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Backing up a NAS device


HugoR

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I am considering purchasing a NAS device for my home network and would like to know if Retrospect Pro 7.7 for Windows will be able to backup the data residing on the NAS device (not just backing up to the NAS device)

 

1. What are the requirements for the NAS device? (I assume I will have to install the Retrospect client on that device?)

 

2. Will Retrospect Pro 7.7 for Windows handle the task or do I need a different version of Retrospect?

 

3. Has anyone had experience with the Synology NAS devices and how well they worked with Retrospect?

 

Thank you very much,

Hugo

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Hi,

 

I have a QNAP NAS that I backup from and to using Retrospect Pro 7.7. You will need to set up Volumes in Retrospect so that the PC running the backup can see them. The NAS shares are simply accessed via SMB, so your Synology NAS should work just the same.

 

On thing to note: You must make sure that the Restrospect Launcher service logs on using an account that has full access to the NAS shares. By default it logs on with the Windows System account and the Launcher won't have the correct priveledges to access the NAS.

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Hugo,

 

Yes. Having a client on the NAS might be nice as you wouldn't need to expose any shares on the network and lock down the permissions to those shares. But it is not essential. Simply declare the shares you want to backup on the NAS, set the permissions (i.e. accounts) than can access these shares, set up corresponding Volumes for these shares within Restrospect so it knows about the shares on the NAS, and set the Retrospect Launcher service to login with an account that can access the NAS shares. Clearly you will need to have the same account set up on the NAS and the backup server / PC for this to work.

 

I note that for a Volume you can set up a specific login (username and password) which might avoid the Retrospect Launcher login setup that I use (as a workaround really). But I have not tried this.

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  • 1 year later...

If you have a Retrospect version that will support Linux, you can install the linux client directly onto your Synology box.  It requires a little bit of command line knowledge, but your backups will be more complete (they'll include your permissions, ACL's, etc.) and they'll also likely be faster.

 

Download the tar archive version of the client and install.  To get it to start on system boot, you'll want to put a copy of the startup script in the following directory on your Synology box:

 

/usr/local/etc/rc.d

 

So mine is:

 

/usr/local/etc/rc.d./S99retroclient.sh

 

Which has the contents:

 

#!/bin/sh

# Retrospect Client rcl script 

# Contact Information 

# Sonic Solutions

# Pleasanton, CA 94566

# http://www.retrospect.com/supportupdates

# © 2010 Sonic Solutions. Portions © 1989-2010 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

#

# Place this script along with retroclient, and 

# retrocpl in the directory specified by CLIENTDIR.

 

### BEGIN INIT INFO

# Provides: retroclient

# Required-Start: $local_fs $syslog

# Should-Start:

# Required-Stop:

# Default-Start: 3 4 5

# Default-Stop: 0 1 2 6

# Short-Description: Retrospect Client

# Description: Retrospect Client

### END INIT INFO

 

CLIENTDIR=/usr/local/dantz/client

case $1 in

    start)

    $CLIENTDIR/retroclient -daemon

    ;;

    stop)

    $CLIENTDIR/retrocpl -stop

    ;;

    status)

    $CLIENTDIR/retrocpl

    ;;

    *)

    echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|status}"

    ;;

esac

exit 0

 

From there, you'll have to add your Synology by IP.   I don't believe it will show up in browse lists.  Then back it up as any other Linux client.

 

 

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If you have a Retrospect version that will support Linux, you can install the linux client directly onto your Synology box.  It requires a little bit of command line knowledge, but your backups will be more complete (they'll include your permissions, ACL's, etc.) and they'll also likely be faster.

 

Download the tar archive version of the client and install.  To get it to start on system boot, you'll want to put a copy of the startup script in the following directory on your Synology box:

 

/usr/local/etc/rc.d

 

So mine is:

 

/usr/local/etc/rc.d./S99retroclient.sh

 

Which has the contents:

 

#!/bin/sh

# Retrospect Client rcl script 

# Contact Information 

# Sonic Solutions

# Pleasanton, CA 94566

# http://www.retrospect.com/supportupdates

# © 2010 Sonic Solutions. Portions © 1989-2010 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

#

# Place this script along with retroclient, and 

# retrocpl in the directory specified by CLIENTDIR.

 

### BEGIN INIT INFO

# Provides: retroclient

# Required-Start: $local_fs $syslog

# Should-Start:

# Required-Stop:

# Default-Start: 3 4 5

# Default-Stop: 0 1 2 6

# Short-Description: Retrospect Client

# Description: Retrospect Client

### END INIT INFO

 

CLIENTDIR=/usr/local/dantz/client

case $1 in

    start)

    $CLIENTDIR/retroclient -daemon

    ;;

    stop)

    $CLIENTDIR/retrocpl -stop

    ;;

    status)

    $CLIENTDIR/retrocpl

    ;;

    *)

    echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|status}"

    ;;

esac

exit 0

 

From there, you'll have to add your Synology by IP.   I don't believe it will show up in browse lists.  Then back it up as any other Linux client.

 

OK, I'd like to try this, but I have very limited *nix knowledge.

 

So, when you say "install the linux client directly onto your Synology box" exactly how do I do this? I know how to SSH in to the box, but how do I install the client?

 

Additionally, do I need to modify CLIENTDIR to read "CLIENTDIR=usr/local//etc/rc.d" as the comment indicates that the script and the two files (retroclient and retrocpl) should all be in the same directory.

 

No worries - I got it working OK. many thanks for this.

Edited by Colin F
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  • 7 months later...
  • 4 months later...

Just an update, if you've upgraded to the Retrospect 9.5 linux client, the start up script is slightly changed from the 7.7 release.  Here's mine:

 

#!/bin/sh

# Retrospect Client rcl script
#
# Contact Information
#
# Sonic Solutions
# Pleasanton, CA 94566
#
# © 2010 Sonic Solutions. Portions © 1989-2010 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
#
#
# Place this script along with retroclient, and
# retrocpl in the directory specified by CLIENTDIR.
 
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: retroclient
# Required-Start: $local_fs $syslog
# Should-Start:
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start: 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 2 6
# Short-Description: Retrospect Client
# Description: Retrospect Client
### END INIT INFO
 
CLIENTDIR=/usr/local/retrospect/client
case $1 in
    start)
    $CLIENTDIR/retroclient &
    ;;
    stop)
    $CLIENTDIR/retrocpl -stop
    ;;
    status)
    $CLIENTDIR/retrocpl
    ;;
    *)
    echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|status}"
    ;;
esac
exit 0
 
 
As for installing the linux client on a Synology, I'm afraid that's a little more expertise than I can offer on a message board.  You'll need some Unix/Linux command line skills.   I'm assuming Retrospect has some installation instructions for the Linux client.  That would be a good place to start and probably Google from there.
 
Also, the Install.sh script that comes with the Retro client installer will give a bunch of errors on a Synology, but it seems to work OK.  It's because the Synology version of "ps" uses different command flags than most.  So you'll see an error when running the Install.sh script like so:
 
Usage: ps 

 

Report process status

 

Options:

w Wide output

 

You can safely ignore those errors.  The client seems to install just fine.

 

Cheers!

-Joe Rhodes

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