Setup iSCSI Target and Storage LUN on Synology DS923+ for VBR
We discussed using HyperV host with a local disk as a VBR Repository (not recommended). The recommended approach is to use a different Windows Server as a backup repo. What you could also do is use a directly attached storage as a backup repository on the Windows Server such as iSCSI/FC SAN LUN etc. In this article, we shall discuss how to setup iSCSI Target and Storage LUN on Synology DS923+ for VBR. Here is a guide on Setup DS923+ Synology NAS as a Backup Repository for VBR using Network Attached Storage.
The iSCSI protocol enables the transmission of SCSI-based storage commands across ubiquitous network structures. The iSCSI target service creates the illusion of locally attaching a hard drive to a computer, empowering the computer’s operating system to manage it. You can request demo!
iSCSI gives you the option of using a Windows repository with ReFS or a Linux repository with configured XFS storage to use FastClone. You will also learn how to format drives with ReFS.
Fast Clone is the Veeam Backup & Replication technology that helps create quick file copies. Fast Clone increases the speed of synthetic backup creation and transformation, reduces disk space requirements and decreases the load on storage devices. With this technology, Veeam Backup & Replication references existing data blocks on volumes instead of copying data blocks between files. Data blocks are copied only when files are modified.
Here is a similar article on how to “Install and configure iSCSI Target Server and iSCSI Initiator on a Windows Server“. Also, see steps to Run MBR and GPT conversion with the best GPT converter.
Why is Storage LUN Better than a Mapped Network Drive
Both Storage LUNs (Logical Unit Numbers) and mapped network drives serve different purposes and have their own advantages depending on the specific use case and requirements.
| Storage LUN | Mapped Network Drive |
| A Storage LUN provides block-level access to storage resources. It appears to the connected server as a raw storage device without any file system overhead. | Mapped network drives provide file-level access to shared resources over a network. They are used for sharing files and folders between devices in a network. |
| Storage LUNs are directly integrated with storage area network (SAN) solutions, offering advanced features like snapshots, replication, and thin provisioning. | Mapped network drives can be accessed from various operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, making them versatile for heterogeneous environments. |
| Since it operates at the block level, Storage LUNs can offer high performance, especially in environments where low latency and high IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) are crucial, such as database servers or virtualization hosts. | Mapped network drives can be accessed from various operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, making them versatile for heterogeneous environments. |
Here is how to upgrade Veeam Backup and Replication v11 to 12.1, and how to relate Due Diligence and Due Care to Veeam Backup and Replication.
iSCSI Target setup on DS923+
You can create this beforehand on the Synology DS923+ or on the fly when creating the LUN. As you can see below, I do not have a Target created already.
To create an iSCSI target, click on Add as shown below. But I will create one when creating the LUN. You can also create an iSCSI Target and automatically have the LUN created vice versa.
Here is Fix Error 1069: Windows could not start the Veeam backup service on local computer, and how to uninstall Veeam Backup and Replication from your server.
Create a LUN
For the purpose of this guide and simplicity. I will create a single LUN and present it to my HyperV host. But for my Lab, I will recreate two LUNs and present a LUN to the HYPERV and another to the VBR.
To create a LUN, access your Synology NAS. Select the main menu as shown below.
Launch the SAN Manager
Click on the Create button as shown below
Enter a name for the LUN, description, capacity and click Next.
Note: Thick Provisioning provides better stability in LUN performance. Thin Provisioning provides on-demand-allocation ability and all advanced features.
We will create a new iSCSI target on the fly. Click Next to proceed.
Assign access permissions. I am fine with the first option below “allow all”.
Confirm the settings and click Done to finish the wizard.
You can see that the LUN has been created and is editable.
Note: The service status changes when the iSCSI Target connects to the host.
Enable iSCSI Initiator
Note: The iSCSI service is stopped by default.
To utilize it, you need to start the service. To start the service, open “Server Manager”, click on “Tools” and select “iSCSI initiator”.
A message box opens that says, The Microsoft iSCSI service is not running. The service is required to be started for iSCSI to function correctly.” Click on Yes.
Configure the iSCSI Initiator
To configure the initiator, open the Server manager. Click on tools and click on “iSCSI initiator”. A dialog box to configure up. Navigate to the Discovery Tab.
Click on Discover Portal.
To connect to the iSCSI virtual disk, enter the DNS or IP Address of the iSCSI target server (NAS). Click OK
Navigate the Target Menu
The status is inactive. To make it active, click connect as shown below.
On the Connect to Target, click OK.
As you can see in the following image. The initiator has been connected to the iSCSI virtual disk.
Initialise Disk and Create Volume
To initialize the iSCSI virtual disk, follow these steps: Here are similar rticles: How to Increase Disk Size in Hyper-V, How to Add and Format a New Virtual Disk to an EC2 Instance, and How to extend System Drive Partition on Windows.
- Open Control Panel.
- Navigate to Administrator Tools.
- Click on Computer Management.
Alternatively, from the search button, search for Disk Management or Computer Management as shown below. Click “Create and Format Disk Partitions”.
As you can see in the above image, an unallocated partition has been created. To use it first, we must bring it online.
To do that, right-click on “Disk 1” and click on Online
Once the disk is online, we must initialize it so that the logical disk manager can access it. To do that, right-click on “Disk 1” and click on “Initialize disk.
A dialog box “Initialize Disk” opens. Click on OK.
Create Simple Volume
Once the disk is online, we will create a volume. To do that, right-click on “Disk 1” and click on “New Simple Volume.”
Click Next on te New Simple Wizard Volume
On Specify Volume Size screen, enter the desired size of the disk in text-box named, “Simple volume size in MB”. Click on Next
On the Assign Drive Letter or Path screen, you can specify the drive letter. Choose the desired drive letter from “Assign the following drive letter” drop-down box and click on Next.
On the Format partition screen, you can specify the File system type, allocation unit size, and volume name. We will choose NTFS file system type from the “File System” drop-down box.
You can choose the size of the allocation unit from the “Allocation unit size” drop-down box and provide the desired volume name in the “Volume Label” text box. If you want to enable the file and folder compression, click on the “Enable file and folder compression” checkbox. Click Next to proceed.
On “Completing the New Simple Volume Wizard”, review all the settings and click on Finish to create a new volume
Create a Volume and format with ReFS as a Repository for VBR
Right and select “New Simple Volume”
Click Next to create the volume
Enter the volume size as you wish
Select a drive letter and click next
Format with ReFS
Veeam recommends using ReFS. ReFS offers speed and space consumption similar to XFS Data Block Sharing (Reflink).
Note: You will have to reformat anyhow as you do not have the option to format with a block size of 64k
Click Finish to complete this step.
As you can see, we have both volumes available to be utilised in the disk management snap-in.
Once the volume has been created. You can access it from windows explorer, as you can see in the following image that the drives have been created successfully.
From the SAN Manager, you can see the iSCSI Target and LUN are working correctly.
As mentioned above, the LUNs have been recreated. A dedicated LUN and iSCSI Target will be created for the VBR Server. A different LUN was presented to the HyperV node as well as shown in the image below..
Add a New Repository
A backup repository is a main storage location where Veeam Backup & Replication keeps all versions of backed up files for the configured period and metadata files.
Backups stored in the backup repository can be used to quickly restore the entire file share to the state as of a specific restore point.
Open the Veeam Backup & Replication console. In the menu on the left-hand side, click on “Backup Infrastructure”. Right-click anywhere in the main working area and select “Add Backup Repository” or from the tabs.
In the “Add Backup Repository” wizard, select “Direct attached storage” as the type of repository.
Select Microsoft Windows
Enter a Repo name and optionally provide a description and click Next.
Select the Repository Server from the list.
Specify a path to the folder where backup files must be stored. Click Populate to check capacity and available free space in the selected location and click Next.
At the Mount Server step of the wizard, specify settings for the mount server that you plan to use for file-level and application items restore.
Review your settings. As you can see, the below components already exists on the VBR server.
Click Next to continue
Click “Finish” to complete the wizard as shown below.
Veeam will now add the iSCSI repository to the list of backup repositories as shown below.
Add Unstructured Data Source
In this article, we will be backing up and restoring the an SMB file share. Therefore, this section will discuss the steps to add a file server and file share, create backup job and perform entire Fire share restoration.
With Veeam Backup & Replication you can easily back up and restore unstructured data: content of SMB (CIFS) and NFS file shares, Windows- and Linux-based file servers, NAS filers and object storage systems (S3 and Azure Blob). Below is an image of unstructured data sources.
Note 1: You must add a data source(s) of the unstructured data which you plan to protect in the inventory. To protect your unstructured data. You can use your existing Veeam Backup & Replication infrastructure. To do so, configure the following components
Method 1: Add Windows File Server to Veeam Inventory
Before proceeding with the steps below, ensue your server must meet requirements listed in the Platform Support guide. Lastly, if you will be using a dedicated cache repository, ensure it is added in Backup Infrastructure as well.
To add a managed Windows server as a source of unstructured data. Launch the New File Server wizard. Open the Inventory view, in the inventory pane, right-click the Unstructured Data node and select Add unstructured data source.
Alternatively, you could click on the Add Data Source or select the Unstructured Data node and click Add Data Source in the working area as shown below.
Select File Server. In method 2, I will show you how to add a File Share.
In the new file server wizard, select the managed server. For me it is a Microsoft Server.
Enter the DNS or IP address as shown below. You can optionally specify the description as well.
Enter a valid credential and click Next to proceed
Review the Settings and Apply
Click on Next to proceed or finish off the managed server to the inventory.
Click Finish to complete this step.
Now that the File Server has been added. Please proceed with the rest settings.
Cache Repository
A cache repository is a storage location where Veeam Backup & Replication keeps temporary metadata it uses to reduce the load on the data source during the backup procedure.
The cache repository keeps track of all objects that have changed between each backup session. This allows performing incremental backups from the unstructured data source fast and efficiently. If you store your unstructured data backups on an object storage repository, the cache repository also stores active metadata.
You can assign the role of a cache repository to a backup repository added to the Veeam Backup & Replication infrastructure. This is exactly what I will be doing.
You can use the Backup I/O control slider to define how fast the backup proxy can read data from the source file server. This setting is based on the number of parallel threads that can be used by the proxy configured for processing the file server. If resources of your file server are limited, it is recommended that you select the Lower impact option. If your file server is powerful enough, select the Faster backup option.
Review the installed components of Veeam Backup & Replication on the server and then proceed to install any missing components by clicking “Apply”.
At the Apply step of the wizard, wait till Veeam Backup & Replication installs and configures all required components or you could click Finish on the fly.
At the Summary step of the wizard, review details of the added file server and click Finish to exit the wizard.
Create a File Backup Job
You can proceed and create a File Backup Job. Alternatively, you could click on the Unstructured Data node and click Create Backup Job
Enter the Backup Job name
Use the Add button to add the objects.
Select a Folder or specific file. I will be selecting the entire Training Video Folder. Click Ok to add the folder-
Objects added. Click on Next as shown below.
Select the backup repository and click Next. You can also configure a second destination for this job.
The Archive Repository shown below is not of interest to me.
I will be running the job manually. I will revert to these details later.
Click Finish to complete the backup job creation.
You can manually start the job by navigating to the Home view, select your job and click start or right click on the job and click start.
I will remove this data source when the file share job completes. Since this guide is specifically dedicated to Synology, I will be adding the adding an SMB File Share as shown below.
Method 2: Add SMB File Shares Backup
A file share is a storage device or data source available to multiple hosts through a computer network. To add (backup) an SMB file share as a source of unstructured data using Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR).
Launch Veeam Backup & Replication Console and navigate to the Inventory view. Click Add data Source as shown below.
Select File Share
Select SMB Share
Please specific the path to the SMB File Share
Select the Cache Repo and click Next
Wait for the operation to apply and click next
Click Finish to complete the the File Share
Create a New SMB File Backup Job
I already showed you an alternative way to initiate a backup job for a File Server above. You can also create a backup job for a file share from here. To do this, click on the Unstructured data, and in the work area, select “Create Backup Job”.
Enter the name and description for the File Share Backup job and Click Next
Add File or Folder to backup and click Ok.
Click Next to proceed
Specify the Backup Repository and click Next
The Archive Repository (file versions) shown below is not of interest to me.
I have decided to run the job manually at this time. Click on Apply to proceed
Click Finish to complete
As you can see below, we have created the backup job.
Start SMB File Backup job
To start the file share backup job. Navigate to the “Home view” and navigate to the backup and select the job of interest to you.
As you can see the job has completed successfully.
Restore SMB File Share
To perform file share restore. From the “Home view”, under backup, select “Disk”
Click “File Share”
I am interested in selecting “and restoring the “entire”Restore Entire Share”.
Alternatively, click in Backups and select the backup that holds the share that requires restore, right-click the backup and select Entire file share.
In the wizard press Add and select the share(s) that require restore. Click Next
In the Destination step select either Original Location or This server to specify a new server and path and click next.
Select your desired restore options and click next. Also, check the button to restore permissions and security attributes and click next.
Click Finish to complete the file restore process.
As you can see below, the folder restoration has completed successfully.
Summary to Setup iSCSI Target and Storage LUN on Synology DS923+ for VBR
In this article, we have created an iSCSI Target and LUN on Synology DS923+ and presented this to the Windows Server and VBR Server as well. We have showed the steps back up and restore an SMB file share. Therefore, this section will discuss the steps to add a file server and file share, create backup job and perform entire Fire share restoration.
I hope you found this guide on how to Setup iSCSI Target and Storage LUN on Synology DS923+ for VBR very useful. Please feel free to leave a comment below.
