SOLVED: Ubuntu Linux PC syncing with 2 independent NAS units

[vigdavies]

Hello all,

SOLVED Ubuntu Linux PC syncing with 2 independent NAS units through experimentation along with analysis through troubleshooting, trial & error, discovering open source software procedures that need to be in place with proper limiting nomenclature.

May this help you or others in using FreeFileSync (FFS).

I have been running Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS for years now on my private network for over 3 years now using FFS to sync / backup data onto my primary NAS (a [https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/network-attached-storage/wd-my-cloud-expert-series-ex2-ultra#WDBVBZ0000NCH-NESN]WD 2 x 8TB My Cloud) for about 2 years and counting, until I added a second quasi-NAS (a [https://www.lacie.com/ca/en/products/big/2big/]LaCie 2Big RAID, USB3.1 Gen 2, 2 x 4TB DAS HDD) via USB3 connection on the primary NAS for data backup on the network for redundancy. Once I did FFS was not able to sync to the primary NAS, but sync successfully to the secondary NAS only for the time being; was wondering what's going on as I was perplexed about this.

The following is what I recently done to troubleshoot the situation over the course of several months:

- Found that FFS did not create the ultra important binary file "sync.fss_lock" for synchronization on the primary and secondary NAS units, even though successful data backup was happening on the secondary NAS.
Created a new space in a folder that normally the backup would do on the primary and secondary NAS units. I did this several time and ran FFS with no success.
It did not occur to me to remove the secondary NAS, nor was it logical to do so.
Finally dealt with the laborious errors in that I had to examine what could be the problem which it was, which caused the issues I think.
Removed all symbols in file names including where there is 2 or more periods '.' in them, although the file names work in Linux.
Rename the long file names to a shorter names, although the long file names work in Linux.
Created new folders when existing folders got their name changed for some unknown reason.
Created a new space in a folder that normally the backup would do on the primary and secondary NAS units. FFS successfully synced to the secondary NAS.
In regards to the primary NAS when I re-ran FFS, FFS then created the ultra important binary file "sync.fss_lock" in the new folder, and synchronization finally began on the primary NAS, making a multitude of folders and files that I want.

FFS syncs now to both NAS units independently from my Ubuntu Linux PC.