Information included in the article
- IDrive BMR network shares
- NAS shares vs iSCSI shares
- Data safety and security with IDrive BMR network shares
- SSD-HDD Hybrid storage
IDrive BMR network shares
The IDrive BMR device supports hosting and backup of NAS and iSCSI shares via the feature Network shares. Creating a NAS or an iSCSI share within the IDrive BMR device does not require any additional setup or software installation.
You can create a NAS share to share data over file-based sharing protocols, including SMB for Windows, NFS for Unix-like operating systems, and AFP for Mac. Also, you have SFTP for ssh-based file sharing. You can create an iSCSI share when you need the storage targets to appear as virtual hard disks on virtual machines.
There is no limit to the share size or the number of network shares you can have on the IDrive BMR device. The network shares are created within your IDrive BMR local storage, therefore, you may need to monitor your local storage utilization to ensure seamless performance.
For details of storage utilization of your NAS and iSCSI shares on the IDrive BMR device,
go to Statistics > Storage insight > Network shares.
Scroll down to the Network shares tab to view and export the backup statistics of your NAS and iSCSI shares. You can also view the size of individual recovery points of any share by clicking under the Manage snapshots column.
You can manage your IDrive BMR NAS and iSCSI shares from any external network via the Cloud Manage feature. However, you need to be on the IDrive BMR network in order to access the share.
NAS shares vs iSCSI shares
The primary difference between the two networks shares is their data storage architecture and accessibility.
- NAS shares follow object-level storage which is suitable for sharing files and folders. They are accessible as mapped drives on the computers.
- iSCSI shares follow block-level storage and the storage architecture is on the network, rather than the computer. In the case of Windows OS, the iSCSI initiator can display the shares on the IDrive BMR device as local drives on the computers on the same LAN.
IDrive BMR network share backup and encryption
Protect your network shares by creating snapshots on the IDrive BMR device. You can capture the snapshots either manually or set a schedule and automate the backup. These snapshots help safeguard your data from ransomware. In case of a malware attack, perform snapshots restore to recover data from a point in time before the attack. Your IDrive BMR network shares data and snapshots are secured at rest using AES 256 CCM/AES 256 GCM encryption.
SSD-HDD hybrid storage
The storage of the IDrive BMR device is designed to strike a balance between offering better performance and higher storage capacity. This is done by ensuring that the critical components (operating system, virtual memory, core backup application, etc.) of the device are running on high-performing SSD storage, while the actual data is stored on high-storage-capacity-enabled HDD drives. The hybrid storage environment provides both performance and capacity at a competitive price.