Installing rdiff-backup on Synology DS218+

This post is outdated. See Installing rdiff-backup 2.x on Synology DS218+ Diskstation instead.

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I just got a Synology DS218+ NAS box running DiskStation Manager (DSM) 6.1. It supports rsync but not rdiff-backup, which I have been using and loving for about 10 years. Getting rdiff-backup running on the Synology DS218+ was surprisingly easy, in large part because the DS218+ has an Intel processor and its operating system is basically Linux.

To install rdiff-backup, you need two components:

• rdiff-backup from http://rdiff-backup.nongnu.org/
• librsync.so from an Ubuntu or Debian system

To follow these instructions, you will need a Synology NAS box with an Intel processor, DSM 6.1, and a computer running Ubuntu (or Debian) Linux. You also need to have set up your user on your Synology box so that you can ssh into the Synology box.

Build rdiff-backup

Basically, I used my Ubuntu 16.04 desktop to build rdiff-backup and then copied the files to the DiskStation for installation.

1. Install the Ubuntu librsync-dev package with aptitude install librsync-dev
2. Download the rdiff-backup tar file from http://rdiff-backup.nongnu.org/
3. Untar and build rdiff-backup

   tar xf rdiff-backup-1.2.8.tar.gz
   cd rdiff-backup-1.2.8
   python setup.py build

Copy Files to the Synology Box

Next, I copied the rdiff-backup files and the librsync.so shared library to the DS218+. Start on the Linux computer in the parent directory of rdiff-backup-1.2.8 . The IP address of my Synology box is 192.168.0.26; you should replace that address with the address or hostname of your own box.

rsync -avz rdiff-backup-1.2.8 192.168.0.26:
rsync -avz /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librsync.so.1.0.2 192.168.0.26:

Install rdiff-backup and librsync.so on the Synology Box

Then I logged into the Synology DS218+, became root, and installed the software.

# on the Linux computer:
ssh 192.168.0.26

# on the Synology box

# install rdiff-backup
cd rdiff-backup-1.2.8
sudo python setup.py install
# when prompted for a password, enter your own DSM password

# now install librsync.so
cd
sudo cp librsync.so.1.0.2 /usr/lib
cd /usr/lib
sudo ln -s librsync.so.1.0.2 librsync.so
sudo ln -s librsync.so.1.0.2 librsync.so.1

Test and Use rdiff-backup

That’s it. Rdiff-backup should now run. You can do a quick test by simply typing “rdiff-backup –help” and you should get an error message, because rdiff-backup does not have that option.

art@dumbo:~$ rdiff-backup --help
Fatal Error: Bad commandline options: option --help not recognized
See the rdiff-backup manual page for more information.

If you see that message, everything is good to go. Enjoy rdiff-backup!