windows server backup to NAS (iSCSI) and offline advice

[mrstrong]

Hi,

 

looking at options to simplify our offline backups (and make the process quicker and more robust)

 

Current setup is:

Windows Server Backup on the VM host to a Synology NAS (over iscsi )

 

To do offline backups I currently manually run a backup once to another NAS using a

UNC path then copy files to usb from that!

 

Originally I had hoped I could just copy the files from the synology to a USB drive

but weirdly it seems to have been set up with no volumes only a storage pool, is this standard practice for NAS / iscsi ?

Anyway with no volumes on the NAS it won't let me copy to USB.

I guess I could reset up the NAS with volumes, then recreate the iscsi target and backup job in WSB ?

 

Or as I have another NAS, could I just add that as a second iscsi target and then add that as a second destination in WSB ?

Or maybe just add a few external USB as extra targets/disks in WSB and rotate ?

 

Or perhaps it is finally time to investigate veam (would have to be the free version as no £ left!)

[Steve21]

What's the actual outcome you want from the setup? As you mention offline but then start talking about 2nd NAS etc which wouldn't be offline, just online redundancy etc. Or do you define offline as just not on the main server?

 

Just would change what would work best depending on the above really

 

Steve

[Davit2005]

There will need to be a volume for the iSCSI LUN to sit on.

 

Check the article https://kb.synology.com/en-global/DSM/help/HyperBackup/lunbackup?version=7

Edited February 18, 2022 by Davit2005

[TwistedHelixis]

I do something similar, but to an unwanted server set up as an iSCSI target, then a rotation of USB drives for cold storage. Been doing it like this for many years, and the only cost is the USB drives.

[mrstrong]

thanks, yes I want a completely offline backup, think I will try adding a few usb drives to WSB e.g. via

WBADMIN ENABLE BACKUP -addtarget ....

and then rotate them.

Hopefully should work with the exiting Synology NAS drive (the iscsi target)

[Davit2005]

thanks, yes I want a completely offline backup, think I will try adding a few usb drives to WSB e.g. via

WBADMIN ENABLE BACKUP -addtarget ....

and then rotate them.

Hopefully should work with the exiting Synology NAS drive (the iscsi target)

 

Not tried it but Synology can backup a LUN. See the link in my previous post.

[mrstrong]

would the LUN backup try and do the "whole LUN" though, I would only really want to create an offline backup of the latest windows server backup

to a usb drive.

 

The synology has no volumes listed in Storage manager and the option to create one is greyed out.

There is one storage pool: capacity is all used for the iSCSI LUN

 

is this a bit odd e.g. is it normal practice to create a volume (which I guess also creates a storage pool at that same time)

Perhaps I can't create a volume now as the storage pool has all been used by the iSCSI LUN.

Maybe if I deleted the iSCSI LUN, created a volume then re-created the iSCSI LUN I would be able to access

individual backups on the synology and copy them off to a usb?