Altaro Backup v7 include new features that i am very curious to try it and understand how it works and the most important if it's efficient for the Backups in the Production Environment.
As you can find in http://www.altaro.com/vm-backup/whats-new.php the new features i would like to publish it in the article and describe it with more details for better understand and take better decisions.
The new features of Altaro Backup v7 are:
- Windows Server 2016 Support
- Boot from Backup
- Augmented Inline Deduplicaion
- New look of the Altaro Offsite Server.
For the Windows Server 2016 Support i don't have to say anything just that from now you don't have any limitation to use Altaro if you already has Windows Server 2016 in your environment.
One feature that make me impression is the Augmented Inline Deduplication. Altaro Backup introduce an amazing technology that can differentiate from other Backup Vendors and can give you smaller Backup Size Globally in your Storage with faster Backup & Restore.
But let's' go a step further and discuss with more details the Boot from Backup and Augmented Inline Deduplication features.
Boot from Backup
One of the very useful features in any Disaster or Server Failed is the Boot from Backup or with other words Instant Recovery.
What is happened in Boot From Backup? If for any reason the Server Failed you can start the VM from the last backup in few minutes and continue users to work instead to Restore the VM from Last Backup that can take lot of time and sometime hours when you have Servers with large Partitions.
With this way you will avoid downtimes in working hours.
Now let's start to explain step by step how can do it,
You are in situation that one of your Servers suddenly failed and you can't bring it online. You know that to Restore the Server it will take 30-40 minutes and maybe more.
But as IT Pro with the right tools you have the option now to Boot from Backup.
Recovery Mode
- Login in the Backup Server and open Altaro Backup
- From the left side click Boot from Backup
- Click the button Boot a VM from Backup
- You can see 2 options:
- Because we don't want to loose any change select Recovery Mode and click Next.
- Select from where you want to Boot the Backup.
- Select the VM that you want to boot. Click Next
- Select the Restore Point , the Name of the VM that you wan to use ,the HYPERV Host to restore the VM and the Location that will save the VM. Click Boot.
- Click in View Booted Virtual Machine Backups.
- Now you can see the VM that booted.
- If you go in HYPERV Manager you can see the new VM that selected to Boot from Backup.
- The only thing that you must do is to enable Network and continue working.
- In this Scenario for VM with 50 GB Partition it takes me 2 minutes to start. It's not bad .
- If you login in HYPERV Host which restore the VM and open the path that select to Boot the VM you will find the VM files with virtual disk.
Verification Mode
Let's say that you want to test the Boot from Backup because you want to be prepare in any case and be sure that your Backups works.
- Click in Boot from Backup and select Verification Mode
- Select from where you want to Boot the Backup.
- Select the VM that you want to boot. Click Next.
- Select the Restore Point , the Name of the VM that you wan to use ,the HYPERV Host to restore the VM.
- Ignore the Boot to Location and click Next.
- Click in View Booted Virtual Machine Backups.
- Now you can see the VM that booted.
- If you want to Delete the VM from HYPERV click in Button Discard VM.
- If you go in HYPERV Manager you can see the new VM that selected to Boot from Backup.
- In this Scenario select VM with 50 GB Partition and also it takes me 2 minutes to started. It's not bad .
Let's take a look in the VM Settings in any Mode.
Open the HYPERV Manager. Select the VM and from the left side click Settings.
If you click in Hard Drive you can see that use Physical Hard Disk instead of Virtual Hard Disk.
This is one difference that found with Boot from Backup instead to Restore from Backup.
Now let's see What are the differences between Verification Mode and Recovery Mode?
In Verification Mode If you login in HYPERV Host which restore the VM you will not find anywhere files of the VM with the Virtual Disk. The specific VM works directly from the files of Backup and it's not create any Virtual disk in the HYPERV Host. This is the reason which loose any change after shutdown while booted from backup.
Augmented Inline Deduplicaion
Augmented Inline Deduplication it's very interesting technology from Altaro that try to reduce as possible as can Backup Size of the VM'S. Altaro Backup give you this technology without need to do anything because it's enable automatic.
This is very important step for the Backup because as we know Storage it's equal with Money.
But what is Augmented Inline Deduplication?
It's technology from Altaro that ensure common blocks from VM and all the VM's in the same environment will be transferred in Storage once. So if you must backup 10 Windows Server 2012 with Augmented Inline Deduplication you will have only 1 backup of the similar files in OS from all the VM'S
Imagine how can reduce the Storage only from the OS Size of multiple VM'S. It's amazing and i didn't see any similar from other Backup Vendors until now.
Augmented Inline Deduplication is available in Unlimited Edition and enable by default on new added VM's.
How can recognize how much space do you save in your Backup Storage. When you will open Altaro Backup you can go in Dashboard and see the Chart of Deduplication & Compression. There you can see a percent of your Backup Size reduce.
To be honest it takes me some time to test these features and compare it with other Vendors. But the results are positive and make Altaro Backup one of the big competitors in the market.
I try to explain these features as simple as i can. I hope to find helpful this article .
Do you have try the Altaro v7? Give us your feedback and experience that you have it with Altaro Backup in our commented system. Share it with others IT and help him to learn something new
Sponsor
>
Free Tools for everyone
