x360Recover – Backup for NAS Devices
x360Recover version 17.1.0 and newer features support for performing file level backup and recovery of NAS storage devices.
Supported Configurations
Release 17.1.0 constitutes our Early Access (EA) release and supports file level backups of Windows / SMB file shares and Linux / NFS file shares performed directly by a local BDR Appliance.
Supported Versions:
- SMBv2 or newer
- NFSv3
Release 17.2.0 provides full General Availability (GA) and adds support for agent-based direct to cloud (D2C) backups of NAS devices. Windows or Linux agent version 3.13+ is required to provide backup proxy services. Both Windows and Linux agents are be capable of providing backup proxy services for both Windows / SMB and Linux / NFS type file shares on NAS devices.
Note: You must install Microsoft Windows Client for NFS on your protected system to backup NFS share.
Azure File Shares
Agent for NAS is compatible with Azure and can backup both Azure File Shares and any Shared folder hosted in Azure accessible to the proxy protected system.
- NFS Shares are not supported by Windows agents in Azure
- Fully Qualified user credentials must be used when specifying Share user. (i.e. <Domain>\<user> or AZURE\<user> if you are using workgroup mode)
Updating My Agents
Although you need to have an installed Agent version 3.13.0 or higher for Direct to Cloud NAS support, you should select the systems to update wisely.
IMPORTANT WARNING: Due to differences in the backup engine between 2.x and 3.x, upgrading a protected system WILL INCUR a new full backup on the system with 100% data change. This occurs because even though the backup data stored is exactly the same on the protected system, the alignment of the data on the backup server is shifted on disk. This will cause every block to be registered as new data on the first backup.
UNLESS YOU HAVE A SPECIFIC NEED FOR A 3.X FEATURE, (Likes Direct to Cloud NAS backups,)
IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED TO UPGRADE 2.X PROTECTED SYSTEMS TO 3.X.
How it Works
NAS devices can be backed up directly to a BDR appliance and optionally replicated to a Vault, or backed up directly to a vault via our Direct-to-Cloud (D2C) solution (available starting in version 17.2.0). The underlying NAS backup engine is agent based. However, the x360Recover agent cannot be installed directly on a NAS device; rather, the agent is either included on the Appliance (available in 17.1.0+) or on a Direct-to-Cloud protected system (referred to as the ‘Host’). Either way, the ‘proxy’ host requires local access to the NAS shares and user credentials to login as access files.
Note: A special instance of the agent for Linux has been installed on Appliances to facilitate NAS backups in version 17.1.0 or newer. Agent 3.13.0+ in conjunction with version 17.2.0 supports Direct to Cloud proxy of NAS devices.
The Agent NAS Service leverages rsync over a TLS encrypted tunnel to securely and efficiently perform file level backup of network file share targets. See “Technical Considerations” for more information about encryption.
About NAS Protected Systems
Because the NAS backup engine requires an agent to manage and facilitate the backup operations; adding a NAS as a protected system will require a proxy-host. This host is either the BDR appliance or another protected system that has access to the NAS device. This host will be specified during the “Add NAS” workflow.
NAS devices will appear in the list of Protected Systems just like Servers and Workstations in the Appliance and Vault GUIs. Within Recover Manager, NAS devices will appear as a new device type “NAS”.
Protected System List:
Recover Manager Dashboard:
Adding a New NAS Protected System
NAS protected systems are added and configured solely from the Appliance (supported in 17.1.0+) or Vault (supported in 17.2.0+) and have similar configuration options to other protected systems types.
Adding a NAS Protected System to an Appliance
STEP 1 To add a NAS protected system, navigate to the Protected Systems page on the Appliance and click ‘Add NAS’ from the top panel action buttons.
Note: 17.2.0 or newer is needed to add a NAS to a Vault in Direct to Cloud mode. See “Adding an NAS Protected System to a Vault (D2C)”
STEP 1 To add a NAS protected system, navigate to the Protected Systems page on the Vault and click ‘Add NAS’ from the top panel action buttons.
STEP 2 Select Host Agent:
- On Appliances the Host Agent is always set to ‘Local NAS Agent’ and this field is locked.
- ‘Local NAS Agent’ represents the Linux Agent installed on the BDR appliance that will manage backup operations.
STEP 3 Add Address of NAS Device
- Enter the IP address or FQDN of the NAS.
STEP 4 Add Alias (optional):
- You may optionally enter an Alias name for the NAS (i.e. provide a friendly name to display rather than its IP address).
STEP 5 Add Username and Password (required for SMB):
- Enter the valid Username and Password credentials that will be used to authenticate to the NAS for accessing file shares to be backed up.
STEP 6 Select Backup Shares (optional):
- Enter the Share Paths to be backed up
- By default, ‘Backup Paths’ is disabled, and the agent will Autodiscover and attempt to backup all shares found on the device.
- Specified shares should be displayed using ‘/’ and separated by a ‘,’
Important Note: If multiple shares exist with overlapping data (i.e. two shares point to the same data or have overlapping local folder paths) both sets of data will be backed up, causing duplicate file storage on the backup server. It is recommended that you verify and specify the folder shares to be included explicitly.
STEP 7 Enable Compression (optional):
- Enable transport Compression if desired.
- Generally speaking, compression is only desirable for limited bandwidth Direct-to-Cloud backup mode.
- The overhead of compressing the files will cause backups to be slower than uncompressed transmission on very fast connections, like gigabit speed Internet or local LAN connections.
STEP 8 Set Protocol:
- SMB for Windows SMB file shares
- NFS for Linux NFS files shares
Adding a NAS Protected System to a Vault (D2C)
Important Note: Adding a NAS protected system directly to a vault via D2C requires version 17.2.0 and a Protected System running agent version 3.13.0+. See Upgrading to Agent 3.x for important considerations.
STEP 1 To add a NAS protected system, navigate to the Protected Systems page on the Vault and click ‘Add NAS’ from the top panel action buttons.
STEP 2 Select Client:
- On Vaults the Client has access to the NAS location.
- Select the Client from the drop down that you wish to use for performing backups of this NAS device.
STEP 3 Select Host Agent:
- On Vaults the Host Agent is always a D2C Agent belonging to the appropriate Client account that has access to the NAS location.
- Select the Agent host from the drop down that you wish to use for performing backups of this NAS device. Note - The Agent must be version 3.x. If the Agent is 2.x, uninstall and download and install the 3.x agent.
STEP 4 Add Address of NAS Device
- Enter the IP address or FQDN of the NAS.
STEP 5 Add Alias (optional):
- You may optionally enter an Alias name for the NAS (i.e. provide a friendly name to display rather than its IP address).
STEP 6 Add Username and Password (required for SMB):
- Enter the valid Username and Password credentials that will be used to authenticate to the NAS for accessing file shares to be backed up.
STEP 7 Select Backup Shares (optional):
- Enter the Share Paths to be backed up.
- By default, ‘Backup Paths’ is disabled, and the agent will Autodiscover and attempt to backup all shares found on the device.
- Specified shares should be displayed using ‘/’ and separated by a ‘,’
Important Note: If multiple shares exist with overlapping data (i.e. two shares point to the same data or have overlapping local folder paths) both sets of data will be backed up, causing duplicate file storage on the backup server. It is recommended that you verify and specify the folder shares to be included explicitly.
STEP 8 Enable Compression (optional):
- Enable transport Compression if desired.
- Generally speaking, compression is only desirable for limited bandwidth Direct-to-Cloud backup mode.
- The overhead of compressing the files will cause backups to be slower than uncompressed transmission on very fast connections, like gigabit speed Internet or local LAN connections.
- Only enable compression for slow to medium speed Internet connections with Direct-to-Cloud.
STEP 9 Set Protocol:
- SMB for Windows SMB file shares
- NFS for Linux NFS files shares
Recovery Options
Backup for NAS provides only file level backup of data.
Mount is the only available recovery option from the Vault and Appliance GUIS. Mounted NAS protected systems are accessible via the File Browser or via FTP client, if FTP Recovery is enabled on your appliance or vault.
Browse to your files and download them in the File Browser
Recover Files & Folders is the only support recovery option within the Recover Manager Recovery Wizard.
Technical Considerations
User credentials for the NAS are stored only in encrypted form. The encryption key is managed by the x360Recover Cloud Key Management System. Encryption keys are maintained specific to each Client account.
Important Note: In the event that a NAS protected system is migrated to another Appliance which belongs to a different client, the saved NAS credentials will become unreadable on the target Appliance. Edit the NAS configuration and re-enter the NAS credentials on the new Appliance after Migration has been completed.
Rsync is not inherently secure and native rsync data is transferred in an unencrypted form. To ensure end-to-end encryption of all rsync data, the x360Recover agent leverages a TLS encrypted tunnel binding the localhost network adapter of the protected system to the localhost network adapter of the Appliance or Vault. No unencrypted data is transmitted over the network.
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