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Synology Hyper-V & vSphere Backup Configuration

Active Backup for Business is an all-in-one business data protection solution, centralizing protection over diverse IT environment that consists of virtualized environment, physical servers, file servers, and personal computers based on the award-winning DSM operating system. Admins can deploy desired protection single-handedly through the centralized admin console. Synology Active Backup centralizes backup tasks for VMware, Hyper-V, Windows endpoints, Microsoft 365 and G Suite to Synology NAS – and lets you manage from one simple console. Fast and reliable recovery delivered to keep running services, VMs, and files instantly available.

In this blog I will explain how we can configure Hyper-V and VMware vSphere Virtual Machine backup and restore with Synology model DS920+.

Features

  • Supported Platforms – Synology Active Backup supports Windows, Linux, Hyper-V and vSphere platforms.
  • Centralize PC Backups – Helps to back up your Windows Personal Computers
  • Bare-metal Backup – Helps to take system-level backup of Windows Client and Server
  • File Server – Helps to back up servers running with SMB (Windows) and rsync 3.0 or above (Linux) protocol
  • Virtual Machines – Helps to perform agentless backup Hyper-V and VMware vSphere VM backup and restore
  • License – Active Backup for Business (ABB), the modern backup & instant recovery software that comes free with Synology NAS, allows you to back up unlimited Windows endpoints, VMware, Hyper-V and file servers without additional software license costs.

Prerequisites

  • For Active Backup for Business 2.1.0 and above versions, a Synology NAS running DSM 6.2 or above is required.
  • For Active Backup for Business 2.0.4 and previous versions, a Synology NAS running DSM 6.1.7 or above is required.
  • Active Backup for Business can only run on x64 Synology NAS servers with Btrfs file system.
  • For backup performance, it is recommended to have at least 4G of RAM and not to set up the shared folder quota due to the deduplication mechanism.
  • Only the folders in Btrfs volumes can be the backup destinations.
  • For backup destinations of PC, physical server, and virtual machine backup tasks, encrypted shared folders are not supported.

Install & Configure Active Backup for Business

Install Active Backup for Business from the Synology Package Centre Admin console.

Activate Active Backup for Business with your Synology account

Once you complete the activation you can see the details dashboard of Active Backup for Business, where you can configure, review and monitor your backup inventory and jobs.

Add Hyper-V in Active Backup for Business

To add the Hyper-V Server in Active Backup for Business

Choose Virtual Machine – Microsoft Hyper-V tab and click Manage Hypervisor – Add, and provide your Hyper-V server details with administrator account credentials and click Apply

Synology Active Backup of Business supports Windows Hyper-V running on Server Editions and data mover will be installed on the Hyper-V host. Therefore, a host’s system volume with at least 512MB of free storage space is required. Once the configuration complete successfully you can see the Hyper-V status Online as below and this will list VMs available on this Hyper-V host.

Create Backup Job for Hyper-V VMs

After adding your Hyper-V host to configure backup for VMs

Choose Virtual Machine – Task List tab – Create – Hyper-V Task

Select the Backup destination, volume group for saving your backup and click Next

Provide name for the backup task and select the VMs you want to backup and click Next

Configure task settings for your backup job and click Next

Configure schedule for your backup job, as I am selected my VM templates I am going with manual schedule and click Next

Configure your Retention Policy according to your business needs and click Next

Configure Restoration Privilege for this Task and click Next

Review the configuration and click Apply to save the Task

Select the Task and click on Back up to run the task

This will start the back up job and you can see the progress on status tab

Once you complete the backup job you can see the last backup status and more details on the Active Backup for Business Dashboard

Use Restore button in Task List tab if you want to start a restoration, this will help you to restore all or individual VM back to Hyper-V or vSphere hypervisor.

Also, you can use Active Backup for Business portal for individual file restore by providing the VM credentials.

Please refer Synology KB for more details on Hyper-V Backup and Restore

Add vCenter / vSphere in Active Backup for Business

To add the vCenter / vSphere Server in Active Backup for Business

Choose Virtual Machine – VMware vSphere tab and click Manage Hypervisor – Add, and provide your vCenter or vSphere server details with administrator account credentials and click Apply

Once the configuration complete successfully you can see the vCenter or vSphere status Online as below and this will list VMs available on this vCenter or vSphere host.

Create Backup Job for vCenter / vSphere VMs

After adding your vCenter or vSphere host to configure backup for VMs

Choose Virtual Machine – Task List tab – Create – vSphere Task

Select the Backup destination, volume group for saving your backup and click Next

Provide name for the backup task and select the VMs you want to backup and click Next

Configure task settings for your backup job and click Next

Configure schedule for your backup job, as I am selected my production web server I am going with daily schedule and click Next

Configure your Retention Policy according to your business needs and click Next

Configure Restoration Privilege for this Task and click Next

Review the configuration and click Apply to save the Task

Select the Task and click on Back up to run the task

This will start the backup job and you can see the progress on status tab

Once you complete the backup job you can see the last backup status and more details on the Active Backup for Business Dashboard

Use Restore button in Task List tab if you want to start a restoration, this will help you to restore all or individual VM back to Hyper-V or vSphere hypervisor.

Also, you can use Active Backup for Business portal for individual file restore by providing the VM credentials.

Please refer Synology KB for more details on Hyper-V Backup and Restore

Thanks,

If you have any comments, please drop me a line.
I hope this article was informative, and don’t forget to buy me a coffee if you found this worth reading.



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