How to troubleshoot the setup of a Network Attached Storage for BLOB data on the Recovery Server?

[Ola_Arvidsson]

If the NAS is on another machine in the network, you must use a UNC (uniform naming convention) path in the following format to connect to it:

"\\computer_name\folder_name_in_drive\"

You do not specify the drive name in the UNC path; instead, you merely create a folder in the desired drive and specify the folder name in the path. The computer_name stands for the name of the machine with the NAS (this can be an IP address if you prefer). The folder_name_in_drive stands for the folder in the drive. You must make sure that the share permissions and security groups declared for this folder contain administrative access on the server and have full control permissions (right-click on the folder on the NAS machine to view its properties). Please note that the folder should be shared manually before it can be used by the Recovery Solution.

If you believe you have done everything correctly, verify this by going to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services > Altiris Recovery Solution Server Service and seeing if the "Log On As" column entry contains the same value as you have specified for the NAS folder.

In order to use a network storage location for protected data, you must change the properties of the services on the server:

• Enable the BLOB compaction feature (in the server job schedule tab of the RS Cluster) if you want to store the data on a NAS device. (Many of these devices do not support NTFS compression.)
• Ensure your MSSQL server is configured to logon with a user who has full access to the network storage location. Do this by going to Control Panel > Administrative tools > Services, then clicking on the Log On tab in the MSSQL server properties. Note that if you change the properties here, you must stop and restart the MSSQL service.

 Also, in the list of services in the Altiris Recovery Solution Server Properties tab:

• Sort out the configuration so that it logs on with a user who has administrative rights on the server and who has full access to the network storage location. Note that if any password for this account has been changed before, you need to edit it in this panel manually as well.
• If you change any properties, you need to stop and restart the service.
• You need to make sure that the UNC path specified for the NAS is correct.
• You need to be 100 percent sure that the account specified has full access rights to the Network location/device.