Two proxies with iSCSI targets?

[Gordy]

Hi Folks,

We have Veeam B&R 8 backing up to iSCSI targets exposed by an AWS storage gateway. I'd like to set up another proxy, I've installed it and disabled it while I check my logic with what I want to do with it. Is there any reason I wouldn't use two proxies both mounting the same iSCSI targets? Veeam doesn't do any weird FS level trickery with iSCSI that would cause locks and corruption?

[veremin]

Isn't your AWS Storage Gateway configured in VTL mode? If so, what's the idea of connecting it to a proxy server (especially, to multiple ones) through ISCSI initiator, shouldn't it be connected to a repository server, instead?

[dellock6]

Supposing you are talking about two "repositories" mounting the same block device at the same time, Veeam per se doesn't do anything to the filesystem used in this block device, all comes down to the operating system used.
If you said "proxy" because both proxy and repository roles are running on the same machines, it means you are using Windows, thus the block device is formatted with NTFS.

NTFS as a filesystem itself is NOT cluster aware. That implies multi-mount capabilities. To make it usable by multiple nodes you need MSCS (Microsoft Cluster Service) that does coordinate things so that only one system at a time actually performs the mount and uses it. NTFS has the capability to lock itself well enough to allow write access from only one node, but Cluster Service is the software that actually enables that feature within Windows. A regular disk mount will not do it, and it will bring to corruptions.

What is the use case? To have a redundant repository shared among multiple proxies? In this case I would then create a repository machine and then have multiple proxies writing to it. And if additional availability is required for that repository, I would look for clustering it, or using things like Storage Spaces or others.

[Gordy]

Isn't your AWS Storage Gateway configured in VTL mode? If so, what's the idea of connecting it to a proxy server (especially, to multiple ones) through ISCSI initiator, shouldn't it be connected to a repository server, instead?

No, it exposes 32TB volumes that are connected to the proxy / repository as Windows drives. Veeam backs up to these and storage gateway keeps a few TB of frequently used data and archives off blocks that are left alone for long enough.

[Gordy]

it means you are using Windows, thus the block device is formatted with NTFS.

Yeah correct, I probably should've pointed this out. Windows 2012 with Veeam B&R 8, the server is both the repository server and a proxy.

What is the use case? To have a redundant repository shared among multiple proxies? In this case I would then create a repository machine and then have multiple proxies writing to it. And if additional availability is required for that repository, I would look for clustering it, or using things like Storage Spaces or others.

In part yes, but also to reduce backup windows by allowing automatic proxy selection and jobs using whatever server is best available to run the job.