Trimble Epic 2 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 So, I've been playing with the eval version of WS2012R2 (with essentials role), and started to begin testing server backup... and it doesn't like not having any drives. I have a Drobo FS with plenty of space. Can I backup to it for testing purposes? Or do I NEED a dedicated drive for that? Link to post Share on other sites
jmwills 284 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Can you present some of that space as an iSCSI target? If so, then you should be able to. Link to post Share on other sites
Drashna Jaelre 159 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Yeah, it needs to have local storage to be able to do this. However, "iSCSI" does appear to be local storage, so if your drobo supports iSCSI, that would be the way to go for testing. That or if you have a cheap drive for testing. Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Pitts 7 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 (edited) Hate to disagree with the experts, but you can backup to a network address although a) you need to use wbadmin.msc to set it up, not the Essentials dashboard, and b ) it will only take full backups not incrementals. I would agree that iSCSI is the best solution, albeit not an officially supported one I believe, since it is treated as being locally attached. Edited February 26, 2015 by Steve Pitts Link to post Share on other sites
ikon 439 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Agreed, if you go into the WSB GUI, there is an option to back up to a network share. I cannot confirm that only full backups are permitted. Link to post Share on other sites
jmwills 284 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 I think Steve is correct about only taking taking Full Backups which by default would be the last backup. Link to post Share on other sites
oj88 136 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 I have tried backing up to a NAS via regular SMB/CIFS and you can only restore the last (albeit successful) backup. No different backup dates or versions to look at or restore from. For that reason, I started backing up to a dedicated USB drive. Speaking of iSCSI, backing up to it is one thing... How do you do a BMR from an iSCSI target? Link to post Share on other sites
ikon 439 Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 Speaking of iSCSI, backing up to it is one thing... How do you do a BMR from an iSCSI target? An excellent question. I hadn't thought of it, but I don't think the restore program offers the option to set up an iSCSI link. Link to post Share on other sites
oj88 136 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 It's just sad that MS didn't include the iSCSI Initiator app as part of system recovery. It's already 2015! My intention is to setup an XPEnology box in another part of the house as an iSCSI target. This addresses two things; Physically decoupling the backup disk from the server and 2nd, present the LUN to WSB as a dedicated volume. This got me looking for a solution. Luckily, there is a hack around it but it's not as straightforward as one might think: https://glennmatthys.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/add-iscsi-initiator-to-the-windows-server-20082008r2sbs-2008sbs-2011-installation-dvd/ Comments? Link to post Share on other sites
ikon 439 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Yes, it's 2015, but WSE2012 was released in, well, 2012: i.e. 3 years ago. Still, it would be nice if MS would put out an update to implement iSCSI. Link to post Share on other sites
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