Backup of Active Backup for Google Workspace to External USB HDD or to cloud backup?

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Backup of Active Backup for Google Workspace to External USB HDD or to cloud backup?

Hi,

We want to implement our Google Workspace backup using Active Backup for Google Workspace.

I'd also like to have a second and third copy of our data.

Is it possible to backup Active Backup for Google Workspace to an external USB hard drive? Or, to a cloud backup provider?
 
Solution
Before (like 10 years ago) I've managed a Synology for a client and we had setup Active Backup for Google G Suite.

I remember that we could browse all the Drive data directory structure normally with FileStation. All the files and folders were as they were in each user's Google drive account.

For the gmail backup we couldn't. It was a database directory structure.

I could then backup Google drive drive to a cloud provider (CrashPlan via Docker). And to an external drive with Hyper-Backup.

Do someone know if it's still the same? Or if now they also use a database for the Google Drive data?
My mistake as I responded poorly. In the linked article there is an image of File Station and it is visible that the file/folder structure...
Hi,

We want to implement our Google Workspace backup using Active Backup for Google Workspace.

I'd also like to have a second and third copy of our data.

Is it possible to backup Active Backup for Google Workspace to an external USB hard drive? Or, to a cloud backup provider?
Welcome to the forum!

In short yes. Hyper Backup tool will allow for local, remote or cloud backup (towards Synology C2 cloud for example). Also using Snapshot replication package it will be possible to make a local or remote (to another Synology NAS) replica of the backup task and its data.

Keep in mind that like with O365, there might be some issues while restoring from the cloud using Hyper Backup as the recommend backup is still Snapshot Replication. The issue is that after restore with HB and attaching to the task some elements might not be accessible considering that certain metadata elements are designed to be backed up that way.



Some RL example (using O365) but same principle applies

 
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Hi Rusty,
Thanks for the links. Very helpful.

I also wonder how Active Backup for Google Workspace stores data on the Diskstation. For example, are all our Shared drives stored as simple folders? Or is it stored in a complex database?

What about the emails? Database structure or standard format like eml or mbox?
 
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Hi Rusty,
Thanks for the links. Very helpful.

I also wonder how Active Backup for Google Workspace stores data on the Diskstation. For example, are all our Shared drives stored as simple folders? Or is it stored in a complex database?

What about the emails? Database structure or standard format like eml or mbox?
DB structure inside a root folder of your choice that will be mapped to a specific task
 
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Even for the Google Drive folders, files and Shared Drives?

I thought they were in plain simple folders? I thought we could easily access those files, as if we were navigating the files on Google drive?
 
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DB structure inside a root folder of your choice that will be mapped to a specific task
Before (like 10 years ago) I've managed a Synology for a client and we had setup Active Backup for Google G Suite.

I remember that we could browse all the Drive data directory structure normally with FileStation. All the files and folders were as they were in each user's Google drive account.

For the gmail backup we couldn't. It was a database directory structure.

I could then backup Google drive drive to a cloud provider (CrashPlan via Docker). And to an external drive with Hyper-Backup.

Do someone know if it's still the same? Or if now they also use a database for the Google Drive data?
 
Upvote 0
Before (like 10 years ago) I've managed a Synology for a client and we had setup Active Backup for Google G Suite.

I remember that we could browse all the Drive data directory structure normally with FileStation. All the files and folders were as they were in each user's Google drive account.

For the gmail backup we couldn't. It was a database directory structure.

I could then backup Google drive drive to a cloud provider (CrashPlan via Docker). And to an external drive with Hyper-Backup.

Do someone know if it's still the same? Or if now they also use a database for the Google Drive data?
My mistake as I responded poorly. In the linked article there is an image of File Station and it is visible that the file/folder structure is there.
 
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Solution
My mistake as I responded poorly. In the linked article there is an image of File Station and it is visible that the file/folder structure is there.
Good day Rusty,

I don't see that image in the links above. Would you show me where to look with a new link, please?
 
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OK,
So it seems that all the files and folders in Google Drive would be human readable/accessible. I like that. This way if I need to back it up somewhere else (Like to a USB drive or to Crashplan for Business cloud backup) it could be done.

It seems Snapshot Replication works only with a second Synology NAS.

Do you know of any other "Syncing" tool that would allow to properly copy the whole AB folder to a destination of our choice?


By the way, that article (Active Backup for Microsoft 365 and DR scenarios) is very good. Thanks for the link.
 
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I've spoke with Synology and they said that Google Drives files were in plain human readable files but Google Shared Drives are not. They're stored in a database.
 
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I've spoke with Synology and they said that Google Drives files were in plain human readable files but Google Shared Drives are not. They're stored in a database.
It's rare the tier 1 support knows anything technical, whether regarding Synology, or otherwise.

To be clear here Google files such as google docs, google sheets, google slides, ... are not natively downloadable as human readable files. As such you cannot back them up in any meaningful way. However, they can be downloaded in alternative formats, such the Microsoft Office format.

Non-Google files can be downloaded/backed-up.
 
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It's rare the tier 1 support knows anything technical, whether regarding Synology, or otherwise.

To be clear here Google files such as google docs, google sheets, google slides, ... are not natively downloadable as human readable files. As such you cannot back them up in any meaningful way. However, they can be downloaded in alternative formats, such the Microsoft Office format.

Non-Google files can be downloaded/backed-up.
Hi Telos,
So what you say is that for Google Shared Drives, Active Backup keeps all the files "normally" in a folder on the Diskstation?
With Google formats converted to Microsoft format? For example, Google Sheets and Docs are kept as .xlsx and .docx?
And the original folder structure is the same?
 
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Last edited:
With Google formats converted to Microsoft format? For example, Google Sheets and Docs are kept as .xlsx and .docx?
And the original folder structure is the same?
ABB cannot do that. AFAIK, exporting to alternate formats can only be done manually by user.

Even if ABB could do that, it would not know which format to choose... For example, for Google Sheets...
RSABYTv.png

nor could it later restore to the original Google format with any precision.

Perhaps this will add clarity.

Simply put, backup of gsheets, gdocs,... is manages within Google.
 
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