution out there, that I’m aware of, able to backup compute devices, as well as tablets & phones. Tablets and phones will need to be done however you’re currently doing so. For your Windows and eventual MAC devices, Veeam can be used to do this via Agents. You can also centrally manage them with Veeam Backup & Replication Community (free) Edition. You are allotted a total of “10 instances” with the free edition, so you’ll be able to take care of your compute.

You can connect your NAS, as a a Veeam Repository, to your VBR server, and send all your backup data to your NAS that way. BTW, you are allowed to install Veeam on a workstation. So, you can utilize one of your Windows devices to do dual duty as your backup (Veeam) server as well.

Here is the Guide for Veeam Agents and managing through VBR:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/agents/introduction.html?ver=120

And, Veeam Agent for Windows Guide:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agentforwindows/userguide/overview.html?ver=60

I’d start looking at those to see if Veeam is something you can use.

Hope this helps.


Since you are concerned about the protection of your mobile gadgets, you should take a look at BeeDrive from Synology. Also, their NAS as suggested above can also be of help via the “File App” or try FoneTool. 
 

For your MacBook, I would recommend using Veeam Agent for Mac. This way, you will learn about the industry's best practices in protecting macOS etc: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agentformac/userguide/overview.html?ver=20


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