As our business continues to grow our focus is on providing white labeled Tier 3 IT support services, RMM as a service, and co-managed IT services. This blog will be highlighting tips for using PowerShell to deploy Synology Active Backup for Business.

Research

Found a support page from Synology that details how to edit the MSI file and deploy it via a Group Policy Object. We are using a similar method to edit the MSI package and deploy it from a local share to all computers via the RMM. You will need to configure a Synology Active Backup for Business template for PCs and download the MSI installer. We use a software called InstEd to edit the MSI installer as follows:

1. Click Property in the Tables list on the left. Enter the values for the following properties³:
   • USERNAME: Enter the username for accessing the Synology NAS.
   • NO_SHORTCUT: Enter “1” if you want to hide the Active Backup for Business Agent’s icon from the main menu of the end user’s device.
   • ADDRESS: Enter the IP address of the Synology NAS.
   • PASSWORD: Enter the password for accessing the Synology NAS.
   • ALLOW_UNTRUST: Enter “1” if you want to connect to the Synology NAS using an IP address instead of a domain or DDNS.
   • PROXY_ADDR, PROXY_PORT, PROXY_USERNAME, PROXY_PASSWORD: Enter these values only when users have to access your Synology NAS via proxy.
2. Click File > Save

Once done, upload to the local network share and take note of the share path – i.e. \\192.168.20.10\Support

Variables

$MSIArguments = This will include full file name of the Synology Active Backup for Business MSI installer – i.e. ‘Synology Active Backup for Business Agent-2.7.0-3221-x64.msi’

Script Snippet

Push-Location -Path '\\192.168.20.10\Support' -StackName 'Backup'
Set-Location -StackName 'Backup'

$MSIArguments = "/i Synology Active Backup for Business Agent-2.7.0-3221-x64.msi"
  
Start-Process "msiexec.exe" -ArgumentList $MSIArguments -Wait -NoNewWindow 

The script will take several seconds to minutes to run based on the speed of the computer. The computers will start populating on their own into the Synology Active Backup for Business app.

If your company is a MSP or wants to become one and automation just seems out of reach, then contact us to run your RMM for you.