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Knowledge Center

Glacier Backup

Amazon Glacier provides secure and durable data storage at extremely low costs. By backing up files to your Amazon Glacier account, Glacier Backup helps save space on your Synology NAS and provides a contingency plan to avoid data loss.

Getting Started

Before using Glacier Backup, you need to register an Amazon Glacier account. For details regarding Amazon Glacier, please see here.

Overview

The Overview page displays information related to the status of backup tasks, such as warnings, scheduled backup time, and the status of restore tasks.

Managing Backup Tasks

This section explains how to start backing up data stored on your Synology NAS to your Glacier account.

The first time a shared folder is backed up to your Glacier account, a full copy of the shared folder is uploaded. The next time the shared folder is backed up, only modified files are uploaded.

Using remote folders as backup source or restore destination is not supported.

To create a backup task:

  1. Go to the Backup page.
  2. Click Action and select Create.
  3. Follow the instructions of the Backup Wizard to complete setup and start uploading the selected shared folders. Upload time varies.

Backup task naming rules:

Backup task names can include 1 to 32 Unicode characters and cannot contain the following characters: ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , / : ; <= > ? @ [ ] \ ^ ` { } | ~.

Preserve backed up files at destination:

Disable this option if you want to remove backed up files at the destination when files are deleted from the source. However, according to the Amazon Glacier pricing policy, you will be charged an early deletion fee by Amazon if you delete backed up files within three months of uploading them. To avoid additional fees, when you disable the Preserve backed up files at destination option, backed up files will be retained at the destination for three months before they are automatically deleted.

To edit a backup task:

  1. Go to the Backup page.
  2. Select the backup task you want to edit.
  3. Click Action and select Edit.
  4. Modify settings, such task name, shared folders to back up, and scheduled backup.
  5. Click OK to finish.

To delete a backup task:

  1. Go to the Backup page.
  2. Select the backup task you want to remove (press and the Ctrl key to select multiple tasks).
  3. Click Action and select Delete.
  4. A window appears where you can choose to do the following:
    • Delete task: This option removes the task from the Synology NAS only.
    • Delete backup files from Glacier server: This option removes files associated with the backup task from Glacier servers.
  5. Click Apply to confirm.

To perform a backup task immediately:

  1. Go to the Backup page.
  2. Select the backup task you want to back up (press the Ctrl key to select multiple tasks).
  3. Click Back up now.

To cancel a backup task:

Glacier backup tasks can take a long time to complete. You can use this function to cancel backup tasks currently underway.

  1. Go to the Backup page.
  2. Select a backup task that you want to cancel (press the Ctrl key to select multiple tasks).
  3. Click Cancel.

Note:

Backup tasks will fail if you rename or delete shared folders which are the backup sources of Glacier Backup at Control Panel > Shared Folder.

The default multipart upload part size is 512MB, please set a smaller number if the network environment is unstable.

Restore Files from Glacier Servers

Files that were previously backed up to your Glacier account can be downloaded and restored to the Synology NAS, allowing you to replace deleted files or download them to a new Synology NAS. This function is only available when a backup task exists on the Synology NAS and the associated files were successfully backed up to your Glacier account. You can choose to restore an archive in the Restore tab, or just a particular file or folder in the Explore tab.

To restore files:

  1. Go to the Restore page.
  2. Click Restore.
  3. Follow the steps of the Restore Wizard to select a backup task and start restoring files from the Glacier server to the Synology NAS. Restoring files takes 4-5 hours.

To retrieve a backup task:

If you accidentally delete some backup tasks from the Synology NAS, or if you want to download existing backup tasks to a new Synology NAS, you can use this function to download all tasks which are saved to your Glacier account.

  1. Go to the Restore page.
  2. Click Retrieve task.
  3. Enter your Glacier key and select the region.
  4. Click Apply.

Restoring files to a new Synology NAS:

If you want to restore backup files to a new Synology NAS, you can go to Restore and click Retrieve task to download backup tasks which were created on a different Synology NAS. Once the backup tasks are successfully retrieved, you can restore files to the new Synology NAS. See above for more details regarding retrieving tasks.

Note:

  • Restore will fail if you rename or delete shared folders which are the destination of restore at Control Panel > Shared Folder.
  • You cannot run backup on retrieved tasks. This limitation is to prevent multiple tasks from backing up files to the same vault and overwriting files that have been previously backed up. If you have to run backup on retrieved tasks, please go to Support Center > Contact Support for more assistance.

Managing files and folders via the Explore Page

To browse backed up files:

  1. Go to the Explore page.
  2. From the drop down menu, select the backup task you want to browse.
  3. Select the files or folders you want to view.

To restore backed up files:

  1. Select the files or folders you want to restore.
  2. Click Restore to add the files or folders to the job queue.
  3. Go to the Queue tab and click Start to allow the jobs to be executed one by one.

To delete backed up files:

  1. Select the files or folders you want to delete.
  2. Click delete to add the files or folders to the job queue.
  3. Go to the Queue tab and click Start to allow the jobs to be executed one by one.

Rules and Limitations

  • Once a task has been added into the job queue, data cannot be restored or deleted, only browsed.
  • New jobs will be deleted if you change the backed up source, exit the Explore page, or close the Glacier application before you start them.
  • You cannot delete jobs that are being excuted.
  • You cannot run other backup applications when tasks are being executed.
  • You cannot restore and delete files in the Explore page if tasks are being executed in the backup or restore page.
  • You cannot restore encrypted shared folders in the Explore page. You can only delete them from Glacier servers.
  • You cannot use remote folders as backup source or restore destination.
  • Tasks will be upgraded after the package has been upgraded. You cannot backup, restore, explore, or delete the task if it is upgrading. If task upgrade fails, please go to Support Center > Contact Support for more assistance.

Log

The Log page displays past activity related to the status of backup tasks. You can manage log messages with the following buttons:

  • Reload: Updates the list of log messages.
  • Clear: Clears all log messages.
  • Export: Downloads a copy of log messages to the local computer.
Getting Started
Overview
Managing Backup Tasks
Restore Files from Glacier Servers
Managing files and folders via the Explore Page
Log