Windows Server 2012, Windows Server Backup and FreeNAS

[ronaldNAS]

I have an eight server farm, half Windows 2008 R2 servers and the rest Windows Server 2012/2012 R2. Unable to use Windows Server Backup from the 2012/2012 R2 servers to FreeNAS only. Is there any fix for this?

 

[hugovsky]

How are you trying to use it? iscsi?

 

[ronaldNAS]

I am trying to use it for ease of use. Obviously if I can drop all backups into one CIFS shares it would be easier to maintain and store. Also I like FREE.

But trying to understand why it would work in Windows Server 2008/R2 but not work in Windows Server 2012/R2 is the real reason I'm asking this question.

I did have iSCSI working but could not attach another machine to the same ISCSI drive without corruption.

 

[ronaldNAS]

Using Windows Server backup to backup entire server to FreeNAS CIFS share.

 

[hugovsky]

I use it with 2003/2008 R2/2012 with iscsi target so I can have backups even in the event of cryptolocker. CIFS shares can be encripted by virus. iscsi targets are not acessible by explorer.

 

[ronaldNAS]

I use it with 2003/2008 R2/2012 with iscsi target so I can have backups even in the event of cryptolocker. CIFS shares can be encripted by virus. iscsi targets are not acessible by explorer.

First re: Cryptolocker - has to have the mapped drive to get to it. Only servers have mapped drive to CIFS (most documents consolidated onto one server) or only the windows server backup has this mapped drive (with admin rights). Also shadow copies defeats the cryptolocker - I can restore immediately from shadow copies. For documents storage/backup - FreeNAS is my mid-term storage solution.

In my understanding, only one computer can use ISCSI target - or have a risk of corruption. It is much easier to use CIFS combined with snapshots. Having a directory that shows when the backups have been done (date on folder) seems a great idea.

It is sort of like a TIVO player for data that backs itself up periodically. That is what I need. (Also for FREE).

 

[hugovsky]

I think you can use something like freefilesync or rsync to copy to nas share and snapshots in ZFS and then use shadow copies in windows.

Are you sure cryptolocker doesn't encrypt networks shares?

 

[ronaldNAS]

I think you can use something like freefilesync or rsync to copy to nas share and snapshots in ZFS and then use shadow copies in windows.

Are you sure cryptolocker doesn't encrypt networks shares?

In the later versions of windows server (2008/2012) using the backups from windows server backup is idiot proof as to restoring the system. I apparently can't adequately explain here the convenience and ease of use by having all the backups in on CIFS share that has periodic snapshots.

Also for disaster recovery (and I live in earthquake land), I can grab the hard drives out of the server and run. I would have the entire system backed up on two hot swap drives and Freenas allows me to rebuild its server within minutes.

Obviously if FreeNAS is unable to handle backups from windows server backup for 2012, that removes a lot of the functionality. If I wanted to get another solution I would get the other solutions and stop using FreeNAS. I can't believe that windows server backup works in server 2008 and not in 2012. There has to be a solution other than some bandaid or work around (e.g. iSCSI). I am famous for these bandaids BTW, but actually want to tackle the tough question this time. I just need to be pointed in the right direction.

Crytolocker can only encrypt network shares that it HAS ACCESS to. For instance a mapped network drive on the individual computer that initiated the virus. Without giving too much about my security setup, normal users don't have rights to CIFS shares. How do I know this, because one of my remote offices was hit by this and they lost 2 weeks of work. The virus was not able to find the other network shares that it did not have access to.

 

[anodos]

In the later versions of windows server (2008/2012) using the backups from windows server backup is idiot proof as to restoring the system. I apparently can't adequately explain here the convenience and ease of use by having all the backups in on CIFS share that has periodic snapshots.

Also for disaster recovery (and I live in earthquake land), I can grab the hard drives out of the server and run. I would have the entire system backed up on two hot swap drives and Freenas allows me to rebuild its server within minutes.

Obviously if FreeNAS is unable to handle backups from windows server backup for 2012, that removes a lot of the functionality. If I wanted to get another solution I would get the other solutions and stop using FreeNAS. I can't believe that windows server backup works in server 2008 and not in 2012. There has to be a solution other than some bandaid or work around (e.g. iSCSI). I am famous for these bandaids BTW, but actually want to tackle the tough question this time. I just need to be pointed in the right direction.

Crytolocker can only encrypt network shares that it HAS ACCESS to. For instance a mapped network drive on the individual computer that initiated the virus. Without giving too much about my security setup, normal users don't have rights to CIFS shares. How do I know this, because one of my remote offices was hit by this and they lost 2 weeks of work. The virus was not able to find the other network shares that it did not have access to.

ZFS snapshots are read-only. As long as you have some sort of reasonable snapshot policy in place, the amount of damage cryptolocker malware can cause via CIFS on a freenas server is fairly limited. You can just use "previous versions" to restore files to an earlier pre-encrypted state (or just roll back to the last good snapshot).

Are your Windows servers VMs?

 

[ronaldNAS]

IMO, the ZFS snapshots are the neatest thing since sliced bread. I have extensively utilized the snapshots to restore the system, restore files etc. I usually characterize it as a TIVO for data but with memory.

Without giving too much information about my system, I have 6 additional servers that are virtual machines. My file shares all on physical machines.

 

[mjws00]

This is going to be related to Samba, vhd support, smb3, vss. 2012 R2 can do block level backups and sparse files. I'm not sure if even the latest Samba iterations allow the necessary functions, but it doesn't surprise me at all that this wouldn't work.

That's the vein I would research. Can't say I've worked through the problem though. One decent technet thread.

Another thread here with the same problem. I think this will come in a later version of Samba to be honest and probably wouldn't fight super hard.

 

[anodos]

This is going to be related to Samba, vhd support, smb3, vss. 2012 R2 can do block level backups and sparse files. I'm not sure if even the latest Samba iterations allow the necessary functions, but it doesn't surprise me at all that this wouldn't work.

That's the vein I would research. Can't say I've worked through the problem though. One decent technet thread.

Another thread here with the same problem. I think this will come in a later version of Samba to be honest and probably wouldn't fight super hard.

See post in samba-technical here: https://marc.info/?l=samba-technical&m=143049699317502&w=2
Bug report here: https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10159

Short answer, there are some windows patches that may help (see samba bug report), but you may want to spin up a VM with samba 4.2 and test windows backup against it.