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NAS Backups Overview

This chapter provides considerations and requirements for protecting the data stored on Network Attached Storage (NAS). Once you have reviewed this information, add the NAS asset as described in Managing protected assets, then proceed to Backup Administration and Procedures to create up backup jobs.

Unitrends provides protection for data stored on NAS devices using the following protocols:

Common Internet File System (CIFS)
Network File System (NFS)

To protect this data, add the share to the backup appliance as a protected asset. Data is then backed up through the network connection, as if it were another internal directory or volume. Data is transferred more quickly than if you simply mount the share on another protected asset.

Considerations for NAS protection

The following table describes features and limitations you should consider when planning your NAS protection strategy.

Feature

Description

Backup

The following apply to NAS backups:

NAS assets are protected at the share level. Backups start at the NAS mount point and do not include files in other system directories. You specify the desired mount point when adding the NAS asset to the backup appliance.

If you want more granular control:

For a given NAS share, add separate mount points to the appliance, each as a separate asset. Create jobs for each asset you add.
When creating jobs, select folders and/or files to include or exclude from the backup. (Note that wildcards are not supported.)
Open files are not included in the backup. Be sure to schedule jobs to run when file activity is at its lowest level.
Permissions of the files as seen when mapped to the backup appliance are not exactly the same as those on the NAS share.
If the NAS share is configured for authentication, you must supply credentials to access the specified mount point. If in your environment you only have credentials to access a parent directory, enter the full path to the parent directory and specify desired folders and files to include in the backup.

Recovery

The following apply to NAS recovery:

Point-in-time recovery of the entire backup group or recovery of select files is supported.
You can recover to the original location, to another location on the original NAS, or to another asset.

Backup Copy

Backup copy to an offsite target is supported.