We are obviously big fans of Synology but like any product or service, they tend to have some strong points and some other area where their products fall short. Synology backup for the windows client has come a long way since Synology CloudStation Backup. This latest product backup release is pretty legit. We try or provide some Active Backup Backup Business Agent setup support, along with answering some concerns with the reliability that you may have with the product.
Active Backup Business Agent Setup Support Checklist of items before proceeding:
- Is your Synology a Plus series or greater processor?
- Active Backup Business Agent does not work on low processor NAS units.
- Do you have BTFRS?
- Make sure you have BTFRS volume setup or you can’t proceed.
- Need to setup a new volume for BTFRS?
- Check out our post on migrating Synology volumes.
- Is this for Windows or a virtual machine?
- There is no Mac option
- Do you have the Synology DSM admin login account?
- Make sure your administrator account is separate from your everyday user account.
- Is your https://account.synology.com create?
- This is required for activating Active Backup for Business
- Did you forward port 5510 if you are backing a laptop outside of your own internal network?
- You will not be able to use DDNS, FQDN, or Quickconnect unless this is setup. LAN to LAN is ok once you know your Synology DSM IP address.
- Do you know how to port forward and access a Synology remotely or locally?
Active Backup Business Agent Setup Support Concerns and Basic Troubleshooting
It is May 20th, my “scheduled” backup hasn’t run since May 9th. I had no idea my client agent stopped running on my machine. Active Backup Business Agent is not ready for prime time if it does not notify me of a failure to backup. I will try to provide more details as I perform more troubleshooting. In the meantime, I most likely need to reinstall the agent.
Synology Active Backup for Business Agent Error. “Internet error. Please check your internet connection. If the problem remains, please contact the administrator to check the internet status of the server.”
Edit the connection to the LAN IP of the Synology or Synology DDNS if port forwarded correctly
Additional Resources:
- Download Center
- Synology Active Backup Business Agent Documentation
- Active Backup Ports Open
Services do not show successful unless service is running and port is open. Open port 5510. It is recommended that you use a service like Canyouseeme.org for confirming if your ports and services are running for WAN usage.
Synology NAS DSM Server package Installer for Active Backup for Business
It’s pretty straight forward setup from the DSM point of view. Please activate the product upon selecting the Active Backup for Business package install and utilize your Synology account https://account.synology.com credentials to complete the install.
PC Setup within DSM
You can select the PC setup and grab the install for Windows directly off the “add device” page.
Windows Setup – Active Backup Business Agent Setup for Windows
Run the installer and be prepared for the “Welcome to the Active Backup for Business agent Wizard”. Simply adding you LAN IP address for the Synology is fine if you are backing up another server or local desktop that never moves. Otherwise, you will want your DDNS, Quickconnect, or FQDN; and port forward xxx.
You will need to create a task in the Active Backup for Business within the DSM if you receive the error message “Failed to create a task. The destination does not exist. Please contact the admin for help.
There should be a successful summary page once you complete the task setup.
You being the smart person that you are, you probably organize shares and other services by “groups” that have specific access to certain items only. Another permissions example is limiting every day users with standard permissions because adding your standard account to administrator will be detrimental to your security. Anyway, we applied the “Hoff” group to the template and configured the following settings:
- Task Template Name
- Desktop Backup
- Apply to
- Hoff
- Default Service Type
- PC
Do you have BTFRS?
Make sure you have BTFRS volume setup or you can’t proceed.
Default Backup Schedule
Adjust retention by selecting the “apply the following methods”
View Synology Active Back for Business Agent Activity
Please verify the client agent is running on the computer that needs a regularly scheduled backup. Otherwise, you will not have a reliable backup. While the user agent should use their login for the individual’s backup. Use the admin of the DiskStation Manager to manage all activity including forcing the first backup.
Recovery Media
It is imperative that you make a USB recovery media for quick restoring of the image of the operating system.
About the Active Backup Agent System Tray Icon – Startup Service
It’s intended behavior that the Active Backup agent doesn’t show up in the taskbar as it’s intended to run as a background service.
If you’re wanting the service to appear in the taskbar upon boot please follow the instructions below.
Type “run” on the search box of your windows computer. Then type shell:startup
t will open the folder where the startup shortcuts are located.
Paste the ABB agent shortcut in the folder.
You should now be able to see the ABB agent under startup programs and once it’s enabled, it will start whenever your computer boots.
Active Backup Business Agent Setup Support Summary
You should have to not only backup actively running but you should have ran off to the store and grabbed a USB thumb drive for creating recovery media. This item is often lost. Dangle it from your desktop monitor and label its purpose after you have created the media on it. Anyway, illustrated below is what your agent on your desktop should look like if you followed the directions completely on here.
