Most people know that taking regular backups is important. It only sometimes falls short. With the right software, backup is a simple and easy to automate process, so you don’t have to remember it yourself. Making automatic backups is very easy with the free software Duplication.
You can find Duplication on the site duplicati.com. Click here Download Duplicati 2.0, there is a stable beta, available for macOS, Linux and Windows. Install the program with three times Next, Install and Finish. Duplicati should now be accessible via a web interface by entering the address in your browser http: // localhost: 8200 typing.
Confirm with Yes if you want to protect this interface with a password. Click on the waffle iron icon and choose Settings if you still want to add a password or if you want to change the language, for example to Dutch. Confirm with OK. You limit the download or upload speed via the watch face icon.
Local backup
Time for your first backup. Click successively Add backup, Set up a new backup and Next one. Enter a name and protect your backup with a password if necessary. In this case it is best to leave AES-256 selected as the encryption algorithm. Press Next one to Backupl to determine. By default it is here Storage type Local folder or drive selected. We’ll explore more advanced options later in this article, but let’s start with an external USB drive.
So leave the type untouched and select the relevant station. Click on Test connection and then on Next one so that you can indicate all the desired source folders.
Bee Filters you can exclude specific files via various criteria and with Exclude it is possible to keep files of a certain size out of your backup. Click again Next one and set a time schedule.
Bee Run again every x you indicate how often Duplicati must check whether source files have been changed (maximum every six minutes). Since Duplicati only makes the changes since the last backup by default, you don’t have to worry too much about a target medium clogging up too quickly.
Are you looking for more tips for making (automated or not) backups? Check the course backup and recovery!
Archive files
In the next window you can edit the Remote volume size To adjust. Duplicati puts the backed up files in compressed, multi-part archive files, which are up to 50 MB by default. The higher you set this volume, the fewer archive files are required. This can possibly improve the speed if you backup to the cloud, for example.
Bee Backup retention set how many old backups should be kept. For example, you can choose Delete backups older than 14 Days. Or you choose Smart backup retention leaving the retention management to Duplicati.
Confirm with Save. Your backup job is added. At the top you can read when the next session will be performed, but you can always go on Run now click.
Restore backups
You should try every new backup task. This can be done by retrieving a few random files from such a backup. To do this, click on the waffle iron icon and choose To recover. Tick the relevant backup or select Restore directly from backup files if, for example, it concerns an imported backup.
click on Next one, indicate the backup time from which you want to perform the restore and which files it concerns. In the next window, you determine the target location for the recovery. If this is successful, you will know if that backup task is okay.
You now have an (incremental) backup on an external medium, but there are more options. Think of a network folder (on your NAS) or to your cloud storage space. You can also schedule the necessary backup tasks for this with Duplicati.
Backup to nas via ftp
To start with the NAS solution. We briefly show you how to do this on a Synology NAS. Log in to the web interface of your NAS. Go to it Control panel and choose E.external access, File services. Open the tab FTP and put a check mark next to it Enable FTP service. Confirm with To apply.
In the section User from the Control panel click on To make and create a new user (eg Backup). Provide a password and click four times Next one until you get to the window Assign application permissions ends up. Place a check mark next to FTP in the column Allow, press twice more Next one and on To apply.
Then open the section Shared folder and click To make for a new shared folder that you also name. Preferably place a check mark next to Hide this shared folder in “My Network Places”. Press twice Next one and on To apply. Then open the tab Permissions and only check the new user Reading writing. Confirm with OK.
About now to Duplicati where you like Storage type the option FTP set. Bee Server and gate enter the host name or IP address of your NAS as well as the ftp port number (default is 21). Bee Path on server enter the name of your backup folder and enter the ID of the new user. Also click here first Test connection.
Backup to cloud
After all, we are ready for the final phase: an off-site backup to the cloud. You make a direct backup to a subfolder of your cloud storage via Duplicati. We start from Google Drive for a moment, but the method is the same for other providers.
Log in to the storage service via your browser and create a subfolder as the target location for your backup. Then make sure on your local client Backup and synchronization of Google has started. Right click on the icon in the Windows system tray, click on the button with the three dots and choose Preferences.
Open the rubric Google Drive, tick Only these folders sync and in any case make sure that your backup method is not selected. Confirm with OK.
Over again to Duplicati, where you activate the aes encryption this time and if Storage type Google Drive select. Bee Path on server enter the name of your backup folder, then click AuthID clicks. Press on the button Google Drive (limited) login and enter the email address and password for your Google ID.
Finally confirm with Allow so that the id is filled in. Check access with Test connection and finish your backup job as desired. And you are done. If you ever have an unexpected system crash or get a malware / ransomware infection that prevents you from accessing your files, Duplicati will always have them available elsewhere.
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