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Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard

Active Backup for Business supports bare-metal and volume -level backup and restoration through a preconfigured recovery media. This article will explain how the recovery media works when restoring the entire machine or specific volumes with a specific backed up version stored on Synology NAS. For more information on how to configure the recovery media, please refer to Recovery Media Creation Guide.

Requirements and Limitations

  • Windows
    • A preconfigured recovery media. To create this media, please consult Recovery Media Creation Guide for more information.
    • Supported PC:
      • Windows 10 Creators Update (all editions)
      • Windows 10 (all editions)
      • Windows 8.1 (all editions)
      • Windows 7 SP1 (all editions)
    • Supported physical server:
      • Windows Server 2019
      • Windows Server 2016
      • Windows Server 2012 R2
      • Windows Server 2012
      • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • Network connection is required throughout an entire recovery process. Without network connection, a recovery process cannot work until the Recovery Wizard is reconnected to the Synology NAS.
    • We recommend installing all the required drivers before you start. If you want to install more drivers, you can click at the upper-right corner of the wizard, and click Load Drivers to install a driver.

    Note:

    • To create recovery media manually, you must download Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard from Download Center and follow the instructions in the following sections.
    • To create recovery media automatically, you only need to download Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Media Creator from Download Center. Because Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard is already included in Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Media Creator, you do not need to additionally download and install the Wizard.
    • Dynamic disks are not supported for entire device restoration.
  • Linux
    • A recovery media. To download the recovery media for your Linux device, please go to Download Center and download Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Media for Linux. To create an USB recovery media, please refer to this article.
    • Supported 64-bit versions of the following Linux distributions:
      • CentOS: 7.8, 7.9, 8.1, 8.5
      • RHEL: 6.10, 7.8, 8.1, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 8.10, 9, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4
      • Ubuntu: 16.04, 18.04, 20.04, 22.04, 24.04
      • Fedora: 38, 39, 40
      • Debian: 10, 11, 12
    • Supported file systems:
      • ext2
      • ext3
      • ext4
      • XFS
    • Required components on the target device:
      • make 4.1 version or above
      • dkms 2.2.0.3 version or above
      • gcc 4.8.2 version or above
    • Network connection is required throughout an entire recovery process. Without network connection, a recovery process cannot work until the Recovery Wizard is reconnected to the Synology NAS.
    • We recommend installing all the required drivers before you start.

Boot Recovery Media

After you have mounted the ISO image or attached the USB drive to the device intended for restoration, press F2 to enter the BIOS mode once your device has been rebooted. Please note that this hotkey may vary according to different vendors. Afterward, navigate to the Boot tab, and prioritize the order of CD-ROM Drive and Removable Devices according to where the recovery media is located. Exit the setup process and you will be directed to Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard, which will start the recovery process automatically. You can either browse the user interface of Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard as displayed in the Overview section or immediately start the recovery process as shown in the Recovery section.

Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard: Overview

  • On the top right corner of Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard, you can check the Internet status by clicking .
  • Click at the top right corner of the wizard to view the context menu where several options are provided:
    • List of hardware drivers: Here you can check the installed drivers and network adapter. Click Load Drivers to install necessary drivers if needed.
    • Command-line interface: Access to the command-line interface is supported here for you to check the status and information of the device and activate built-in programs by commands.
    • Internet Settings: You can decide either to obtain IP address and DNS server address automatically, or set a designated IP address or DNS server for the device.
    • About: Displaying the current version information.
    • Restart: This option allows you to restart the device at any stage of the process. Please note that once you restart the device, the previous settings will be reset, and you have to log in and configure again.
    • Turn off: This option allows you to turn off the device at any stage of the process.

Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard: Recovery

To restore a version from the server:

After you have entered the BIOS menu and selected the boot order for booting recovery media, you will be directed to the welcome page of Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard. Once you have been directed to the welcome page, you can follow the steps below to start the recovery process:

  1. Load drivers and network adapters:

    This step is optional and is only required when you are using specific network adapters or drivers. Recovery may fail if the necessary driver has not been installed. To ensure a smoother recovery process, we strongly suggest you to double check the installed drivers and adapters in this step.

    • Network adapter:

      • Please click List of hardware drivers to check if the required network adapter has been installed, or click Internet Settings to fix the problem when failing to connect to the Internet by default. Recovery cannot be performed without network connection. In most cases, the Internet is automatically supported if the WinPE applied by the recovery media is for Windows 10. In most cases, the Internet is automatically supported for Linux recovery media.

    • Load drivers:

      • Please click List of hardware drivers in the context menu and click Load Drivers to install the target driver when needed. It is suggested to load and install all the necessary drivers in advance.

      Note: This method is not applicable for drivers that need to be rebooted to become effective. Please refer to this article to check whether your drivers need to be rebooted.

  2. Sign in to the Synology NAS:

    Enter the server's address and the administrator's credentials to sign in to the Synology NAS to retrieve the stored versions. The devices and versions displayed in the next two steps are based on your signed-in account.

  3. Select the device and the task:

    Available backed up devices and tasks for the signed-in account are displayed. Information on the backup type and Latest Restore Point is listed on the table. You can view the time of the latest successful backup version in the Latest Restore Point column.

  4. Select the restore mode:
    • Entire device restore: Restore the entire device backup. All the data on the target device will be overwritten by the data of the backup version. The locations of volumes will be mapped automatically when you select this mode.
    • System volume restore: Restore the system volumes only. This mode is recommended when your target device cannot boot up. The locations of volumes will be mapped automatically when you select this mode.
    • Manually restore specified volumes: Restore and reallocate the selected volumes of the backup to a specific disk of the target device. This option is recommended for advanced users.
  5. Select a version:

    After you select a restore mode, the eligible versions of the selected task are displayed on the left panel, and the detailed information of the selected version is displayed on the right panel. The backup version will only be available when it is compatible with the selected restore mode. For example, when selecting System volume restore, you can only restore the versions containing the system volume.

      Version Information:
    • Disk No.: When you have more than one disk that has been backed up in a version, the disk will be listed in this numerical order.
    • Partition table: Active Backup for Business backs up the device’s partition table. This information is recorded and also displayed in this table.
    • Capacity (per disk): The "Capacity" on the top bar refers to the needed space when restoring the entire disk to this device.
    • Drive (letter): The backed up drives will be listed with its specific letter.
    • Type: Displaying whether the partition type of the drive is main or logic, and whether it is system volume or not.
    • Capacity (per volume): The capacity under each drive stands for the used space of the drive.
    • File system:
      • Windows : NTFS
      • Linux: ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS
    • Boot from the restored system volume: This option will update Boot Configuration Data of Windows or GRUB2 configuration of Linux. Please note that the boot functionality will be affected by boot sequence, the driver compatibility, etc. This option is not available when the system volumes are not included in the backup version.
    • View automatically matched disk mapping: Click this link to view the detailed information on disk mapping. The locations of disks are unchangeable. This option will only be available when you select Entire device restore or System volume restore.
    • Customize disk mapping: Click this link to select or reallocate the volumes of the backup version. This option will only be available when you select Manually restore specified volumes.
      • Disk Mapping Information: The system will map the backed up volumes to the available volumes on this target device automatically, instead of overwriting the existing volumes
        • Existed: volumes existing on the target device
        • To be restored: selected backed up volumes to be restored to the target device
        • Unallocated: available space on the target device
        • Unknown: volumes containing one or more unknown data formats on the target device
    • When no sufficient disk has been installed on the device:

      • When a chosen version requires more disks than the disks that have been installed on the device, a notification will pop up. To fix this problem, do any of the following:

      • Select another version.
      • Click Load Drivers in the hardware driver list to load required hardware drivers.
      • Install more hard disks on the device, load the drivers, and try again.

    • When not enough space on the disk(s):

      • When the chosen version requires more space than the space of the installed hard disk on the device, a notification will pop up and list the disks which need more space to restore. To fix this problem, do any of the following:

      • Select another version.
      • Change the installed hard disks.

    Note:

    • The capacity of each installed hard disk on the device has to be more than or equal to the corresponding backup disk in the selected version. Even when the total capacity of all installed hard disk is more than or equal to the total capacity of the selected version, the capacity of individual hard disk still needs to be more or equal.
  6. Check and confirm the summary to start the recovery process:

    Please note that recovery is an irreversible action. Once started, it is not allowed to be stopped and rolled back to where it was before the recovery. Cancellation during the process may prevent the device from booting successfully.

    • When internet disconnected during the recovery:

      • Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard will continuously try to reconnect to the server and resume the recovery when the internet disconnected during the process. You can stop this at any time by canceling the recovery, restarting the device, or turning off the device via the context menu.

  7. Finish and reboot:

    Click Finish and decide if you wish to reboot the device or turn it off when the recovery is ready. Please remove the recovery media before rebooting the device.

    8. Note:

    • The estimated remaining time which represents the time which the process of restoration might take will be displayed. It may differ depending on the network environment.

To cancel the recovery:

  1. Click on Cancel at the bottom of the wizard to cancel the recovery before it finishes. Please note that both recovery and cancellation is irreversible.
  2. Click Finish to choose either to reboot the device or turn it off.

To retrieve "recovery.log" and send it to Synology Technical Support when the recovery fails:

When a entire device or volume -level recovery fails, you can retrieve the "recovery.log" file and send it to Synology Technical Support for further assistance. Please note that "recovery.log" is only retrievable on Recovery Wizard before you restart or shut down your device.

To retrieve the "recovery.log" file, please follow the steps below:

  • For Windows :
    1. Insert a USB drive to your device which you wish to restore. You can use the same USB drive where the recovery media is stored.
    2. Click at the upper-right corner of the wizard to open the context menu.
    3. Click Command-line interface to launch command-line interface.
    4. Enter the below command to launch Notepad:

      notepad

    5. Choose Open in the notepad, and check the drive letter of the inserted USB drive. For example, if the drive letter of the inserted USB drive is “S”, please enter the commands below to copy the log and command folder to the USB:

      copy X:\ActiveBackup\recovery.log S:

      xcopy /E /I X:\ActiveBackup\resource\command S:

      A message confirming the file copy will appear after you enter this command.
    6. Go to the USB drive where you copied the log file, and send the file named "recovery.log" and command folder to Synology Technical Support for further troubleshooting.
  • For Linux:
    1. Insert a USB drive to your device which you wish to restore. You can use the same USB drive where the recovery media is stored.
    2. Launch Linux recovery wizard command-line interface.
    3. Enter the command below to check the location of the inserted USB drive.

      fdisk -l

    4. Mount the USB drive. For example, if the location of the inserted USB drive is "/dev/sdb1", please enter the command below to mount the USB drive.

      mount /dev/sdb1

    5. Mount any folder of the USB drive. Here, we take "/mnt" for example. Please enter the command below to mount the folder.

      mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt

    6. Enter the commands below to copy the log and the command folder to the USB drive.

      cp /opt/ Synology /ActiveBackupRecovery/recovery.log /mnt/

      cp -r /opt/ Synology /ActiveBackupRecovery/resource/command /mnt/

    7. Enter the command below to unmount the USB drive.

      umount /mnt

    8. Send the file named "recovery.log" and command folder to Synology Technical Support for further troubleshooting.
Requirements and Limitations
Boot Recovery Media
Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard: Overview
Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery Wizard: Recovery