Synology NAS Active Backup - How to Automatically Back Up Windows PCs on Your Network!

[@tonyvalenti6614]

I’d so glad you are creating Synology tutorial videos! ABB is an amazingly capable Synology tool and I love it! One tip for you and your subscribers; I setup an email account just for my NAS’s and used that email in DSM. I added that email accounts to my iPhone and when my backups complete successfully, I get an email stating so. Better than that, I setup that account on my iPhone as a VIP account and not I get phone notifications when backups are completed successfully. It’s truly a set it and forget it thing! Looking forward to future Synology videos. Wait until everyone hears about Hyper Backup too! 😊

[@laurentmuller7930]

Finally somebody who makes sense and I can follow. Thanks! Why is everybody else trying to make it look so complicated?

[@shadowdancer9830]

I like how you explain the complex steps in its setup process and provide actual examples that are real life situations such as wi-fi back-up in office.

[@mikesunboxing]

Best review I have seen, great job

[@rheider911]

I don’t comment much… but tutorial videos… especially Synology… are welcomed. I think it’s a good direction to go in Lon and look forward to your next video.

[@Mr_D555]

Thanks for walking me through this, have wanted to back up my PC for years and now that I have a Synology NAS I can do that. Easy Button for sure.

[@bobwalsh57]

Thank you. Very instructive. Using the zoom function with more of the content would be helpful. Much of what you were showing was difficult to see. I look forward to future content. Synology NAS systems have been life savers for me in my business the last 15 years or so. DSM is a fantastic operating system.

[@tornadotj2059]

Thanks Lon! I haven't looked at this in a long time, because years ago it didn't support WoL, and I found that to be a major shortcoming. Now that this is available, I can finally retire my Windows Server Essentials backups, which haven't been very reliable lately.

[@johnprahl7124]

Thanks!

[@LonSeidman]

Thank you John!

[@timothyoconnor9013]

This is such a clear, concise and useful video. Thank you Lon

[@toastermicrowave]

Setting up for my business, fantastic video.

[@keithrobinson6201]

Great video! I didn't know my Synology NAS could do this!

[@colinhazell]

Loved the video. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

[@glennperch]

One additional thing is that you can also do a "File Server" backup of drives/folders where you don't want to do the whole disc. This is what I do. I look forward to the next video. I am especially interested in the backing up of the NAS to an external drive via USB. I use Hyper Backup and it was horrendously slow when doing it initially.

[@allenbuyck7957]

Lon after installing active backup for business on my Synology, I do not get a request to activate it and I do not get a new folder in file station called "active backup for business". Thoughts on what I am doing wrong ? I did install the package before and then uninstalled it because I was confused how to use it. How can I fix this?

[@mbzd1]

Very good explanation of features thanks. I'm looking to setting something like this up for a remote office with a couple of users. Once set up, would I be able to access the NAS remotely.. in order to do restores and stuff without having to travel there?

[@tonyvalenti6614]

VPN should do it. I use OpenVPN or Tailscale to access my NAS’s remotely.

[@LonSeidman]

Yeah you could set it up with a VPN as Tony noted below (there's a VPN server built in) or you could use something simpler like Tailscale.

[@umbertoyltp]

We are so well taken care of just by buying Synology hardware. Great explanation of all features! From experience I know that all live Winows OS backup software (Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect, etc.) rely heavily on Windows' Volume Shadow System service, resulting in a backup fail if the service is compromised somehow. The only option left under those circumstances is using a bootable media and backup from there, neglecting vss and fall back to a dumb sector by sector backup (correct me if I'm wrong!). I am looking forward on being educated by this series, I am especiaĺy interested in managing cloud storage, not only Onedrive, but also Dropbox, and eventually Pcloud, which is my favorite, which is still poorly supported by Synology.

[@mikeverdi]

Very helpful, thanks so much

[@michaelsheeder148]

Wow, thanks for showing about the Synology NAS, I would be taking it if you was doing a full restore after changing a hard drive you would still need to format to drive and do a clean install of windows before restoring? You always seem to have interesting things on your channel to watch ☺️ Thanks Michael

[@LonSeidman]

No this would restore everything (including the OS) if you do the bare metal restore.

[@hereinlondon8015]

Great video! And good explanation 👍

[@carlk7556]

Awesome! Works great.

[@jmr]

I appreciate offline activation! I like to keep backups segmented away from the web as much as possible. Not being able to do individual folders is a bummer. That means I'd still need multiple solutions.

[@313Renegade]

How does this solution handle Ransomware? If one of the backed up computers get infected, is everything a lose?

[@cr-pol]

only 270 "Likes"? Yikes! well, the video is better than the product, imho. I use the backup software at a small business, about 30 pc's. The documentation and guides leave a lot to be desired. Working with templates and scheduled items is not so simple, there are several 'gotchas' people need to be wary of. Best to do a dress rehearsal then wipe everything and do over with what you learned about your environments interaction with the program. (the difference between pc and fileServer as an example.) I am not sour on the program because A: the program is kindof free , B: we have a Datto for the very critical pc's and servers , C: i have a series of batch files that does file copying out to CrashPlan. There is a chance i will rely on it more after Lon does the video on backing up the NAS. That has been a real stumbling block. Archiving a backup set/template is almost a deal breaker, hopefully Lon's video will address that as well.

[@seo4462]

for your 30 pcs, how big is your NAS storage? may i know how many tera?

[@cr-pol]

@@seo4462 26TB of total capacity, 13TB currently in use. However when I try exporting the numbers are much larger. I have a theory why but I am not sure.

[@garynagle3093]

Great explanation

[@thegreeneyej]

Great stuff! 🎉

[@johnkwolf]

Thanks will you do something on hoobs

[@GregM]

I use another backup software and have that do full backups once a week and then incremental backups throughout the rest of the week. At month end an offsite backup is done. That way if a full backup needs to be restored you are not solely relying on one full backup to be valid/usuable.

[@eldergeektromeo9868]

Thanks, Lon!!

[@RejectedManiac]

5:04 You kind of skipped the whole process of creating the user when logging into the agent. You created pc1, but where and what were their permissions? I don't want to use my admin account in case this device is compromised. Anyone have an idea how to setup the user and should I use a different use for each device being backed up? Thanks!

[@niccopernicus8966]

Could you do a tutorial for Synology Drive as well?

[@allenbuyck7957]

following installing the package I do not see any new file share for "Active backup for business". Suggestions?

[@shawnfarand]

I have the latest DSM version (as of today) and after installing Active Backup for Business, I do not have "Active Backup for Business Portal"?

[@fedepetit]

What about a laptop with ancient WiFi card?. Does ABB suitable in low LAN connections?

[@theexterminator]

Very thorough! Maybe you should be teaching classes at a university!?

[@RBzee112]

Can you do a video on Docker?

[@danielwilder7835]

this is great, trouble is i have been worried about doing this because if my synology is hacked, the hackers will have my entire password lists for all kinds of things

[@arksurvivalevolved9190]

Nice, I tried runnig the agent to another computer away, but I am getting internet error, can we do it on a remote computer or must it be in our local area network? Thank you..

[@cr-pol]

Is your NAS behind a firewall?

[@honumoorea873]

Can't we restore through PXE client...?

[@BalurPoco]

Thanks for the tutorial. It's a shame that you can't at least exclude directories from backups. The "for business" label doesn't bode well, maybe it will be paid service later?

[@keithsmith8706]

This app is no longer available??? Now what can we use? April 2023

[@SteveHazel]

i gotta synology. will it backup a linux distro (i got kubuntu). i can't stand windows anymore.

[@Mlaprades]

Good lord, good luck doing a bare bones back up and finding all the drivers. For instance I've got a surface laptop studio2 . Is it such a new laptop that you have to go out and find the lan drivers, mouse, drivers, keyboard, drivers, etc in order to get the bootable recovery disc to work.. Synology needs to provide a way to access the image on the Synology drive with having that bootable media disk 😢 the process for recovery bare bones has been extremely painful

[@dguedry01]

You Los me at Windows. No self respecting developer would do that.

[@revengec]

Synology has lost my business!