After I set up a self-hosted GitHub Actions runner on my Synology NAS, it only worked without issues until a new version of the image had been released. Since I couldn't get automatic updates working with my setup, I settled with a manual update process for the time being. When a reader suggested that I could use Watchtower instead, I decided to try it out when the next version of the runner is released.
After I set up a GitHub self-hosted runner on my Synology NAS, it worked great for a while. Then, on a random Saturday morning, I got an error notification. It turned out that the runner was trying to update itself, but it failed to restart at the end.
Since I bought my Synology NAS, I was using Plex for viewing my photos and Dropbox for uploading them from my phone and backing them up in the cloud. The setup worked well, although the viewing experience in Plex wasn't perfect. I've heard good things about Synology Photos in DSM 7.0 and decided to give it a try. I have now completely switched to it.
Although GitHub-hosted runners should usually be your first choice for running GitHub Actions, you sometimes still might want to use a self-hosted runner to save on costs or work around IP blocking. If you own a Synology NAS, you can also use it to host a GitHub runner.
Running user-defined scripts as scheduled tasks is the best way to backup external data to your Synology NAS. They can easily be created in the Task Scheduler pane of the Control Panel. However, there are a few important details to be aware of, especially if you're not a versed Linux user.