Backup to a remote NAS from Mac

[jammintooons]

Hi,

I am trying to backup to a Remote Synology NAS (a DiskStation DS1821+ 8-Bay I believe) from a Mac. I am sure I have done the same thing from a PC many years ago but cant remember how to do it now.

Do I need to use a VPN or dynamic DNS?

I have read many people using Hyper Backup but that is just for backup from one NAS to another NAS correct?

Thanks

 

[fredbert]

Hyper Backup is to backup the [Synology] NAS to another location, which could be another NAS.

What is your objective for the backup? Is it just files and folders, of is it a clone of the whole machine?

TBH it sounds that you're wanting to backup to someone else's NAS. It would probably be a good idea to discuss this with them about what packages they are running and what access they have enabled.

 

[jammintooons]

It is our brand new NAS that hasnt been setup yet (i don't have it on hand right now so not sure of the exact model number but I know it is an 8 drive model and looks very much like the DS1821+) - this is my job to do. So I can set it up however it is needed.

The backup is going to consist of music and video files so no full system backups or clones.

The idea is purely to have a backup of all these files offsite

Thanks

 

[fredbert]

Ok. There are any number of ways to do this.

You could use Synology Drive and use the client app's Backup task, selecting an encrypted connection. Drive is the successor to Cloud Station which you may have used before. There are Sync tasks which can behave like Dropbox, but the Backup task will maintain a versioned backup of the selected Mac folders. For Mac and PC Drive client apps this needs TCP 6690 forwarded at the destination to the NAS, so best use the NAS's firewall to restrict where connections can come from (e.g. your country).

I wouldn't use Drive's Sync task to maintain the copies on the NAS, because:

• They are probably big files.
• If you delete on the Mac it will delete on the NAS, and the versions too.

I would also try to only backup finished files, or not changing often, since versions take up space. Though Btrfs helps. Also, you can set a limit on the retained number of versions for each NAS shared folder that you enable in Drive Server: the Backup task uses people's home/Drive/Backup folder and so the limit will apply to this and their personal files that are tracked in Drive (i.e. any Sync tasks to their home/Drive items).

You could use VPN Server and then use Mac's builtin L2TP VPN capability (or OpenVPN client, Tunnelblick is probably the most common). This would then provide direct access to the NAS and you can then connect using SMB (Windows file sharing, AFP, etc). Then you can use third party backup/clone apps, or even Time Machine (??. Never tried it over manually initiated VPN connection).

Have a read up on Synology Drive to see if it fits with what you want to do.

 

[jammintooons]

Thanks for your reply.
I have been reading about Drive and its definitely not what i have used before, I did come across this guide - How to Map Synology NAS Drive Outside the Local Network (Over Internet). - wintips.org - Windows Tips & How-tos which seems to do exactly what i want, is this method one you are aware of?

If I can map a drive onto the Mac then I can use chronosync backup program to copy the files across. I am going to the backup site on Friday so will finally get to try it out

Thanks

 

[fredbert]

Mac’s Finder has native support for WebDAV (which uses HTTP/HTTPS). I would use different TCP ports than the defaults: this merely makes it slightly longer and slightly less likely for scanners to find them.

Use secure WebDAV, so you’ll have to get an SSL certificate. And I would limit access to the WebDAV service to DSM non-admin accounts.

 

[jammintooons]

awesome, thanks for your help, lets see what happens tomorrow

 

[jammintooons]

I managed to get it all setup fairly easily in the end, apart from when the NAS decided to blacklist my hotspot I was using for testing and took me about 2.5 hours to work out what had happened.

Thanks for your help