Is server backup on NAS possible?
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Friday, August 10, 2012 12:21 AMIs it possible to backup the server to a NAS via the Dashboard or as in 2011 I need to manually schedule wbadmin run? In RC Dashboard's backup setup still does not detect NAS share as backup target.
All Replies
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Friday, August 10, 2012 8:09 AM
You can always host iSCSI target content on SMB share and emulate block device locally via iSCSI.
-nismo
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Friday, August 10, 2012 2:10 PMMy NAS does not support iSCSI. Just creating the iSCSI target (VHD for example) somewhere else and copy it to the NAS device would not work. The NAS needs to run the initiator to make the target available.
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Friday, August 10, 2012 4:56 PM
I think nismo is suggesting that WS12E both supply and connect to the iSCSI target.
AHHHH, then I notice he's associated with StarWind, which must (by inference) allow the 'file as target' to be on an SMB share. I don't _think_ the Windows iSCSI target software does.
I haven't tested though. It may be possibe for the Widows target software to have the file stored on SMB (SMB3 required? maybe?).
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Friday, August 10, 2012 10:30 PM
I think nismo is suggesting that WS12E both supply and connect to the iSCSI target.
AHHHH, then I notice he's associated with StarWind, which must (by inference) allow the 'file as target' to be on an SMB share. I don't _think_ the Windows iSCSI target software does.
I haven't tested though. It may be possibe for the Widows target software to have the file stored on SMB (SMB3 required? maybe?).
Everything works like a charm. Windows 2012 supports iSCSI in a loopback:
Loopback: There are cases where you want to run the initiator and Target on the same machine; it is referred as “loopback”. In Windows Server 2012, it is a supported configuration. In loopback configuration, you can provide the local machine name to the initiator for discovery, and it will list all the Targets which the initiator can connect to. Once connected, the iSCSI virtual disk will be presented to the local machine as a new disk mounted. There will be performance impact to the IO, since it will travel through the iSCSI initiator and Target software stack when comparing to other local IOs. One use case of this configuration is to have initiators writing data to the iSCSI virtual disk, then mount those disks on the Target server (using loopback) to check the data in read mode.
-nismo
- Marked As Answer by Sean Zhu -Moderator Friday, August 31, 2012 6:09 AM
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Friday, August 10, 2012 10:31 PM
My NAS does not support iSCSI. Just creating the iSCSI target (VHD for example) somewhere else and copy it to the NAS device would not work. The NAS needs to run the initiator to make the target available.
No. Use your NAS as a SMB share to host iSCSI target images (VHDs or whatever it uses for container). Run target on the same machine and use iSCSI in a loopback to connect. You'll get content on a NAS but actual box should "see" your data as a locally attached block device.
-nismo
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Friday, August 10, 2012 11:20 PM
Yes, I _know_ the loopback works. I've even used StarWind, before the Windows target became available, to do so. I have 3 or 4 servers using loopback iSCSI for SBSBackup target.
It's the idea of the 'file as target' being on the remote box that I haven't looked at. A quick check of MS iSCSI 3.3 (on Windows 2008 R2) suggests that the file must be on local storage, maybe this is changed on WS12 (Standard and/or Essentials), and maybe it's not an issue for recent StarWind software.
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Tuesday, August 14, 2012 8:08 AM
One note about iSCSI disk as server backup target is this mode will not support server recovery (BMR), since in BMR, iSCSI disk can not be recognized.
This post is "AS IS" and confers no rights
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Tuesday, August 14, 2012 12:41 PM
One note about iSCSI disk as server backup target is this mode will not support server recovery (BMR), since in BMR, iSCSI disk can not be recognized.
This post is "AS IS" and confers no rights
What about hardware HBA? Still the same issue?
-nismo
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Monday, September 03, 2012 3:15 AMYou can have a try. If you can access the drive in WinPE, then it can be used in BMR.
This post is "AS IS" and confers no rights
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Monday, September 03, 2012 7:40 AM
personally, if using 'iSCSI loopback' I would (and do) use another mechanism to backup the base OS.
I should have mentioned such earlier, but it's actually something I don't think much about. Restoring 'bare metal' installations involving iSCSI has some 'considerations' but I've rather firmly jumped on the virtualisation bandwagon, and once you have the hypervisor available (any hypervisor) accessing an iSCSI target is 'childs play'.
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Monday, September 03, 2012 8:03 AM
You can have a try. If you can access the drive in WinPE, then it can be used in BMR.
This post is "AS IS" and confers no rights
BTW: David, you've made me think about things.
Is it indeed possible to connect to an iSCSI target from the WinPE 'recovery environment'. Doing so is not 'far out of the ballpark' from my perspective.
Accessing a 'loopback iSCSI' is inherently impossible (I think) because the recovery environment would need to:
have access to the 'file as disk', act as an iSCSI target, and act as the iSCSI 'client'. The situations where this _may_ be possible are few but if one considers just WHY one may be doing 'BMR' it gets a little complicated.
One may also consider a circumstance where 'whole system backup' occurs to such 'loopback iSCSI', and then, the iSCSI target is copied to 'offsite media'. The mechanisms used to 'extract' the offsite may not resemble those used during restore.
I do however believe one thing quite firmly: If I have a 'whole system backup' in a VHD file, somewhere, by any mechanism at my disposal, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK I _WILL_ restore that system, as of the start of VSS for that image.
_if_ I need to give the media that VHD resides on to a 'data recovery' crowd I ask _one thing_, 'I want backup.vhd', and if they can give that to me in a coherent state I _can_ restore the whole system.(possibly using both hooks and crooks, but if that vhd is coherent I'm on the home straight)
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