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    Backup & Disaster Recovery specification

    • Summary:Key aspects and core features of Backup & Disaster Recovery.
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    Backup & Disaster Recovery allows you to:

    • automatically back up data from computers and servers;

    • restore the required versions of the backup data;

    • retain backups for unlimited time; and

    • boot Disaster Recovery (DR) image and virtual machine (VM) backups as VMs running on the Backup & Disaster Recovery appliance.

    Specifications of physical appliances

    Please see the updated individual section that covers all supported and EOL models.

    Specifications of virtual appliances

    Requirements for running on third-party hardware

      Requirement Notes
    Supported virtualization platforms Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2–2016; VMware vSphere 6.0 or later - Nested virtualization must be enabled to support VM booting and boot verification.
    - While software may run on other virtualization platforms, these are the only directly supported and tested platforms.
    CPU 4 cores minimum - 4 cores is the minimum required to support 1 TB of protected data and daily incremental backups.
    - Increase number of cores for larger data volumes and higher frequency of backups if average CPU load on a VM during backup exceeds 50%.
    - Increase number of cores to allow boot verification and nested booting—specific to your booting needs, and as configured on the appliance for recovery booting.
    RAM 16 GB minimum To manage backups and replication:
    - 16 GB is the minimum required for 1 TB of protected data.
    - Add 1 GB of RAM per each 1 TB of the stored data.
    For example, to protect 10 TB of data, you need 25 GB of RAM.
    For better performance when booting VMs on the appliance, increase RAM (in addition to minimum requirements for backup storage) commensurate with RAM needs for VMs that will boot nested (for recovery).
    Backup storage 2 TB minimum (HDD or SSD) - 2 TB is the minimum required for 1 TB of protected data with daily backups and default settings for one-month retention.
    - Actual storage requirements depend on the type of backup data, frequency of backups, and retention period.
    - Storage for one-month retention of backup data can be calculated by formula:
    1.5 × Size of DR image, VMware, and Hyper-V backup data + 1.7 × Size of file-level backup data + 2.7 × Size of Microsoft SQL and Exchange database-level backup data
    See sizing examples for details.
    SSD storage 64 GB minimum Regardless of the backup storage, virtual appliance requires 2 GB of SSD storage per each 1 TB of data stored on the backup storage for optimal DDFS performance.
    Note: If SSD storage is used as the backup storage, this value is additional.

    Sizing examples

               
    Size of data to protect 1 TB
    (0.33 TB of DR image/VMware/Hyper-V data + 0.33 TB of files + 0.33 TB of Microsoft SQL/Exchange data)    		 2 TB
    (0.67 TB of DR image/VMware/Hyper-V data + 0.67 TB of files + 0.67 TB of Microsoft SQL/Exchange data)    		 3 TB
    (1 TB of DR image/VMware/Hyper-V data + 1 TB of files + 1 TB of Microsoft SQL/Exchange data)    		 5 TB
    (1.67 TB of DR image/VMware/Hyper-V data + 1.67 TB of files + 1.67 TB of Microsoft SQL/Exchange data)    		 10 TB
    (3.33 TB of DR image/VMware/Hyper-V data + 3.33 TB of files + 3.33 TB of Microsoft SQL/Exchange data)
    Retention period 1 month 1 month 1 month 1 month 1 month
    VMs to be booted concurrently (as nested VMs) 1
    (SQL server)    		 2
    (1 SQL server, 1 web server)    		 2
    (1 SQL server, 1 web server)    		 8
    (incl. 1 SQL server, 1 Exchange server, 3 web servers)    		 8
    (incl. 1 SQL server, 1 Exchange server, 3 web servers)
               
    Required CPU 6 cores
    (4 cores for backup + 2 cores for booting)    		 8 cores
    (4 cores for backup + 4 cores for booting)    		 10 cores
    (6 cores for backup + 4 cores for booting)    		 20 cores
    (8 cores for backup + 12 cores for booting)    		 28 cores
    (16 cores for backup + 12 cores for booting)
    Required RAM 24 GB
    (16 GB for backup + 8 GB for booting)    		 34 GB
    (18 GB for backup + 16 GB for booting)    		 36 GB
    (20 GB for backup + 16 GB for booting)    		 88 GB
    (24 GB for backup + 64 GB for booting)    		 98 GB
    (34 GB for backup + 64 GB for booting)
    Required backup storage (HDD assumed) 2 TB
    (1.5 × 0.33 TB + 1.7 × 0.33 TB + 2.7 × 0.33 TB)    		 4 TB
    (1.5 × 0.67 TB + 1.7 × 0.67 TB + 2.7 × 0.67 TB)    		 6 TB
    (1.5 × 1 TB + 1.7 × 1 TB + 2.7 × 1 TB)    		 10 TB
    (1.5 × 1.67 TB + 1.7 × 1.67 TB + 2.7 × 1.67 TB)    		 20 TB
    (1.5 × 3.33 TB + 1.7 × 3.33 TB + 2.7 × 3.33 TB)
    Required SSD storage 64 GB 68 GB 70 GB 74 GB 84 GB

    Deployment and replication configurations

    Appliances can automatically send data to another location. Secondary appliance is always passive, meaning it accepts the replicated data from the primary appliance, but cannot back up extra endpoints.

      Primary appliance on-premises, secondary appliance off-premises (in our cloud) Primary appliance on-premises, secondary appliance off-premises (elsewhere, but not in our cloud) Standalone primary appliance
    Description Data is replicated to a secondary appliance in one of our data centers in US, UK, or Canada. This is the default approach. Data is replicated to a secondary appliance deployed elsewhere No replication. Data may be taken off-premises by archiving to an external USB disk.
    Locations US (Utah), UK (Nottingham), Canada (Toronto) Customer’s choice N/A
    Ownership and secondary infrastructure management Us Customer N/A
    Seeding Yes Yes N/A
    Cloud boot Yes Yes N/A
    Cloud boot scalability Dedicated appliance—limited by hardware of the dedicated appliance. Shared virtual environment—limited same as primary appliance, burst is available upon request. Limited by hardware of the secondary appliance N/A
    Orchestration and IP restore Yes N/A N/A
    VPN Yes, managed by us Yes, managed by customer N/A
    WAN acceleration Yes Yes N/A
    Redundant network and hardware infrastructure Yes N/A N/A

    Security and disk encryption

    Hard disks in the primary appliances (those located on the customer’s premises) can be encrypted using LUKS,—an industry standard hard disk encryption system built into Linux.

    Hard disks in the secondary appliances (those located in the data centers) are encrypted by default using the AES-256 algorithm.

    Learn more about the appliance disk encryption.

    Transfer of data to the cloud is performed over AES-256-encrypted connection.

    Data center security

    We use Tier 3 and Tier 4 data centers. These are certified under SAS 70 Type II and SSAE 16, secured with video surveillance 24×7 and biometric access controls to limit physical access to the data center floors. All servers are security-hardened before deployment, patched, protected with antivirus software and firewalls.

    Protected environments

    VMware, Hyper-V, and physical machines

      VMware vSphere Microsoft Hyper-V Physical machine DR image backup Physical machine file and folder backup
    General info        
    Hypervisor version 6.0 and later 1 2008 R2–2019 N/A N/A
    Deployment Without the DR backup agent. VMware VM backups use snapshot functionality. CBT is used. Disk set backup can be configured. Independent persistent disks can be skipped. With the DR backup agent on hypervisor using Microsoft VSS technology. Microsoft RCT is not supported. With the DR backup agent With the DR backup agent
    Backup types VM image VM image DR image File-level, Microsoft Exchange Server database, Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox, Microsoft SQL Server database
    Backup levels Full, incremental (synthetic full) Full, incremental (synthetic full) Full, incremental (synthetic full) Full, differential (file-level), incremental
    Bootability Yes Yes Yes N/A
    Backup        
    Windows 2 Any version supported by hypervisor Any version supported by hypervisor Desktop: 7 SP1, 8, 8.1, 10, 11 3

    Server: 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019, 2022 3    		 Desktop: 7 SP1, 8, 8.1, 10, 11

    Server: 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019, 2022
    Linux Any version supported by hypervisor Any version supported by hypervisor N/A N/A
    Unix Any version supported by hypervisor Any version supported by hypervisor N/A N/A
    Microsoft SQL Server SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017
    Microsoft Exchange Server database Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010, 2010 DAG, 2013, 2016, 2016 DAG, 2019 Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010, 2010 DAG, 2013, 2016, 2016 DAG, 2019 Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010, 2010 DAG, 2013, 2016, 2016 DAG, 2019 Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016
    Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox N/A N/A N/A Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013
    Boot on appliance        
    Windows Desktop: XP SP3, Vista SP2, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 4

    Server: 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019    		 Desktop: XP SP3, Vista SP2, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 4

    Server: 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019    		 Desktop: 7 SP1, 8, 8.1, 10 4

    Server: 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019 5    		 N/A
    Linux CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, 7

    Debian 7, 8

    Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, 13.04, 13.10, 14.04, 14.10, 15.04, 16.04, 18.04

    Oracle Linux 6.1–6.6, 7.0–7.1    		 CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, 7

    Debian 7, 8

    Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, 13.04, 13.10, 14.04, 14.10, 15.04, 16.04, 18.04

    Oracle Linux 6.1–6.6, 7.0–7.1    		 N/A N/A
    Boot verification        
    Windows Yes Yes Yes N/A
    Linux Yes Yes Yes N/A
    Restore        
    Source Hypervisor or inside the VM Hypervisor or inside the VM Physical machine with the DR backup agent installed Appliance Network Share
    VMware VMs Yes, as VM. File-level restore to any client on the appliance, or to the Appliance Network Share either as VM image component files or as files on disks. File-level restore to any client on the appliance, or to the Appliance Network Share either as VM image component files or files on disks File-level restore as VM image component files or files on disks File-level restore as VM image component files or files on disks
    Hyper-V VMs As VM image component files or files on disks to any running VM Yes, as VM. File-level restore to any client on the appliance, or to the Appliance Network Share either as VM image component files or files on disks. File-level restore as VM image component files or files on disks File-level restore as VM image component files or files on disks
    Windows DR images Not as VM. File-level restore as DR image component files or files on disks. Not as VM. File-level restore as DR image component files or files on disks. Bare-metal restore (except to NVMe drives).
    File-level restore as DR image component files or files on disks.    		 File-level restore as DR image component files or files on disks
    Files and folders File-level restore File-level restore File-level restore File-level restore
    Microsoft SQL Server N/A N/A Database-level restore File-level restore
    Microsoft Exchange Server databases N/A N/A Database-level restore File-level restore
    Microsoft Exchange Server mailboxes N/A N/A Mailbox-level restore N/A

    For browsing and restoring, Backup & Disaster Recovery supports ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS, Btrfs, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, UFS, HFS, HFS+, JFS, ReiserFS, MINIX (1.0, 2.0, 3), exFAT, NILFS2, and F2FS file systems on both MBR and GPT partitions, on the software or hardware RAIDs, or on the dynamic disks in Windows. ZFS was not tested. Windows Storage Spaces, Reiser4, and ReFS are not supported for browsing and restoring.

    Virtual machines in Xen environments

    Backup of a VM running on Citrix XenDesktop or XenServer can be performed with the DR backup agent installed in the VM. Boot on the appliance or restore to a Xen environment of a DR image backup is not supported.

    Citrix NetScaler VPX appliances running on VMware or Hyper-V can be backed up and restored. Boot is not supported at the moment.

    Backup schedules

    Schedules support monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, by day of week with per-minute granularity backups.

    Backup data retention

    For backups of VMware and Hyper-V VMs, you can set retention to keep all backups up to 14 days, one per day up to 14 weeks, one per week up to 1 year, one per month forever.

    For file and folder and DR image backups of physical machines, you can set for how long to keep full, differential, and incremental backups.

    Backup retention is set separately for primary and secondary appliances.

    Learn more about backup data retention.

    Monitoring and reporting

    Appliance sends alerts and reports via email about the following events:

    • Backup and restore: VM automatic registration report, job success or failure, lack of job progress, daily and weekly summary.

    • Security audit: User login notification and daily summary.

    • System: New update available and system settings were changed.

    • Replication: Failure, communication failure, summary report.

    • License: Communication failure, violation, license warning.

    In the Dashboard, there is a backup monitoring section for all appliances of the account with email notification and integration with ConnectWise Manage and Autotask PSA.

    Integrations

    Deduplication file system

    We use proprietary technology called deduplication file system (DDFS). All data is split in 64K-blocks, and only one unique instance of each block is stored on disk. We calculate the number of all instances in the entire stored data per each block.

    1. Backup of VMware VMs with NVMe controllers is not supported. ↩

    2. Operation in the environments with ODX enabled was not tested. ↩

    3. DR image backup does not support Storage Spaces, ODX-capable devices, and software-based RAID 5 arrays. ↩ ↩2

    4. Appliance does not support booting of VMs that run 32-bit version of Windows 10 and are set up to use UEFI. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

    5. Hyper-V host boot is not available. ↩