How to install CrashPlan on Synology Diskstation

CrashPlan Backup

A little while ago I posted several ways to improve the security on your Synology NAS and was recently asked about how to install CrashPlan on a Synology NAS. Synology doesn’t have it’s own pre-built package available, but luckily PC Load Letter from the Synology community has stepped up and made a Synology package that works beautifully – the only downside is his instructions are a bit dated and I found harder than they needed to be.

If you don’t already have a CrashPlan account, go ahead and sign up now.

Install headless CrashPlan on Synology NAS

These steps are being done using a Synology DS412+ running DSM 5.0 Update 7. (Tested to work on latest DSM 6.1)

  1. Log into your Synology admin interface
  2. Install Java Manager package. Go to your Package Manager > Utilities > and click on Install under Java Manager.
    Java Manager synology package
  3. Open the Java Manager app and click on “Upgrade Java”. You’ll be prompted with a few more steps to perform:
    1. Go to Java SE Download page
    2. Download the latest Linux x86 version, at the time of writing that is: jdk-7u67-linux-i586.tar.gz
    3. Upload the jdk-7uXX-linux.i586.tar.gz to your Synology NAS by click on Browse in the Upgrade Java window then click on OK.

    Upgrade Java

  4. Now enable user home service on the Synology by going to: Control Panel > User > Advanced Tab and check “Enable user home service” and click Apply.
    Synology Home User Service
  5. Now we need to add a new package source to our Synology so that we can install the CrashPlan client. So open Package Manager and click on Settings > Package Sources > Add and type in: http://packages.pcloadletter.co.uk for the location and name it whatever you’d like.
    Synology Package Source
  6. Next, we need to allow the Synology NAS to install “un-official” packages to do so go back to the “General” tab within the same Settings window as above and change the Trust Level from “Synology Inc.” to “Any publisher” then click on OK.
    synology package trust level
  7. We’re now finally ready to install CrashPlan on the Synology! With the new PC Load Letter package source added you’ll have a new tab in your Package Manager titled “Community” – click on it and find the CrashPlan package and click on Install.
    Crashplan install Synology
  8. After the CrashPlan package has been installed you will need to stop the package and start it again. You can do so by going to Installed > CrashPlan > and use the Action drop down menu to stop, then start it again.
    Crashplan package synology
  9. While we’re on the Synology, lets quickly enable SSH by going to Control Panel > Terminal & SNMP > and checking “Enable SSH service”.
    Synology enable SSH
    NOTE: Don’t forget to disable SSH once you have everything up and running.
  10. That’s it on the Synology side. But to configure what gets backed up and additional settings you’ll need to download and install the CrashPlan app on your computer.
    Once installed, you’ll need to make a quick edit to the UI.Properties file located here: C:\Program Files (x86)\CrashPlan\conf\. Edit the second line, “serviceHost” so that it points to the IP address of your Synology NAS like shown below then save the changes.
    CrashPlan ui.properties file
  11. Log into your Synology SSH using PuTTy or similar app using the admin account and password for your Synology NAS.
  12. The crashplan app also requires a special GUID key and is currently only available via SSH, so in the PuTTy window (or whatever you’re using to connect to SSH) type the following command:
    cat /var/lib/crashplan/.ui_info  ; echo

    The output will be something like:
    crashplan headless key

  13. Now edit the .ui_info file located at C:\ProgramData\CrashPlan removing the GUID key that might already be listed and replace it with the output from the above step. Also, be sure to edit the 0.0.0.0 to the IP address of your Synology and Save the file.
    NOTE: File location for MAC users: /Library/Application Support/CrashPlan/.ui_info
    crashplan ui_info file
  14. After saving the .ui_info file above, change it’s file permissions to “Read-Only”.
  15. The final step is to now open the CrashPlan client on your computer and under “Files” click on Change. From there you’ll be able to pick what folder / folders / files / or even the entire NAS, you want to ensure are being backed up to CrashPlan. Using this same client you’ll also be able to change a number of other options such as backup versions, retention, etc.
    CrashPlan Client

Once you’ve setup your CrashPlan backups the way you like it you can actually uninstall the client from your computer as it’s ONLY needed to change what gets backed up, change settings, or restore files (though you can perform a restore from the web too).

I personally have CrashPlans Individual Plan since I have all my computers set to store their My Docs, Pictures, etc on the Synology, though if you have other computers you want to backup in addition to the Synology NAS the Family Plan would be your better choice as you can have up to 10 devices.

Fix, Crashplan on Synology won’t start

On January 8, 2015 CrashPlan pushed out a new update, version 3.7.0, which has caused the Synology Crashplan package to stop responding. While I have no doubt that PC Load Letter will release a new Crashplan package to fix this issue, as of Jan 12th there has not been a said update. There is however a work around that’s been posted by @chrisnelsonca which resolves the issue and allows the Synology package to start and continue working again. Following the below steps should resolve the issue for you until a new package is released, it did for me.

  1. Enable SSH (if not already enabled) on your Synology and connect to SSH using the ROOT account (which uses the admin password). Note: You must use the username root and not admin.
  2. Once logged in run the following commands:
    unzip -o /var/packages/CrashPlan/target/upgrade/1388728800370.jar *.jar -d /var/packages/CrashPlan/target/lib/
    unzip -o /var/packages/CrashPlan/target/upgrade/1388728800370.jar run.conf -d /var/packages/CrashPlan/target/bin/
    unzip -o /var/packages/CrashPlan/target/upgrade/1388728800370.jar lang/* -d /var/packages/CrashPlan/target/
  3. Next run this command:
    ls -l /var/packages/CrashPlan/target/upgrade/1388728800370.*

    Note: Take notice of the numbers after the 1388728800370. as each file path is randomized.

  4. Finally run the following command, replacing “whatevervalue” with the path you found from the above ls command:
    mv /var/packages/CrashPlan/target/upgrade/1388728800370.whatevervalue/upgrade.sh /var/packages/CrashPlan/target/upgrade/1388728800370.whatevervalue/upgrade.sh.old

From there go back to the Package Center and start the Synology Crashplan package. Big thanks to Chris for finding and sharing this fix!

Block future Crashplan upgrades

This is a temp fix to block upgrades from Crashplan, it is a handy way to prolong Crashplan working on your Synology while we wait for Patters to upgrade the Crashplan Synology package in between upgrades:

  1. SSH into your Synology NAS
  2. The following commands:
    cd /var/packages/CrashPlan/target

    mv upgrade upgrade.tmp

    touch upgrade

    chmod 444 upgrade

Thanks to Per’s comment on PC Load Letter here.

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