What is iSCSI and how does it work?

iSCSI stands for Internet Small Computer System Interface. It is a protocol that allows SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) commands to be transported over an IP (Internet Protocol) network, enabling the use of storage devices over a network.iSCSI works by encapsulating SCSI commands and data into IP packets, which can then be transmitted over Ethernet networks. It utilizes the TCP/IP protocol suite for reliable and secure data transfer. The iSCSI initiator, which is typically a software component running on a server or storage device, initiates the connection and sends SCSI commands to the iSCSI target, which is the storage device.Here is a brief overview of how iSCSI works:Discovery: The iSCSI initiator discovers available iSCSI targets on the network using the discovery process. This involves sending discovery packets to the target's IP address or using specialized discovery services.Login: Once the initiator has discovered the target, it establishes a connection by logging in to the target. This involves authentication and negotiation of parameters such as security settings, session options, and target-specific configurations.SCSI Command Execution: After the login process, the initiator can send SCSI commands to the target, such as read, write, or inquiry commands. These commands are encapsulated into iSCSI packets and sent over the IP network.Data Transfer: The target processes the SCSI commands and performs the requested operations on the storage devices. Data is transferred between the initiator and target using iSCSI packets, which are transmitted over the IP network.Logout: When the communication between the initiator and target is complete, a logout process is initiated to terminate the session and release any allocated resources.iSCSI provides a flexible and cost-effective solution for accessing remote storage devices over a network, allowing organizations to consolidate storage resources and simplify management. It is commonly used in storage area networks (SANs) and can be implemented using dedicated hardware or software-based initiators.

Can you explain the benefits and advantages of using iSCSI in a network storage environment?

iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) is a protocol that allows the transmission of SCSI commands over IP networks. It enables the use of standard Ethernet infrastructure to connect storage devices, such as disk arrays, to servers. Here are some benefits and advantages of using iSCSI in a network storage environment:Cost-effective: iSCSI leverages existing Ethernet infrastructure, eliminating the need for expensive Fibre Channel (FC) switches and cables. This makes it a more cost-effective solution for network storage.Flexibility: iSCSI can work over various network topologies, including LAN, WAN, and even the Internet. It offers flexibility in terms of distance, allowing storage devices to be located remotely from servers.Scalability: iSCSI supports the use of Ethernet switches, enabling the creation of large-scale storage networks. It allows for the addition of more storage devices and servers as the storage needs grow, making it highly scalable.Compatibility: iSCSI is compatible with existing IP-based networks and can coexist with other network traffic. It can run on standard Ethernet adapters, making it easier to integrate into existing network infrastructures.Performance: With advancements in network speeds, iSCSI can provide high-performance storage solutions. It can take advantage of technologies like jumbo frames and TCP/IP offload engines to optimize performance.Centralized management: iSCSI provides centralized management of storage resources. Administrators can allocate, monitor, and manage storage devices from a central location, simplifying storage management tasks.Data protection: iSCSI supports various data protection mechanisms, such as RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), snapshots, and replication. This ensures data availability, integrity, and recoverability in case of failures or disasters.Virtualization support: iSCSI is widely used in virtualized environments. It allows virtual machines to access shared storage resources over the network, enabling features like live migration and high availability.Ease of deployment: Compared to FC, iSCSI is relatively easier to deploy and configure. It uses standard IP-based networking, which is familiar to most IT professionals, reducing the complexity of implementation.Overall, iSCSI offers a cost-effective, flexible, scalable, and high-performance solution for network storage environments. It provides the benefits of centralized management, data protection, and compatibility with existing infrastructures, making it a popular choice for organizations of all sizes.

Does the NAS QNAP TBS-464 support the iSCSI protocol, and if so, what are some key features and capabilities it offers in terms of iSCSI functionality?

Yes, the NAS QNAP TBS-464 does support the iSCSI protocol. Here are some key features and capabilities it offers in terms of iSCSI functionality:iSCSI Target: The TBS-464 can function as an iSCSI target, allowing you to create virtual disks and present them to other iSCSI initiators as if they were physical disks.iSCSI LUN Management: You can easily create, expand, and delete iSCSI LUNs (Logical Unit Numbers) on the TBS-464. LUNs can be allocated from different storage pools and managed flexibly.Thin Provisioning: The TBS-464 supports thin provisioning for iSCSI LUNs, allowing you to allocate storage space on-demand rather than pre-allocating it. This helps optimize storage utilization.MPIO and MC/S: The TBS-464 supports MPIO (Multipath Input/Output) and MC/S (Multiple Connections per Session) for enhanced data transfer reliability and load balancing across multiple network paths.iSCSI Snapshots and Cloning: You can take snapshots of iSCSI LUNs for data protection and create clones of LUNs for testing or development purposes.iSCSI LUN Backup and Restoration: The TBS-464 provides various backup options for iSCSI LUNs, including local backup, remote backup, and snapshot replication. This ensures data availability and disaster recovery.iSCSI Thin Provisioning Deduplication: The TBS-464 supports deduplication for iSCSI LUNs, reducing storage consumption by eliminating duplicate data blocks.iSCSI Security: The TBS-464 offers CHAP authentication and access control for iSCSI targets, ensuring secure access and preventing unauthorized access.iSCSI Management: The TBS-464 provides a user-friendly web-based interface for managing iSCSI settings, monitoring performance, and configuring advanced features.These are some of the key features and capabilities offered by the QNAP TBS-464 in terms of iSCSI functionality.

How to recover data from QNAP TBS-464 NAS

Name: How to recover data from a QNAP
Uploaded: 2023-09-18T07:59:13+03:00
Description: How to recover data from a QNAP

Is your network drive gone, and you are wondering what to do? Has a RAID system crashed, and your files are no longer accessible? Does your device display an error while booting? Have you accidentally rebuilt your RAID system? Are several hard disks out of order?

How to recover data from NAS QNAP TBS-464

Data Recovery Tool

QNAP TBS-464 NAS Data Recovery in 2024

In this step-by-step tutorial, we’ll show you how to rebuild your RAID and recover data from TBS-464.

Contents

Why can’t ordinary software tools restore files from RAID?
How to take hard disks out of the NAS and connect them to a PC?

RAID Recovery™ 2.6

Recover data from damaged RAID arrays inaccessible from a computer.

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Why can’t ordinary software tools restore files from RAID?

Conventional hard disks keep user’s data by writing it to their surface in a consecutive way, and this is how an entire file is stored on a single hard disk. However, when data is written to a RAID system, a file is divided into several parts. Then these parts are written consecutively to all hard disks within such array. The size of such parts may range from 2 KB to 2 MB, so each file is stored on several hard disks at the same time.

Such approach helps to speed up read and write operations, and it is evident that saving two parts of a file having the size of 1 GB to two hard disks simultaneously is much faster than saving the same 1 GB of data to one hard disk. However, this peculiarity makes file recovery more complicated.

Various RAID levels store information in different ways. Additionally, manufacturers like QNAP also introduce some modifications to this process, and that is why data can be written to hard disk in a wide variety of ways.

How can the number of drives in a NAS QNAP TBS-464 device's RAID array impact data recovery and potential loss?

The number of drives in a NAS QNAP TBS-464 device's RAID array can impact data recovery and potential loss in the following ways:

Redundancy: RAID arrays are designed to provide redundancy by distributing data across multiple drives. The more drives in the array, the higher the level of redundancy. This means that even if one or more drives fail, the data can still be recovered from the remaining drives. With fewer drives in the array, the level of redundancy decreases, increasing the risk of data loss.
Fault tolerance: RAID arrays use various RAID levels (such as RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, etc.) to provide different levels of fault tolerance. Each RAID level has a specific number of drives required to operate. If the number of drives in the array falls below the required minimum, the RAID array may become non-functional, leading to potential data loss.
Rebuilding process: When a drive fails in a RAID array, the array needs to rebuild the data onto a replacement drive. This process involves reading data from the remaining drives and reconstructing the data on the new drive. With more drives in the array, the rebuilding process can be faster and less resource-intensive. However, with fewer drives, the rebuilding process can take longer, increasing the risk of a second drive failure during the rebuild, which can result in complete data loss.
Performance: The number of drives in a RAID array can also impact its performance. With more drives, the array can distribute the workload across multiple drives, resulting in faster data access and transfer speeds. However, with fewer drives, the performance may be slower, affecting data recovery and overall system performance.

In summary, having a sufficient number of drives in a NAS QNAP TBS-464 device's RAID array is crucial for maintaining data integrity, ensuring fault tolerance, and minimizing the risk of data loss during drive failures.

How to take hard disks out of the NAS and connect them to a PC?

Although NAS TBS-464 can be accessed over the network, you still need to take the hard disks out of the storage device and connect them to a Windows computer. Only in this case will the software be able to scan them properly. Here is what you should do:

Turn off the storage and disconnect it from the power supply.

WARNING! Before you start taking hard disks out of your NAS device, read the manual carefully. Incorrect actions may damage your network-attached storage and/or the hard disks within the RAID system.
Take the hard disks out of the NAS one by one, carefully removing them from their slots. Remember that the disks are extremely vulnerable: hitting or dropping them may result in serious physical damage.
Make sure to mark each hard disk in accordance with how they were installed inside the NAS.
Remove the hard disks and connect them to the computer. In this video, we have explored what ports are used to connect hard disks, and what to do if there are not enough ports or connectors.

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How to Order Remote Data Recovery

Restoring data with Hetman RAID Recovery

This program recovers data from damaged RAID arrays and is fully compatible with QNAP TBS-464. The hard disks that make up the RAID contain technical information about the algorithm used to save files. When launched, Hetman RAID Recovery reads this information and puts the damaged array together. Then you can open the disk and save your files. Also, you can recover the files accidentally deleted from the network drive.

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How to recover data from a QNAP

TBS-464 has 4 HDD slots, and it supports the following array types:

RAID 6;
RAID 5;
RAID 10;
RAID 0;
RAID 1;
JBOD;

NAS supports:

ZFS;
EXT4;
EXT3;
exFAT;
FAT32 (External Disk Only);
NTFS (External Disk Only);
HFS+ (External Disk Read Only);

Safe recovery from disk images

This utility lets you save an entire copy of the disk to file and then work with this image instead of the actual disk. Such feature helps to protect data on the disk from:

Overwriting during the recovery process;
Loss resulting from bad sectors;
User mistakes.

To create an image, do the following:

Make sure that you have enough free space to save the image. The image file size usually equals the disk size.
Select the disk in the main window, and choose from the menu Tools – Save Disk. You can select multiple disks to be saved.
When the image creation wizard starts, you can choose to save the entire disk or select only a part of it. Specify the parameters and click Next.
At this stage, you need to choose a directory where to save the image. Choose any disk connected to this PC, or save the image by FTP.

Where are user’s files stored?

The QNAP TBS-464 network-attached storage keeps QTS (QuTS hero) operating system files on a separate RAID 1 (mirrored) array. Usually, all NAS systems create several volumes on every hard disk, and the first of them takes up to 2 Gb of space. This is where operating system files are stored. Other volumes are united into a RAID array where user’s data is written.

Comparison of software for RAID recovery

Product	Operating system	License type	RAID controller support	Supported file systems	Virtual RAID controller support	Data recovery from damaged RAID	File preview
Hetman RAID Recovery	Windows	Paid	Yes, over 100 controllers	FAT, NTFS, Ext2/3/4, HFS+	Yes	Yes	Yes
DiskInternals RAID Recovery	Windows	Paid	Yes, over 100 controllers	FAT, NTFS, Ext2/3/4, HFS+	No	Yes	Yes
R-Studio	Windows, Mac, Linux	Paid	Yes, over 200 controllers	FAT, NTFS, Ext2/3/4, HFS+	Yes	Yes	Yes
UFS Explorer RAID Recovery	Windows, Mac, Linux	Paid	Yes, over 1,000 controllers	FAT, NTFS, Ext2/3/4, HFS+	Yes	Yes	Yes
EaseUS Data Recovery	Windows	Paid	Yes, over 20 controllers	FAT, NTFS, Ext2/3/4, HFS+	No	Yes	Yes
ReclaiMe Free RAID Recovery	Windows	Free	Yes, over 100 controllers	FAT, NTFS, Ext2/3/4, HFS+	Yes	Yes	Yes

Feedback

We will be happy to answer your questions!

Comments (3)

Hetman Software: Data Recovery 9.08.2022 12:31 #

If you want to ask a question about data recovery, from NAS TBS-464, feel free to leave a comment!

Reply
Hugo Kemp-Welch 18.09.2023 06:47 #

Is it possible to recover data from a NAS QNAP TBS-464 device that has suffered a power loss or sudden shutdown?

Reply
- Hetman Software 18.09.2023 07:59 #
  Yes, it is possible to recover data from a NAS QNAP TBS-464 device that has suffered a power loss or sudden shutdown. However, the success of data recovery depends on the extent of the damage and the condition of the device.
  Here are some steps you can take to attempt data recovery:
  Power off the NAS device and disconnect it from the power source.
  Remove the hard drives from the NAS and connect them to a computer using a SATA to USB adapter or by installing them directly into a desktop computer.
  Use data recovery software such as Recuva, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, or Stellar Data Recovery to scan the connected hard drives and attempt to recover the lost data.
  If the software is unable to recover the data, you may need to consult a professional data recovery service that specializes in NAS devices.
  It's important to note that attempting data recovery on your own can be risky and may further damage the device or the data. It is recommended to consult with a professional data recovery service if the data is critical or valuable.
  Reply

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Updated:
18.09.2023 7:59

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In other languages:
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Author: Vladimir Artiukh, Technical Writer

Vladimir Artiukh is a technical writer for Hetman Software, as well as the voice and face of their English-speaking YouTube channel, Hetman Software: Data Recovery for Windows. He handles tutorials, how-tos, and detailed reviews on how the company’s tools work with all kinds of data storage devices.

Editor: Oleg Afonin, Technical Writer

Oleg Afonin is an expert in mobile forensics, data recovery and computer systems. He often attends large data security conferences, and writes several blogs for such resources as xaker.ru, Elcomsoft and Habr. In addition to his online activities, Oleg’s articles are also published in professional magazines. Also, Oleg Afonin is the co-author of a well-known book, Mobile Forensics - Advanced Investigative Strategies.

Questions and answers

What is iSCSI and how does it work?
iSCSI stands for Internet Small Computer System Interface. It is a protocol that allows SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) commands to be transported over an IP (Internet Protocol) network, enabling the use of storage devices over a network.
iSCSI works by encapsulating SCSI commands and data into IP packets, which can then be transmitted over Ethernet networks. It utilizes the TCP/IP protocol suite for reliable and secure data transfer. The iSCSI initiator, which is typically a software component running on a server or storage device, initiates the connection and sends SCSI commands to the iSCSI target, which is the storage device.
Here is a brief overview of how iSCSI works:
1. Discovery: The iSCSI initiator discovers available iSCSI targets on the network using the discovery process. This involves sending discovery packets to the target's IP address or using specialized discovery services.
2. Login: Once the initiator has discovered the target, it establishes a connection by logging in to the target. This involves authentication and negotiation of parameters such as security settings, session options, and target-specific configurations.
3. SCSI Command Execution: After the login process, the initiator can send SCSI commands to the target, such as read, write, or inquiry commands. These commands are encapsulated into iSCSI packets and sent over the IP network.
4. Data Transfer: The target processes the SCSI commands and performs the requested operations on the storage devices. Data is transferred between the initiator and target using iSCSI packets, which are transmitted over the IP network.
5. Logout: When the communication between the initiator and target is complete, a logout process is initiated to terminate the session and release any allocated resources.
iSCSI provides a flexible and cost-effective solution for accessing remote storage devices over a network, allowing organizations to consolidate storage resources and simplify management. It is commonly used in storage area networks (SANs) and can be implemented using dedicated hardware or software-based initiators.
Can you explain the benefits and advantages of using iSCSI in a network storage environment?
iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) is a protocol that allows the transmission of SCSI commands over IP networks. It enables the use of standard Ethernet infrastructure to connect storage devices, such as disk arrays, to servers. Here are some benefits and advantages of using iSCSI in a network storage environment:
1. Cost-effective: iSCSI leverages existing Ethernet infrastructure, eliminating the need for expensive Fibre Channel (FC) switches and cables. This makes it a more cost-effective solution for network storage.
2. Flexibility: iSCSI can work over various network topologies, including LAN, WAN, and even the Internet. It offers flexibility in terms of distance, allowing storage devices to be located remotely from servers.
3. Scalability: iSCSI supports the use of Ethernet switches, enabling the creation of large-scale storage networks. It allows for the addition of more storage devices and servers as the storage needs grow, making it highly scalable.
4. Compatibility: iSCSI is compatible with existing IP-based networks and can coexist with other network traffic. It can run on standard Ethernet adapters, making it easier to integrate into existing network infrastructures.
5. Performance: With advancements in network speeds, iSCSI can provide high-performance storage solutions. It can take advantage of technologies like jumbo frames and TCP/IP offload engines to optimize performance.
6. Centralized management: iSCSI provides centralized management of storage resources. Administrators can allocate, monitor, and manage storage devices from a central location, simplifying storage management tasks.
7. Data protection: iSCSI supports various data protection mechanisms, such as RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), snapshots, and replication. This ensures data availability, integrity, and recoverability in case of failures or disasters.
8. Virtualization support: iSCSI is widely used in virtualized environments. It allows virtual machines to access shared storage resources over the network, enabling features like live migration and high availability.
9. Ease of deployment: Compared to FC, iSCSI is relatively easier to deploy and configure. It uses standard IP-based networking, which is familiar to most IT professionals, reducing the complexity of implementation.
Overall, iSCSI offers a cost-effective, flexible, scalable, and high-performance solution for network storage environments. It provides the benefits of centralized management, data protection, and compatibility with existing infrastructures, making it a popular choice for organizations of all sizes.
Does the NAS QNAP TBS-464 support the iSCSI protocol, and if so, what are some key features and capabilities it offers in terms of iSCSI functionality?
Yes, the NAS QNAP TBS-464 does support the iSCSI protocol. Here are some key features and capabilities it offers in terms of iSCSI functionality:
1. iSCSI Target: The TBS-464 can function as an iSCSI target, allowing you to create virtual disks and present them to other iSCSI initiators as if they were physical disks.
2. iSCSI LUN Management: You can easily create, expand, and delete iSCSI LUNs (Logical Unit Numbers) on the TBS-464. LUNs can be allocated from different storage pools and managed flexibly.
3. Thin Provisioning: The TBS-464 supports thin provisioning for iSCSI LUNs, allowing you to allocate storage space on-demand rather than pre-allocating it. This helps optimize storage utilization.
4. MPIO and MC/S: The TBS-464 supports MPIO (Multipath Input/Output) and MC/S (Multiple Connections per Session) for enhanced data transfer reliability and load balancing across multiple network paths.
5. iSCSI Snapshots and Cloning: You can take snapshots of iSCSI LUNs for data protection and create clones of LUNs for testing or development purposes.
6. iSCSI LUN Backup and Restoration: The TBS-464 provides various backup options for iSCSI LUNs, including local backup, remote backup, and snapshot replication. This ensures data availability and disaster recovery.
7. iSCSI Thin Provisioning Deduplication: The TBS-464 supports deduplication for iSCSI LUNs, reducing storage consumption by eliminating duplicate data blocks.
8. iSCSI Security: The TBS-464 offers CHAP authentication and access control for iSCSI targets, ensuring secure access and preventing unauthorized access.
9. iSCSI Management: The TBS-464 provides a user-friendly web-based interface for managing iSCSI settings, monitoring performance, and configuring advanced features.
These are some of the key features and capabilities offered by the QNAP TBS-464 in terms of iSCSI functionality.