Nakivo Backup & Replication v7 Review

In today world backup software it's not the most exciting thing for Directors or CIO in a company. Company must spend some money for the Backup Software and  Windows Licenses to be idle most hours of the day. 

But when someone delete critical email or a FileServer bring offline and must be restore as soon as possible then Backup Software must be there to start the Job.

Whether you are a small business or Large enterprise Backup Software it's one of the most important thing to your organization.

For this reason Backup Software must be easy and reliable.

As IT Pro i like to test different softwares and have the ability to compare it .

Today i have the opportunity to take a look in Nakivo Backup & Replication v.7.

So i grab a License Key , install in my lab and start to use it.

 

Installation

Before start with the installation it's recommended to read system requirements to understand where must setup the Nakivo Backup & Replication.

Here you can find what you need for System Requirements https://www.nakivo.com/helpcenter/display/NH/System+Requirements

Nakivo Backup & Replication  can install for VMWARE , HYPERV  AMAZON ECS and on Synology or Western Digital NAS that impressed me because i didn't find this feature in other Backup Softwares.

My infrastructure is:

1 HYPER-V Host that act as Transporter

VM's with different OS

Nas that will act as Repository

 

So let's start the game.

• First Download the software for HYPER-V from https://www.nakivo.com/hyper-v-backup.html  
• Start the installation. I will do Full Installation. This means that will get all in one. 

• Wait to finish and click Finish.
• After finish the installation the Nakivo Backup & Replication creates 2 Services

Nakivo Backup & Replication Director 

Nakivo Backup & Replication Transporter 

• For the first time when will open Nakivo Backup & Replication you will get a Warning that you must configure username and password.
• If open it with Internet Explorer you will get another one Warning that maybe work improperly with this Browser.
• Click in Configure. 

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•  Type the username and password that you would like to have. Click Done.

 

 

Inventory HYPER-V Host

The first screen that will see when Login will be the Inventory.

That means that you must install the agent in HYPER-V to have access in Virtual Machines.

• Click Add New

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• Select your Hypervisor. In this scenario will use Microsoft HYPER-V Host but the steps are the same for any of the HYPERVISORS that support Nakivo Backup & Replication.

• Type the Hostname or IP, username,password and optional type a Display Name. Click Add.
• Note that if the Windows Server has Firewall On must open the port 5986 which is the WsMan Service.

• Wait to finish the installation of the Agent .
• The Agent will be create the Nakivo Backup & Replication Transporter service in  HYPER-V Host  which is responsible for all of the data protection and recovery tasks. These tasks include data transfer,encryption, write,recovery,compression and more ...
• Next step is to create a Backup Job but first must setup the Repository and Transporter ,
• For this reason I will stop for the time to give you some more details for the General Settings of Nakivo Backup & Replication v.7 and i will continue in Backup Tasks how can create the first Backup Job quick and easy.

 

General Settings

User accounts

Click Edit in User accounts if you would like to change password of the user, integrate with active directory and more.

Email Settings

If you would like to take Email Notifications for the Backup Job Status you must configure an Email. Click in Edit and proceed to configure the email that you would like to take the notifications

Email Notifications.

When you have configure Email Settings come here to configure the type of Email Notifications that you would like to receive.

Branding

Click Edit to  change product  background and some other settings.

System Settings

Click Edit and change useful settings like the job history period that you want to keep it , time and date format and more settings.

System migration

You can use it when you will want to migrate Nakivo Backup & Replication in new Server.

 

Backup Jobs

To proceed with Backup tasks first must setup the Transporter and the Repository. 

Transporter is the HYPER-V Host in this scenario.

Repository is the Storage which use it to Backup the Data.

 

Setup Transporters

Transport have already setup in the first step when login in Nakivo Backup & Replication. But if you would like to setup new Transporter you can follow the steps.

• From the Front Page click in Settings.

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• Click Transporters.
• Click Add Transporter - - - > Add existing Transporter

• Select the transporter, type the IP Address and click Add.

 

Setup Repositories

Now it's time to setup the Repository. 

Repository as i write before is the folder which use it in Storage that you prefer to store Backup Data.

• Click Add Backup Repository.

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• Type  the IP Address of the Transporter which is is responsible for all interaction with Backup Repository.
• In this scenario is the HYPER-V Host. I will not change.
• Select the type of the Repository. If it's NAS select Remote CIFS share. If it's local select Local folder or assigned transport,
• Configure the path of the Backup folder and the credentials if exist. Click Apply.

• In the next screen You will see all the  details of the new Repository.

Create Backup Job

Now it's time  to create the first Backup Job

• Click Create

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• Click Microsoft HYPER-V Backup Job but with the same way you can select backup job base on the Hypervisor that you have setup.

• Select the Virtual Machine. Click Next.

• Select the Backup Repository. 

• Configure when you want to run the Backup Job.

• Select how many restore points you want to keep.

• Select if you want Application-aware mode. 
• Select the Change Tracking.Use the default Hyper-V RCT/CBT to create incremental backups instead to take full backups every time.
• Decide if you want to have Encryption or not in backup job.

• If enable Application-aware you must configure to work with  domain administrator credentials.
• So click in Settings .

• From the right side select credentials and select the user with domain administrator acceess.

• If you don't have configure Domain Administrator user then click Manage Credentials .

• Click Add Credentials to create the new Domain Administrator user.

• Click Finish and you will see the new Backup Job in Front Page.
• Click Run or leave it for the Schedule time.
• In the following printscreen you can see the Dashboard in front page when run a Backup Job.

• If you decide to Run the Job now when Start to backup Virtual Machine go in HYPER-V Manager, select the VM and you will see that has create a temporary checkpoint.
• This is how works the HYPER-V when a backup start.

 

Manage Jobs

If you would like to Manage a specific Backup Job you can click in the Backup Job and select Manage from the Top Menu.

After that select one of the options to proceed.

For example if you would like to change Backup Repository click Edit and proceed with the Steps to change it.

 

Recover

Recovery or Restore data from Backup it's very important task and as IT Pro must be sure that works anytime. Nakivo Backup give use multiple options for recovery that i would like to discus with more details.

Below are some of the Recovery Types  that you can use with Nakivo Backup & Replication v7

 

Individual Files

Restore individual files from a Fileserver is a daily tasks of an IT Pro in Medium and Large Companies. 

Nakivo Backup & Replication v7  you can offer you this option with a very functional way.

Let's talk with more details

• From the front page click in Recovery.
• Select Individual files

• Select the Virtual Machine that you would like to restore files and the Restore Point.

• Wait for a while and you will see the partitions of the hard drive.

• At the same time you will see to open Windows explorer with the partitions of the VM that you want to Restore.
• This is very useful because you can copy any files from the backup data and restore it in the path that you want. 
• Or you can click in the Partition that you want and find the files from the right side to restore it. 

 

Active Directory Objects

For more advance Recovery options you can use to Recover Active Directory Objects (users,groups,computers and more).

If you would like to use this feature must enable the Application Aware options in Backup Job.

What is Application Aware and how it works you can find in https://www.nakivo.com/features/application-aware-backup-replication.html

Let's go to explain how can do it

• From the front page click in Recovery
• Click Recovery - - -> Microsoft Active Directory Objects

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• Select the VM and the Recovery Point that you want to use . Click Next

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• Wait to prepare .
• When will be ready Expand the ntdis.dat and the domain name.
• Select the object that you want to Recovery and click in Recovery.

• If you want click in Advanced Settings and select how will be restore the object.
• Click Download.
• Now what? Use the ldifde to Restore the Object in Active Directory. 
• Find all the details to import the Object in Import or Export Directory Objects Using Ldifde

When you try to Recovery Active Directory object you must know exactly what you are doing and what you want because you can create lot of troubles in Domain Controllers and you don't want it.

 

HYPER-V Full VM

Can't miss the Full VM feature that you can use with Nakivo Backup & Replication v7.

Let's explain with details

• From the front page click in Recovery
• Click VMs from Backup.

• Select the VM and the Restore Point that you want to restore.

• Select Container , Path and which Virtual Switch that you want to use  from HYPER-V Host.Click Next.

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• Now you can select some options before start the Recovery
• The options are:

VM Power on = If you would like to Power or not when Restore finish
Mac Address = If will generate new MAC Address
Recovery Mode = Synthetic or Production
Network Acceleration = If will use techniques to reduce traffic load or not.
Encryption =  Yes or No
VM Disks = If will create dynamic disk or create the same disk as has the VM.

• After configure the Options for the Recovery click Finish & Run Button or Finish to run in schedule time.

• Depends on your environment and the VM wait to finish the Recovery and you will see the new VM in destination HYPER-V Host.

 

 

Replication

Every company must be prepare for a Disaster Recovery or to reduce the downtime for a High Important Server. 

Replication can use it for these two reasons and Nakivo Backup & Replication can cover you.

Let's take a look how can use it.

• Click Create
• Click Microsoft HYPER-V Replication job

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• Select the Virtual Machine. Click Next.

• Select the Container , Path of the Virtual Machine in Destination Server
• and the Network Switch which use in the Destination HYPER-V Host.

• Of course select when you want to run the Replication.

• Select how many restore points that you want to keep. I change it to 3 because it's a Replication and you don't want to use lot of restore points.

• Select if you want to use  Application-aware mode. 
• For the  Change Tracking use the default Hyper-V RCT/CBT to create incremental backups instead to take full backups every time.
• Decide if you want to have Encryption or not in backup job.
• In Replica disk use the default which is the Respect original VM disk type. Believe you don't want to use different disk size in the Replicated VM.

• Click Finish and you will see the new Replication Job in Front Page.

 

 

Reports

As IT Pro Reports and Logs for your Systems are very important to understand and troubleshooting.

Nakivo Backup & Replication can export different types of  Reports in pdf.

Let's explain what Reports you can export.

• In the front-page from the left side select Overview.

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• Click Create and select Last Run Report

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• This type of Report will be export a pdf with the status and Errors for all Backup Jobs the from the Last Time which run.
• But you have the option to export Reports from individual Backup Job.
• Select the Backup Job.
• Click Export and now you can see 3 different Reports
  Last Run Report = Include data for all the Jobs which run Last time 
  Point in Time = Represents state of the job as of specific date.
  History Report = Includes data for all job runs within specific period. 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion