Alright, today I wanted to mess around with backing up my Raspberry Pi to my Synology NAS. It’s a pretty neat setup once you get it going, and it saves you from that gut-wrenching feeling when your SD card decides to call it quits after you’ve spent hours tweaking your settings.
First Things First: Getting Everything Ready
So, before I even touched my Raspberry Pi, I made sure my Synology NAS was all set up and ready to go. I’m talking about having a shared folder ready to receive the backup files. Think of it like prepping a landing pad for your precious data.
- I hopped onto my Synology’s web interface and created a new shared folder. I called it “PiBackups” because, well, that’s what it’s for!
- Next, I made sure that the user account I wanted to use had the right permissions to read and write to this folder. No point in having a backup if you can’t actually put anything in it, right?
On the Raspberry Pi Side of Things
With the NAS prepped, I turned my attention to the Raspberry Pi. I needed a way to actually perform the backup, and that’s where this nifty little tool called “raspiBackup” comes in.
- I connected to my Pi via SSH – gotta love that remote access.
- Then I installed raspiBackup. It’s a straightforward process, just follow the instructions, and you’ll be good to go.
- Once that was installed, I had to configure it to point to my Synology NAS.
Configuring raspiBackup
This is where things got a bit more involved, but nothing too crazy. I had to tell raspiBackup where to send the backups and how to get there.
- I fired up the raspiBackup configuration menu. It’s all text-based, but don’t let that scare you.
- There was an option to specify the backup type. I went with the option to specify the destination because I wanted to use my NAS.
- Then, I selected NFS as my backup type because my Synology NAS supports it, and it is easier for me.
- Next, I had to enter the IP address of my NAS and the path to the shared folder I created earlier. It looked something like “192.168.1.100:/volume1/PiBackups”. Just replace the IP and path with your own.
Running the Backup
With all the configuration out of the way, it was time for the main event: actually running the backup. I initiated the backup process through raspiBackup, and then I just had to wait. The first backup always takes a while because it’s copying everything. It’s like moving all your stuff to a new house – it’s gonna take some time.
Scheduling Automatic Backups (Because I’m Lazy)
Now, I’m not one to remember to do things manually all the time, so I set up automatic backups. raspiBackup makes this pretty easy.
- I used the good old “crontab” to schedule the backups. It’s a simple text file where you can tell your system to run commands at specific times.
- I added a line to my crontab that tells raspiBackup to run every night at, say, 2 AM. That way, I know my data is being backed up regularly without me having to lift a finger.
And That’s It!
Seriously, that’s pretty much all there is to it. Now, whenever I mess around with my Raspberry Pi’s settings or install something new, I have peace of mind knowing that I have a recent backup safely stored on my NAS. If anything goes wrong, I can just restore from the backup, and it’s like nothing ever happened. It’s a lifesaver, trust me.
This is how I did it, I hope my experience can help you! If you are a Raspberry Pi user, try to backup your Pi!