Documentation Archives

Backup Server Email Configuration

Email
Your Backup Server can be configured to send email reports. To use this functionality, you should configure how email is sent.

You should set the "Send as" properties to configure how email appears to the recipient.

Delivery method
You can choose to send email via one of four options:

None (Do not send email)
Select this option to disable sending email from the Backup Server.
The Backup Server will be unable to send email. You can use this option if you want to disable all outbound email from your Backup Server.

MX Direct
MX Direct allows you to send email from your Backup Server without needing to configure a custom SMTP server. However, there is a greater chance of the email being discarded as spam.

SMTP Server
If this option is enabled, your Backup Server will send email via an SMTP server.
The following options should be configured:

Deliver via: SMTP Server
Send as (display name):
Send as (email):
SMTP server address:
SMTP server port:
Username:
Password:
Security: one of "SSL/TLS" (default port 465), or "STARTTLS" (default port 587), or "Plain" (default port 25)
Option to accept invalid SSL certificate from the remote SMTP server
You should leave this option unchecked. However, if you encounter errors, you may choose to enable it.
In comparison to how SSL certificates are used for HTTPS, it is surprisingly common for SMTP servers to use an invalid SSL certificate.

Gmail account

If this option is enabled, the Server will send email via a Gmail account. Internally, this uses known configuration information for Gmail's SMTP server.

The following options should be configured:

Deliver via: Gmail account
Send as (display name):
Email address: example@gmail.com
Password: Enter your Gmail password

Gmail accounts with two factor authentication

If you are using two factor authentication for your email account then you will need to create a Gmail Application-Specific password or the email will not work.

Log into your Google account and visit your App passwords page. You may be asked to sign in to your Google account.

Click Select app and select Mail. Click Select device and select Other.

Type in the name of the device (My Backup Server) and click Generate.

You will be given a password which you will use when setting up the Gmail account within the Backup Server.

Allow less secure apps
If Gmail is not working with your Server, then you will have to enable the "Allow less secure apps" setting.
Log into your Google account and open the security settings.

Scroll down until you see Allow less secure apps and turn it ON.

Backup Server and Client Branding

Backup Server Branding
You can configure the appearance of the Server web interface.

The top-left section of the Backup Server can be configured to display either the deault brand logo, custom text, or a custom image.

Backup Client Branding
In this section you can brand the appearance of the desktop client, add an EULA, configure a custom help page and more.

The Client Branding section is for rebranding the desktop client. When you make changes to your branding, it is required to update the desktop clients for the changes to apply. It is possible to update the branding for multiple devices at once using the Bulk Update feature.

Product name

The Product name is what the backup client will be named (the shortcut will automatically change to this name). The software will also install in Windows to "C:\Program Files\Product Name"

Note: If you change the Product Name field, any existing, and, possibly incorrectly-named, installation directories will be re-used if the client software is reinstalled.

The desktop client will need to be uninstalled completely. The incorrectly-named "C:\Program Files\Product Name" directory will be removed. A new installation of the branding-updated client software will create a new brandnamed-directory in C:\Program Files.

Company name

The backup client will refer to the Company name when making changes within the backup client.

Help URL

Setting the Help URL will add a Help tab on the client with your URL of choice (not required).

This feature aids in personalising the backup client and in providing additional assistance to the end customer. You can choose whether the help content is shown with an embedded frame, or with a popup browser.

If you choose the popup browser option, the device's default web browser will be opened.

If you choose the embedded frame, the backup client will render the content directly within the backup application window. You can take advantage of this fact to design your help website in a way that matches the application design theme. The webpage content may be a simple email address, phone number, or plain text content; but because any web features are available, it may also include rich experiences such as contact forms, videos, and live chat features.

The backup client will try to render the embedded content with the operating system's platform rendering engine (Edge 79+; otherwise the latest installed IE / MSHTML engine). If no suitable platform rendering engine is available, it will fallback to opening the device's default web browser in a popup.

Default server URL
The Default server URL will prefill the Server field when logging into the backup client.

Registration URL
eazyBackup supports new account registration from within the client software. If this property is non-empty, then any generated software will contain a 'Register' button on the login screen that opens the property as a URL in the device's default web browser.

This allows you to create a custom signup workflow that calls into the eazyBackup Server API to actually create the account. This offers an MSP the chance to capture other information such as email address, contact details, and billing / payment details.

By deferring to an external URL for new account registration, this system is deliberately flexible. For instance, it would be possible for MSPs using this system to

offer the choice of multiple plans, or
create the account on a specific eazyBackup Server, or
automatically request a first storage vault, or
create a "free trial" system

Icon (Windows / macOS)
You can set a custom icon used for the software on Windows and macOS.

On Windows, the file must be in *.ico format. On macOS, the file must be in *.icns format.

All executables that display an icon to the user, on the desktop, in the Start Menu, or in Windows Explorer/Finder, must carry the icon in ICO/ICNS format as this format can contain one or more small images at multiple sizes and color depths, such that they may be scaled appropriately.

JPEG files are also supported, by automatically converting them to the required ICO/ICNS format. The supplied image should have a square shape. We recommend using a 512x512 image as this will preserve the most information when the image is scaled down to smaller sizes.

EULA
Add an End User License Agreement during the installation process (not required).

Logo image (100x32)
This image will be displayed in the lower-left corner of the software.

Tile image (150x150)
This image will be displayed in the Windows 10 start menu. The tile background can also be changed using hex format (e.g. #FFFFFF).

Background logo
Choose to hide the default branding from the background of the desktop client login screen.

App icon image (256x256)
This image will be displayed as the icon in package managers, such as in Synology DSM's Package Center. This image will be resized as appropriate based on the package manager relevant to each installer.

Synology's icon cache
Synology DSM has an icon cache in which it stores a copy of the configured icon for a package. When a new copy of an existing or previously-installed package is installed, Synology DSM will use the cached copy of the icon rather than the icon from the new copy of the package. This can cause it to appear as if changes to the "App icon image" branding setting have not been respected; it is actually caused by a stale icon being used by Synology DSM.

To clear the icon cache, follow these steps:

Uninstall the eazyBackup package
SSH into the Synology NAS
Clear the cache using sudo rm -r /var/cache/pkglist.tmp/
Reinstall the eazyBackup package

Configuring Retention Policies

Retention Configuration

eazyBackup uses retention policies to determine what data should be kept, for how long, and what data can be safely removed in order to free up storage space. Retention rules can be configured for individual Protected Items and for Storage Vaults.

Configure Retention (Protected Item)

Configure Retention (Storage Vault)

Retention (Protected Item)

In the Retention section of your Protected Item, you can configure a retention policy to apply when backing up this Protected Item to a specific Storage Vault.

If you have not previously configured a retention policy on the Protected Item, the retention section will display (default) to indicate that the Storage Vault default rules apply. If a policy has been configured on the Protected Item you will see Keep (X rules) to indicate that specific Protected Item retention rules have been applied.

Retention (Storage Vault)

Storage Vault retention rules are the default for all data stored, unless a Protected Item has its own set of retention rules.

If a Protected Item is given its own set of retention rules, these Protected Item rules will take precedence over the Storage Vault retention rules.

If a Protected Item is removed from the list of things to backup, or has its retention rules removed, then the Storage Vault retention rules will take precedence once more, and the data associated with the Protected Item will be kept, or removed, in accordance with the Storage Vault retention rules.

Example Usages of Retention Rules:

Change the default Storage Vault retention rule to 'Keep all data for 60 days', plus
Add a Protected Item rule to keep all snapshots for 90-days, plus
Add a Protected Item rule to keep a representative snapshot from each week, on a Monday at 6am, for 2 years.

Permanently Delete / Revoke Device

When a customer permanently removes a device from their backup account, the Protected Items for the device are also deleted, as well as any retention rules.
The snapshot data that belonged to the deleted device will now be governed by the Storage Vault retention rules.

Explanation

When you revoke a device, it will remove all of its Protected Items and all of the associated retention rules.
If the user-profile still has at least one live device that stores data in the Storage Vault, it will run the retention pass into the Vault, eventually deleting the old Protected Item data.

Example Solution

Set all Storage Vaults to have a changed-default retention rule of 'keep all data for 60 days', or some other period.
When a device is revoked, or a Protected Item is removed from the list of Items to protect, the next retention pass will fallback to the Storage Vault rules.
A Storage Vault retention period of 60 days will allow for mistakes to be discovered. A mistakenly-deleted Protected Item can be reinstated into the list of things to protect; or the snapshots of the Protected Item can be restored via another device registered to the same user-profile.
A Storage Vault retention period of 60 days will allow for genuinely-unwanted data to be automatically removed at the end of 60 days, thereby keeping storage sizes to a minimum.

How to Remove a Registered Device

You can log in to the same user account from multiple devices, each additional device registered will incur a charge. To stop charges for a registered device, the device must revoked from your account.

Revoking a device disconnects it from eazyBackup, stops backup operations and charges.
When you revoke a device, it will remove all its Protected Items, and all of their retention rules.
If the backup account still has at least one live device that stores data in the Storage Vault, it will run retention passes into the Storage Vault, eventually deleting the old Protected Item data. The amount of time the data will remain in the Vault is dependant on the Storage Vault retnetion policy.

There are currently two methods to revoke a device from your account. This operation can be completed from the Dashboard page, and also from the Backup Accounts Management page in the client area of our website.

Revoke Device from Dashboard:

Revoke Device from Account Management Panel:

Manage Vaults on Protected Items – Add/Remove/Update

Protected Item schedules can be configured to back up to one or multiple storage vaults. It is also possible to change the vault used by the Protected Item schedule at any time.

The vault used during scheduled backups can be managed from the Schedule settings of the Protected Item.
By defining more than one schedule for a Protected Item, you can use that Protected Item to backup to multiple locations
You do not need to create a separate Protected Item to backup to different vaults. For example, if you want to back up to a both a local vault and a could vault on a daily schedule, you can configure two schedules on one Protected Item. Each schedule you create can use a different vault, those schedules can run simultaneously or at different times.

The Protected Item schedule can be managed in the desktop application or online using the control panel. The video examples below show how to manage the vaults on a Protected Item schedule using either the application or the control panel.

Managing vaults using the application

Managing vaults from the control panel

Copy a Protected Item Configuration to New Device

From the eazyBackup Control Panel, you can copy and paste Protected Item configurations between your devices. To copy a Protected Item, follow these steps:

Log in to the control panel - https://panel.eazybackup.ca/
Select the Protected Items icon
On the Protected Items page, click the 'Copy' button next to the item you want to move
Click the 'Paste' button that appears at the top of this page
Select the new device from the list

Copying and pasting a Protected Item does not copy backup data, this function is only moving the configuration including file selection, retention settings and schedules.

Random Job Delay – Protected Item Schedule

This feature will delay the start of each job by a random number of minutes between 0 and the configured number.

If your Protected Item is scheduled to start at 9:00, and you set a 30 minute Random Delay, this would mean that the jobs would randomly start somewhere between 9:00 and 9.30. The start time is chosen on a per-job basis, so different delays between 0 and the maximum configured number will apply to each job.

If you have several backups starting at the same time, this means that instead of all jobs starting within seconds of each other, the load will be distributed approximately evenly over the configured number of minutes, which will reduce the peak CPU / Network.

If you have a site with 100 backups starting at 9:00 and use a 30 minute random job delay, this would result in the 100 jobs being relativly evenly spread over the 30 minutes between 9:00 and 9:30. Typcially the 100 jobs would start all at once.

A random job delay on all jobs starting at 9:00, for e.g. will help spread the load out over time; you could additionally change the start times of some of these jobs to help as well.

eazyBackup

Restore from Deleted Protected Item

To restore files from a protected item that has been deleted, open the restore menu in the eazyBackup app , select the storage vault, check "show unknown items"

Step 1. Select the restore menu.

Step 2. Select a storage vault or continue with the default if you only have one.

Step 3. Tick the "Show unknown items" box.
- Deleted Protected Items will appear as "Unknown" items
- Click the caret to expand the Protected Item to view all available dates you can restore from.

eazyBackup

Default File / Folder Exclusions From Backup

By default eazyBackup will apply a number of rules to exclude specific files and folders from your backup. These files and folders are excluded to help ensure that backups will complete successfully, without error.

The exclusion rules that follow are global and can not be removed or altered for an individual account. In cases where you need to backup one of the excluded locations, we recommend customers create a local backup solution to copy files from one of the excluded locations to a different location that can be included in your cloud backup.

There are currently no exclusions on macOS.

The following files folders (and subfolders) locations are excluded on Windows Operating Systems.

C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Comms\
C:\$Recycle.Bin\
C:\Infected-Files\
C:\System Volume Information\
C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\
C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Packages\
C:\hiberfil.sys
C:\pagefile\sys
C:\swapfile.sys
*\$RECYCLE.BIN
C:\Windows
C:\Program Files (x86)\LenovoBrowserGuard\
C:\ProgramData\Dell\
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis\
C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\
C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Packages\
*/.Spotlight-V100/

eazyBackup

eazyBackup Hotfix Install

Hotfixes are normally released with a replacement backup-tool file.

Applying backup-tool.exe hotfixes on Windows

Exit the eazyBackup app from the system tray
Stop eazyBackup's background services
- Use services.msc or Task Manager to stop the "eazyBackup (delegate service)" and "eazyBackup (elevator service)" services
Replace files inside C:\Program Files\eazyBackup\backup-tool.exe with updated version
Restart all stopped background services
Open the eazyBackup app

Applying backup-tool hotfixes on macOS

Exit the eazyBackup app from the system taskbar
Stop eazyBackup's background services
- sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/backup.delegate.plist
- sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/backup.elevator.plist
Replace files inside /Applications/eazyBackup.app/Contents/MacOS/backup-tool with updated version
Restart all stopped background services
- sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/backup.elevator.plist
- sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/backup.delegate.plist
Restart the eazyBackup app

eazyBackup

Category: Documentation

Backup Server Email Configuration

Backup Server and Client Branding

Configuring Retention Policies