iOS device (full) backups to Synology NAS
Discussion
Looking for some advice please concerning NAS and iOS devices (I think I’m OK for Windows/Mac). We treated ourselves at Christmas to a Synology NAS to replace an aged WD unit. What a difference! Now what I’d like to do is to start a regimen of backing up our phones and tablets, all of which are iOS based, to the NAS. I know I can back them up to iCloud and iTunes, but I’d like to remove those dependencies if possible. The backups will need to be full ones in order to take across messages, as my wife especially gets loads of embedded stuff from family (videos & photos) which are very dear to her.
Over to you all for ideas - what’s worked or not worked for you?!
Over to you all for ideas - what’s worked or not worked for you?!
Looking at the synology website.
It is for uber geeks who know what they are talking about.
What on earth do I need to connect to a Mac - that is good enough for home use - assuming I use Imazing to backup 3 IOS devices and 2 Mac's?
A little bit of redundancy is nice.
Have Icloud as a "better safe than sorry"
Thank you for all your help in advance.
And "Happy New Year!"
It is for uber geeks who know what they are talking about.
What on earth do I need to connect to a Mac - that is good enough for home use - assuming I use Imazing to backup 3 IOS devices and 2 Mac's?
A little bit of redundancy is nice.
Have Icloud as a "better safe than sorry"
Thank you for all your help in advance.
And "Happy New Year!"
You should install Synology Drive Server on the NAS in the Packages section.
Then download Synology Drive Agent for any of your devices from the app store.
This can be used to schedule either regular / synced or on demand backups to the NAS.
Works well.
If it's a Business oriented Synology device, Active Backup For Business will be available which caters for a much wider range of options / VM Backup etc.
Cheers,
Dougie.
If all you are going to do is backup to it then either a DS120j or opt for a DS220j if you want disc redundancy.
I use a 120j and Synology Drive to backup my Mac and that is all it does (have never got Time Machine to play nicely with a NAS). Happy with a single disc as the chances of both the Mac and the NAS failing at the same time is slim and most of the Mac stuff is also in iCloud. The 120j isn't backed up anywhere else.
I also have a 718+ to do everything else including streaming Plex everywhere. This is backed up periodically to an external drive and backed up in real time to Backblaze as it has TB of data on it that would be an absolute pain to lose.
None of them come with discs so price those into the budget. For the 220 you will need two drives if you want redundancy and bear in mind that 2x 4TB discs will only give you 4TB of space (less the overhead so a bit less than that). The 120 will only need one drive but you have no redundancy if it fails.
Some places will sell them with discs in but, if you are happy to install them yourself, it will be cheaper to buy separately.
I use a 120j and Synology Drive to backup my Mac and that is all it does (have never got Time Machine to play nicely with a NAS). Happy with a single disc as the chances of both the Mac and the NAS failing at the same time is slim and most of the Mac stuff is also in iCloud. The 120j isn't backed up anywhere else.
I also have a 718+ to do everything else including streaming Plex everywhere. This is backed up periodically to an external drive and backed up in real time to Backblaze as it has TB of data on it that would be an absolute pain to lose.
None of them come with discs so price those into the budget. For the 220 you will need two drives if you want redundancy and bear in mind that 2x 4TB discs will only give you 4TB of space (less the overhead so a bit less than that). The 120 will only need one drive but you have no redundancy if it fails.
Some places will sell them with discs in but, if you are happy to install them yourself, it will be cheaper to buy separately.
Seeing this thread made me check on my NAS, a Synology DS212J.
My personal experience would be get rid. Or if you have to keep it ONLY use it as a back up of data stored elsewhere.
My first Synology NAS corrupted the cache on 2 drives which I was lucky to be able to recover.
My DS212J has now just done the exact same thing to 4TB Seagate drive and now appears to have killed the drive as well.
Both drives were kept in an environment free of vibration and attached to the home power supply.
The SSD in it appears to still be OK.
My personal experience would be get rid. Or if you have to keep it ONLY use it as a back up of data stored elsewhere.
My first Synology NAS corrupted the cache on 2 drives which I was lucky to be able to recover.
My DS212J has now just done the exact same thing to 4TB Seagate drive and now appears to have killed the drive as well.
Both drives were kept in an environment free of vibration and attached to the home power supply.
The SSD in it appears to still be OK.
You're using an SSD as a cache for a mechanical drive? I didn't realise that was supported on all models.
FWIW, my 211J has been boringly reliable for over a decade now with just mechanical drives.
edit, I found https://kb.synology.com/en-us/DSM/tutorial/Which_S... , which doesn't seem to list the 212J as supporting an SSD as cache?
FWIW, my 211J has been boringly reliable for over a decade now with just mechanical drives.
edit, I found https://kb.synology.com/en-us/DSM/tutorial/Which_S... , which doesn't seem to list the 212J as supporting an SSD as cache?
Edited by xeny on Sunday 1st January 18:48
In contrast I have 3 of them and they've all be flawless. In addition to the two above, I have an 11-year old 211j which is in the detached garage recording CCTV. Never missed a beat in a less than ideal environment. The others are a lot newer but infinitely better than the QNAP they replaced, a company who's door I will never darken again.
driver67 said:
You should install Synology Drive Server on the NAS in the Packages section.
Then download Synology Drive Agent for any of your devices from the app store.
This can be used to schedule either regular / synced or on demand backups to the NAS.
Works well.
If it's a Business oriented Synology device, Active Backup For Business will be available which caters for a much wider range of options / VM Backup etc.
Cheers,
Dougie.
Thanks Dougie, I'll look into this option more closely. I'd discounted it earlier because I gained the impression from 't interweb that it backed up files (such as photos) but not other aspects (such as messages).Then download Synology Drive Agent for any of your devices from the app store.
This can be used to schedule either regular / synced or on demand backups to the NAS.
Works well.
If it's a Business oriented Synology device, Active Backup For Business will be available which caters for a much wider range of options / VM Backup etc.
Cheers,
Dougie.
Thanks to everyone else for your feedback - I've already got the Synology unit (a DS418) with 4 drives configured in RAID 10 so I'm past that stage of decision making. I also have backup plans in place for it too - it's the various client devices backing up to it that are the current challenge!
xeny said:
Thanks, what do you mean with "corrupted the cache" ? Cache is normally a structure in memory that is rebuilt on reboot, not something that can fail.
The instructions for the file structure of the drive, where all the data is. Probably the master file table. The drive just has no idea what to do, the NAS cannot reinitialise or wipe it either, although it can see it. The NAS also thinks the drive is over 16TB in size (it's 4TB).Pretty sure with some more advanced tools I could get the data out as I did previously (thankfully I don't need to) but the NAS has screwed the drive again. The HDD spins up but sounds like it gets stuck in some sort of initialisation loop then stops. Same response in the NAS as in a SATA drive dock.
Just been looking on Amazon for a replacement drive and looking at the reviews, it could well be some sort of conflict with the Synology system and Seagate drives. The last NAS I had killed 2 WD drives.
Going for a Toshiba this time. Let's see how long that lasts.
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