Requirements and Limitations
This section provides you with important information on deployment limitations and supported environments of different devices.
You may refer to the following sections to learn more details regarding different devices and deployment requirements.
Synology NAS Requirements and Limitations
- For Active Backup for Business 2.1.0 and above versions, a Synology NAS running DSM 6.2 or above is required.
- For Active Backup for Business 2.0.4 and previous versions, a Synology NAS running DSM 6.1.7 or above is required.
- Active Backup for Business can only run on x64 Synology NAS servers with Btrfs file system.
- For backup performance, it is recommended to have at least 4G of RAM and not to set up the shared folder quota due to the deduplication mechanism.
- To perform a backup task, there must be at least 8 GB of free space both on the backup destination and on the volume where the package is installed.
- Only the folders in Btrfs volumes can be the backup destinations.
- For backup destinations of PC, physical server, and virtual machine backup tasks, encrypted shared folders are not supported.
Note:
- Certain Synology NAS models do not support the Instant Restore to Synology Virtual Machine Manager feature because of the limited storage space that comes with the models. Please refer to here for more details on the models supporting VMM.
Personal Computer Requirements and Limitations
- Supported Windows editions:
- Windows 11 (all editions)
- Windows 10 Creators Update (all editions)
- Windows 10 (all editions)
- Windows 8.1 (all editions)
- Windows 7 SP1 (all editions)
- Supported file system:
- Required network port: 5510
Note:
- Volumes larger than 64 TB cannot be backed up. Learn more about the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) limitation.
- On dynamic disks, only simple volumes are supported for backup, while other types of volumes are not.
- Supports backing up external hard drives only. Other external devices, such as floppy drives, thumb drives, and flash card readers cannot be backed up.
- The backup of personal computers with 4Kn disks is not supported.
- The backup of virtual hard disks (VHDs) on Windows is not supported. If you wish to back up VHDs, please back up the entire device or the volume where the VHD files are located.
- When connecting personal computers to Synology NAS via Synology Active Backup for Business Agent, connecting through QuickConnect is not supported.
- Active Backup for Business Portal does not support downloading or restoring backup data that are encrypted by Windows Encryption File System (EFS).
Physical Server Requirements and Limitations
- Windows
- Supported Windows edition:
- Windows 11 (all editions)
- Windows 10 Creators Update (all editions)
- Windows 10 (all editions)
- Windows 8.1 (all editions)
- Windows 7 SP1 (all editions)
- Windows Server 2022
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- Windows Server 2012
- Windows Server 2008 R2
- Supported file system:
- Required network port: 5510
Note:
- Volumes larger than 64 TB cannot be backed up. Learn more about the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) limitation.
- On dynamic disks, only simple volumes are supported for backup, while other types of volumes are not.
- Supports backing up external hard drives only. Other external devices, such as floppy drives, thumb drives, and flash card readers cannot be backed up.
- The backup of physical servers with 4Kn disks is not supported.
- The backup of virtual hard disks (VHDs) on Windows is not supported. If you wish to back up VHDs, please back up the entire device or the volume where the VHD files are located.
- Windows 11 backup tasks only support Backup Verification and Instant Restore to Virtual Machine Manager on DSM 7.1 and above.
- When connecting physical servers to Synology NAS via Synology Active Backup for Business Agent, connecting through QuickConnect is not supported.
- Active Backup for Business Portal does not support downloading or restoring:
- Linux
- Supports kernel versions between 2.6 and 5.10
- Supported 64-bit versions of the following Linux distributions:
- CentOS: 6.10, 7.8, 8.1
- RHEL: 6.10, 7.8, 8.1 8.4, 8.5
- Ubuntu: 16.04, 18.04, 20.04
- Fedora: 30, 31, 32
- Debian: 8.0, 9.0, 10, 11
- Supported file systems:
- Required components on the target device:
- make 4.1 version or above
- libaio 0.3.110 version or above
- dkms 2.2.0.3 version or above
- gcc 4.8.2 version or above
Note:
- Supported device types: /dev/sdx, /dev/hdx, /dev/vdx, /dev/nvmex, /dev/mdx.
- Backup of external devices is not supported.
- For connecting physical servers to Synology NAS via Synology Active Backup for Business Agent, the QuickConnect URL of the Synology NAS is not supported.
File Server Requirements and Limitations
Active Backup for Business supports servers running with SMB (Windows) and rsync 3.0 or above (Linux) protocol.
For file servers to be backed up and restored properly, please make sure the following permissions of the source folder are enabled.
- For SMB (Windows) server backup:
- For backing up the server, the account you entered in Active Backup for Business for connecting the SMB server should have at least the read permission.
- For backing up and restoring the server, the account you entered in Active Backup for Business for connecting the SMB server should have the read and write permissions.
Note:
- The entered account should be authorized to access the path of the file you wish to back up and restore. For example, if the backup source is under "System32/AppLocker/ABBbackup", the account is required to have the read permission for the "System32", "AppLocker", and "ABBbackup" folder, instead of only the "ABBbackup" folder.
- For rsync server backup:
- For backing up the server, the account you entered in Active Backup for Business for connecting the rsync server should have at least the read permission.
- For backing up and restore the server, the account you entered in Active Backup for Business for connecting the rsync server should have the read and write permissions.
Note:
- For all connection modes, please check and edit the permission settings through command line or Linux user interface.
- If the selected connection mode of the server is rsync module or rsync module mode via SSH, please also check the permission settings in rsync.conf and edit settings if encountering insufficient permission errors.
- If the source server is a Synology NAS, please make sure the permission settings of the folders and directory are correct.
Virtual Machine Requirements and Limitations