Backup on QNAP — the 3-2-1 strategy without an enterprise budget

TL;DR: 3-2-1 strategy: 3 copies of data, 2 different media, 1 off-site copy. On QNAP: RAID drives (copies 1+2) + Backblaze B2 via HBS 3 (off-site copy). Total cost: ~$5/month for 100GB of data.

“I have RAID, I’m safe” — I hear this regularly from people who have never lost data. Until they do. RAID is not a backup. The 3-2-1 strategy is the minimum for anyone who stores data that would take more than an hour to restore.

Why RAID is not a backup

RAID (disk mirroring in RAID 1 or parity in RAID 5/6) protects against one specific failure: physical disk damage. Nothing else. Ransomware encrypts files over the network — and encrypts them on both RAID drives simultaneously, because both are mounted. Accidental rm -rf deletes from both drives at the same moment. A fire destroys the NAS physically — it doesn’t matter how many drives were in the RAID.

RAID buys you time when a drive fails in the middle of the night — you can come in the morning and swap the drive without data loss. That’s valuable, but it’s not a backup.

QNAP HBS 3

Hybrid Backup Sync is QNAP’s application for cloud synchronization and backup. Find it in App Center — search for “HBS 3”. After installation you have access to backup tasks with scheduling, AES-256 encryption, and support for dozens of cloud providers.

HBS 3 supports S3-compatible API — meaning it works not only with AWS S3 but with any service offering a compatible interface: Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Cloudflare R2, MinIO.

Backblaze B2

B2 is the cheapest S3-compatible object storage provider with a good reliability reputation. Pricing: $0.006 per GB per month. For 100 GB of data that’s $0.60/month. For 500 GB it’s $3/month. Egress (downloading data from B2) is free up to 1 GB per day, above that $0.01/GB — meaning regular backups (upload only) are cheap, and a potential restore during a major disaster will cost a few dollars.

Registration at backblaze.com, creating a bucket and Application Key (API access) takes 10 minutes.

Configuring HBS 3 + B2

In HBS 3: Backup → Create Backup Task → Remote Sync (this is backup to the cloud):

Destination: Add New Storage Space → S3 Compatible → enter:
- Server: s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com (or the endpoint for your B2 region)
- Bucket: your bucket name
- Access Key ID: Application Key ID from B2
- Secret Access Key: Application Key from B2
Source: select the QNAP volume or folder you want to back up
Schedule: every night at 3:00 AM (when network traffic is minimal)
Options:
- Enable versioning: yes, 30 days (you can restore a file version from a month ago)
- Encryption: AES-256, remember the encryption key — without it you can’t restore data
- Bandwidth throttling: if you use the connection for work during the day, limit upload to 50% during business hours

The first full sync may take many hours depending on data size and upload speed. Subsequent syncs are incremental — only changed files.

Testing backups

An untested backup is an illusion of security. Once per quarter, run this exercise:

In HBS 3: Restore → select backup task → navigate to a random file from 2 weeks ago
Restore it to a temporary folder on the QNAP
Verify the file opens and contains correct data
Measure and record the time to restore 1 GB of data

This time is your RTO (Recovery Time Objective) — knowing how long a full restore will take is essential for evaluating whether the backup strategy meets business requirements.

One step further for the more advanced: once a year test a disaster scenario — imagine the NAS doesn’t exist and try to restore data to a new server only from B2.

Summary

The 3-2-1 strategy with QNAP RAID + Backblaze B2 via HBS 3 is a complete solution for ~$5/month. RAID protects against drive failure, B2 protects against everything else: ransomware, human error, physical disaster. Setup takes 30 minutes. Test restores every quarter — only then does a backup truly exist.