Incremental backup

[hcgirard]

Can Backup and Restore perform incremental backups?

[wechap]

Have a look at the below link for local backup info

http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_conduct_a_backup_to_USB/eSATA_Disks

[hcgirard]

Thanks! That answers my question.

[sydlow]

I've found that the Backup program isn't doing incremental backups as described in the manual and wiki. See this screenshot.
After completing a full backup, I started another backup and the software is doing another full backup.
Very frustrating.

[infobleep]

Hi there

I am wondering the same thing. I've not attempted a backup yet because I am trying to figure out the best solution.

I have a Snoloygy DS 1512+ with 3TB x 2 discs and the default RAID to 1 disk spare. I also have a DX510 with 3TB x 1 disc.

What I would like to do is create incremental backups similar to how time machine creates them. So every hour a backup is created and then after a day, only 1 copy from the day of a file is kept and so on. Whilst I can create a backup with time machine, I have to have my Mac connected and I would like the backups to run regardless of my computer being connected.

Am I asking for the impossible?

Kind regards

[tkman26]

Hi I am experiencing problems similar to others.

Critical task for me is an incremental backup.
Purchased a DS1812+ partially based on the stated feature that it supported incremental backups.
I installed the Timed Backup package and created a backup task but it is not functioning as expected.

Is there some documentation about how to get this to work? Something more than one finds by clicking on the ? in the Timed Backup application?

It looks like it does a full backup every time.
To test I have copied our 800 gigs of server files that I want to migrate to the 1812. I then ran the backup every 4 hours 4 times a day. Seems to backup. I can see the files backed up. I then change only one file to see if it is backed up. Thus the backup is going from the 1812 where only 1 file has changed to the USB external hard drive enclosure. Yes it is backed up but it appears all the files are also backed up. When I try a restore where I would like to restore the version from 3 days ago (where 2 versions have been made since) I can only get the most recent file and not the one 3 versions ago. What am I doing wrong? where is the user guide to demonstrate how this should be done?

Talked to Synology support and showed them the issue and they believe there is a problem.
I now understand the Timed Backup - timeline display. Each background window is supposed to represent a file version. By clicking on the background one can move to that version.
Was not intuitively obvious and when there are 30 versions will become unmanageable but at least I understand the interface. Problem when I try and restore an older version it restores only the latest.
I have submitted a ticket and when a solution is found I will post it here.

[infobleep]

Thanks for your posting. Just to clarify, are you saying that the timed backup, backups everything everytime regardless of whether the version has chnaged or not. If that is the case I will run out of disc space rather quickly.

However it could be that each time you view the latest snapshot it is simply links to previous versions bar the one just uploaded, so it appears as if there are many files on there more than once. With timed backup, every backup snapshot will show all the files in their current state, no matter when they were added. Of course that may not be the case and if so it's not very helpful at all. I would consider it a high priority to fix.

The lack of documentation is not good and it seems to be a running theme with Synology products. Grew veryone says they are great products. If they are then you'd think Synology would be proud of that and want to issue good documentation. I would add my support for some documentation.

Kind regards

[tkman26]

I don't think it is backing up all the files. My external USB device has 2 Terrabytes of space and I have had over 7 timed backups of 800gigs. If it was backing up all the files over and over again I would have run out of space. I believe it is creating some kind of symbolic links. The problem is that the files that change are not being properly tracked. Assume I change one file each day for the previous 3 days. The timed backup runs and backs up the changes file and has links to all other files not changed. I then click on the Timed Backup from 3 days ago and want to restore the file as it was 3 days ago. I am unable to do that. The file that is restored is the most current one.

Another separate issue is the time to backup the changed file. I had expected it to be very fast if only one file has changed. I did not think it would need to compare each file of the whole 800 gigs to determine only one file had changed. The timed backup takes 3.5 hours. I had alloted a 4 hour window between timed backups and this results in only a 30 minute window where I can access the backup up files. It appears that when the backup is running I can not restore a file. I had assumed the 1812 Linux based OS would be able to tracking the changed files and not need to compare each file. This does not appear to be happening.

[Steph]

Another separate issue is the time to backup the changed file. I had expected it to be very fast if only one file has changed. I did not think it would need to compare each file of the whole 800 gigs to determine only one file had changed. The timed backup takes 3.5 hours. I had alloted a 4 hour window between timed backups and this results in only a 30 minute window where I can access the backup up files. It appears that when the backup is running I can not restore a file. I had assumed the 1812 Linux based OS would be able to tracking the changed files and not need to compare each file. This does not appear to be happening.

100% true. I'd be more than happy if someone can come up with another solution. Synology backups either don't work, or are not efficient.

[tkman26]

Hello.
Not sure what has changed but incremental backups are closer to fully functioning.
I can now see the various versions in the Timeline window and select a file and recover to that date.
It is a bit of a mystery as to how this started working again.
I had Synology tech support log in and have a look. Supposedly if a Time Backup backup is in progress and power is lost there is a possibility that the Time Backup can be left in a state that makes it confused about the last version. It recovers the latest version all the time. By deleting the temp file that is created during the backup process all the backups become recoverable again. This is the theory around the problem I have been encountering. I did have a couple of power failures while testing the backup so this seems probable. ( I do not have the NAS on a UPS device while running these tests). When the tech investigated there was no temp file, however we stopped and restarted the service and it became possible to recover specific versions. The core functionality is there and working.
One related issue still needs to be resolved. When I select an older version and double click on it to view it, the latest file is displayed and not the older version I have clicked on. This can be confusing. If I go ahead and restore the file it does restore the older version though.
I have done restores for people and one normally wants to open the file and confirm the version is the correct one and then download/recover the file. If opening the file does not show the older version but only the latest this can be confusing. I don't see this as a show stopper but it needs to be understood and the work around needs to be understood as well. The workaround is to download it to a copy and not replace and then open the copy to confirm it is the correct version, and then one could recover and overwrite, or simply rename it to the correct file name.

[barqdesign]

Hi,

Check out the post about this, that I wrote recently. The incremental backup feature in DSM can be confusing but it does actually work:
http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=159&t=58626&p=223832&hilit=incremental#p223832