I notice two behaviours with MacOS client Active Backup for Business that makes me doubt it is ready for business. I opened 2 tickets and got explanation from Synology after many back and forth email…
1- Every 20 backup, ABB perform a full backup, this was the final explanation from support.
2- ABB does not perform a backup when the laptop lid is close, from my observation, TimeMachine is able to do at least one backup when the lid is closed. Final reply from support was that it is the expected behaviour.
Plus, we know it can’t perform a full restore.
Yes deduplication is great to save space but do you think it is ready for business needs ?
This is really good to know! I had not seen that before. It’s surprising to me that they did this. Hopefully the deduplication handles the re-upload well. The one thing that I am concerned about is it seems like they are doing this because they are worried that somewhere in the diff chain the backup is getting broken
This does not surprise me too much, and actually I prefer this over backups that run when the lid is closed. The reason: backpacks and computer bags.
If you close the lid on a laptop and put it in a computer bag or backpack, it’s unable to cool itself due to being in closed system. If the CPU is running it produces heat, that builds up, forcing the fans to run high trying to cool it, adding more heat. The result: when you pull the laptop out of your bag its hot, and the battery is dead.
It’s not ready for business. I think it will get there, but its not ready yet. I have been using time machine for most of my clients again as it just works.
Thanks for your comments.
Here is more info if anyone is interrested. Support sent me a Beta Client.
About the full backup every 20 backup, it take quike long time to perform the full backup, this is my principal concern. I beleive deduplication is working well once the data in on the NAS (used space does not increase) but the data is still transfered.
When I open the ticket, after many exhange, they sent me a Beta client (2.5.2-2634) that was suppose to fix the issue. I beleive there was a real issue, the Snapshot was not able to be executed (it was seen from the log), I don’t see those message anymore. Since I install the new client (on 3 Mac), it seams the full backup is perform only by the Mac with Catalina.
iMac27 Late 13 Catalina : Full backup every 20 backup, since new Beta Client, was the 1st Mac to be backup
Mac Pook Pro Late 12 Catalina : Full backup every 20 backup, since new Beta Client
Mac Air M2 Ventura : No full backup since new Beta Client
Hi Will,
with the latest version of ABB, a full bare-metal restore is available for MacOS.
Synology Active Backup for Business Recovery.app need to be installed on a running MacOS computer, then it allow to do a full restore from the backup.
I did not completed the restore as I don’t have a test computer but it seems to be there and functional. I search the web for comments on this feature but found nothing.
Would be great if someone with a test Mac could test the process.
Hi,
I am still using MacOS ABB on 3 Mac.
I did not test the full recovery yet, no spare Mac.
Mac Air M2, Ventura, runs solid, never saw a problem with the backup.
iMac 2013, Catalina, at some point in time with the latest Client version, it can’t backup anymore, I reboot, than it backup again, until I was not able to get it to backup, I open a ticket, after Taiwan investigation, they sent me a patch version, it works well since then. (this is the 2nd patch version I get for 2 different problem, the 1st patch was on the initial release of the client).
MacBook Pro 2012, Catalina, never had to install the 2nd patch but had to install the 1st patch back then.
I think they are getting there, it start to be enough reliable for home user or SOHO that can live with having to restart the backup process, that said, I never had to restart the backup process and my initial backup are there even after the problem I had and the patch they sent.
Deduplication and Compression is providing a lot of space saving, Time Machine for the 3 Mac is using 1T while ABB seems to use about 400G for the same 3 Mac, hard to tell precisely since I also backup one PC with ABB.
Just installed it on my Mac Studio (thanks for helpful video, @Will !). Once the backup started I was watching my free disk space on the Mac in Disk Utility and it steadily/visibly dropped from 90GB to 1GB free until my Mac warned me about being out of memory and rebooted. I stopped ABB and the free space leak seems to have stopped. Is this a known issue??
denno,
I suggest you open a ticket with Synology, they were quite responsive for me with ABB.
I still use ABB on 2 new MacAir M2 with latest OS and one old Macbook Pro from 2012 and one iMac from 2013 running Catalina.