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BackupAssist

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BackupAssist
Developer(s)Cortex IT Labs
Initial release2002
Stable release
v8.4.0 latest release date - 17 March 2015
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows Server 2012 R2/2012/2008/2008 R2/2003; Microsoft Small Business Server 2011/2008/2003; Microsoft Windows 8/7/Vista/XP
TypeWindows Server Backup software
LicenseCommercial proprietary
Websitehttp://www.backupassist.com

BackupAssist is a Windows Server Backup and Disaster Recovery application. Built and marketed to the small to medium business markets, it provides protection for Microsoft Windows Server, Windows Small Business Server, Hyper-V, Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server.[1]

BackupAssist is a software product that allows the backup of Microsoft Windows servers, and is designed to integrate and enhance the existing backup tools present in the Windows operating system (such as Wbadmin, Rsync, Ntbackup, ZIP (file format) and exmerge).

Major Releases [2]

  • Version 9.2.1-28 January 2016 - Improved iSCI target detection, restore option 'Files inside Hyper-V guests' made available on non Hyper-V machines
  • Version 9.2-16 December 2015 - NEW: Exchange 2016 support, improved stability of Restore Console, Significant improvements to backup verification speed for incremental File Archiving jobs
  • Version 9.1-18 November 2015 - NEW: Windows 10 OS support, NEW: Remote Deployment in MultiSite Manager, Rapid VM Recovery extended to multiple guests
  • Version 9-30 September 2015 - NEW: Rapid VM Recovery, NEW: Hyper-V Tab for guest management, NEW: Bootable Backup Media, NEW: VHDX Data Containers, NEW: Integrated Restore Console, NEW: Up to 40% faster backup speeds
  • Version 8.4.0–17 March 2015 - Added deduplicated volume backup information to relevant backup reports
  • Version 8.3.0–29 January 2015 - Integration with BitLocker for encryption of backup destinations
  • Version 8.2.1–17 December 2014 - NEW - folder exclusions feature for File Protection and File Archiving, with updated combined exclusions UI
  • Version 8.2.0–19 November 2014 - NEW: BitLocker support for image backups and Hyper-V Granular Restore Console supports all backups
  • Version 8.1.1–15 October 2014 - Enhancements to data containers, VSS logging and more information in destination diagnostics
  • Version 8.1.0–17 September 2014 - Improved handling of virtual and iSCSI disks, tweaks to backup verification
  • Version 8.0.3–21 August 2014 - Tweaks to backup verification, and our Hyper-V Granular Restore, Exchange Granular Restore Add-ons
  • Version 8.0.2–22 July 2014 - Added further support for Hyper-V and backup verifications
  • Version 8.0.1–9 July 2014 - NEW: RecoverAssist can now use BitLocker protected image backups, further tweaks and support for Windows 2012R2 for Hyper-V and CSV environments
  • Version 8–19 June 2014 - NEW: Superior imaging backups, NEW: Improved imaging backup reports, NEW: Advanced verification of backups, NEW: Rapid and precise Backups, NEW: Dedicated Hyper-V Set ups, NEW: Custom Schemes, NEW: Exchange Granular Restore, NEW: Improved volume management.
  • Version 7.4.5–19 April 2014 - NEW: Provide support for the Hyper-V Config Reporter on 2012 R2
  • Version 7.4.4–2 April 2014 - Maintenance release fixing some minor issues
  • Version 7.4.3–13 March 2014 - NEW: Exchange Guest detection when running Hyper-V backups on a Server 2012 R2 server
  • Version 7.4.2–13 February 2014 - Maintenance release fixing some minor issues with Trial versions
  • Version 7.4.1–5 February 2014 - NEW: Enable concurrent backup for SQL and Exchange Mailbox Add-ons, NEW: Allow sending short/private backup report to CMC
  • Version 7.4.0 – 17 December 2013 - NEW: Support for Windows Server 2012 R2. NEW: restore log file that contains a list of all files processed during a restore and the result for each file. NEW: Recovery options section for System Protection backup reports. This section explains the BIOS, EFI and Hyper-V guest recovery options for each System Protection backup
  • Version 7.3.1 – 29 October 2013 - NEW; Allow Exchange Granular Restore for Exchange databases from within backups of Hyper-V guests.
  • Version 7.3.0 – 25 September 2013 - NEW; Direct Exchange Injection: Restore mail items directly into a live Exchange Server.
  • Version 7.2.1 – 13 August 2013 - NEW: RecoverAssist now includes an option to add third party diagnostic tools for use within a recovery environment. NEW: Backup reports now show the backup start and end time as well as the backup engine type.NEW: Increased support for Server 2012 R2, NEW: Improved installation process,
  • Version 7.2.0 – 22 July 2013 - New Exchange Granular Restore and support for Exchange 2013, launch hyper-v and SQL restore consoles from Central Administration, better support for data containers
  • Version 7.1.1 – 3 July 2013 - Enhancements to improve support for proxy servers when sending CMC reports and other web requests. Better support when restoring a Server 2012 backup from a Data Container on a Linux-based NAS with sparse files enable
  • Version 7.1.0 – 20 June 2013 - Exchange Granular Restore in beta, improved server 2012 support, data container as a backup destination, enhancements to Central Monitoring Console
  • Version 7.0.0 – 25 February 2013 - New and enhanced User Interface, New Central Administration, Support for Server 2012 and Windows 8, Upgraded VHD Support, Improved VSS Diagnostics
  • Version 6.4.0 – 3 April 2012 - Added support for iSCSI backups and now also includes RecoverAssist recovery environment.
  • Version 6.3.1 – 8 March 2012 - Fixes for HyperV backups using Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV).
  • Version 6.3.0 – 7 February 2012 - Maintenance release fixing some minor issues with Hyper-V, Mailbox restore & Zip-to-Tape.
  • Version 6.2.8 – 15 December 2011 - Maintenance release fixing some minor issues with Zip-to-tape, Truecrypt and Zip backups.
  • Version 6.2.7 – 17 November 2011 - Important maintenance release with a significant fix to the Zip and File Replication engines.
  • Version 6.2.6 – 20 October 2011 - Fixes to some known issues within the Zip engine and also the UI of the software.
  • Version 6.2.5 – 13 September 2011 - Improvements to System State backups, the Hyper-V Granular Restore Console and support for Microsoft Exchange 2010 Client Access Server.
  • Version 6.2.4 – 28 June 2011 - Fixes and improvements, including SBS Performance Report Integration for SBS 2011.
  • Version 6.2.3 – 1 June 2011 - Important fixes for anyone running Windows Imaging backups.
  • Version 6.2.2 – 28 April 2011 - Introduced fixes and Italian language support.
  • Version 6.1 – 21 October 2010 - Added SBS2008 Report Integration feature.
  • Version 6 – 9 September 2010 - VSS application and System State backup added. Disk Imaging support for Server 2008 R2. Support for Exchange Server 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2.
  • Version 5.4 – 31 December 2009 - Added support for one-pass Hyper-V backup. Granular restore of VM and files added.
  • Version 5.3 – 23 September 2009 - ZIP (file format) Multi-threading Engine added. Is Zip64 compliant, VSS Aware, AES 256 encryption and supports NTFS Stream greater than 64Kb.
  • Version 5.1 – 15 December 2008 - Rsync Internet Backup Engine added
  • Version 5 – 13 October 2008 – File Replication Engine added. Disk Imaging support for Server 2008 (Wbadmin).
  • Version 4 – 8 May 2007 – application rewritten in .NET Framework, 64 bit OS support
  • Version 3.5 – 8 November 2006 – Exchange mailbox backups
  • Version 3 – 16 July 2004 – SQL Server backups
  • Version 2 – 24 October 2003
  • Version 1 – 28 August 2002

History

BackupAssist started as a small project designed to help a system administrator use NTBackup on Windows NT and 2000. Due to the many shortcomings with certain features of NTBackup (scheduling, media rotation and monitoring), the purpose of BackupAssist was to provide users software that could back up their servers as per their requirements.[3]

When BackupAssist was initially released in 2002, a basic website was created to help support the software. Over the next few years, extra features were implemented that allowed users to choose from a variety of backup destinations such as tape drives, NAS, REV drives, external hard drives and CD/DVDs.[4][5] Add-ons for Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Server mailboxes were introduced in 2006.

By 2007, a totally rewritten version of the software was released with a new architecture based around "Backup Engine Independence".

In February 2008, a solution for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 was released, featuring drive imaging capabilities.

When version 5 was released in October 2008, BackupAssist enabled people to create copies of their data on their Local Area Network (LAN) and on the Internet. With multiple copies of data stored in different locations, users of BackupAssist have a better chance when recovering from computer, Office, Network and Regional disaster. For example: 1) File Replication Engine with VSS Snapshots mirrors a second copy of their working folders from their server to anywhere on their LAN. Only a fraction of the space is required at the new location because BackupAssist uses the Single Instance Store. 2) For people who are interested to keep a copy of their data on the Internet, use BackupAssist for Rsync.

For system administrators managing a dozen or more servers, use the Centralized Monitoring Console to reduce backup management to less than an hour a week. Receive all backup results in one email, monitor results from anywhere around the world, drill down to investigate individual failed backups and analyze monthly backup statistics (success, failures, data growth,etc.). The Centralized Monitoring Console is "Cloud" hosted solution that processes all the backup reports and produces meaningful data for better management.

Also in February 2009, BackupAssist released a solution for Exchange Server 2007 backups on Windows Server 2008. This solution overcomes the limitation in the Windows Server Backup application (wbadmin) on Windows Server 2008 that does not allow for live streaming backups of Exchange Server 2007.[6]

Architecture

The concept of "Backup Engine Independence" is a key differentiating factor between BackupAssist and other similar products. By designing BackupAssist to be able to interface with any backend engine, it is possible to add extra capabilities to BackupAssist easily.[3] This is done by interfacing with existing, well known, popular engines – such as the Microsoft Block Level Backup engine (drive imaging) on Windows Server 2008, Rsync, Ntbackup, ZIP (file format), Exmerge and Stsadm.

Reception

See also

References

  1. ^ "Solutions - BackupAssist". Tucows. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 7 July 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "BackupAssist version history page". BackupAssist. Retrieved 15 May 2005.
  3. ^ a b "BackupAssist Blog". BackupAssist. Retrieved 15 May 2005.
  4. ^ "Hardware Compatibility List". BackupAssist. Retrieved 15 May 2005.
  5. ^ "PC Pro UK review". PC Pro. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
  6. ^ "Windows IT Pro Review of Exchange 2007 backup capability". Windows IT Pro. Retrieved 10 April 2009.
  7. ^ "4.5/5 Star Review for BackupAssist". Download.com. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  8. ^ "10 / 10 awarded to BackupAssist". toptenreviews.com. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
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