Managing external backups
You configure external backups to an external file share (CIFS/NFS/SSH) in the External Backups page.
IPv6 is not supported for external backup using NFS.
You can configure external backups:
• using a username and password to authenticate the external backup using CIFS or SSH.
• using a hostname or IP address and the remote path using NFS.
• using a Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) public security key using SSH. Configuring external backups using a public key eliminates the need for password authentication. The public key is generated with 2048-bit encryption.
These types of data are backed up:
• SteelHead configuration information (such as policies and host settings) as configured by the SCC.
• SteelHead statistics (such as traffic summary, connection history and data store cost) as reported by the SCC.
• SCC configuration information (such as networking, system settings and security settings).
This type of backup is distinct from appliance backups that serve an archival purpose for a specific appliance.
If you have greater than 1000 appliances in your deployment, an external backup may take more than three hours.
Some external SCC backups via SSH can partially or completely fail with a particular set of Windows-based SSH servers, yet can succeed without issue with a different set of servers, for example:
• SolarWinds SFTP/SCP server—The backup server configuration works, but the actual backup or restore operations fail with either Error 13 (permission denied) or Error 74 (IO Error).
• WinSSHD—Ensure that the configured SSH server directory is writable by the username that the SCC uses to connect. If it isn’t, the server configuration doesn’t work.
We recommend that you change the path used for your backups prior to upgrading to SCC 8.5 and later. If a statistics backup has been performed using SCC 8.5 or later against a given backup location, you will not be able to restore statistics from that location to SCC versions prior to SCC 8.5.
Riverbed hasn’t tested or qualified any Windows-based SSH servers. If you have successfully integrated one of these servers in your network, contact Support.