Peter, do you plan on using a Linux machine to read the disks at some point, or an ext3 driver for another OS? In the case of the ReadyNAS devices, the data should be readable when attached to a Linux machine with LVM support. Reason I bring it up is that some of the ext3 drivers for other OSes can't read partitions inside an LVM container.
I could use either an ext3 driver for OSX or Linux in a VM (which would be my preferred solution) but these are both a last resort for retrieving current data assuming a hardware failure has occurred prior to the next scheduled backup to the external eSATA drive. I am not certain whether the devices I am considering use partitions inside a LVM but if I use Linux in a VM then that should not be an issue?
I wonder if there are any cheap single drive NASes out there that have builtin support for syncing with a second NAS ?
The devices I am looking at (Synology) are not the cheapest but they do specify support for backups over the network to another Synology product or other rsync compliant NAS. I believe this is a 'point in time' backup though, rather than a continuous realtime mirror like RAID 1. I will still have a once-daily backup to an external eSATA drive, plus a manually initiated rsync backup to a 2.5" portable USB HD for offsite backup.
Basically, I am trying to cover myself against disk failure in the NAS and / or NAS hardware failure as a worst case scenario.
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