Adding & Managing Network Drives (SMB(CIFS) Share & Windows File Share)

Adding & Managing Network Drives (SMB(CIFS) Share & Windows File Share)

This section provides information on adding and managing network drives as a storage repository in the BDRSuite Backup Server.

Add Network Drives

NAS/SAN as Backup Repository

Add Network Drives (NAS, SAN) as storage volumes to create a Block Storage Repository. Follow the steps below to mount your network drives as storage volumes.
On the 'Create New Block Storage Repository' page, click on 'Add Network Drives' button.
In the Add Network Drive page, Read the given instructions and enable the checkbox “I understand that if the above recommendations are not addressed, it can result in serious data loss”, to proceed.

Step 1: Enter Drive Path

Provide the ‘Drive Path’ – Network path of the drive to be added. Ex: \\[server]\[sharename]\.
Provide a drive letter/name for the network drive in the ‘Display Drive Name’ section. Ex: G.

Step 2: Enter Credentials  

If the network drive requires login authentication provide the Username and Password to authenticate drive addition. [Optional]
Click ‘Save’ to add the network drive as a storage volume.
The added network drive will be listed as a storage volume in the ‘Create New Block Storage Repository’ page and can be used while creating the backup repository.

Important Recommendations;

  1. If you are using Windows File Share, ensure that you enable “SMB Transport Failover”.
  2. If you are using CIFS (SMB) share, ensure that the Storage Appliance/NAS Box supports Continuously Available (CA) SMB share and it is enabled.
  3. If “SMB Transport Failover” or “Continuously Available” SMB share is disabled or if it is not supported then it can result in serious data loss.

Windows File Share or CIFS (SMB) share as Backup Repository

Read the following carefully if you would like to use CIFS (SMB) share as your backup repository in BDRSuite.
  1. If your storage appliance/NAS box does not support the Continuous Availability option, then you can check if it supports iSCSI. If it supports iSCSI, we highly recommend that you use the iSCSi option by creating a LUN. You can then mount the created LUN as a volume on the BDRSuite Backup Server or BDRSuite Offsite DR Server machine and use that volume as the target for your backup repository.
  2. If your storage appliance/NAS box supports continuously available SMB share and you want to configure the SMB share as the backup repository, make sure you enable the “continuous availability” option while creating the SMB share on your storage appliances/NAS box. This option is available in most high-end storage appliances.
  3. If your storage appliance/NAS box does not support the Continuous Availability option, then you can check if it supports iSCSI. If it supports iSCSI, we highly recommend that you use the iSCSi option by creating a LUN. You can then mount the created LUN as a volume on the BDRSuite Backup/Offsite server machine and use that volume as the target for your backup repository.
  4. If you plan to use ‘Windows File Share’ as a backup repository, make sure you enable the ‘SMB Transparent Failover’ feature while creating the SMB share. The SMB Transparent Failover is highly recommended by Microsoft if you want to make your SMB shares continuously available. As per Microsoft’s recommendation to enable the ‘SMB Transparent Failover’ feature while creating the SMB share, you should run ‘Failover Clustering’ on Windows Servers 2012 and above with at least two nodes. Refer the following link for more details, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/clausjor/smb-transparent-failover-making-file-shares-continuously-available
  5. If the BDRSuite Backup Server or Offsite DR Server is deployed in a Linux machine, you can use an NFS share as a backup repository. If NFS is supported by your storage appliance/NAS box, you can mount the NFS share as a volume on the Linux machine and configure it as a backup repository for the BDRSuite Backup Server or BDRSuite Offsite DR Server.

Data Domain as a Backup Repository 

Click here if you want to learn more about utilizing Dell Data Domain as a backup repository.

Manage Network Drives

This option helps to add, edit, delete network drives which will be listed along with a separate drive letter. You can add ‘n’ number of network drives and manage it via the Manage Network Drives page.
  1. In the Backup Repository Configuration – Block Storage page click on the Manage Network Drive button.
  2. You get to add a network drive as storage volume directly by clicking on the ‘Add Network Drive as Storage Volume’ button.
  3. Under the ‘Action’ section you can click on the ‘Edit’ option to change the Username and Password of the Network volume, and you can also delete an added network drive by clicking on the ‘Delete’ option.