macOS

You can add new Mac computers to Active Backup for Business, create backup tasks for the computers, restore backup data, and manage these computers on this page. You need to install Active Backup for Business Agent on your computers to perform backups for them.

Create Backup Tasks

Before you create a backup task, install Active Backup for Business Agent on your computer and connect the computer to your Synology NAS via the agent. Your computer will be listed at Personal Computer > macOS, where you can manage it.

To add a Mac to the device list:

Install Active Backup for Business Agent on the Mac you want to protect. Go to the Download Center, select your product model, and download the Active Backup for Business Agent for macOS installer.

Note:

To create a backup task:

Once the agent is installed on the Mac that is connected to Synology NAS, a backup task will be created according to the matched template. You can also create more than one backup task for each device.

  1. Do either of the following to start the backup creation wizard:
  2. Select Target Device:

    This step only appears if no device is selected before you click Create. A list of computers already connected to the server will be displayed in this step.

  3. Configure Task Settings:
  4. Backup Destination:

    Select a shared folder in Btrfs file system as the backup destination. During the package installation, the Btrfs shared folder "ActiveBackupforBusiness" will be created automatically.

  5. Backup Destination Settings: When creating the first task in a backup destination, you can configure compression and encryption settings of the backup destination in this step.

    Note:

    • If you have also configured traffic throttling on the Settings page, the actual data transmission rate will depend on distributed bandwidth.
    • If you want to back up external drives, make sure to format them as APFS and enable Full Disk Access on your Mac and that the external drives are not encrypted.
    • The compression and encryption settings of a backup destination are not changeable after the first backup task is created. If you wish to use different settings for future tasks, please create a task in a new destination.
  6. Schedule Backup Task:
  7. Select Retention Policy:

    In this step, you can choose either one of the following retention policy to apply to the created task:

  8. Backup now:

    The wizard allows an immediate backup regardless of the schedule.

Note:

Restore Personal Computers

You can restore individual files and folders after your Mac computers are backed up.

To restore individual files and folders:

Personal computer backup supports granular (file- and folder-level) restore through Active Backup for Business Portal. Package managers can delegate the restore permission to users through DSM Control Panel. For more information, please refer to the help article: Active Backup for Business Portal.

Note:

Manage Devices

To delete a device:

  1. On Personal Computer > macOS, select the device you want to delete and click Delete.
  2. Keep in mind that the selected Mac's backups will also be deleted. Click Confirm Deletion to remove the Mac from the device list.

To update the agent on the computer:

When there is a newer version of the agent, you can update the agents on source computers by installing the new version. Package managers can update the agents on multiple computers at once from the admin console.

The installation depends on whether the computers are connected to the internet or on LAN.