Knowledge Center

Task List

You can view and manage all backup tasks in Task List.

To create a backup task:

  1. Go to File Server > Task List > Create.
  2. Select the file server.
  3. Select a backup mode:
    • Multi-versioned: Each time a task runs, all files from the source are fully copied to the destination without overwriting previous backup versions.
    • Mirroring: Each time a task runs, files in the destination folder are updated to mirror the source, overwriting previous backup versions.
    • Incremental: Each time a task runs, newly added and modified files from the source overwrite their previous versions in the destination, while deleted files are kept.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Indicate what you want to transfer using the following states:
    • Subordinate folders or files in this folder will not be backed up.
    • All subordinate folders and files in this folder will be backed up.
    • Only selected subordinate folders and files in this folder will be backed up.
    • All files in this folder, along with selected subordinate folders, will be backed up.
  6. Click Next.
  7. Fill in the information for your backup task.
    • For rsync Backup: You can configure the bandwidth and enable compression and block transfer.
    • The backup destination can't be an external drive.
  8. If you select Multi-versioned as your backup mode, you can set up a Retention Policy to automatically delete unwanted versions and save storage space.
  9. Confirm your task settings and click Apply.

Example:

Let's say it's October now and you have a backup schedule that backs up once every day. You are planning for a retention policy that covers the past nine months and want to keep the following:

  • Daily versions for the first 3 months (September, August, and July)
  • Weekly versions for the 4th to 6th months (June, May, and April)
  • Monthly versions for the 7th to 9th months (March, February, and January)
  • 10 latest versions

In this case, we suggest to select and follow these retention settings:

  • Keep the latest version of the day for 90 days
  • Keep the latest version of the week for 24 weeks
  • Keep the latest version of the month for 9 months
  • Keep 10 latest versions

A version can meet more than one retention rule, resulting in possible overlaps in the retention periods, as shown in the following image:

For example, the 1st latest monthly version and the 4th latest weekly version are the same backup version. As a result, only 1 version will be retained on that specific day even though it meets multiple retention rules.

Note:

  • Files can't be backed up under the following circumstances:
    • The file/folder path is longer than 4,096 characters.
    • The file/folder name is longer than 255 characters, is "." or "..", or contains @ActiveBackup or target.db.
    • The file/folder is within an encrypted shared folder and has a name that exceeds 135 characters.
  • SMB Backup can't back up Microsoft accounts or junction points.
  • SMB Backup uses Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to ensure data consistency. Windows VSS is supported on Windows Server 2012 and above. When enabling VSS on the Windows server, Active Backup for Business can create a volume shadow copy of VSS-aware server applications that store data on remote SMB file shares.
  • Administrative shared folders (e.g., C$, D$) do not support Windows VSS by default.
  • When authenticating via SSH, make sure you use a supported key: RSA2, DSA, ECDSA, and ED25519. RSA1 keys and SSH keys that require a passphrase are not supported.
  • The "/photo" folder can't be selected as the backup destination.
  • If you set up an advanced retention rule, the Number of latest versions to keep is required. This prevents the system from deleting all of the data in case the backups stop running. For example, the 10 latest versions will be the ones from the past 10 days. Keep in mind that you can't retain more versions than the total number of backups.
  • If there's more than one backup version within a certain period, only the latest one will be kept. For example, if you set a policy to Keep the latest version of the day for "1" day for a backup task that runs every hour, only the version backed up at 23:00 will be kept.
  • Advanced retention policy employs a Long-Term Retention Policy (GFS).

To edit backup tasks:

  1. Go to Task List and select the backup task.
  2. Click Edit.

To manage file filters:

  1. Go to Task List and select the backup task.
  2. Click Edit > File Filter.
  3. At the bottom, you can enter the following items to exclude certain files from backups:
    • Filenames
    • File extension (e.g., "*.iso")
    • Wildcard characters (e.g., "*")

Note:

  • File Filter only filters out files and not folders.
  • Wildcards can represent 0 or more non-space characters. Refer to the following examples:
    • a* can represent any word starting with a (e.g., "account", "apple", "a").
    • *e can represent any word ending with e (e.g., "apple", "table").
    • *12* can represent any word that contains 12 (e.g., "2012", "1220", "341256").

To run backup tasks:

  1. Go to Task List.
  2. Do either of the following:
    • Schedule regular backups at Edit > Schedule > Scheduled backup.
    • Back up immediately by clicking Back up.

Learn how to back up and restore Microsoft SQL servers and Microsoft Exchange servers.

To delete backup tasks:

  1. Go to Task List and select the backup task.
  2. Click Delete.

Note:

  • Backup and restoration tasks can't run at the same time.
  • Source servers can create multiple backup tasks by providing specific paths.
  • To restore tasks, Synology NAS requires write permissions for the source server.
  • If Synology NAS doesn't have access permissions to files on the source server, those files will be skipped during backup.
  • Remote shell mode only supports file transfer encryption.
  • Backup and restore tasks can't resume if interrupted or disconnected. To avoid disconnection, make sure that your Internet connection is stable and that you have enough bandwidth. Learn how to limit bandwidth consumption.
  • The recycle bin is not available for Rsync Mirror Backup.

To check backup task details:

  1. Go to Task List and select the backup task.
  2. Click Details to view the following:
    • Status
      • Status: The current status of the backup task (e.g., Complete, Failed, Partially Complete).
      • Source: All backed-up file servers in the task.
      • Destination: Backup destination.
      • Execution time: Last backup time.
      • Transferred size: Amount of data transferred from the source side. This value may differ from the actual storage usage due to deduplication.
      • Duration: Elapsed time of the backup task.
    • Log
      • Type: Category of the logged event (e.g., Information, Warning, Error).
      • Time: Time the logged event occurred.
      • Event: Action taken during the backup process or any encountered issues.

To browse or delete backup versions of a backup task:

  1. Go to Task List and select the backup task.
  2. Click Version to browse backup versions.
  3. If you want to delete a backup version, select it and click the delete icon.