NAS & SAN
How to set up a NAS or SAN storage device as a backup target
Introduction
NAS and SAN devices are natural and popular choices for backing up data with Zmanda. Depending on the device manufacturer and type of device, the following steps may differ. In the end, your device must be mounted to the Zmanda Backup Server that will be handling the backups before you can add it as a target in the Zmanda Management Console (ZMC).
Our instructions will cover the steps we took to mount a NAS device via NFS, but as a general process, you must:
Mount the NAS or SAN device to your backup server
On the device, create a new directory where your backups will be stored
Assign appropriate ownership to the new directory
Configure a new storage target in the ZMC that points to the directory
To mount the device via SMB, please visit the following links:
Mounting a NAS or SAN Filesystem to the Backup Server via NFS
Power on the NAS and ensure that it is connected to the same network as the Backup Server.
Find the IP address of the NAS. Consult the device user manual or your favorite search engine for the best way to find the IP address of your particular device.
Open a terminal on the Backup Server where you want to mount the NAS. We will be using MobaXterm to SSH into the Backup Server, but you may use your preferred method to access the Backup Server terminal.
Create a new directory where you will mount the NAS. We have chosen to mount ours in the /mnt directory, and have named it 100TB.
To create a permanent mount point, you can change the fstab configuration file. fstab is available in the majority of Linux distributions. These are the commands we used with our Ubuntu system and ASUSTOR NAS, but make sure to read the documentation and follow the required steps when mounting your own NAS.
Once the NAS is mounted, you must create a new directory within the NAS itself to provide a dedicated location to store your backups. You must make sure that the new directory is owned by the amandabackup user. For our setup, the commands are as shown below:
At this point, you will have successfully mounted your NAS to the Zmanda Backup Server. Make sure to write down the path of the new directory you created to store your backups. To find the path, enter the new directory and use the pwd command. For us, it looks like this:
Adding Your NAS as a Storage Target in the ZMC
With the NAS mounted, we can add the NAS as a storage target within the ZMC. This process can be completed in just a few simple steps.
Login to the ZMC.
In the left navigation pane, select Storage.
Click on the ADD STORAGE button in the top right corner.
In the pane that appears, select Simple Disk.
A configuration window will appear (see below). First, select the Backup Server where you mounted the NAS. If you have multiple backup servers in a cluster, you will have multiple options. Otherwise, only one option will appear.
Next, give the storage a name in the Name text box. You may not use spaces or dashes, but other than that, be as creative as you like!
In the Root Path section, enter the path to the backup directory that you created on your NAS device. To find the path, see Step 7 in the above instructions for mounting a NAS filesystem to the backup server.
Optionally, enter any desired comments in the Comments text box**.**
The Output Buffer Size and Output Buffer Abbr sections may be left as default.
Click SAVE.
After clicking save, a new entry will appear on the storage page with a green Status icon ensuring that you have done everything correctly.
At this point, you are ready to initialize a Backup Set!
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