Backing Up To NFS Share

[markfellows]

We’re evaluating VBR and I’m trying to backup to a NFS share which has been created using OpenFiler on a physical machine.

I’ve connected to the share via Windows SFU and it is mapped as V: Files can be added, deleted etc via Windows without any problem.

When attempting to use V: as my destination for the backup I receive the follow error after around 26 seconds

Building path for backup

Could not find a part of the path

Failed to create dir "\\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\mnt\"
Could not find a part of the path '\\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\mnt'.

Any ideas? I’ve backed up to other OpenFiler shares using iSCSI and everything was fine.

One final question – Is it possible to backup to a NFS share mounted on my ESXi server (I seem to remember reading it wasn’t possible with ESXi)

Thanks,

Mark.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Mark,

You cannot choose ESXi servers as destination targets for your backups. As for your current issue, please look through the existing thread with the same issue, should help:

http://www.veeam.com/forums/viewtopic.p ... 75&start=0

Thank you!

[markfellows]

Thanks,

I had already seen this post and I'm sure I'd tried most of the resolutions mentioned in the posts. I'll take another look when I get to the office in the morning.

Mark.

[Gostev]

Mark, mapped drive cannot be used as backup destination, at it is a "user-mode" setting (stored under HKCU), and is only available for the user who created the mapped drive, and only when the user is loggen on to the computer interactively. However, the backup jobs run from under Veeam Backup and FastSCP service account.

Instead of selecting V: drive as destination, please type in the UNC path like this \\servername\mnt\ or \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\mnt\

[markfellows]

Anton,

Thanks for the reply, I'm aware of the limitations with mapped drives but I'm performing the backup interactively (e.g. I'm logged in).

Veeam seems to be removing the mapped drive letter anyway and replacing it with the NFS UNC name.

I'll take at look at the account/permission config and get back to you if I'm still struggling.

Mark.

[markfellows]

Still no joy . .

This is the path I'm attempting to backup to \\<ip_address>\mnt\openfiler\nfsfiler_ntfs\Home\Backups.

The error message seems to be omitting everything after the \mnt

Building path for backup
Failed to create dir "\\<ip_address>\mnt\"
Could not find a part of the path '\\<ip_address>\mnt'.

Everything functions correctly in Windows using Services for Unix 3.5.

[Gostev]

Mark, please logon to Veeam Backup server with the service account used by Veeam Backup and FastSCP service, and try to open:
\\<ip_address>\mnt\openfiler\nfsfiler_ntfs\Home\Backups share with Windows Explorer.
Does it work?

[markfellows]

Anton,

I'm ok when traversing to the directory via Entire Network > NFS Network but not when I type the UNC into the address bar, I receive the following error :

Windows cannot find <UNC>. Check the spelling and try again. There's obviously something wrong with the format of the UNC. This is the first time I've used NFS shares in WIndows so I'll have to look into it.

Mark.

[markfellows]

. . . I've even copied the UNC from the address bar that is displayed when traversing to the directory. I then paste this into a new explorer Window and receive the same error.

[vbussiro]

When i set my V&B, in the "backup destination" step, the path i use is /mnt/460gb/partage/Backup (note it's a /, not \) and backup destination the openfiler's ip (openfiler which i add as linux server). I'm not using an unc path...
Also, this folder is set as a cifs share in my openfiler, and its path is \\[openfiler ip]\Backup.

As i set credentials in V&B to access my openfiler box (root access), it doesn't have the same behaviour in windows explorer, which access my openfiler box with my user's credentials. I'm not even sure that v&B use nfs to access my openfiler, but i'm a linux noob... (but openfiler is great !) I'll stop nfs service on my openfiler box and see what's happening...

[vbussiro]

It seems to backup even with nfs disabled. But i'm using vstorage api san mode, so behaviour in network mode should be diferent, as its the esx which connects to the backup server, isn't it ?

[Gostev]

vbussiro, in your case NFS is not used. Essentially you have Veeam Backup setup to work with OpenFiler as with regular Linux server, using our proprietary transport protocol (FastSCP). This is actually best way to backup to Linux based server/appliance in terms of performance.

P.S. You beat me by 2 mins with your new post you are correct about differences due to different processing modes. In all vStorage API modes, Veeam Backup server reads data from ESX, and writes to backup destination. In Network mode (3rd radio button on mode selection step), ESX writes directly to the target. But this provides much worse performance, because of no changed block tracking (only available in vStorage modes).

[vbussiro]

So markfellows should go the same way ?

[Gostev]

Correct. I simply did not know that OpenFiler is actually regular full blown Linux with Perl, SSH etc.

[markfellows]

Thanks for this Anton/vbussiro, been away on another project for a while but I'm back to this now.

[icebun]

Hey Mark,

I am using NFS as the destination location for my backup server.

What I did was to present this directly to all my ESX hosts so it appears as another Datastore.

Then in the backup location, I choose this location via one of the ESX hosts.

From the sound of it you are trying to present the NFS share within your Veeam server windows environment.

Try and see if this makes a difference.

I would also appreciate any comments from others that have used it this way.

[albertwt]

Yes, i also would like to know if "present the NFS share within your Veeam server windows environment" it really works fine with Veeam backup and Replication 5 ?

[Vitaliy S.]

It works fine, but still the best way will be to add your Openfiler as a Linux server, to leverage all the benifits of using local helper agent.

[tomeppy]

Stumbled upon this and just wanted to thank Gostev and Vbussiro for their responses. Helped me figure out the answer to my question.