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Being new to NAS box usage on a local network I am interested in the recommendations on best practices for performing computer backups. I have multiple computers on the network and will have two Synology DS916 NAS boxes.
Does one run the backup software on the NAS box and have it reach out to the various computers to fetch files for backup?
OR
Do I end up running some backup program on each of the computers and have that target the NAS box for the file storage?
You would need to run some sort of backup client (or use Windows' own) on the computers, in which you create a backup set defining the files to back up and where to store the backup data.
You don't mention which OS the computers are running, but I am assuming Windows. Synology has an article explaining how to set this up using Windows 7's backup feature, which is also available on later versions of Windows.
The steps are outlined below:
Steps 2-4 would be more or less the same if you choose to use a third party backup client.
Having said that, depending on the number of computers you need to back up, it might be beneficial to deploy a backup server which makes managing and monitoring backups much easier. You could still configure the NAS as storage (if supported by the backup client) as well as storing the backup data on the server for redundancy.
By the first, I would like to emphasize that 3-2-1 backup plan and internal RTO/RTO should be considered before deploy any storage system. https://knowledgebase.starwindsoftware.com/explanation/the-3-2-1-backup-rule/
https://www.carbonite.com/en/cloud-backup/business/resources/carbonite-blog/what-is-3-2-1-backup/
Define these terms before you would backup the data. It would help you prevent future data losses and overall recovery failures elimination unnecessary downtimes.
Find/evaluate/benchmark/turn in production the backup software that will do the job. Check the thread since it seems to be useful: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1400449-backup-solution-that-works-well-with-synology-nas
Once you have your strategy and backup software configure Synology box with regards to your environment needs. https://www.cloudwards.net/backup-tips-using-a-synology-nas/ https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/6.1/data_backup
I would refer to some special backup software immediately e.g. Cloudberry backup in order to get proper and organized backup to any destination you wish. There are free backup tools and you are not going to spend any time, but they are likely to set up the appriopriate backup plan for a long time and eliminate further questions.
