VM Backup is a high-performance VM backup and replication solution. Easily back up to virtualized environments based on Hyper-V or VMware technologies.
Hornetsecurity team has released a new version of its product with multiple improvements: VM BACKUP V9
You can get a copy of a free trial version fully functional for 30 days at the following link:
VM BACKUP V9 TRIAL
VM Backup, unlike other competitors, provides an intuitive user interface and simple setup. An important factor when choosing the VM Backup V9 solution is the economic section. With perpetual licensing is substantially cheaper since they apply price per host, not per socket or CPU. They also offer a subscription base model where licensing happens on a rolling basis (SaaS) per VM
What’s new in V9
The main novelty in this new version is the protection against one of the biggest current problems in the world of computer security… ransomware.
VM BACKUP V9, adds a new layer of security, by taking advantage of immutable backups in cloud object storage, ensuring that no one can erase, modify or delete data for a certain period.
They have also been improved scalability and robustness. Now VM Backup can easily manage large infrastructures, with the revamped backup repository providing robust long-term storage and more efficient use of disk space.
Also, data retention in the offsite repository can now run in parallel with other operations.
We can also highlight some of the features that were already available, and that make VM Backup an ideal solution as a global backup solution for any company:
- Augmented Inline Deduplication
- Offsite Cloud Backup
- Minimal RPO and RTO
- Backup Live VMs vCenter & CSV Support
- Flexible scheduling & Queue
- Remote & Central console
- File Exchange Item-Level Restore
In short, from my point of view, a great powerful, reliable and easy-to-use tool that will allow you to manage a good Disaster Recovery Plan
I can tell you that it did not take me more than 30 minutes to start up the application and basic configuration of backup.
VM BACKUP is compatible with the following operating systems:
Vmware
- VMware vCenter 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0 & 8.0
- VMware vSphere 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0 & 8.0
- VMware ESXi 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0 & 8.0
- (The free version of VMware ESXi is not supported)
Windows
- Azure Stack HCI
- Windows Server 2022
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- Windows Server 2012
- Windows Server 2008 R2
- Microsoft Hyper-V Server (Core)
You can find all the information in HORNETSECURITY SUPPORT CENTER
Testing VM Backup V9
The installation process couldn’t be simpler. Just run the downloaded program and in three simple steps we will have it ready to run it.
The program is installed as a service on our machine:
PS C:\Users\usuario> Get-Service -name hornet* | Select name, displayname Name DisplayName ---- ----------- Hornetsecurity.VMBackup.Engine Hornetsecurity VM Backup Engine Hornetsecurity.VMBackup.OffsiteBackupServer Hornetsecurity Offsite Backup Server Hornetsecurity.VMBackup.OffsiteBackupServer.UI Hornetsecurity Offsite Backup Server UI Controller Hornetsecurity.VMBackup.Rest Hornetsecurity VM Backup REST API Service Hornetsecurity.VMBackup.SubAgent1 Hornetsecurity VM Backup Agent 1 Hornetsecurity.VMBackup.SubAgent2 Hornetsecurity VM Backup Agent 2 Hornetsecurity.VMBackup.UI Hornetsecurity VM Backup Controller
Once the console is installed, we must access an account with the necessary administrator privileges, either on-premises or AD if it is within a domain.
In my case, I use a local account with administrator privileges. My Windows 10 is not in any AD.
Once we have validated ourselves, we enter the VM Backup Dashboard where you can access the different features of the application:
Before going any further, I show you the laboratory I have created to be able to perform a backup and restore process:
As you can see I have a vSphere 7 Cluster with three hosts and two VMs for testing. All this with the licenses of 60 days of evaluation.
Creating our first backup is a very simple process. For this demo, we will follow the recommendation that appears in the Dashboard for a quick first backup:
- Add Hyper-V or VMWare HOST
- Choose where to store backups
- Take first backup
We add first of all our vCenter, which will give us access to the entire infrastructure of the Cluster:
We validate with an account with the appropriate credentials:
Once connected, in Setup 🡪 Host we see the entire infrastructure of the Cluster.
We return to the dashboard to add a destination for our backups. In my case it will be a booth with a shared NFS resource:
Click on the second option and select Network Path to append SMB share:
We write the credentials to access the share on the NAS:
Local storage is already perfectly configured and ready to use:
We can use Drag and drop from the machines to the Storage to assign them the destination.
We only have to launch the backup. If we click on this option, we will see the two machines that have the Assigned Storage.
Remember key factors that influence high backup performance:
- High bandwidth: => 1 GB
- If it is possible: work with NIC TEAMING to improve performance.
- Segment the Backup network with VLANs
- Create two network paths to the copy location (lan or WAN)
We note that there is still no backus of these machines, and that they do not have any backup planned automatically.
In our example we are going to launch a first backup manually. Select the two machines and press the button Take Backup
We can see how from vCenter the snapshots have been generated to perform the backups from VM Backups
From the Dashboard we can see the evolution of the backups:
We can define Scheduled backups according to our needs and assign the machines to be carried out in an automated way.
For example on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 00:00.
Now let’s recover one of the virtual machines to a different node in the cluster. To do this, in the Restore section, enter the wizard and enter each of the values.
Secondly the machine we want to restore.
Then the restore point that we want to recover, the destination node (node) and the data storage of the ESXI where we want to store the VM
We can see almost immediately in the dashboard how the machine begins to be restored:
In this simple way we can launch our first backup with VM Backup V9.
Advanced settings.
A good RDP is not always so simple and requires proper planning to avoid data loss. VM Backup allows you to configure advanced parameters for those environments that require more complex configurations. We comment some briefly so as not to lengthen the POST too much … 😊
CDP (Continuous Data Protection)
VM Backup users can switch from running daily backups to a continuous data protection (CDP) model.
When CDP is enabled, VMs can be backed up as frequently as every 5 minutes or the maximum frequency permitted by the backup location and environment. This ensures that in a data loss scenario only a few minutes of data would be lost.
This dramatically reduces the Recovery Point Objective (RPO). RPO is the point in time to which VMs are restored by a backup solution in case of a disaster.
Retention Policy
A data retention policy allows backups to be saved at the desired time for local legal compliance or simply for historical information purposes.
VSS (Volume Snapshot Service)
Shadow Copy is a technology included in Microsoft Windows that can create backups or snapshots of files or volumes of computers, even when they are in use. It is implemented as a Windows service called the Volume Shadow Copy service.
With this technology it can be prevented that the data that is copied can be corrupted when in use.
Advanced setting
In the advanced settings we have different configuration options to improve the copy system if required.
- Deduplication
- Encryption
- CBT
Encryption Key
Remember the importance of encrypting backups. In this way we will prevent access to information in case of unauthorized access. As you have seen in the image above, encryption can be applied individually for each VM for local backups, but it’s mandatory for Offsite Copies.
Immutable backup
One of the most important novelties of the VM Backups version, as we mentioned at the beginning, is the possibility of protection against Ransomware attacks.
Immutable (WORM: Write-Once Read-Many) storage locations are meant to be written only once and can be read/accessed as many times as needed.
This is the perfect solution to protect your backups for specified amount of time against ransomware/attackers as, once written, this data cannot be altered or erased. This helps ensure that the data is kept consistent and safe for restores when required.
At the moment it is only possible to use this technique with:
- Amazon S3
- Wasabi
- Azure coming soon 😊
An important issue is that increasing security with certain options, such as data retention or Immutable backup, can generate additional costs by increasing the hard disk space requirements in our storage provider.
VM Backup ensures that any data which is no longer required is removed in a timely manner.
As you have seen, VM Backup V9 from HornetSecurity, is a powerful and at the same time simple tool to implement an RDP for any company, and at affordable costs…
No olvides descargar la versión de TRIAL para construir tu laboratorio y realizar las pruebas de las diferentes opciones.
Download VM Backups V9 by clicking on this link.
