Noob question...how is the storage for Active backup decided

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Noob question...how is the storage for Active backup decided

Hi,

Synology want to log in and look at it...which would be great if it hadn't died on me this morning.

My previous problem was that it was shutting down intermittently which I had put down to bad sectors on one of the drives, after Synology told me to check when I opened up a ticket. I thought that problem had gone away as it has been up and running for the past couple of weeks with no shutdowns. The odd thing with the shutdown problem was that it would not boot until, say, an hour had passed with it not being plugged in, almost like a delayed period before it would power up like when the trip goes on your lawn mower and you have to wait.

Similar behaviour this morning but, although it does get to a point where it will power on, I can't log in when previously I always have been able to. This is with all the drives removed to take them out of the equation. I've run the Synoliogy Assistant which detects it at an auto ip assigned 169.254.xxx.xxx address but it's status is 'not installed' and any attempt to connect with the assistant results in timeouts when normally I can get to it to sort the networking out.

I get the feeling that this unit may be properly hosed but as I'm 6 months out of the 3 year warranty from when I originally purchased it with Ebuyer, how difficult is it going to be to get a replacement?
 
I have a new unit coming tomorrow, great customer service from Synology.

As I'll be starting again possibly the problems I had initially might not resurface. Whilst I wait I have a couple more questions:

1. Whilst messing around with the templates I kind of answered what this original thread was about. When creating a new task it asks which volume you want to save the backup onto. ActiveBackupForBusiness has it's own volume which is where it stores backups by default. Is there any reason NOT to store it in there that I should be aware of?

2. As per previous discussions I have been using the one login for administering and also connecting each device's agent to the NAS. Should I be creating a different NAS user per device which would mean 13 logins -not quite sure what best practice is here....

Thanks

Dan
 
Is there any reason NOT to store it in there that I should be aware of?
The fact that you can have the app on one volume and the task backups on separate ones can be implemented in multiple cases. Maybe you have dedicated volumes (with specific array types and drives) for a specific task, maybe you want to have the app installed on a small SSD array and keep the backups on a slower HDD array, etc.

Also separating your backup apart from your app would come in handy if you have a disaster hit your app volume and you have to rebuild it. In this case, you can just rebuild it, and relink your existing tasks from your undamaged volume. Just an example.

Should I be creating a different NAS user per device which would mean 13 logins -not quite sure what best practice is here
This really depends on how you want to maintain those backups. If you have people that you can delegate this task, then best to open several profiles and use them. Also using more than one account is just good security practice. Do you have to use 1:1 user:machine mapping? Well for best security and separation, yes, but again, up to you and your specific situation.
 
2. As per previous discussions I have been using the one login for administering and also connecting each device's agent to the NAS. Should I be creating a different NAS user per device which would mean 13 logins -not quite sure what best practice is here....
To add to what @Rusty said...

I would not be using an admin account for the ABB sync agent on client PCs (etc). While I've not looked at how the authentication credentials are cached on the PC, it would be safest to use standard user accounts on the client PC sync agent. Either use the user account of the owner of the PC or a specific standard NAS user account that has limited access to packages, ideally just ABB.

If you do use the user account of the owner of the PC (on each PC) then they will be able to access the portal and recover past versions of files from the backups. That may be useful and reduce admin overhead? Otherwise you could allow these users to use Synology Drive's backup task to achieve a similar thing, suggesting they only do this on their Documents folder, for instance.
 
Thanks.

This taps into my general ignornace of how the NAS works! From the get-go I set up a single NAS account and fired all the Windows backups at it using that single set of credentials.

From what you're both saying, and from what has been written before, I can use my Active Directory user accounts to perform the same (or enough to get a backup/restore done) functions as a NAS Admin account? That would alleviate the need to create x number of NAS accounts.

If the above is true then does it matter whether it is a domain admin account or average-user-who-is-logged-in account that is used to connect the agent to the NAS? I'm thinking will they have the right permissions to both backup and restore. I may be getting confused with the 'pull' nature of the backups when the tasks are set up form within the NAS -when creating the backups what credentials is it using to run that process?

Never had to restore a file yet for a user in the three years I've had it so that overhead of many users asking for restores is small.
 
OK, replacement NAS arrived and did a fresh install.

After setting up ActiveBackup again and this time properly making Server templates for a NAS user/the default NAS admin/domain admin, none of them will backup the server, they fail after a few seconds like before.

All three users have the correct folder/application rights and I have tried reconnecting the agent as all three and manulally running a backup.

The only difference this time is I am not getting failed security audits in the server's Event Viewer.

PC backups work fine though!

I have an open ticket with Synology so hoping they'll be able to log in...hope it is something 'simple'!
 
none of them will backup the server
I have just run a simulation with a Win 2k12R2 sever using a "server" option template as a DSM admin class account. 0 problems. 1min 30sec for a full initial backup

Screenshot 2021-01-30 at 15.28.48.png



Screenshot 2021-01-30 at 15.30.39.png

Screenshot 2021-01-30 at 15.31.42.png
 
Thanks for checking Rusty...Windows 2012 Std but with the same screens/account etc. I'm hopfully going to let Synology in to have a look!
 
OK, starting to lose the will to live with this.

Tried to let Synology in but it won't generate a key when I try to enable remote access. It is also showing the same behaviour before the first unit was RMA'd in that it can't access packages or seemingly do anything that involves going outside our LAN. It's set up how it was before it went wrong and for three years it was connecting/updating etc I'm not sure if an update messed with the settings but it appears even with a clean install I am back to how I was before I sent it back.

Can I clarify something? I don't really want my NAS available to the internet so haven't set any kind of port forwarding from our router. However, I do want Synology to be able to access the device to check out why I cannot back up my Windows 2012 servers. Am I right or wrong in thinking that I don't need port forwarding set up for Synology to be able to connect to the device via the Support Services / Remote Access way?
 
Am I right or wrong in thinking that I don't need port forwarding set up for Synology to be able to connect to the device via the Support Services / Remote Access way?
No there is no port forward needed.

Can I clarify something?
If you want I can try and connect via TeamViewer for a controlled remote help. Maybe I can see something that is obvious.
 
Thanks for the offer Rusty, I'm going to see what Synolgy say first as I've just been through their daisycutter checklist and sent them a few screenshots of how it is configured. They are sometimes very quick to answer and other times I've resorted to ask the question here. I'll let you know. I got kind of embarrassed last week that I was nearly topping the 'Most posts - past 7 days' list...
 
Thanks for the offer Rusty, I'm going to see what Synolgy say first as I've just been through their daisycutter checklist and sent them a few screenshots of how it is configured. They are sometimes very quick to answer and other times I've resorted to ask the question here. I'll let you know. I got kind of embarrassed last week that I was nearly topping the 'Most posts - past 7 days' list...
that’s why the forum is here for. Don’t worry about it
 
Right, finally got answers.

It seems my problems with connecting externally are fixed when, on a new install, I set up Quickconnect. That at least allowed Synolgy in to troubleshoot, but I'm a bit sketchy as to how it actually fixes outside of LAN availability.

Anyway, the reason why ActiveBackup won't backup my Windows 2012 servers is.....dynamic disks. Yep, I have the HDs on both my servers as dynamic for no good reason (or one that I can remember). Doh.

Relived and annoyed, at least I know what I'm working with! I can make the choice to back up most of the LAN with ActiveBackup and leave the servers to Windows as they do already...or make my life easier and convert back to basic disks.

Thanks to all who helped!

Dan
-- post merged: --

and I did not know this:

Dynamic disks have been deprecated from Windows and we don't recommend using them anymore.
 
Yes, who'd have thought although it does list this as a requirement in the documentation when I RTFM.

I'm going to have a stab at converting back to basic disk using a server edition Mini Partition tool that has been quite handy over the years. They've reassured me that it works and this would be the best outcome as I'd rather all backups were handled by the one system.

Quick question on agent credentials. If I have it so that the LAN user uses their LAN account credentials to connect, am I right in saying that they won't be able to access the admin and only their own backups to restore from? I don't want to inadvertently open up a security hole where evryone can access the NAS.

Thanks

Dan
 
Thanks Rusty. When the user changes password, as every LAN account should periodically, does the agent keep up or does it require re-logging in again? If so I'll have to educate our LAN users on this behaviour.
 

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