Creating an iSCSI Network for Backing up Multiple Servers

[NetworkJay]

Hello Everyone.

We have been using BE 2010 for years to backup our 6 servers. We have 1 media server and the others have various agents. We use B2D to a NAS for our backup device.

This setup has been somewhat unreliable. At least once a month (and sometimes once a week) the device will be unavailable in BE even though it is still on and still accessable, etc.

My idea is to redo this setup and change the NAS to an iSCSI Device. It's a Lenovo px12-450r NAS. It has 24 TB of storage space

I understand that typically an iSCSI device can only be used with one server.

So, does this mean that if I connect it to our BE Media server that all of the backup traffic from the other servers will pass through the Media Server?

I thought about connecting the iSCSI Device and all of the servers to a secondary physical network as well to separate the backup traffic from our normal network. I'm just not sure if this is the right way to configure this. I have not had any luck finding information about this topic.

I think we can create LUNs for each server and attach the iSCSI device to each server individually. I'd like to avoid doing it this way though if possible because it would be a hassle to make adjustments to the sizes/quantity of the LUNs afterwards.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[pkh · Accepted solution]

So, does this mean that if I connect it to our BE Media server that all of the backup traffic from the other servers will pass through the Media Server?

Regardless of whether you use an iSCSI device or not, during a backup, data will go from the remote server to the media server then to the backup media.

Separating the backup traffic to a separate network will help if your regular network is congested.

[NetworkJay]

Thanks for the response pkh.

I guess I assumed that the BE Agents allowed the remote servers to backup directly to the SMB B2D media.

So, I suppose connecting the iSCSI device only to the Media Server and using it as a B2D media is how I will set this up. Maybe I can connect the device directly to the Media Server with a crossover cable?

Also, I will probably set up a secondary network for the backup traffic.

Thanks again for the information.

[CraigV]

...connecting the device with a direct connection will work, but it just means that you can't share additional LUNs with other servers via iSCSI.

Thanks!