Tips & tricks

If you got the error message "Cannot download packages whilst offline" but your internet connection is active, this is probably because you've managed the network configuration yourself and the network manager is reporting an offline status even if it's not correct. To fix this issue, simply edit the file /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf and change the following configuration to be inline with: [ifupdown] managed=true Then restart the Network Manager : sudo service NetworkManager restart #1

In your backup task, simply drill down in the folder tree to select only a few folders amongst the whole set of folders you would like to backup in order to keep the backup size and time reasonable. When the backup task succeeds, edit the task and add a few folders more.  Then relaunch the backup task. The Synology Hyper Backup service will only backup the freshly added folders and data that has changed from the last succeeded backup task. Reapeat that operation untill all the folders are backuped.

My ghettoVCB backup script was running fine (at least my backups were performed) but that error message ' Datastore not found ' stung my eyes every time I ran the backup manually. In fact, the fix was easy : I had to use the datastore name (a symbolic link) in the path of the backup instead of the GUID of the datastore. So, I changed my configuration file from : [...] VM_BACKUP_VOLUME=/vmfs/volumes/ 53af15fa-cd616a94-e1a4-9ee2ba7c8e2c /backups [...] to : [...] VM_BACKUP_VOLUME=/vmfs/volumes/ DS1_R5_4_8TB /backups [...]  And voilà...

If you want to automatize the backup of your Azure database on your own backup server, you can develop your own utility in few lines of C# code : First you have to install SSMS 2012. After, in your project, reference the assembly Microsoft.SqlServer.Dac.dll located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\DAC\bin . Finally, you can export a bacpac file (containing both Schema and Data of your database) like this : var ds = new DacServices("Server=tcp:your_server.database.windows.net,1433;User ID=your_user@your_server;Password=your_password;Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True;Connection Timeout=30;"); ds.ExportBacpac("test.bacpac", "your_database_to_export"); The connection string can be found on the Windows Azure Portal >  SQL Databases > your_database > quick glance > Show connection strings > ADO.NET #1

There is probably lot of reasons for a network backup to fail, but I would like to expose here my case. I got the following message each time I've tried to backup my files using synology network backup system : Network Backup failed to backup task [shared folders and local config] to [mydestinationserver]. ([23] Some files could not be transferred. Possible reasons: 1) backup user has no permission to access the files, 2) files are deleted, 3) illegal file name, 4) too many folders.)  If I look the network backup log, I see this warning : Network Backup failed to backup shared folder [/homes] to [mydestinationserver]. After several tests, I've discovered that the cause was the path lenght of certain folders and files in my 'homes' folder. The path was exceeding 256 characters. I've simply deleted those folders and finally my network backup ran smoothly. #1