Using BackupAssist with a Synology NAS & MinIO

BackupAssist Cloud Backup jobs include an option to back up to S3-compatible storage. The storage can be a cloud service or your own private cloud.

This guide explains how to back up to your own private cloud using a Synology NAS and MinIO cloud storage software.

The following technologies will be used

• A Synology NAS - this network storage device will be used to provide physical storage and run the MinIO application.

The Synology NAS model must support Docker and be configured so that it can be accessed via the internet.

• Docker - this package is used to create virtual containers to run applications. It will be used to create MinIO containers.
• MinIO S3-compatible cloud storage application. It will be used to share disk space on the NAS as private cloud storage.
• BackupAssist Classic will be used to create cloud backups and save them to the S3-compatible cloud storage.

Set up MinIO on the Synology NAS

These following steps explain how to set up and configure a private cloud destination using a Synology NAS and MinIO:

1. Create a Shared Folder.
1. Log in to the management portal for your Synology NAS.
2. Open the Control Panel.
3. Choose Shared Folder from the side menu.
4. Select Create from the top menu to launch the Shared Folder Creation Wizard.
5. Follow the wizard's steps to create a shared folder called minio.

This folder will be shared for MinIO to use as cloud storage.



2. Install Docker.

Docker will use a MinIO image to create a MinIO container.

To install Docker:

1. Open the Synology Package Center.
2. Click All Packages on the left menu.
3. Locate Docker and install it.



You can now use Docker to create a MinIO container and configure MinIO to use the shared folder that you named minio.

3. Run Minio.
1. Open Docker on the Synology NAS.
2. Select Registry from the side menu.
3. Search for minio/minio.
4. Select minio.
5. Download the minio image.



6. Choose Image from the side menu.
7. Select minio.
8. Click Launch to open MinIO.

This will open the Create Container wizard.



4. Configure MinIO.

MinIO is now set up on the Synology NAS and ready to be used by BackupAssist Classic as S3-compatible storage.

Get the settings for BackupAssist

To create a BackupAssist Cloud Backup job, you need to get the URL and security keys that MinIO uses to share the cloud storage.

The URL will be the URL of the NAS with the port number for the MinIO server configured above.

To locate the security keys:

1. Open the Synology Package Center.
2. Open Docker.
3. Click Container on the side menu.
4. Choose the MinIO application.
5. Click the Details button.
6. Select Log from the top menu.



7. Copy the Accesskey and Secretkey.

Create a BackupAssist Cloud Backup job

Now that you have a Windows machine with MinIO managed cloud storage, you can back up to it using BackupAssist.

Create a Cloud Backup job as documented on the Cloud Backup page, and select S3-compatible cloud storage in the Destination media step. Then use the Set up destination step to enter the Amazon S3 Compatible Bucket settings as explained in the Cloud backup page.

Use the MinIO settings as follows:

• Copy the URL into the URL field. This is the URL for the NAS plus the port number for the MinIO server. For example: https://192.168.1.3:9000.
• Copy the Accesskey into the Access Key ID field.
• Copy the Secretkey into the Secret Access Key field.

You can now run the Cloud Backup job and save backups to your private cloud storage.