Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard

Active Backup for Business supports bare-metal and volume-level backup and restoration through a preconfigured recovery media. This article will explain how the recovery media works when restoring the entire machine or specific volumes with a specific backed up version stored on Synology NAS. For more information on how to configure the recovery media, please refer to Recovery Media Creation Guide.

Requirements and Limitations

Note:

Boot Recovery Media

After you have mounted the ISO image or attached the USB drive to the device intended for restoration, press F2 to enter the BIOS mode once your device has been rebooted. Please note that this hotkey may vary according to different vendors. Afterward, navigate to the Boot tab, and prioritize the order of CD-ROM Drive and Removable Devices according to where the recovery media is located. Exit the setup process and you will be directed to Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard, which will start the recovery process automatically. You can either browse the user interface of Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard as displayed in the Overview section or immediately start the recovery process as shown in the Recovery section.

Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard: Overview

Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard: Recovery

To restore a version from the server:

After you have entered the BIOS menu and selected the boot order for booting recovery media, you will be directed to the welcome page of Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard. Once you have been directed to the welcome page, you can follow the steps below to start the recovery process:

  1. Load drivers and network adapters:

    This step is optional and is only required when you are using specific network adapters or drivers. Recovery may fail if the necessary driver has not been installed. To ensure a smoother recovery process, we strongly suggest you to double check the installed drivers and adapters in this step.

  2. Log in to the Synology NAS:

    Enter the server IP or domain name and credentials to log in to the Synology NAS to retrieve the stored versions. The devices and versions which you can see in the next two steps are based on your logged in account.

  3. Select the device and the task:

    Once logged in, all the available backed up devices and tasks for the logged in account will be displayed. Information of the backup type and Latest Restore Point is listed on the table. You can view the time of the latest successful backup version in Latest Restore Point column.

  4. Select the restore mode:

    Select which mode you would like to use when restoring your device.

  5. Select a version:

    After selecting a restore mode, the eligible versions of the selected task are displayed on the left panel, and the detailed information of the selected version is displayed on the right panel. The backup version will only be available when it is compatible with the selected restore mode. For example, when selecting System volume restore, only the versions containing the system volume will be available for restoring.

  6. Note:

  7. Check and confirm the summary to start the recovery process:

    Please note that recovery is an irreversible action. Once started, it is not allowed to be stopped and rolled back to where it was before the recovery. Cancellation during the process may prevent the device from booting successfully.

  8. Finish and reboot:

    Click Finish and decide if you wish to reboot the device or turn it off when the recovery is ready. Please remove the recovery media before rebooting the device.

  9. Note:

To cancel the recovery:

  1. Click on Cancel at the bottom of the wizard to cancel the recovery before it finishes. Please note that both recovery and cancellation is irreversible.
  2. Click Finish to choose either to reboot the device or turn it off.

To retrieve "recovery.log" and send it to Synology Technical Support when the recovery fails:

When a bare metal or volume level recovery has failed, you may retrieve the "recovery.log" file and send it to Synology Technical Support for further assistance. Please note that "recovery.log" is only retrievable on Recovery Wizard before you restart or turn off your device.

To retrieve the "recovery.log" file, please follow the below steps:

  1. Click at the top right corner of the wizard to open the context menu.
  2. Click Command-line interface to launch command-line interface.
  3. Enter the below command to launch Notepad:

    notepad

  4. Choose Open in the notepad, and check the drive letter of the inserted USB drive. For example, if the drive letter of the inserted USB drive is “S”, please enter the below command to copy the log to the USB:

    copy X:\ActiveBackup\recovery.log S:

    A message confirming the action of copying the file will appear after entering this command.
  5. Go to the USB drive where you copied the log file to, and send the file named "recovery.log" to Synology Technical Support for further troubleshooting.