Putting calibre's library into synology "cloud station"

[tsolignani]

I would like to. My library is way too big for dropbox, and I unfortunately subscribed to google drive, which is pure crap (and not fit for calibre library folder naming, anyway).

So I would like to use this NAS of mine with cloud station, that way I would have backup copies of my library across several computer, dropbox-wise.

Of course, I know I am not supposed to open calibre on more than one machine at the same time, but I will not, on others machine different from the "main" one I would just access the library on the file system for copying ebook files purposes.

Do you know of any issue? Anyone who already tried?

Thank you, and have a nice day.

[Promotion deleted - MODERATOR]

[aleyx]

I don't have a problem having my Calibre library on a folder shared from an eeePC, even over my crappy (4MB/s) PLC network. I don't expect your Synology to have much problems on that side. HOWEVER.

You have to take into account that Calibre really doesn't like network outage. Like, say, if your NAS goes to sleep (or just its disks). Or your computer. Never destroyed my database, but Calibre complains of I/O failure, of course.

So, yeah. Calibre isn't really coded for it, so it's not a recommended way to do things. But as long as you're careful of always letting Calibre access its database properly, with no network outage, AND you always backup your database regularly (I do it every night), you shouldn't have a problem.

[RichieTheK]

Originally Posted by tsolignani

So I would like to use this NAS of mine with cloud station, that way I would have backup copies of my library across several computer, dropbox-wise.

I use Cloud Station to synchronize documents across several machines, although I do not use it for Calibre. (For those not familiar with Synology Cloud Station, it synchronizes the contents of a local directory across multiple machines.)

The only problem with using Cloud Station as a backup is that changes are propagated immediately. For example, if you accidently delete a book, or destroy your library, the change is immediately propagated to the other machines running Cloud Station, thus changing your backups to look like your damaged original. One way to avoid this is to pause Cloud Station while you do your work, and resume it when you are finished.

[RichieTheK]

Originally Posted by aleyx

You have to take into account that Calibre really doesn't like network outage. Like, say, if your NAS goes to sleep (or just its disks). Or your computer. Never destroyed my database, but Calibre complains of I/O failure, of course.

The OP will not have to worry about network or NAS outage. Calibre will be working on the local copy of his library, and it would not be aware that the library is being synchronized by Cloud Station running in the background. If the network or NAS is down, only the Cloud Station synchronization program would be affected. Once connectivity is restored, any changes made during the outage will be synchronized.

[Adoby]

Your use case doesn't seem to warrant use of any cloud solution. Why not sync manually, as needed? That way the copies of the library would actually work as backups.

[tsolignani]

Originally Posted by RichieTheK

The OP will not have to worry about network or NAS outage. Calibre will be working on the local copy of his library, and it would not be aware that the library is being synchronized by Cloud Station running in the background. If the network or NAS is down, only the Cloud Station synchronization program would be affected. Once connectivity is restored, any changes made during the outage will be synchronized.

Correct. As a matter of fact, my calibre main instance is at home, while the NAS is at work. Thank you.

[tsolignani]

Originally Posted by Adoby

Your use case doesn't seem to warrant use of any cloud solution. Why not sync manually, as needed? That way the copies of the library would actually work as backups.

At the present time, I am doing backups with rsync, but a cloud software would be more handy and immediate.

Thank you.

[tsolignani]

Originally Posted by RichieTheK

The only problem with using Cloud Station as a backup is that changes are propagated immediately. For example, if you accidently delete a book, or destroy your library, the change is immediately propagated to the other machines running Cloud Station, thus changing your backups to look like your damaged original. One way to avoid this is to pause Cloud Station while you do your work, and resume it when you are finished.

Correct.

But I have Time Machine on the local pc running my main Calibre's instance and the NAS performs a daily incremental backup of itself to an external USB disk.

That should do the trick.

It's a pity, though, that cloud station does not provide a way to restore deleted files and also versioning like dropbox does.

Thank you.

[itimpi]

If you really want a Cloud based solution, you might want to try something like Copy.com which is an alternative to Dropbox. With them you get a much larger initial allowance when you create the free account, and also much larger increments for referrals. That should mean you have enough space for your Calibre library. I personally now use them as my main supplier of cloud based storage.

[tsolignani]

Moved the library to cloud stations.

So far so good.

Thank you all.