How to FULLY BACKUP Synology DSM (System Image) with Hyper Backup to Another Synology NAS

How to Backup Your Synology NAS (Full System Image) with Hyper Backup to Another NAS

For many Synology NAS users, what started as a simple place to dump a whole lot of data gradually turned into something of a complex and strategically layered storage system for all their photos, docs, videos and business storage! Synology NAS and DSM have always provided a range off tools that allowed users to backup the files and folder contents of their NAS to another NAS, a USB drive, to the Cloud and more. HOWEVER, it has only been in the last couple of years that SERIOUS attention has been paid to ‘Whole System‘ and Full NAS Block Level backup‘ – i.e the ability to create a FULL system image, with all files, folders, apps, settings, configuration and precise system layout to be stored as a system image and backed up! Until recently, if you wanted to create a full Synology NAS system DSM image backup, you needed to use the rather enterprise ‘Synology Active Backup’ application. Aside from ABS/Synology-AB being a much more advanced tool to use that might be a touch complex for some, it is also not a tool that is available on ‘all’ synology NAS systems, due to its more aggressive hardware requirements. However, now that full system DSM image backup is now available in Synology Hyper Backup (a tool which is available on many, MANY more NAS systems), then will allow a lot more users to option of a full Synology NAS system backup! In today’s detailed article, I will walk you through how to setup, execute and restore a backup of a Full Synology NAS DSM system image from another NAS, using Hyper Backup. Let’s begin!

What You Will Need to Backup a Synology NAS System Image  to Another with Hyper Backup

Before sinking your teeth into this guide, you just need to check that you have the following elements in place:

• Two Synology NAS that Support Hyper Backup/Hyper Backup Vault
• Synology NAS #1 (Source/PRIMARY) with Synology Hyper Backup 4.1.0-3425 or later
• Synology NAS #2 (Target/DESTINATION) with Synology Hyper Backup Vault 4.1.0-3425 or later
• Both NAS Systems on the same network (i.e connected to the same switch or router)
• More Storage Space on NAS #2 than NAS #1  (The more, the better!)

It is also worth keeping in mind that the Full DSM backup feature of Synology Hyper Backup (and Hyper Backup Vault, by extension) are currently in beta at the time of writing. So, keep this in mind if you choose to proceed with this feature for your Synology NAS setup.

IMPORTANT – You can watch the VIDEO version of this Guide HERE

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How to Setup The Backup Destination Synology NAS (2)

It may seen a little odd, but the FIRST THING we need to do is get the setup of your DESTINATION Synology NAS (i.e the NAS that is going to STORE the backups) configured first. This is because we need to have this ready before pointing our primary/host NAS at it. Head over to your 2nd NAS and in the package center, install Hyper Backup Vault 4.1.0-3425 (or later):

Installation will be very quick and it will appear as an available application in the app center and in your start menu quite quickly.

Next, head into the ‘Control Panel‘ and then select ‘Shared Folder‘:

From here, create a new Shared Fodler to store the NAS backup images that you will be sending to this NAS later on. The name doesn’t;t matter, it’s just much more important to separate the DSM images that will be storage from the rest of your storage. I would also recommend putting them in their own volume, but this is optional.

Another optional, but advised config option to consider is to enable ‘WriteOnce’ (a feature only available on Intel/AMD x86 CPU-based NAS). This ensures that the backup images are close to impossible to destroy/change without express admin powers.

WORM / WriteOnce / Write-Once-Read-Many has two modes. Enterprise Mode ensures that ONLY an admin can change/delete this backup. Compliance Mode means NO ONE can change/delete it and you can set a time factor that ensures that unit X time has passed, the contents of this folder may not be changed – i.e your system images! Onnly the writing/adding of new data. Aagin, this is optional, but still remarkably useful for business system image backups.

Once the Shared Folder is created, it will appear as another readily available, network visible folder.

Now we need to switch over to our  MAIN/PRIMARY NAS to start arranging the backup.

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How to Prepare and Setup Your Main Synology NAS for a Full Image Backup

On your Main/Primary Synology NAS (1), head into the App center and download Synology Hyper Backup 4.1.0-3425 or later.

Once you have installed the Synology Hyper Backup application, you can open it up and you will be initially greeted by the Backup Wizard (if you have closed this or it simply does not appear, just click the blue ‘Plus’ symbol to bring it up. From here, click on the ‘Entire System‘ option and then click ‘Next‘

A new window will appear that invited you to start entering the information of the 2nd NAS (TARGET/DESTINATION) that you created earlier. If you know the network IP, enter it in the top. If you do not know it immediately, don’t worry…

As you can use the down arrow next to it to search you local area network for any Synology NAS that are available. Just select the Name/I[ of the Target/Destination NAS you are going to send the backups towards.

Next, you can choose whether you want to ensure that files transmitted over the network between each NAS are encrypted or not. This will keep packets of data unusable during transfers, but it will reduce the speed of backups, as it will require encryption/decryptions at either end. Its optional.

The Port of you Synology NAS will be ‘6281’ by default, but if you have set a new one in your system configuration from the destination NAS, put it in the box provided. Then click ‘Log in’, which will then create a new browser window to appear and you will need to enter the login credentials of an account on the Destination/target NAS that  has access to Synology Hyper Backup Vault.

The Hyper Backup app will check the security certificate and if you are using the system in a locally deployed and unchanged setup, it will highlight the status of the self-signed certificate. for locked/local access only, you can larger click through this with Yes.

Next, when the access to the destination NAS is established, you will need to select the destination NAS folder that you want to send backups towards. THIS is why we needed to set up the target/destination (2) NAS up first, so we can see the shared folder we created earlier (i.e DSM Backup, in my case). Select the folder for the backups and then select ‘directory’.

The ‘Directory’ is a sub folder that will contain one or more of your DSM system backup images. You can leave this as default or give it a specific/unique NAS if you plan on backing up multiple Synology NAS images to this from different source NAS’.

Now you have filled all this out, you can go ahead and click ‘next’ to proceed to the next step! This next step allows you to create a timed schedule for WHEN the backups from NAS (1) to NAS (2) take place! I would advice these take place during the night when you sleep (unless you are a night owl!) , as it willfully saturate the network connections of both NAS systems to upload/download the data. You can also add the option to run integrity checks periodically and on ‘in progress’ transfers to ensure the DSM images are healthy.

Next up you have the option to enable Backup rotation. This is an automated system that, if you create regular system DSM image backups, will create a pre-defined amount of them, before overwriting the oldest image with a new one. You can even use semi-automated systems for the system to understand ‘significant’ changes and change the retention policies quite a lot. Set the retention policy for your DSM image backups as best suited to your needs and then click next.

This final window is just to allow you to check your settings are correct before you confirm the NAS (1) TO nas (2) backup routine (not actioning it yet).

When you return to the Hyper Backup window on NAS (1), it will ask you to restart your Synology NAS system to confirm this backup settings. This is because the system needs to ensure the image backup creation settings are correct. Restart the system using the option on screen OR click no, then do anything/everything yo will need the system for, THEN restart.

Restarting will take a few minutes, depending on the power of your system, the number of active processes and scale of your storage.

When the Synology NAS (1) has rebooted (you will hear a beep), you just need to head back into the Hyper backup tool.

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How to Action a Synology NAS (#1) Full Image Backup to Another Synology NAS (#2)

On the destination/target NAS (2), the Hyper Backup Vault app will now show that the primary NAS (1) is now connected.

Your new Synology Image backup routine is ready to run on your primary NAS. From here, you can choose to let the schedule you set earlier kick in when it is set for, or just click ‘Back Up Now‘ to start the DSM image backup immediately.

The amount of time the backup will take is HEAVILY dependant on the amount of data that is being backed up and the bandwidth/network connection of your network that these NAS are connected by. Also, the Hyper BAckup DSM image will only take up the amount of storage space of your destination NAS of ‘real data’. So, even if your primary NAS (1) has 12TB of capacity, if it only has 1TB of ACTUAL DATA, it will only take 1TB+space for DSM system data in the backup image.

As you can see in the image below, as the primary/host NAS (1) sends data over, the destination/target NAS (2) is registering it as received. Both NAS can be used normally during this process too!

When the job is complete, you will be able to see that the primary/host NAS (1) is showing the job as complete and the target/destination NAS (2) BOTH SHOW A COMPLETE BACKUP.

And there you go! Backing up a WHOLE system image of DSM from one Synology NAS to another is super easy with Hyper Backup now! Now, let’s go through the process of RESTORING a backup!

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How to Restore Your Synology DSM Image NAS Backup

In order to restore a backup of a Synology NAS DSM image, you will need to have the SAME model/storage NAS setup and that NAS will also need Synology Hyper Backup 4.1.0-3425 or later installed. Most likely you will be reusing the same hardware that you already were using, but if you were restring to new hardware, this DSM image will only work with the same hardware you had previously when you created the backup. In the Primary NAS (1), head back into the time circle icon (restore) and a new window will appear:

This new window has several options, but the one you want to look at is ‘Entire System‘ again. Select it and then click ‘next’.

When you this, the system will then prompt you that it will open the ‘Control Panel’ to begin the ‘Restore Process’.

In the Control Panel, the ‘System Recovery’ tab will be selected and a new window will appear that asked you to select the backup/restore method. Select ‘Hyper Backup Vault’, then click ‘ok’.

The system will prompt you again, this time to urge you that it will load into the system restore window.

From here, you will need to add the Network IP of your target/destination NAS (2). There is no drop-down menu this time, so you will need to enter it manually (you can use the Synology Assistant tool to find the IP on the network)

However, before then, you will need to authorize this action. Much like before, you need to enter the login credentials for your target/destination NAS (2) with user details that have access to the DSM IMAGE backup.

After that, the system will show a list of DSM Images (the number of them will depend on your own regularity of backups and rotation). Select the one you wish to use, choose whether you want to reinstate the network settings (ie the system’s original identity on the network, which will be invaluable to reestablish any connected shares and drives you had) and lastly decide if you want the data being sent between NAS (2) and NAS (1) to be encrypted. Once again, encrypted is safer, but slower. The, click Next.

The system then will display a summary of the actions that will take place. You need to check these, then (if you are happy with them), click restore.

Not to take anything to lightly, the NAS will ask you to be SURE that you want to do this, as it will completely format the NAS to the DSM image settings. ANY data actions/creations that took place since this DSM image was created will NOT be kept!

If you still want to reinstate this DSM image backup, go ahead and enter the local NAS (i.e NAS 1) password, then click ‘submit’ to begin the restoration process. BE WARNED, you cannot use the NAS for any other processes during this restoration and depending on the scale of the restoration, it can take many, MANY hours!

If you log into the NAS, or keep the window open, you will be treated with a % completion figure for the DSM restoration.

 

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Which Synology NAS Models Support Hyper Backup DSM Full Image Backups?

Hyper Backup 4.1.0 requires DSM 7.2 and above to run. The entire system backup function is supported in specific models. As of Aug 2023, these are:

FS series: FS6400, FS3600, FS3410, FS3400, FS2500, FS1018

SA series: SA6400, SA3610, SA3600, SA3410, SA3400

23 series: RS2423RP-F, RS2423+, DS1823xs+, DS923+, DS723+, DS423+

22 series: FS822RP+, RS822+, RS422+, DS3622xs+, DS2422+, DS1522+, DVA1622

21 series: FS4021xs+, RS3621xs+, RS3621RPxs, RS2821RP+, RS2421RP+, RS2421+, RS1221RP+, RS1221+, DS1821+, DSLAZY+, DS1621xs+, DS1621+, DVA3221

20 series: RS820RP+, RS820+, DS1520+, DS920+, DS720+, DS620slim, DS420+, DS220+ #

19 series: RS1619xs+, DS2419+II, DS2419+, DS1819+, DS1019+, DVA3219

18 series: RS3618xs, DS2818RP+, RS2418RP+, RS2418+, DS3018xs, DS1618+, DS918+, DS718+, DS418play, DS218+

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