Personal Computer

To backup personal computers, Synology Active Backup for Business Agent is required to be installed on the target personal computers. You can configure the backup tasks for personal computers on DSM. There are three backup types to protect your personal computers: bare-metal, system volume, and customized volumes.

Before You Start

Please note the following:

Note:

To create a backup task:

Once the agent is installed on the personal computer and the personal computer is connected to the server, a backup task of the connected server will be created according to the matched template. It also supports creating more than one backup task to each device. To create a new task of a specific device: Go to PC, you can either start from the device view, select the target device, and then click Create to enter the task creation wizard, or go to Task List > Create, and decide which device you wish to protect later in the task creation wizard.

To edit one or more backup tasks:

It supports both editing tasks individually and in batch. Other than backup destination, most of the settings can be modified. However, in batch edit, the task name as well as the destination cannot be changed.

To avoid mistakenly change the settings that varied across different tasks, the settings are set to remain as they are by default. Tick the checkbox of the section that you wish to change when batch editing is required.

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To delete one or more backup tasks:

Go to Task List to select the task, and then click Delete. After confirming the action, the selected task will be removed while the data will remain in the backed up destination.

The device would still remain connected to the server even when no task attached to it. This device can always be found on the Device List, and you can create a task for the device at any time.

To enable Changed Block Tracking (CBT) technology:

To streamline the backup process, Changed Block Tracking (CBT) technology is adopted when backing up personal computers by default. To ensure CBT is functioning well, please make sure Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) on each protected device has been turned on.

The CBT technology adopted in Active Backup for Business leverages VSS to take snapshots for devices and identify the changed block between snapshots. VSS belongs to Microsoft's built-in technology, and thus it can avoid performance interference while Active Backup for Business is performing the CBT technology. After the first full backup, the CBT technology allows each device to transfer only the changed block to your NAS. Therefore, it helps you to save the bandwidth resource and speeds up the process of backing up.

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To update the agent:

Agent can be updated by installing a newer installer directly on the device. To remotely update the agent, administrators can install the newer agent on multiple devices with the existing Microsoft Windows Active Directory Domain Services or go to DSM > Active Backup for Business. You can follow the below instructions to update the agent from Active Backup for Business:

  1. Go to Active Backup for Business > PC.
  2. Select the target device that needs an update and click Update Agent.
  1. Download the Active Backup for Business Agent installer from Download Center, and upload it to any folder of your Synology NAS with File Station. Please keep note of the location of the installer.
  2. Log in to DSM with root permission on your computer. Please refer to this article for detailed instructions.
  3. Execute the below command to install the agent to your target devices. For example, the location of the installer is /volume1/Files/Synology Active Backup for Business Agent-2.0.4-0621-x64.msi and Active Backup for Business is installed on volume1. The command would be:
  4. After setting up, the agent will be successfully updated.

To have a personal computer backed up as a physical server:

You may change the device type and have a personal computer protected as a physical server when the personal computer needs to be backed up and perform Instant Restore to VMware or Instant Restore to Synology Virtual Machine Manager (VMM).

  1. Select a device and click More.
  2. Click Change device type.

Restore Personal Computer

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