blackvoid Full bare metal backup with Hyper Backup and DSM 7.2

It's been nearly two years since DSM 7 came out and brought many new features across both old and new devices in Synology's lineup.

The current version of DSM, 7.2, pushes the initial version 7 with some new options focusing on security, as well as data protection, alongside some new app-specific features.


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[Telos]

Thank you for your extensive write-up. Yet I'm still confused how Synology has defined "full bare metal backup"... so let me paint a scenario.

Let's presume I am running DSM v7.2-10000, and have made a "full bare metal backup" which resides on a second Synology NAS (ideally this would be on an external drive set, or user-chosen cloud service...).

Subsequently, I upgrade my NAS to DSM v7.3-10000 (or v7.2-12334, for example), and discover that my MailPlus Server has lost its functionality. Rather than wait for a possible patch, I choose to rollback my NAS to v7.2-10000, for which a "full bare metal backup" exists.

Can this be done? If that's covered in the article I missed it.

Does the "full bare metal backup" restore all drive partitions to an earlier state?

A second question...

Is "full bare metal backup" restoration possible...

• After a drive has been added, or replaced with a new drive.
• In a situation where I've replaced all drives with new larger drives... for example, replacing a 4x4TB SHR set, with new 4x16TB drives, can a "full bare metal backup" be restored, resulting in a larger volume.

 

[Lewis]

From my understanding, YES it restores all back to position/DSM version as it was once hyperbackup was made (in your example to DSM 7.2-10000)..

Like what for PC in past I was doing on old days with Northon Ghost (from a floppy boot disk or later BootCD ) or at latest dates with Acronis True Image. I was backing up System drive to single file and at any time if I wanted to restore all gets overwritten to that date/stage as it was when it was written (backup)..

 

[Rusty]

Can this be done? If that's covered in the article I missed it.

Excellent question but I still have to test this out but I would say no. But what I mean by that is that even as with ABB bare metal recovery same goes here. You have to have a running DSM up and running before you can restore.

So even if you get a new sets of drives (or not, depending on the damage) you will have to be either a) in a fresh installation that has phase 2 ahead of it (configuration of dsm, pools, apps the works) or b) an already up and running dsm installation that you want to recover to an earlier state.

In either case you will still be bound by the DSM rule of “not going back to an earlier version” as it is not officially supported.

For your case of updating to 7.3 and then something went wrong with your mail, I don’t think this would save you in terms it would allow you to restore to an earlier version of dsm, as a roll back.

This was intended as a disaster recovery solution. Backup of individual apps and settings is still something that needs to be done in order to resolve issues on that particular app/service.

Your example is a great demonstration where this recovery would not work out to solve the issue where a dsm update causes apps/service problems.

But hopefully I will have my test unit available when a new dsm update arrives and try then to roll back to the previous version from a bare metal backup.

Does the "full bare metal backup" restore all drive partitions to an earlier state?

Pool/volume recovery is identical, yes

• After a drive has been added, or replaced with a new drive.
• In a situation where I've replaced all drives with new larger drives... for example, replacing a 4x4TB SHR set, with new 4x16TB drives, can a "full bare metal backup" be restored, resulting in a larger volume.

Didn’t test it as I don’t have a large test unit but I can do a similar test to confirm. If however, the behavior is the same as with ABB then as long as you have the same or larger drives it will work just fine. The point is there has to be room to recreate the backup setup. So as long as you have the drive configuration that can maintain it, it will work.

 

[Telos]

Pool/volume recovery is identical

OK... Would a restore then also include 3rd party apps (ex. Plex) and configuration items not historically covered under Hyper Backup... for example, firewall rules, reverse proxy entries, and docker container settings?

Generally speaking, it seems that Synology has taken liberties in redefining "full bare metal recovery". Glad to see advancement in HB, but I expected somewhat more.

From my understanding, YES it restores all back to position/DSM version as it was once hyperbackup was made (in your example to DSM 7.2-10000)..

Rusty's post indicates otherwise.

 

[Lewis]

Rusty's post indicates otherwise.

Well that's how I understood it and this video/test shows it that way - No ?

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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF6M1JdHOiI

 

[Rusty]

OK... Would a restore then also include 3rd party apps (ex. Plex) and configuration items not historically covered under Hyper Backup... for example, firewall rules, reverse proxy entries, and docker container settings?

Generally speaking, it seems that Synology has taken liberties in redefining "full bare metal recovery". Glad to see advancement in HB, but I expected somewhat more.

Rusty's post indicates otherwise.

As you can see from the final set of screenshots in the article, everything was restored. Including Docker and it’s containers. Those were up and running as well. So all settings, apps, configs, the works.

The only question is roll back to a previous version of DSM after an update.

I have a pending ticket with Syno on this.

 

[Rusty]

I got confirmation from Synology on the matter of DSM version when restoring from an “older” backup.

As said before, everything will be restored but there will be no downgrade of DSM to an older version. Again this is because, entire system restore in fact requires a working DSM installation 1st before the nas can be rolled back. It also requires an installed HB, so with all that, the general rule of “can’t install older version of DSM” is still in effect.

 

[Lewis]

Good info, thanks Rusty

 

[Telos]

So all settings, apps, configs, the works.

Good news indeed

will be no downgrade of DSM to an older version

One can always hope

Again, thanks for all your efforts her @Rusty

 

[akahan]

I don't think these presentations answer the question: "Will it restore changes/additions made outside of Volume1, Volume2, etc.?"

Many of us make changes to various configuration files by hand, as they are not accessible through DSM, or add utilities that won't be accessible through DSM.

For example: suppose you've installed acme.sh, a utility for generating SSL certificates, in the root directory of the NAS. accessible only via SSH.

Or perhaps you've edited /var/packages/OAuthService/target/etc/oauth.cfg to change variable "token_expired" from 86400 (i.e., 24 hours in seconds) to 32000000 , to extend the time before OAuth expires.

Will these sorts of things be backed up and restored? (Obviously, they'll be obliterated when you upgrade DSM, but assuming we're restoring to a machine running the same version of DSM as it was running when it was backed up, what happens?)

 

[Rusty]

I don't think these presentations answer the question: "Will it restore changes/additions made outside of Volume1, Volume2, etc.?"

Many of us make changes to various configuration files by hand, as they are not accessible through DSM, or add utilities that won't be accessible through DSM.

For example: suppose you've installed acme.sh, a utility for generating SSL certificates, in the root directory of the NAS. accessible only via SSH.

Or perhaps you've edited /var/packages/OAuthService/target/etc/oauth.cfg to change variable "token_expired" from 86400 (i.e., 24 hours in seconds) to 32000000 , to extend the time before OAuth expires.

Will these sorts of things be backed up and restored? (Obviously, they'll be obliterated when you upgrade DSM, but assuming we're restoring to a machine running the same version of DSM as it was running when it was backed up, what happens?)

Considering it’s a block level backup and restore yes it should restore all to the exact version/changes that have been made. I have extended the period of my test unit just so I can wait for a new dsm version and test the restore once I update to a new one. I can also make manual changes to nginx or some other elements and see if those will be restored from the backup as well.

 

[akahan]

Considering it’s a block level backup and restore yes it should restore all to the exact version/changes that have been made. I have extended the period of my test unit just so I can wait for a new dsm version and test the restore once I update to a new one. I can also make manual changes to nginx or some other elements and see if those will be restored from the backup as well.

@Rusty, very generous of you to go to the trouble of doing these medical experiments...I look forward to your results!

 

[Rusty]

After today's update to DSM 7.2.1. I have tried to restore back to 7.2.0 UP3. Added the information in this article at the bottom, but tldr is this.

DSM will not downgrade, some packages will be flagged as incompatible and will require a manual upgrade to meet the DSM level. This indicates that the packages are indeed from the backup version as well as the data, but the OS will not be revered.

 

[Lewis]

Bummer, that makes it way less "usable" - right ?

 

[Rusty]

Bummer, that makes it way less "usable" - right ?

Well HB atm is still super slow. Same backup via ABB and then restore is completed in 5min. This sample over HB is almost 2 hours. So from that point of view ABB has my vote.

In regards to the fact that you can’t downgrade officially is a bit disappointing but not unexpected. There are still benefits to this backup tbh but not that you will land on the previous version.

You still get a complete system, settings, data and everything else. Just wish it was faster.

For anyone running a NAS with abb support will have the same outcome and a rapidly faster delivery then HB.

It makes no sense why this is especially as this feature, as opposed to HB itself, is not offered on low end models so the question is why was this introduced in the 1st place. Maybe the offer of models will expand at a later date or when the new Cloud Backup services will be offered (if it arrives).

 

[zombiephysicist]

After today's update to DSM 7.2.1. I have tried to restore back to 7.2.0 UP3. Added the information in this article at the bottom, but tldr is this.

DSM will not downgrade, some packages will be flagged as incompatible and will require a manual upgrade to meet the DSM level. This indicates that the packages are indeed from the backup version as well as the data, but the OS will not be revered.

Thank you for the reports and all the great info. This is super useful.

It really makes me wish there was a high availability “clone” you could have of a synology box, but not requiring their high availability setup which requires machines be local to one another with a gigabit hookup. Seems to me synology drive can keep things synced near real time across the internet. It would be great to have that as a solution so we could have machines physically in different areas, and if one goes down, your synology ID would know to go to the clone and keep things available.

Then each machine could have its own backup to restore from.

Shame it’s not a true clone backup. I guess in part because synology actually keeps the OS in some internal sd “drive” that’s not visible to us as users, and as such it’s not part of the backup.

 

[Telos]

In regards to the fact that you can’t downgrade officially is a bit disappointing but not unexpected.

This is particularly vexing as the OS version is "locked" to the machine, not the drives. Even if one clones their drives prior to upgrading DSM, once the new version is loaded, the cloned drives cannot be returned to restore the NAS to its former state.

On another machine, I'm about to upgrade Debian, but before doing so, I will have full images capable of restoring my machine to its former state should there be incompatibilities with the new version which aren't readily resolvable.

Synology needs to rethink this, particularly in light of its numerous beta offerings which cannot be rolled back. My 2 ¥.

 

[Robbie]

I still have to appreciate that Synology called this 'bare metal' backup when the thing it will never do is a 'bare metal' backup. Their humour has no bounds.

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[Rusty]

I still have to appreciate that Synology called this 'bare metal' backup when the thing it will never do is a 'bare metal' backup. Their humour has no bounds.

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Well tbh they call it Full System from a label standpoint, and in fact it does that. Might be that my article name is actually wrong and misleading in all fairness.

In order to get either abb or hb full nas restore going you need a working nas and a working OS, so yes, it’s not bare metal at all.