iSCSI access from Recovery Environment

[-Steve!]

Is it possible to load an iSCSI initiator from within the Veeam recovery environment?

I backup to an iSCSI target, so would like to be able to bare metal recover direct from iSCSI as well. I know I could connect to my iSCSI target from another device and copy the backup set locally to recover, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

So any tips on connecting to an iSCSI target from within the recovery environment?

thanks!

[Dima P.]

Hello Steve,
Honestly, I never tested it - can’t even say if the iSCSI component is included in the recovery media. However, there is no built in functionality for sure, so feel free to test if it’s possible via CMD.

[adiskandar]

Hi,

Realize that this is a year old thread but clearly there is an enterprise demand for iSCSI initiation in the recovery environment for bare metal backup to LUNs.

As an enterprise, we need this feature for full and assured BCP. I tested this out recently with the latest available version of Veeam endpoint to restore one of our physical (but with SAN boot) server and the recovery environment doesnt initiate the iSCSI connection to recognize the drive (although it recognizes the 10G network card).

Appreciate if there are any developments on this.

Regards,
Adi

[Mike Resseler]

Adi,

As we stated above, we never tested this (it still is an endpoint product ). When you tried, did you tried to initiate it manually through the command line or just looked if it started after booting the recovery media?

Cheers,
Mike

[Vvas]

Hi.
Files for iSCSI Initiator (example for Windows 7: iscsicli.exe, iscsicpl.exe, iscsicpl.dll...... msiscsi.sys.... etc) are absent in an image of WinRE/Veeam Recovery Media.
Whether it is possible to include support of iSCSI Initiator in the disk Veeam Recovery Media?
What WinPE version is used during creation of Veeam Recovery Media?
Thanks.

[Dima P.]

Hi Vvas,

VEB uses native Windows components built-in to the OS and create a Recovery media based on existing recovery environment (Windows RE). There is no way to include iSCSI initiator to the RE image.

P.S. However, if you have a Windows ADK pre-installed VEB will use Windows PE to build an image, so if PE supports that - then there is a way to create a custom PE image with iSCSI initiator on board.

[Vvas]

Thanks.
Really works at custom PE image with iSCSI initiator (test W7x64).

[Dima P.]

Interesting. You’ve created a custom PE image and then loaded the Recovery Media components, right?

[Vvas]

No.
Didn't find the separate Recovery Media component.
In the test for W7x64 files and a part of the register for operation of ISCSI were added to boot.wim which was created by wizard VEB.
P.S. communication language only English?

[Dima P.]

Aaa, got it.

P.S. Russian works for Personal Messages

[RegEdit714]

Hello, I know i am responding to a port that is a few months old but was wondering if this was ever addressed or figured out? I have encountered the same issue when performing a bare metal restore with iSCSI. Seems that Vvas may have had some luck but i do not really understand what was done?

Thanks!

[enterprise]

Hi,
Can anybody explain how to create the Environment for Recovery from a iscsi-LUN.
I'am using the free Agent in Windows Server 2012 R2 and the Backup Target ist connected via ISCSI per 20GB/s as local Storage.

Thanks.

[Dima P.]

enterprise,

Veeam Recovery media built from Windows PE should have this functionality. To build PE media you should install Windows ADK component and re run the recovery media creation wizard. Then it should be possible to open iSCSI initiator via command line interface of recovery media.