How to restore a backup iSCSI Target with Frontview??

There are a couple of ways, but before restoring the iSCSI file, you will need to re-create a new one with the same name & same size in Frontview. Once that's done, using one of the methods below, copy over the newly created file with your backup copy. You'll need to stop the iSCSI service for the copy, restart it & then re-connect the client device:

1. With the "EnableRootSSH" add-on installed, you could use a program like WinSCP to access the root data partition (aka 'c') and copy the iSCSI target over (it's just a large file) from the USB.



2. You can access the data partition as 'admin' and copy the file over using Windows Explorer. This requires that you map a drive to the 'admin' share as per below. Note: this only works if USER SECURITY MODE, not in SHARE LEVEL SECURITY.

The 'c' share is an administrative share (automatically built-in) and only accessible by the admin account. You can map a drive to it by opening a command prompt in Windows and entering the following command:

net use t: \\ip.address.of.nas\c /user:admin

Enter the password for 'admin' to connect to 'ip.address.of.nas': 
The command completed successfully.

Connect the USB drive to your PC and then drag and drop the iSCSI file to the root of the 'c' volume (which, in the example above, would be the root of the T: drive):

I was turned away from the manual copy of the backup iSCSI file because of "LUN/ID problems after copying" (so the Netgear support rep stated). Have you performed this restore yourself and confirmed it works? Is there any concern if during the backup file copy, the iSCSI service is running? And also, I'm assuming that the iSCSI file name name has to match the one you're configured in the iSCSI volume tab in frontview.

DBott - you are the man. Thanks for such detailed instructions. Now only if I could login via RootSSH (still waiting for responses from others on that one). Nice blog/webpage by the way. You've got a killer home and biz ReadyNAS setup.

russrtw wrote:
I was turned away from the manual copy of the backup iSCSI file because of "LUN/ID problems after copying"

Good point... I forgot that step in my how-to (scrambles back to fix it). :oops:

You will need to create a new iscsi target (same size & name as the original) and then overwrite it. Here is the "confirmed" missing step from one of the Jedis:

ewok wrote:

If you want to restore some files and folders that exist inside the iSCSI volume, you'd create a new iSCSI target on the NAS, then replace the disk image used by that target with the backup image, then restart the iSCSI server. The newly created iSCSI target on the NAS would then use the backed up image, and you can access the contents with your iSCSI initiator. If you wanted to restore the backup image to the original iSCSi target, you would just overwrite the original disk image for the target with the backup and restart the iSCSI server.

russrtw wrote:
Is there any concern if during the backup file copy, the iSCSI service is running? And also, I'm assuming that the iSCSI file name name has to match the one you're configured in the iSCSI volume tab in frontview.

Yes... you'll need to:

1. Disconnect the client
2. Stop the service
3. Restart the service
4. Reconnect the client

-Dave

Can you tell me how to stop the iSCSI service from frontview? I want to test restoring an iSCSI backup. I searched the forum with the key words "Stop iSCSI" service and didn't find anything.

thank you,

Ryan

FrontView > Volumes > (Drive?) Settings > iSCSI (Tab) > uncheck "activate iSCSI support" > Apply

(roughly translated from my German FrontView screen)

-Stefan

Stefan,

Thank you for the quick reply. I'm was taking the term "Service" literally so when I did not see the words "service" associated with "iSCSI" I was lost. Following your instructions the option is in English is called "Enable iSCSI support." So i guess you can say the words "service" and "support" are interchangeable.

-Ryan

Right, Ryan. That term gets used a lot within the "Frontview" interface since "enabling/disabling" any feature is the same as stopping/starting the related service.

I am trying to follow this procedure to test our backups prior to implimenting two 4200's and I am unable to connect to c. Running Windows 7 x64 with command prompt in admin mode. I recieve an "access is denied" "system error 5 has occurred." error when trying to connect. CIFS is enabled and SAN is in User Mode. Anyone else had this issue trying to connect to the system c share?

Make sure you're trying to connect as the admin user on the NAS.

also, you must disconnect any other mapped drives, you can not have multiple drives mapped with different users.

disconnect all map drives, then connect as admin