Active Backup to BackBlaze B2

[CrustyCurmudgeon]

I currently backup several LAN systems to a shared folder on my NAS using individual backup apps on each machine. I then backup the nas backup share to BackBlaze B2 via the CloudSync app. I'm considering using Synology's Active Backup for Business but I'm unclear about how that app formats its backup and how the ABB storage can be backed up to B2. Synology support has pointed me to a Backblaze blog post about backing up ABB with HyperBackup. Not a word about CloudSync. Having never used Active Backup, I have a few questions:

1. I'm assuming CloudSync is not capable of backing up the ABB store. HyperBackup can and uses B2's S3 API. Are there any disadvantages to using the S3 API?
2. I'm unclear exactly how ABB stores it's backup files & I'm concerned about trying to upload large files with my limited bandwidth connection. Is there anything I can do on the ABB side to make backing up the ABB data to B2 more efficient/faster?

My current scenario uses a full-featured backup application on each client system that saves the backup data to my NAS, which is copied to an external drive and the cloud. This approach provides me with all the features of a quality backup; compression, dedupe, incremental, block-level backup, etc. etc. Restoration requires that I have a copy of the backup data (I maintain three+ versions) and the client application. The downside is I have to pay for multiple licenses of the client application. The upside is, I don't require a NAS in order to restore any client system data.

Does switching to Active Backup provide me any real benefit, other than not having to pay for the cost of the client applications?

 

[Rusty]

I'm unclear exactly how ABB stores it's backup files & I'm concerned about trying to upload large files with my limited bandwidth connection. Is there anything I can do on the ABB side to make backing up the ABB data to B2 more efficient/faster?

There is no ABB support towards B2, or better yet you can't backup ABBs backup to B2 using ABB. ABB is a backup tool for various types of endpoint devices and machines, and its backup can be backed up by using Hyper Backup or Snapshot Replication.

When it comes to cloud destinations and ABB backup, the supported method is, as you mentioned, using HB (B2 has an article on it as well).

 

[CrustyCurmudgeon]

There is no ABB support towards B2, or better yet you can't backup ABBs backup to B2 using ABB. ABB is a backup tool for various types of endpoint devices and machines, and its backup can be backed up by using Hyper Backup or Snapshot Replication.

When it comes to cloud destinations and ABB backup, the supported method is, as you mentioned, using HB (B2 has an article on it as well).

Yes, all that is understood. My question was more about the specific format that ABB uses to store it's proprietary backup files. Is it similar to HB's .hbk, for example? Clearly it is not "just a file". If it were, Cloudsync could back it up perfectly well to B2. If it is a file or sets of files, are any of them large, say > 20GB?

 

[Rusty]

Yes, all that is understood. My question was more about the specific format that ABB uses to store it's proprietary backup files. Is it similar to HB's .hbk, for example? Clearly it is not "just a file". If it were, Cloudsync could back it up perfectly well to B2. If it is a file or sets of files, are any of them large, say > 20GB?

Simply take a look at your nas using file station. You should have an ActiveBackupForBusiness folder in the root of your volume

 

[CrustyCurmudgeon]

Simply take a look at your nas using file station. You should have an ActiveBackupForBusiness folder in the root of your volume

Yes, that would be simple... IF I were running Active Backup, which I am not... as stated in my OP, "I'm considering using Synology's Active Backup for Business..."

 

[Rusty]

Yes, that would be simple... IF I were running Active Backup, which I am not... as stated in my OP, "I'm considering using Synology's Active Backup for Business..."

My mistake

Here is an example of how ABB saves its content

 

[CrustyCurmudgeon]

My mistake


View attachment 9593
Here is an example of how ABB saves its content

Okay. That helps a little. Is the 60GB .img file a bare metal image of a client system drive/partition or is it a single backup file of data files from a client system? Does ABB save all backups in the .img format?