How to Connect your Synology NAS to B2

July 12th, 2016

Synology’s DiskStation is one of the leading Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions available for homes and small businesses. B2 is one of the most affordable ways to store your data in the cloud. Now Synology and B2 have teamed up to provide you with unbeatable cloud sync for your DiskStation. With Synology and B2, you’ll save every time you sync – up to 75 percent compared to Amazon S3.

How to set up your DiskStation with B2 cloud sync support

To set up your DiskStation with B2 sync support, you’ll need access to your B2 account. You’ll also need your B2 Account ID, application key and bucket name – all of which are available when you log into Backblaze. Finally, you’ll need the Cloud Sync application installed on your DiskStation.

Open the DiskStation Management interface in your web browser.
Install Cloud Sync v2.1.0 or later from the Package Center, if it’s not already installed.
Click on the Main Menu.
Click on Cloud Sync.
Click the + button to create a new connection to B2.
Select “Backblaze B2 Beta” from the list of cloud providers.
Enter the account ID, application key, and bucket name you’ll be using for the sync. The bucket is the container that holds the DiskStation files you’d like to sync.
Select the folder on the DiskStation you’d like to sync.
Click Next. Confirm the task settings and the DiskStation will begin to sync to B2.10. Task settings lets you specify the folder you’re uploading, and lets you prevent the DiskStation and B2 from syncing specific files or subdirectories. You can create exclusions for specific file types, too, as well as file names. You can also limit file size and even affect the direction of syncing, if you wish.

What to do with B2 support in DiskStation Cloud Sync

The Cloud Sync app provides you with total control over what gets backed up to B2 – you can synchronize in the cloud as little or as much as you want. Here are some practical examples of what you can do with Cloud Sync and B2 working for you together.

Sync the entire contents of your DiskStation to the cloud.

The DiskStation has excellent fault-tolerance – it can continue operating even when individual drive units fail – but nothing In life is foolproof. It pays to be prepared in the event of a catastrophe. If you follow our 3-2-1 Backup Strategy, you know how important it is to make sure that you have a copy of your files in the cloud.

If this is the first you’re hearing of 3-2-1, here’s the bottom line: We recommend that you have three copies of your files at all times. First, there’s the local source copy on which you’re working – your original. Next, there’s a local backup (maybe that file on the DiskStation, for example). Finally, there’s one in the cloud. That way, if anything ever happens to your data, you’re only a few clicks away from being able to restore it and continue.

Sync your most important media files

Using your DiskStation to store movies, music and photos? You’ve invested untold amounts of time, money and effort into collecting those media files, so make sure they’re safely and securely synced to the cloud with DiskStation Cloud Sync and B2.

Back up Time Machine

Apple’s Time Machine software provides Mac users with effortless local backup, and many of our customers rely on it to provide that crucial first step in making sure your data is secure. For years, customers have asked us for a way to back up Time Machine data, and now we can deliver.

Synology enables the DiskStation to act as a network-based Time Machine backup. Those Time Machine files can be synced to the cloud, so you can make sure to have Time Machine files to restore from in the event of a critical failure.

Why B2?

B2 is the best value in cloud storage. Our cost to store data in the cloud is up to 75 percent less than the competition. We’re able to do all that because we’ve spent years honing and perfecting our Storage Pods.

B2 just recently emerged from a very rigorous public beta test. During that time, tens of thousands of users signed up to try B2, and many more have come on board since the general launch at the end of June.

If you haven’t given B2 a try yet, now is the time. You can get started with B2 and your Synology DiskStation right now, and make sure your NAS is synced to the cloud.

Bio
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Peter Cohen

Peter will never give you up, never let you down, never run around or desert you. He also manages the Backblaze blog.

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His web site: peter-cohen.com | Twitter: @flargh | LinkedIn: Peter Cohen | Google+: Peter Cohen

Latest posts by Peter Cohen (see all)

Confessions Of A Digital Pack Rat: Almost Half A Petabyte And Still Growing - May 2, 2017
Deleted or Changed A File You Need Back? Backblaze Can Help! - April 25, 2017
A History of Removable Computer Storage - April 13, 2017

Hilal ElJamal

for some reason, it didnt like it when i wanted to encrypt my files which is important for me
Simon Klaver

I’ve now sync-ed my documents to a backblaze bucket from my synology and now want to add a 2nd bucket for photo’s. how to do that ?
Wonder Warthog

Cool, I just switched by Backblaze client subscription to B2 and I’m now backing up my Mac to my DS216play via TimeMachine, and then backing up the whole Disk Station to B2.
maschinsky

I have CloudSynch running on my NAS backing up a share to Backblaze. Over time files on that share changed/were deleted/were added. For example I moved a folder ROOT/MASTERS to a folder ROOT/ARCHIVE/MASTERS. When I look at my Bucket now, I still have the old ROOT/MASTERS* (now with an asterix) in the Bucket’s “Root” taking up space and ROOT/ARCHIVE/MASTERS also taking up space in it’s new location (but not as much as it should: ~40GB instead of ~200GB). I am confused now if and where stuff is being synched. Why has CloudSynch not moved the data from ROOT/ARCHIVE to ROOT/ARCHIVE/MASTERS? Is it uploading everything again? That would not be a very intelligent way of synching, but I suspect that’s what’s happening. What does the * mean in my Bucket-view on Backblaze? Can you enlighten me?
Ulaganath krishnasamy

Need to know if one sync 5tb of data and hardly retrieves it how much does it going to cost per month or year.
tmoney

For anyone thinking of using this for a large file sets you will be severely disappointed. There are limitations in Cloud Sync. There’s a max number of files it can sync.

For optimal response time and performance, we recommend the following settings.
• Single-core ARM: synchronize up to 15,000 files
• Dual-core ARM: synchronize up to 50,000 files
• Dual-core Intel Atom: synchronize up to 150,000 files
• Quad-core Intel Atom: synchronize up to 200,000 files

Taken from: https://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=194&t=108033&p=447509&hilit=cloud+sync+max+files#p447509

This was a complete deal breaker for me leveraging Cloud Sync and B2. I was trying to backup shares with rsync backups of partitions from my linux hosts. 2,000,000 or so files and Cloud Sync was not happy about it. Pretty much brought the NAS to it’s knees.
Brendan

Hi Peter,

I want to use to backblaze with synology but have a mixed need.

Long story short I want some business files available on the cloud for when I’m travelling or when remote users need them but want the NAS to be my access for the local team.

From the NAS I want some (active) data sync’ed nightly (broadband speed issue) and other (archive) data I want sync’ed monthly.

I know that it looks like that the less sync’ed data would be better off using a backup but I’m trying to keep things as simple as possible. Also, I’d like (all) the data presented in a useable format as the archive data will be accessed on occasion and the users would like to avoid a fussy method of getting the data.

I’d love any insight you might have that will help the implementation.
Questions that I have include:
>> are “backed up” and “cloud sync’ed” data presented the same way to the user on the web
>> can a remote user be selective about what they sync with the cloud (e.g. take particular sub-folders)
>> could I run two synology apps simultaneously (back-up and sync)

Kind regards,
Brendan.
The AlieN

Is B2 part of http://www.cloudberrylab.com/backup-synology.aspx yet ?
Todd Hutchinson

Not all files are pushed to the cloud, and there is no way to add *.* to the file extensions. I believe this is misleading and I’m hoping an easily correctable oversight. Here is my comment that I sent to Synology-
“While Cloud Sync for BackBlaze is good, it will not backup all files unless you know all of the extensions. I can find no documentation where you can just exclude some file extensions, and the interface for specifying file extensions does not allow *.*. So effectively it’s very misleading, and I’ve not seen anyone call this out. I believe there are a number of people who are using this to backup “All files” who believe they have, but really haven’t. It’s my understanding that HyperBackup will back everything up, and for those of us who are looking for a backup that is affordable for home and business use, this will give us an option that is less expensive then amazon glacier.”
-Todd
Tim Dew

Can someone help me with understanding recovery please: I am interested in understanding if there is any upload encryption performed by Synology which would mean that my recovery would be dependent on having a new synology box with Backblaze backup/recovery installed. I am hoping that the data can be accessed independently but this isn’t explicit in the article. Cheers, Tim
Sam

This may seem like a simple question but my clients use BackBlaze for back up and versioning of their data. Cloud Sync seems more like synchronizing current data, as opposed to keeping historical versions and deleted files. Will this allow our client to go back to an earlier date and restore a file that has been modified or deleted since then?
Matthew White

Hello; I’m just trying this out now as an alternative to Amazon Glacier. Is there a forum for discussion and issue reports.. I understand this is beta would like to be able to contribute.

For example I’m seeing some fields filled out with 0 for example max file size to upload. I’m assuming (hoping) that 0 means unlimited?
- YevP
  
  Hello Matthew! You may want to check Synology’s message boards!
PuritanMarine

Has anyone gotten this to actually work? I was excited to actually give this a try but I cannot get it to work on my Disk Station.

No matter what settings I select under Task Settings when I click Next I get this popup message:

“Parent or Child Folder already synced. Please choose another folder.”

But *NOTHING* has been sync’d. I cannot even configure this for the first time in order to start the sync process.
- YevP
  
  If you’re ever having issues with the Cloud Sync software, you can ping Synology or check their forums: https://forum.synology.com/enu/
  - PuritanMarine
    
    YevP – No thanks. I work in Cloud Technology. Typically it’s in the interest of the Cloud Service Provider to help end users consume their Cloud Service. After all, when it *works* you, the Cloud Backup Provider, get to charge *me*, the consumer, for the consumption of your cloud service.
    
    I’m really not in a hurry to consume your cloud service if you’re not interested in investigating why your product is not working properly. When you guys figure out the economics of attracting customers to your CSP by making easy-to-use products that will increase consumption of your CSP then get back to me. Turning me over to Synology – who has absolutely zero economic incentive to help make a BackBlaze product work makes no sense.
    
    It is *your* product that is not functioning properly, not theirs.
    - YevP
      
      If you would like our support to take a look, you can ping them here -> https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/requests/new (just make sure to select B2 from the drop-down).
      - PuritanMarine
        
        YevP – No thanks. Like I said, it’s not my service that makes revenue from a working Synology Product. If you guys fix your Product I might use it (and other Synology users as well) which, in turn, increases *your* Cloud revenue (not mine). I’ve sufficiently described the error. If you decide you want to report the problem to your software developers then that’s up to you. I’m content to back up my files to a competing Cloud backup provider in the meantime. One that doesn’t refer me to Synology forums to report problems.
      - PuritanMarine
        
        YevP,
        
        I’d like to apologize to you. It appears the issue is not with your service or project at all but a limitation of Cloud Sync.
        
        I answered my own question after an experiment.
        
        I had set up Cloud Sync to synchronize with 3 Cloud Services (Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive).
        
        They were all syncing to the Synology at location:
        /root/main/OneDrive
        /root/main/Dropbox
        /root/main/Google
        
        Then, when I tried to set up B2 to backup /root/main Cloud Sync detected that it was already syncing child folders of /root/main
        
        This explained the error. The problem was rectified when I deleted the syncs to those child folders. I could then backup /root/main.
- hukaze
  
  we have a job configured that will sync for a while but then go into perpetual ‘connecting’ and never completes a first run..
  
  we have other ‘cloud sync’ jobs configured to other synology NAS devices across the internet that all work perfectly.. thus we assume that this is a backblaze issue..
  
  would really LOVE it if this worked..
PuritanMarine

This is good news but I can’t get the Cloud Sync started. Steps I’ve taken:

1. Entered Account ID and Application ID.
2. Selected the Bucket on B2 I want to backup into
3. Under Task Setting I selected a Name, Set the Local Path, Chose Root as the Destination Path, Chose Sync Local Changes Only, Chose a Part Size of 128MB, Enabled Advance Mode and Encryption

When I hit Next I receive this Notice:

Parent or Child Folder already synced. Please choose another folder.

I literally just created a B2 account and I am trying to Start Syncing so nothing is yet synchronized.
PawelW

This is great news. I own Synology Nas and BB is only cloud that I can trust to pass my data.
Is there a chance for promotion/discounts for new comers? I am interested in 2y plan.
- Peter Cohen
  
  The first 10GB is free! If you compare cloud storage prices you’ll find that we’re very fair. In fact, we’re the lowest cost cloud storage on the planet: $0.005/GB a month.
  - Sean
    
    Why is there a difference in pricing – those who use their computer (Personal Backup) to backup get unlimited upload and download for $5, whereas synology users are paying to store and paying to download. Why the difference?
    - Peter Cohen
      
      Different products, different prices. B2 is cloud storage. Our personal backup service is just that.
      - Sean
        
        I think it’s profiteering – the service is no different and there should be no reason you can offer one set one product which is unlimited and then charge another set more for the same function.
      - YevP
        
        Hey Sean! Yev from Backblaze here – The difference is a financial decision. We’ve been fairly open with folks in saying that we don’t back up networked drives and servers for $5/month as part of our online backup service because that’s not a feasible price-point for that type of service. Most folks have way more data on their NAS or server than they would on a regular PC or Laptop (though we do allow external non-networked drives to be backed up as an added benefit). B2 allows us to give users the capability of backing up their Servers and NAS drives like Synology to us but by paying for the space they use. It’s currently priced at about 1/4 the cost of other online storage providers like S3 and Azure. We don’t think that’s unfair, but if you feel like paying for the amount of space you use is distasteful, we absolutely understand. We designed B2 in a way that would allow folks to back up as much data as they wanted, while staying in business – hopefully some folks will take us up on the offer, and thus far the response has been pretty great!
      - Sean
        
        What it boils down to is that B2 customers are subsidising Personal Backup customers. Your prices are the lowest, but I can’t see how it’s sustainable in the longer term to keep the Personal Backup product when 5000GB is $95 a year on Personal or $120 a year on B2, not to mention downloading from B2 costs money too. The pricing strategies are cannabalistic.
      - Miguel Duarte
        
        As a Synology owner I am very happy with this offer. Before I was using Amazon Glacier for my NAS backups. This new service is cheaper and has more features than Glacier.
        
        Backblaze never allowed to backup from a NAS (for already explained reasons above), is great to finally be able to use BackBlaze.
      - Sean
        
        Apologies my maths are off its much worse. 5000GB is $300 a year on B2.
      - dgatwood
        
        The thing is, I have about 10 TB of personal data spread across a pile of non-networked drives. The inability to use my Synology (IOSafe) as an intermediary means leaving my laptop home for six months while it backs up, plus having to make sure I plug in all those external drives once a month to ensure that the backups don’t get purged (even though they aren’t changing). That’s a *huge* loss of convenience.
        
        Unfortunately, the alternative seems to be a whopping $600 per year just to back up my personal photos and audio recordings that have no real monetary value.
        
        Neither solution is worth doing from my perspective. Cloud backups just don’t make sense if you already have a local backup system. The cost is three or four orders of magnitude too high for something whose sole purpose is to protect me against the almost infinitely small risk of my fireproof RAID failing to protect my data against some disaster and me still being alive to care. A backup of a backup, it needs to be on the order of pennies per terabyte per month, not per gigabyte. Otherwise, it just isn’t worth doing.
      - Fredrik Andersson
        
        This looks really interesting!
        
        What does the “transaction” part of the pricing means? What is a transaction? I’m trying to predict what the monthly cost will be for me if I would backup my entire NAS (about 3 TB).
Gijs Noorlander

This sounds great!
I was already looking for some off-site backup options and automatic sync from my NAS just sounds great.
Now I only have to find time to sort my files in such a folder-structure that it is easy to decide what gets synced outside and what inside and to which computers.
- Peter Cohen
  
  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! Good directory management is vital to any storage scheme. Good luck.
Marco Hackländer

why did you choose “Cloud Sync” instead of “Hyper Backup”? I hope your service will be also available soon for “Hyper Backup”.
- Peter Cohen
  
  We’ve published an application programming interface (API), but developers can use it however they want. Synology’s chosen to use Cloud Sync as the first DiskStation Manager app that supports B2. If you’d like other DSM apps to work with B2, let Synology know! We want everyone using B2!
  - Marco Hackländer
    
    Thank you Peter! I will ask them :-)
    - Christopher Thorjussen
      
      Did you get an answer from Synology?
      - Marco Hackländer
        
        Ah, totally forgotten to write them, did this now…
      - Christopher Thorjussen
        
        Keep us posted. In the mean time I’m testing B2+CloudSync with the 10GB free :)
      - Marco Hackländer
        
        so, the answer:
        
        ///// I am afraid not support B2 in Hyper Backup now. If you insist to use it, please use Cloud Sync package.
        
        However, I will pass this message to our developers and product management group. They will have more research on such feature. Hopefully we will be able to support this feature in our future Hyper Backup package releases. Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention.
        
        If you have any great suggestions, feature or third party product support requests, please kindly send them to our Product Management group at:
        
        https://www.synology.com/form/inquiry/feedback /////
        
        All of you should hit the link and ask for the support, even the backblaze team, because in Q3/September HyperBackup will work with the amazon cloud drive…
      - Christopher Thorjussen
        
        Just hit them up on your link about wanting B2 support in Hyper Backup :)
Michael Bateman

I think if you backup all or any part of the homes directory, you cannot also backup another shared folder on the same volume with the same account, does that sound right?
- YevP
  
  You should be able to pick and choose, but Synology might have a better answer :D
nosmo

Wow.. this just made my day, thank you very much Backblaze and Synology, just thank you.
- Peter Cohen
  
  We’re happy you’re happy.
nerdburgerca

This gives me so much happiness. I wish it would work for my Personal Backup account since my Synology is really just a backup of a few PCs but this is still great progress.
- Peter Cohen
  
  Thanks! We’ve long wanted a way to offer our customers a way to safely upload the contents of their NAS systems to the cloud. Those needs are a bit different than what the personal Backblaze service was designed for, but that’s one of the reasons we developed B2. We hope you’ll check it out!