Backup Home Assistant data to a Diskstation using rsync

How to setup rsync on a Synology Diskstation and use it to backup data from Home Assistant to the NAS.

Enable & configure Rsync on Diskstation

• Login to your Diskstation
• Go to Control Panel > File Services > rsync Tab
• Under rsync check Enable rsync service & check Enable rsync account and click Apply. This will create a shared folder NetBackup.

• Next create a user (Control Panels > User > Create) which will be used for using rysnc. e.g. I named mine home_assistant_rsync.

  • Give the user the Permission to Read & Write the NetBackup folder
  • Under Applications allow to use rsymc (Shared Folder Sync, ...).

• Next add the User to the external rsync Accounts

  • Go to Control Panel > File Services > rsync > Click Edit rsync Account
  • Add the created user and make sure to enter a password.

That's it, now you can check your configuration e.g. by trying to upload a test.txt file.

rsync -av --dry-run test.txt home_assistant_rsync@<YOUR_DS_IP>::NetBackup

Troubleshooting:

I received the error: @ERROR: auth failed on module NetBackup. This will happen if you do not enter a password when adding your user to the external rsync Accounts. Just enter a password for your external rsync user under Control Panel > File Services > rsync > Click Edit rsync Account > Edit. Aftwards it worked.

Rsync data from Home Assistant to Diskstation

I use the Folder Rsync Addon to transfer all Home Assistant folders (config, addons, ...) to the Diskstation.

• Install Folder Rsync
• Configure Application:

rsyncserver: <IP_OF_YOUR_DISKSTATION>
rootfolder: NetBackup/hassio-backup
username: <RSYNC_USER_ON_YOUR_DISKSATION>
password: <RSYNC_USER_PASSWORD>

• make sure to create the subfolder (in my case hassio-backup) in the NetBackup module on your diskstation, otherwise it throws an error that the folder does not exist.
• Click start to run the rsync once and watch the addon log to check if everything works.

Now you can start the sync from an automation (see addon docs):

- id: '7'
  alias: Folder sync to NAS
  trigger:
    platform: time
    at: '1:00:00'
  action:
  - service: hassio.addon_start
    data:
      addon: 954f2f4e_folderrsync

Or e.g. I trigger it within NodeRed with following node configuration: