Backup to offsite synology NAS at home with no static IP

Mark M

Mark M

Mark M

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Do I have any options to backup my Synology Nas in the office to the same NAS I have at home? Sadly I cant get a fixed IP with Sky at home but was unsure if something such as no-ip work? I have no idea how things such as that work so any advice would be really appreciated.

I guess my other option would be to back up to something such as Amazon S3 but it would be good to utilise the existing NAS if possible.
 
There's a dynamic DNS client on the Synology units, so that might help.

Personally I would do this with a VPN. In the Synology DSM go to the Network settings, click Create and then pick Create VPN profile. There you can set a VPN type, server address, credentials etc. My preference would be L2TP/IPSec and then OpenVPN - don't use PPTP.

You can then set your VPN server to issue the same IP address to the Synology each time it connects. The advantage of this is you won't need to port forward, and you can have remote access to the UI of the box without exposing it to the internet.
 
Thanks for the information, very useful. I've never used a VPN before but does that basically mean that my Nas at home would effectively be connected to my work network and then my home NAS would have an "internal IP" address in the same range as the other equipment here?
 
It would be given an IP address in whatever range your VPN server hands out, but it would also maintain its LAN IP so you could still use it for whatever you use it for now.
 
I run the exact setup between my office and home, except i have a Draytek router in the office acting as the VPN server (the Draytek dishes out a fixed IP for the home Synology), where the offices Synology box is setup as the 'host' and the home Synology is setup as the 'slave'/remote (backup) destination. I then just use Synology's Remote Backup to replicate data between the two.

Only issues i've come across is Synology's VPN client (what Caged mentioned) requires you to login and manually reconnect the VPN after it surpasses it's X many (automatic) retries at reconnecting the VPN tunnel - i ended up creating a bash script that runs every 5 minutes that'll attempt to reconnect if the tunnel is down; and the VPN connection has to be setup as the 'default gateway' for the 'host' Synology/network to 'see' it - never had the time to really look into this but i suspect a static route setup somewhere would fix this.

Otherwise they both work perfectly and data is replicated without issue :)


Edit - Forgot to add, if you're offices' router doesn't support acting as a VPN server then you can setup your offices' Synology to act as the VPN server if you install the 'VPN Server' package from the Package Centre.
 
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Thanks for post, very informative. Ive tried to connect the 2 Synologys but have been having problems. Not sure if its a port issue on the router at work to be honest but I think Ive opened all the correct ports.

I do also have a Draytek Router at the office which might make things easier? Is it possible to connect to the office VPN from home using the sky router or is it just a case of connecting the Synology NAS at home to the draytek VPN?
 
Mark M said:
I do also have a Draytek Router at the office which might make things easier? Is it possible to connect to the office VPN from home using the sky router or is it just a case of connecting the Synology NAS at home to the draytek VPN?
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It'd be the easiest solution to use the Draytek as the VPN server and it's pretty straight forward to setup, https://www.draytek.co.uk/archive/vpn_setup.html - obviously test the VPN connection prior to setting it up on the Synology and make sure you set a fixed IP (tick the 'assign static IP' option in the VPN's 'Remote Dial-In User' menu).

Could be wrong but i don't believe the Sky router allows for site-to-site VPN tunnels, so your only option would be to get your 'home' Synology NAS to connect to the VPN server (beit your Draytek or Synology with the VPN Server package installed) in your office.
 
Just trying to connect to the Draytek VPN from the Synology and nothing I do seems to be working. Do I need to open any ports either on the Draytek or Sky router? Or on the home Synology for that matter?
 
Mark M said:
Just trying to connect to the Draytek VPN from the Synology and nothing I do seems to be working. Do I need to open any ports either on the Draytek or Sky router? Or on the home Synology for that matter?
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I didn't have to open ports at either end - the Draytek automatically opens the correct port for what ever flavour of VPN you choose anyway.

I'm guessing you've tried the VPN connection details from a computer to make sure it's setup correctly prior to using it on the Synology?
 
I didnt try to connect from a computer as I thought the setup (lan to lan VPN) would mean it wouldnt work from a computer or have I totally missed the point?

Do I just need to try and set up a new VPN in Windows and see if it connects?
 
Mark M said:
Do I just need to try and set up a new VPN in Windows and see if it connects?
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That's what i'd do first, make sure the VPN account you've created on the Draytek works correctly and then move on to the Synology.

I'm assuming you're trying to setup a IPSEC tunnel?
 
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