Good News! Altaro Hyper-V Backup is now support Windows Server 2012. We, ms4u.info has managed to get a copy of the Altaro Hyper-V Backup version 3.5.5 to review and test the product in our test environment. Here is my test scenario:-
My Test Scenario:-
- 1 unit of Stand Alone Windows Server 2012 RC Hyper-V
- 2 unit of Cluster Windows Server 2012 RC Hyper-V
- Altaro Hyper-V Backup Win 2012-beta-1-3-5-5
- File Server Windows Server 2012 RC- With De-duplication Enabled.
Software Size : Still remain as small size with just 13.5 MB. No additional pre-requisite, database, etc except .Net Framework 3.5.
Installation Review: Straight forward without any hassle except you need to make sure you have install .Net Framework 3.5 from the Server Manager.
If you did not install .Net Framework,then you will receive an error message “ Altaro Hyper-V Backup Setup Wizard ended prematurely”.
Where to install ? Just run Altaro Hyper-V Backup execution program from Hyper-V Host either on cluster or stand-alone Hyper-V node.
Agent Deployment Review : Simple. If you’re in the cluster, then you need to specify the Altaro master controller and 2nd node as Altaro Hyper-V Backup Agent. Reminder again, please deploy .Net Framework 3.5 into entire cluster node before deploy an agent to Hyper-V Host.
New Metro UI look : Here is how the dashboard look like.
Cluster Hyper-V Backup:-
Stand-Alone Hyper-V Backup
De-Duplication Support –Able to backup to dedup file server running in Windows Server 2012.
Rather than backup to USB, i have decided use UNC Network Path to De-duplication File Server running in Windows Server 2012.
When backup running, it seem the de-duplication is working fine! Refer to below figure showing the de-duplication progress
To configure de-duplication, you can refer to my previous article:- http://www.ms4u.info/2012/06/configure-deduplication-for-vmm-library.html
De-duplication result
Network Path Support – Yes! Backup of virtual machine using Network path is supported. My Backup drive is pointing to UNC Network Path File Server running in Windows Server 2012. The option to backup to external USB drive is still supported and provide a good option for people to easily move the backup to alternate location.
Restoration:-
You also can restore a VM by using UNC Network path.
By using Altaro Hyper-V Backup, you can connect to UNC Network path and select the VM that you would like to import. This is my favourite option and quite useful during lab testing.
Select the version that you would like to recover and before restore, you have the option to disable the Network adapter to avoid conflict of IP address.
Now let look into Item Level Recovery (ILR). Well, we often would like to recover an item and of cause avoid restore the entire virtual hard disk. Here Altaro Hyper-V Backup provide an option to use “File Level Restore” to achieve ILR. Just select the VM and it will mount it. Then use Windows Explorer to copy an item. Once complete, remember to unmount the VHD.
Let proceed to look on other supported features:-
SMB3 Support – Yes ! VM running in SMB3 is supported and able to backup
without any problem.
VHDX Support – Yes! Altaro Hyper-V Backup was able to backup VHD and the latest virtual machine format : VHDX which can support up to 64TB.
Snapshot VM is backup as well (refer to below screenshot-avhd file).
Cluster Shared Volume 3 (CSV3) Support- Yes!. Was able to backup the entire virtual machine residing in CSV3 – Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Cluster.
Live Migrate the VM to another host – Altaro Agent was able to detect and backup VM which located in another node.
Linux or Non VSS Support Guest Operating system backup is still available. Previously i have talk about it here.
Now, let say if you would like to clean-up or remove unwanted VM backup. You can easily select which version of backup to remove or delete the entire VM which is no longer protected by Altaro. Just a few click to get the job done in the faster way.
What are you waiting for? Let start to evaluate and test the product. The beta product came with 30 days of free trial. Do use the Altaro Error Reporter to report any bug to the Altaro product team.
We appreciate and need your valuable feedback to improve the product before release as full version. Want more good news!
“Altaro are also giving away two free Nexus 7’s to testers of their Hyper-V backup for Win 2012 beta. Check out all the details here.”
