Greetings,
Some time ago I posted this request:
I purchased a Snap Server 210 as a means to backup my network server
using Microsoft Small Business Server 2003. However, I discovered an
article (Article ID : 317173) on Microsoft's support page stating,
"Microsoft does not support network-attached storage
If access to a disk resource requires that a share be mapped, or if the
disk resource appears as a remote server by means of a Universal
Naming Convention (UNC) path (for example, \\servername\sharename) on the
network, the disk storage system is not supported as a location for
Exchange Server databases.
Microsoft only supports using Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs
(WHQL) qualified storage devices with Exchange 2003. Exchange 2003
addresses a number of issues that prevent earlier versions of Exchange from
being used in conjunction with network-attached storage devices. With
these changes, you can host Exchange 2003 database files on
network-attached storage devices, but any solutions that provide this
capability
must also provide additional functionality to fully enable the solution.
This includes manually moving the Exchange database files to the device
because the Exchange 2003 System Manager tool does not support moving
database files to a remote file system."
Is it feasible to use my Snap Server for backups? If so would you
please provide me detailed instructions on how to accomplish this.
Here is valuable insight on this topic submitted from Adaptec's technical
support.
"
--
Thank you,We have received your correspondence about how to back up data from
your EXCHANGE 2003 server to your SNAP SERVER 210 and that doing this
through SMB ("Samba")--which requires a mapped network drive--is not
recommended by Microsoft. The only way we can see this working is
most-likely through iSCSI, where the Snap Server is configured as an iSCSI
Target
and the EXCHANGE server uses an iSCSI INITIATOR to connect to that
target and configure that target as if it were a local drive connected
externally like SCSI, FireWire or USB. There are two advantages to this
from the perspective of the EXCHANGE server:
1.) With the EXCHANGE server seeing this as a local drive and not a
network drive, it can be treated like a local drive, all the way down to
configuring and partitioning that drive as an honest-to-goodness NTFS
partition. This takes SMB and the GUARDIANOS on the SNAP SERVER 210
out of the picture. The only connection is from the iSCSI Host through
the INITIATOR to the Target.
2.) With the EXCHANGE server seeing this as a local drive and not a
network drive, one does not need to worry about the SMB configuration on
the system where the network drive is actually stored and whether or
not the SMB emulation will transfer all the inherent rights and
permissions of the local system that EXCHANGE uses, such as CREATOR OWNER and
EVERYONE, which are local system policies that are local to the EXCHANGE
(or WINDOWS server or workstation) host machine itself. The Snap
Server's version of SMB will not support those and one can not configure
these to work correctly through SHARE ACCESS or the folder rights and
permissions from a WINDOWS workstation. In an iSCSI configuration, this
is taken out of the configuration because once again, the iSCSI target
on the Snap Server
is seen as a local drive, not a mapped network drive.
Hopefully this has given you "food for thought" here. "
I have not had the time to implement this approach still having problems
with receiving emails on this install, however, I hope this helps anyone in
the community.
Thank you again for providing responses during my prior inquiry.
Richard