Storage types

This option applies to Unitrends virtual systems only. Backup storage can be increased by adding a virtual disk to the Unitrends Backup virtual machine using the hypervisor.

Note:  Although it is possible to attach external storage directly to the Unitrends Backup VM, this is not recommended. If you must connect to external storage from the Unitrends Backup virtual machine directly through network protocols (NFS, CIFS, or iSCSI), be sure to use a supported vendor from the list in KB 3350.

Once the storage is added in the hypervisor, go to the Unitrends system and either expand the existing backup device to include the new disk, or add a separate backup device. (See Adding backup storage for details).

Within the hypervisor, you can add internal disks to the Unitrends Backup VM or, if you deployed your Unitrends Backup to an attached SAN or NAS storage array, you can create datastores (VMware) or volumes (Hyper-V) from that array to add virtual disks (VMDK or VHDX) to the Unitrends Backup VM.

Warning!     It is strongly recommended that all Unitrends Backup storage is either direct attached storage (DAS, internal to the hypervisor) or resides on one external storage array. If you configure storage across multiple storage arrays and one becomes unavailable, all backup data is corrupted, resulting in total data loss.

You can leverage SAN or NAS storage to create datastores (VMware) or volumes (Hyper-V) by connecting the external array to the hypervisor host:

This option applies to Unitrends virtual systems performing legacy vaulting only. Additional vault storage can be added to the virtual system in the following ways:

This option applies to all physical and virtual systems that have been licensed for advanced archiving. Additional archive storage can be added in the following ways:

This option applies to all physical and virtual systems. A NAS share configured using the NFS or CIFS protocol can be mounted directly on the system and protected as a client.