Create and backup an iSCSI share with IDrive BMR

Information covered

• Purpose
• Description
• Create an iSCSI share on the BMR device
• Backup an iSCSI share to the BMR device
• Configure an iSCSI share
• Access an iSCSI share on a Windows system

Purpose

Learn to host, backup, and configure iSCSI shares on the BMR device.

Description

iSCSI shares follow a block-level storage architecture and can be accessed as storage drives on any computer, provided it is on the local network and has an iSCSI initiator client.

Create an iSCSI share on the BMR device

To create an iSCSI share with IDrive BMR, 

1. Sign in to the IDrive BMR device web interface.
2. On the ‘NAS Share’ tab, click the ‘Create a new share’ button.
   
   
   
   The ‘Create Share’ wizard will be displayed.
3. In the ‘Share Type’ tab, select 'iSCSI Share' and click ‘Next’.
4. In the 'Share Settings' tab, assign a name to your iSCSI share.
   
   
    
5. Select ‘Apply new settings’ to assign default settings to your share. Alternatively, select ‘Use the configurations of an existing share’ and select an existing share from the dropdown to replicate its configurations.
6. Assign disk space for the iSCSI target and configure the block size as 512 Bytes or 4096 Bytes.
    
   Note: While you may be able to change the sector size of the iSCSI target from the initiator side, it is, however, not recommended. During negotiation between the target and the initiator, a difference in the block size may cause issues with the iSCSI operations.

7. Click ‘Next’.
8. In the 'Local Snapshot' tab, set the snapshot frequency using the dropdown against 'Capture a local snapshot every _'.
   
   
    
9. Select the days for local backup as ‘Daily’, ‘Weekdays’, ‘Weekend’, or select ‘Custom’ and choose the days.
10. Set the start and end time for backup.
     
    Note: Here, the 'Start Time' and 'End Time' is a soft cut-off. The actual start time and end time are dependent on the tasks that are in progress.

11. In the 'Snapshot Retention Settings' section, use the slider to set the limit for retaining local snapshots. You can retain up to 100 local snapshots of a network share.
12. Click ‘Next’.
13. In the 'Confirm Share' tab, review the local snapshot and cloud replication summary, and click 'Create'.
14. The created share is displayed on the ‘BMR NAS’ page. 

Backup an iSCSI share to the BMR device

To schedule local snapshots of an iSCSI share,

1. Sign in to the IDrive BMR device web interface.
2. Navigate to the 'iSCSI' tab. All the network shares are displayed here.
3. Click 'Configure Share Settings' corresponding to the required iSCSI share.
   
   
    
4. In the 'Configure Local Snapshot' section, set the frequency for capturing the local snapshots, and schedule the backup.
5. Click ‘Save’.

You can also choose to pause the local backup of a network share by moving the slide toggle in the respective section to read 'Disabled'.

Configure an iSCSI share

To configure an iSCSI share,

1. Sign in to the IDrive BMR device web interface.
2. Go to the ‘NAS’ tab. All the network shares are displayed here.
3. Click 'Configure Share Settings' corresponding to the required iSCSI share. This opens the ‘Configure Share’ screen.
   
   
    
   Note: CHAP Authentication is the only access settings for iSCSI shares.

4. In the 'CHAP Authentication' section, configure CHAP Authentication and Mutual CHAP Authentication.
    
   Note: 

   • CHAP authentication is recommended for the identity verification of the remote client(s).
   • CHAP authentication can be negotiated in both directions for mutual authentication between the client and the iSCSI target, via Mutual CHAP Authentication.
   • CHAP authentication needs to be enabled for configuring Mutual CHAP Authentication.
    
5. In the 'Configure Local Snapshot' tab, set the frequency for capturing the local snapshots and schedule the backups as ‘Daily’, ‘Weekdays’, ‘Weekend’, or select ‘Custom’ and choose the days.
6. Set the start and end time for backup.
    
   Note: Here, the 'Start Time' and 'End Time' is a soft cut-off. The actual start time is dependent on the backup pipeline and the actual end time is dependent on the ongoing tasks that are in progress.

7. In the 'Snapshot Retention Settings' section, use the slider to set the limit for retaining local snapshots. You can retain up to 100 local snapshots of a NAS share.
8. Click ‘Save’ to save the local snapshot settings.

Access an iSCSI share on a Windows system

To access an iSCSI share on a Windows system,

1. Launch iSCSI Initiator on your Windows machine.
    
   Note: Microsoft iSCSI Initiator is installed natively on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012. For other operating systems, it needs to be installed manually.
   
2. Enter the server IP of your BMR device in the ‘Target’ field and click ‘Quick Connect...’.

3. In the list of discovered targets, select the required iSCSI target, and click 'Connect' to access the iSCSI volume.
   
   

4. In case CHAP Authentication is enabled, an authentication failure message will be displayed.
   
   To authenticate,
   • Go to 'Connect' < 'Advanced'.
   • Enter the pre-defined CHAP username and password and click ‘OK’.
   • Click 'OK' in the ‘Advanced Settings’ window to access the iSCSI target.