Vembu Backup for Endpoints

In my pervious blog post “Vembu BDR Suite 5.5 released” I gave an overview of the Vembu BDR Suite, the new features and enhancements in version 5.5, the Vembu BDR Suite Editions and the Licensing and Pricing of the Vembu BDR Suite.
In this blog post I will focus a little bit more on Vembu Backup for Endpoints, one of the solutions of the Vembu BDR Suite.

Key Features

The key features that are offered with Vembu Backup for Endpoints are:

  • Files/Folders Backup
    • Backup individual files and folders from your Windows or Mac endpoints to the Vembu BDR Backup Server for free.
  • Flexible Scheduling options
    • Vembu provides Continuous Data Protection for backing up files and folders on a minute-by-minute, hourly, daily, or weekly basis.
  • Interruption-free Backup
    • After an interruption, Vembu will intelligently resume the backup from where it left off.
  • Deleted File Retention
    • Retain any number of deleted files/folders based on its version count or the number of versions created within a time frame.
  • In-built Compression & Encryption
    • All backups are compressed by the VembuHIVE file system & encrypted using the AES-256 bit algorithm both in flight and at rest.
  • Restore anywhere
    • Instantly restore the entire backup files/folders to the original location or an alternate location.
  • Bandwidth Throttling
    • This feature allows you to throttle the speed of the backup data transfer for a selected time, and helps in reducing the network traffic.
  • Email Notification
    • Enable email notifications to receive notifications about the current status of the configured backups (like success, failure, missed, etc.)

Editions

Vembu Backup for Endpoints comes in two (2) Editions:

  • Free Edition
  • Standard Edition

The Free Edition offers the same functionality as the Standard Edition but is limited to 10 endpoints. As you can easily switch from the Free to the Standard Edition, there is nothing holding you back to start with the Free Edition.

Vembu BDR Backup Server and Vembu BDR Suite Client

Since the Vembu Backup for Endpoint solution is a client/server solution, there are basically only two things you need to get started with Vembu Backup for Endpoints:

  • Server ==> Vembu BDR Suite Backup Server
  • Client ==> Vembu BDR Suite Client

The Installation of the Vembu BDR Suite Backup Server is very straightforward and can be executed in less then 5 minutes. The installation is very well documented by Vembu on their website: https://www.bdrsuite.com/guide/vembu-bdr-suite/5-5/en/bdr-installation-windows.html. I made a small 5-minute video about the installation so you can see how easy it is.

Each endpoint needs to have a Vembu BDR Suite Client installed (=Agent). According to Vembu’s documentation, the following Operating Systems are supported:

  • Windows
    • Windows 8.1, 10, 11
    • Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019, 2022
  • Linux
    • Debian 10 and above
    • Centos 7.0 and above
    • CloudLinux 7.0 and above
    • Fedora 34.0
    • RHEL 8.0
    • Suse Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 & above
    • Ubuntu 18.04 & Above
  • MacOS
    • MacOS 10.14 (Mojave)
    • MacOS 10.15 (Catalina)
    • MacOS 11.0 (Big Sur)

In the above list I am however missing

I hope Vembu will very soon also support these endpoints.

General configuration

After you installed the Vembu BDR Suite Backup Server it needs to be configured.

For this open the Vembu BDR Suite Management console (http://<yourbackupserver>:6060 or https://<yourbackupserver>:6061) and login with the username/password you have set up during the installation of the Vembu BDR Suite Backup Server.

Configure Backup Repository

The first thing to do is to configure your Backup Repository. A Backup Repository is where backup data is stored. The backup repository can be created immediately after the installation process or it can be created while configuring backup jobs. To create a Backup Repository, the backup data must be stored in either of the following storage types.

  • Block Storage
  • Object Storage

For a full explanation on Backup Repositories, please see the documentation on the Vembu website

 

For this blog post I choose the D: drive of my Vembu BDR Suite Backup Server. You obviously should choose a Backup Repository that is large enough to hold all your backups.

To create a Backup Repository, go to the Backup Server tile, Backup Repository Menu and choose to create Block Storage of Object Storage.The below screenshots show the process to follow to create the Block Storage Backup Repository.

Other configurations

Other configurations to consider can also be done via the Backup Server tile:

  • Infrastructure – Cluster Servers
    • Cluster setup supports load balancing and scalability by combining multiple servers, each running an instance of the BDR Backup Server application
  • Infrastructure – Offsite DR
    • For Disaster Recovery, an Offsite Copy of your backup data can be enabled from this page. You can configure Offsite Copy to your own data center or to BDRSuite Cloud based on requirements.
  • Infrastructure – .360 server
    • BDRSuite 360 Server allows centralized monitoring of multiple distributed BDR Servers. Configure 360 Server details and register this BDR Server to the 360 Server.
  • Infrastructure – AD/LDAP Server
    • Add and Manage Active Directory/LDAP Servers from here. You can import and add AD/LDAP users to the server and assign the privilege to access BDRSuite Server console.
  • Management – Users
    • BDR Users who have access to this server are listed here. You can add & delete users, and assign access privileges to each user.
  • Management – Editions
    • To change the edition of teh BDR SUIte between Free, Standard and Enterprise
  • Management – License
    • Register the BDRSuite Backup Server with your BDRSuite Portal account to extend trial, receive technical support during trial, understand how licensing works and purchase and manage licenses.
  • Management – Tenants
    • Create Tenants by combining the different entities (Hosts/VMs/Servers/Workstations/Organizations/Accounts) added to the backup server and add users for each Tenant. You can also edit, view and manage the Tenants associated with this backup server from here.
  • Credential Management for
    • Hosts (VMware, Hyper-V, Windows, Linux)
    • Azure Accounts
    • Amazon S3
    • S3 Compatible
    • Azure Blob Storage
    • Google Cloud
    • ConnectWise Manage
  • Settings – SMTP
    • Configure SMTP Server settings to enable email notifications and send the reports automatically through email
  • Settings – Web Proxy
    • BDRSuite Server requires an internet connection to connect with BDRSuite Portal for license administration. If the BDRSuite has to use a proxy for internet connectivity, then you need to configure the Web/HTTP(s) proxy settings from this page
  • Settings – Time Zone
    • By default, the time zone is set automatically based on the time zone settings of the BDRSuite Backup Server and will be used to display the date and time across all pages.

Backup and Restore

Backup

To backup an endpoint the BDRSuite Client needs to be installed on the endpoint and a backup job needs to be created.

Installation of the BDR Suite Client can be done in various ways:

  • Automated install in bulk:
  • Manual installation of the BDRSuite Backup Client via a downloaded installation package
    • Open the management console of BDRSuite and go to Endpoints in the top menu bar.
      • select Data Sources
      • select Manage BDRSuite Clients
      • select Download BDRSuite Client.
      • select the type of client you want to download
    • The client package can then be installed manually on the target system or via the below command line
      • msiexec /i BDRSuite_Client_Files_Applications_5_5_0.msi /qn ISENDPOINTENABLED="1" BACKUPSERVERINFO="<Enter BDRSuite Backup Server IP Address/DNS Name>" BUILDTYPE="14"
  • Manually install the BDR Suite client via the BDR Suite management console
    • Open the management console of BDRSuite and go to Endpoints in the top menu bar.
      • select Data Sources
      • select Add Microsoft Windows (or “Add Linux”)
        • at this moment MAC OS is not yet in the list. However, Vembu support mentioned that they are working on the option to manage the MAC Endpoint backup from the BDRsuite console itself in our upcoming releases.
      • Click “Add Microsoft Windows”
        • select Add Manually
        • Enter IP address / DNS name of the endpoint you want to backup
        • Add (or select) credentials (make sure you add credentials with admin rights on the endpoint you want to backup)
        • Select “Automatically Install BBA in the target host” (BBA = BDRSuite Backup Agent)

 

The process is documented on the Vembu website:

 

Once the BDRSuite Backup Client is installed you have to create a backup job and provide details on which files and folders you want to include, the schedule, and retention.

  • Open the management console of BDRSuite and go to Endpoints in the top menu bar.
    • select Backup
    • select Configure Backup
    • select Microsoft Windows (of Linux)
    • Provide a Backup job name, Backup repository, Job description and click on “Next: Select Hosts to backup”
    • Select the host(s) you want to backup with this particular backup job
    • Select the Files and folders you want to backup
    • Define the backup schedule
    • Define other settings
      • Retention
      • Encryption
      • Other settings (only backup changed blocks, use Windows Directory Monitoring, use VSS)
    • Review and confirm the backup job details

The process is documented on the Vembu website:

In the reports section you can see the details of the backup job

 

Restore

The restore of files/folders for endpoints is very straight forward. The process to follow is the following

  • Open the management console of BDRSuite and go to Endpoints in the top menu bar.
    • select Recover
    • select “Restore” next to the backup job you want to restpre from
    • Choose the host you want to restore and the restore type (File Level Recovery)
    • Choose your restore point (date/time of the backup)
    • Select the files/folder you want to restore
    • Select the location you want to restore to
    • Select if you want to compress and/or encrypt the restored files
    • Review and confirm you the restore details

The process is documented on the Vembu website:

In the reports section you can see the details of the restore job:

 

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