Redstor SIMS/SQL backup from another server

[Koldov]

We've had Redstore for a few years now as a remote/offsite backup solution.

 

After making a few changes to our set-up over the holidays I need to find the ports to allow in the firewall.

 

Basically the server that Redstor is installed on used to be the 'ONE SERVER' that all small Primaries seem to have (it still is, but now it's mostly a host and the majority of the roles are split out on to VMs) and I don't want to uninstall it and reinstall it onto the SIMS VM as it also backs up a few big file shares still on the host..

 

Anyway, so when I add the SIMS server into Redstor it complains that it can't connect, however when I turn the firewall off on the SIMS server it can... Unfortunately I can't find what I need to add into the rules on the firewall to allow it.

 

I did find a random reference to UDP 1434 in the troubleshooting, so I tried adding a rule to allow it (and tried every setting in that rule) but it still didn't work...

 

The other troubleshooting tips were way over my head about settings static ports in SQL etc. I'm not going to start following guides I don't understand as I really, really don't need SIMS to stop working on top of all the other stress I've had since school started (and turning the firewall off works, so it's got to be that)!

[Koldov]

Well, I've 'fixed' it, but I'm not really happy with the workaround I've found and I don't actually know if it will work until the backup kicks off... but I'll detail it here so I can search for it when it stops working and I've forgotten why...

 

I logged the firewall when the connection attempt was made and it produced the following (redacted content):

 

 

It appeared that the Redstor server (XX.X.XXX.1) was trying to make the request on random TCP ports, but the SIMS server (XX.X.XXX.2) was always listening on the same TCP port (60392). Nothing on UDP for some reason...

 

So, I created the rule on the SIMS server to allow that as a TCP local port from any remote port and it worked... but only if I dumbed it down so much it doesn't really seem secure!

 

It always failed when I tried to configure it with: 'Allow the connection if it is secure' (any of the settings in there - so I just had to set 'Allow the connection'), 'Remote Computers, Scope (Local Computers - although it allowed 'Remote IP Address')... I didn't bother with 'Remote Users' or 'Local Principals'. To be fair I don't actually know what most of them infer by local or remote....

 

Any way, I'll see if it works and if it does I'll run another check when the servers reboot at any point to see if it picks another port... unless someone comes up with a better/easier solution.

Edited September 14, 2023 by Koldov

[treadgently]

Good morning,

Would you like some assistance from Redstor to get this resolved?

[Koldov]

Hi, thanks for the offer... I guess I should have updated my post to say I'd found another way to work around it (and it doesn't normally take me 6 months to fix something).

 

I made a few other changes as well in that time, so although the original problem was still valid (wanting Redstor client to backing up other servers and it not being able to communicate with them), I just opted to install the Redstor client on all the individual servers that need backing up instead and they each just back it up directly to the cloud.

[treadgently]

I realised the date of the post once I had dropped the message in!

Happy to hook you up with the team to see if there is a resolution that works in your environment.

PM me if you would like my contacts