Your easiest option for backing up from PC is almost certainly an existing product/project that supports backups to a NAS.
That said, it should be possible to schedule some sort of backup without extra software but a lot depends on the OS it is running, what you actually want to achieve (simple file level backup of user data or restorable full disc image), what protocols you're using on the NAS, what file system you're using on the NAS, how you have your NAS users set up, and other factors.
A full backup over your network is also going to be a lot slower than backing up to a drive locally connected to the PC - speed is limited by the slowedt link in the chain which is most probably your netwotk.
If it's primarily user data not the OS and programs/applications you want to back up I'd come at things from the other end: Keep those files on the NAS (on a Linux filesystem with proper users configured not guest access) and handle the daily/weekly backup from there. cron and rsync can handle that entirely on the NAS. rsync and cron can backup the NAS OS too.
I can't comment on the iOS devices as I don't have any.
FWIW, this is my current set up (CM4 based NAS, NFS and Samba, multiple internal drives):
*: btrfs is a copy on write filesystem with native support for filesystem snapshot and Linux style owner, group, and permissions. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Btrfs
That said, it should be possible to schedule some sort of backup without extra software but a lot depends on the OS it is running, what you actually want to achieve (simple file level backup of user data or restorable full disc image), what protocols you're using on the NAS, what file system you're using on the NAS, how you have your NAS users set up, and other factors.
A full backup over your network is also going to be a lot slower than backing up to a drive locally connected to the PC - speed is limited by the slowedt link in the chain which is most probably your netwotk.
If it's primarily user data not the OS and programs/applications you want to back up I'd come at things from the other end: Keep those files on the NAS (on a Linux filesystem with proper users configured not guest access) and handle the daily/weekly backup from there. cron and rsync can handle that entirely on the NAS. rsync and cron can backup the NAS OS too.
I can't comment on the iOS devices as I don't have any.
FWIW, this is my current set up (CM4 based NAS, NFS and Samba, multiple internal drives):
- Data on my PC that needs to be backed up but doesn't change often (not for weeks or months) stays on the PC and gets backed up as required to a directly connected (via eSATA) RAID1 HDD enclosure.
- Data that does change more often lives on the NAS on a btrfs* partition. Clients mount it over NFS or SMB/CIFS depending on their OS (and occasionally vis sshfs or sftp too).
- Every night the NAS snapshots the btrfs partition then rsyncs that to a different HDD. It does the same for the OS but that's a little more complex. It then cleans up older backups and snapshots (dalies are kept for a week, weeklies for a month, etc)
- Data that is not irreplacable (legally downloaded video and music for example) isn't backed up. Redownloading would be tedious but it does keep duration and costs of the backup down.
*: btrfs is a copy on write filesystem with native support for filesystem snapshot and Linux style owner, group, and permissions. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Btrfs
Statistics: Posted by thagrol — Sun Apr 14, 2024 12:38 am