Integrated backup solution for Windows and Linux physical servers, Windows and Mac computers, rsync and SMB file servers, and VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines
Centralized management interface to monitor the status of all backup tasks, storage consumption, and historical transmission
Various restoration methods including entire device restoration, instant restore, and granular file recovery
Maximizes backup and storage efficiency by adopting Changed Block Tracking (CBT), Resilient Change Tracking (RCT), and global deduplication
Minimizes service downtime by integrating the backup task with Virtual Machine Manager to replicate a production environment on Synology NAS
Flexible schedule and retention policies to customize the backup policy
Detailed logs and reports to keep track of backup statuses and troubleshoot problems
Specifications
A maximum of 10 file servers can be conccurently backed up on Active Backup for Business versions 2.2.0 and above
A maximum of 50 personal computers, physical servers, and virtual machines can be concurrently backed up on Active Backup for Business 2.2.0 and above. The actual number varies by RAM capacity:
Less than 8 GB: 10
Between 8 GB and 31 GB: 30
32 GB or more: 50
Users with DSM admin permissions or delegated package permissions can use Active Backup for Business
Generates reports on customized schedule to track the overall backup status
Detailed logs and task history of device backup status, canceled tasks, backup failure, restoration migration, and device restoration
To choose which Synology NAS best suits your backup scenarios, you can refer to this article
Limitations
Compression or encryption at the backup destination is only available in Active Backup for Business 2.2.0 and above
Once compression or encryption at the backup destination is enabled, instant restore to Microsoft Hyper-V or Virtual Machine Manager isn't available on certain models
19-series: RS1219+
18-series: RS818RP+, RS818+
17-series: FS3017, RS3617xs, DS1817+, DS1517+
Personal Computer (Windows)
Specifications
Supported platforms: Windows 11 (all editions), Windows 10 Creators Update (all editions), Windows 10 (all editions), Windows 8.1 (all editions), and Windows 7 SP1 (all editions)
Supports NTFS file system
Backup modes: Entire device, system volume, and customized volume backup
Restoration methods: Entire device restore, file/folder-level restore, and volume-based restore
Image-based backup backs up entire devices, including data and system configurations
Agent-based backup backs up and restores changed blocks found between snapshots (Download the agent from the Download Center)
Leverages Microsoft VSS-based Changed Block Tracking to perform incremental backups
Event-triggered backup events include locked device screen, users signing out, and device startups
Backup window for users to customize allowed and disallowed backup time
Supports inserting arguments (NAS IP address, username, password, and Active Backup for Business icon creation) to the .msi installer for mass deployment of Synology Active Backup for Business Agent
Limitations
Volumes larger than 64 TB cannot be backed up (Learn more)
The file system on the backup destination must be Btrfs
Supports backing up external hard drives only. Other external devices, such as floppy drives, thumb drives, and flash card readers are not supported
For backing up dynamic disks, only simple volumes are supported, while other types of volumes are not
Backing up personal computers with 4Kn disks is not supported
Restoring Windows storage space is not supported
Personal Computer (Mac)
Specifications
Supported platforms: macOS Catalina 10.15.7, macOS Big Sur 11, macOS Monterey 12, macOS Ventura 13, macOS Sonoma 14
Supports APFS file system
Backup modes: Entire device, system volume, and customized volume backup
Agent-based backup backs up and restores changed blocks found between snapshots (Download the agent from the Download Center)
Leverages Apple Software Restore to perform incremental backups with the Changed Block Tracking feature
Backup window for users to customize allowed and disallowed backup times
Limitations
The file system on the backup destination must be Btrfs
Backing up encrypted disks created by users is not supported
Enabling Full Disk Access is required to perform backup and restoration
Supports backing up external hard drives with APFS format only. Other external devices, such as floppy drives, thumb drives, and flash card readers are not supported
For backing up dynamic disks, only simple volumes are supported, while other types of volumes are not
A full backup will be performed once every 20 backups to free up the storage after backup versions are rotated
Devices that are booted from external devices are not supported
Physical Server (Windows)
Specifications
Supported platforms: 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 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022
Supports NTFS file system
Backup modes: Entire device, system volume, and customized volume backup
Restoration methods: Entire device restore, file/folder-level restore, volume-based restore, and instant restore to VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, or Synology Virtual Machine Manager
Image-based backup backs up entire devices, including data and system configurations
Agent-based backup backs up and restores changed blocks found between snapshots (Download the agent from the Download Center)
Leverages Microsoft VSS-based Changed Block Tracking to perform incremental backups
Backup window for users to customize allowed and disallowed backup time
Supports inserting arguments (NAS IP address, username, password, and Active Backup for Business icon creation) to the .msi installer for mass deployment of Synology Active Backup for Business Agent
The supported operating systems for instant restore to Virtual Machine Manager are listed here
Limitations
Volumes larger than 64 TB cannot be backed up (Learn more)
The file system on the backup destination must be Btrfs
Supports backing up external hard drives only. Other external devices such as floppy drives, thumb drives, and flash card readers are not supported
For backing up dynamic disks, only simple volumes are supported, while other types of volumes are not
Backing up physical servers with 4Kn disks is not supported
Restoring Windows storage space is not supported
Physical Server (Linux)
Specifications
Available in Active Backup for Business 2.2.0 and above
Backup modes: Entire device, system volume, and customized volume backup
Restoration methods: Entire device restore, file/folder-level restore, volume-based restore, and instant restore to VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, or Synology Virtual Machine Manager
Image-based backup backs up entire devices, including data and system configurations
Agent-based backup backs up and restores changed blocks found between snapshots (Download the agent from the Download Center)
Leverages Linux snapshot driver-based Changed Block Tracking to perform incremental backups
Backup window for users to customize allowed and disallowed backup time
The supported operating systems for instant restore to Virtual Machine Manager are listed here
Limitations
Only the following device types are supported: /dev/sdx, /dev/hdx, /dev/vdx, /dev/nvmex, /dev/mdx
Backing up external devices is not supported
Backing up physical servers using 4Kn disks is not supported
Application-aware backup is not supported
Inserting arguments (NAS IP address, username, password, and Active Backup for Business icon creation) to the .msi installer for mass deployment of Synology Active Backup for Business Agent is not supported
File Server (SMB)
Specifications
Supported SMB protocol: SMB1, SMB2, and SMB3
Agentless backup
Backup modes: Multi-versioned, mirroring, and incremental backup
Restoration method: File/folder-level restore
Supports backing up Windows ACL
Supports Windows VSS to ensure backup data consistency
Performs backup tasks concurrently
Limitations
The file system on the backup destination must be Btrfs or ext4
File Server (rsync)
Specifications
Supports rsync 3.0 or above versions
Agentless backup
Backup modes: Multi-versioned, mirroring, and incremental backup
Restoration method: File/folder-level restore
Supports backing up Linux POSIX ACL
Supports rsync module mode, rsync shell mode over SSH, and rsync module mode over SSH
Supports authentication with a password or an SSH key
Supports block-level transfer, encryption, and bandwidth control
Performs backup tasks concurrently
Limitations
The file system on the backup destination must be Btrfs or ext4
File Server (NetApp)
Specifications
Supports NetApp ONTAP 9.11.1, 9.12.1, 9.13.1, 9.14.1, and 9.15.1
Active Backup for Business performs file server backups via SMB
To back up the server, make sure that the account used to connect to the NetApp server in Active Backup for Business has at least read permissions
To back up and restore the server, make sure that the account used to connect to the NetApp server has read and write permissions
File Server (Nutanix)
Specifications
Supports Nutanix Files 3.6.5
Active Backup for Business performs file server backups via SMB
To back up the server, make sure that the account used to connect to the Nutanix server in Active Backup for Business has at least read permissions
To back up and restore the server, make sure that the account used to connect to the Nutanix server in Active Backup for Business has read and write permissions
Limitations
The Active Backup for Business Portal does not support restoring atime and mtime of files to Nutanix DFS
Supports all types and versions of VMware virtual hardware, including 62TB VMDK
Supports Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors: Hyper-V 2016, Hyper-V 2019, and Hyper-V 2022
Supports Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM): System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2016, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2019
Supports Microsoft Hyper-V failover clusters: Hyper-V 2016, Hyper-V 2019, and Hyper-V 2022
Supports Hyper-V Generation 1 and 2 virtual machines, including 64 TB VHDX disks and virtual hardware versions from 5.0 to 9.0
For backing up Microsoft Hyper-V, a host's system volume with at least 512 MB of free storage space is required to install a data mover
Image-based backup to back up the entire devices, including data and system configurations
Agentless backup
Leverages VMware Changed Block Tracking and Hyper-V Resilient Change Tracking to perform incremental backup
Backup window for users to customize allowed and denied backup time
Restoration methods: Entire device restore, guest OS file/folder-level restore, and instant restore to VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, or Synology Virtual Machine Manager
For guest OS file level restoration, the supported Windows file systems are NTFS and FAT32 and the supported Linux file systems are NTFS, FAT32, ext3, and ext4
Application-aware backup for VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines running on Microsoft Windows 2003 SP1 or later (excluding Nano Server due to the absence of the VSS framework)
Supports backing up operating systems and applications supported by VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V
The supported operating systems when performing instant restore to Synology Virtual Machine Manager are listed in here
Limitations
The file system on the backup destination must be Btrfs
VMware vSphere
For VMware free ESXi, setting up pre/post scripts and restoring guest OS files through Active Backup for Business Portal are not supported
Encrypted virtual machines (available in VMware vSphere 6.5) are not supported
Fault tolerant machines (available in VMware vSphere 6.0) are not supported
VMware does not support taking snapshots of the following types of disks, so they will be skipped automatically when processing: Raw Device Mapping (RDM) disks in physical mode, independent disks, disks connected via in-guest iSCSI initiator, and disks engaged in SCSI bus sharing
Guest OS file level restore is not supported on virtual machines with the UFS file system
Microsoft Hyper-V
Only the backup of failover clusters and Hyper-V hosts under SCVMM is supported. vSphere hypervisors under SCVMM should be added as hypervisors directly
Pass-through virtual disks and guest disks connected via in-guest Fibre Channel or iSCSI are not supported and will be skipped automatically when processing
Restoration methods: Entire device and file/folder-level restoration
Backup window for users to customize allowed and disallowed backup time
Limitations
Backing up external devices such as thumb drives and flash card readers is not supported
Encrypted volumes can only be backed up when the volumes are unlocked
Compatibility limitations for the source and destination Synology NAS servers during system recovery:
System recovery can only be done if the destination NAS model is identical or a successor to that of the source NAS (e.g., DS218+ can be restored on another DS218+ or DS220+)
The number of drives installed on the destination NAS should be more than or equal to that of the source NAS
The drives on the destination NAS must be installed in the exact same slot positions as the source NAS
The destination NAS must be comprised of drives of the same type. That is, the destination NAS cannot contain a mix of SSDs and HDDs
Recovery Portal
Features
Individual file/folder restoration to save the restoration time
Keyword searching for users to find the desired data easily
Specifications
Data restoration
Batch restoration of file/folder under the same directory
File/folder restoration to new devices (same operating system)
Backup data of Windows/Linux physical servers, file servers, and virtual machines belonging to partially successful backup versions can be restored
File/folder metadata that can be restored varies based on the restored systems:
Windows: Data Modified Time (mTime) and Accessed Time (aTime)
Mac: Data Modified Time (mTime), Accessed Time (aTime), File owner, File permission (ACL permission), and Extended Attribute
Linux: Data Modified Time (mTime), Accessed Time (aTime), File owner and File permission (ACL permission)
Virtual Machine: Data Modified Time (mTime), Accessed Time (aTime), Created Time (cTime), File permission (ACL permission), UID, and GID
Data download
Batch downloading file/folder under the same directory
File/folder downloaded in batch will be compressed to a single file
Backup data of Windows/Linux physical servers, file servers, and virtual machines belonging to partially successful backup versions can be downloaded
For backup data on Windows Server 2019 physical server/virtual machine disks with data deduplication enabled, download is not supported
Active Backup for Business Portal does not support downloading data from Fedora 40 systems that use the XFS file system
Affiliated Utility
Synology Active Backup for Business Agent
Features
Required to be installed on the target device for Windows PCs, Mac, Windows/Linux physical servers to perform backup and restoration
Specifications
System requirements
Windows
Supported platforms: 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 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022
Supports Windows models with x86-64 processors
Mac
Supported platforms: macOS Catalina 10.15.7, macOS Big Sur 11, macOS Monterey 12, macOS Ventura 13, macOS Sonoma 14
Supports Intel and Apple processors
Linux
Available in Active Backup for Business 2.2.0 and above
The kernel version must be above 2.6 and below 6.8
Only users with DSM admin permission can log out from the service and change the backup type
Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Media Creator
Features
Facilitates the creation of the recovery media automatically for volume-based/bare-metal restoration for Windows PC, Mac, and Windows/Linux physical server
Specifications
System requirements
Windows
Supported platforms: 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 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022
Supports Windows models with x86-64 processors
Mac
Supported platforms: macOS Catalina 10.15.7, macOS Big Sur 11, macOS Monterey 12, macOS Ventura 13, macOS Sonoma 14
Supports Intel and Apple processors
Linux
Available in Active Backup for Business 2.2.0 and above
Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard
Features
Allows users to perform volume-based/bare-metal restoration for Windows PCs, Macs, and Windows/Linux physical servers with the recovery media users create
Specifications
System requirements
Windows
Supported platforms: 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 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022
Supports Windows models with x86-64 processors
Mac
Supported platforms: macOS Catalina 10.15.7, macOS Big Sur 11, macOS Monterey 12, macOS Ventura 13, macOS Sonoma 14
Supports Intel and Apple processors
Linux
Available in Active Backup for Business 2.2.0 and above