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Posts tagged Altaro
Free Altaro licenses
Nov 30th
Altaro, developers of Altaro Hyper-V Backup, are giving something back this holiday season and are giving every Microsoft Hyper-V admin 50 licenses of their desktop backup software, that’s up to $2,000 worth of software.
There’s no catch! All you need to do is send them a screenshot of Hyper-V that proves that you use Hyper-V and they will send you the licenses which you can use on your own machines or give out to friends, family or colleagues, to use at work or home. The giveaway ends on Dec 24th 2012.
To claim your 50 licenses check out http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/50-free-pc-backup-licenses-for-all-hyper-v-admins
To check out their Hyper-V portal check out http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/
For more info about Altaro Hyper-V Backup check out http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v-backup/?LP=Xmas
Altaro Hyper-V Backup 3.5 1st Windows Server 2012 backup product on the planet
Sep 5th
Altaro just launched Altaro Hyper-V Backup 3.5 with the following support:
- Windows Server 2012 Support, including support for VHDX files.
- Windows 2012: support for backup and restore of VMs located on SMB 3.0 network paths.
- Windows 2012: support for Volume Shadow Copies of SMB 3.0 network paths.
- Windows 2012: support for CSV 2.0 and scale-out SMB 3.0 file shares.
- New and improved ‘Metro’-Style User Interface.
From the press release:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=96BA3346350A5309!6675
Review of the product:
http://www.hyper-v.nu/archives/hvredevoort/2012/08/altaro-hyper-v-backup-getting-ready-for-windows-server-2012/
Altaro Hyper-V Backup getting ready for Windows Server 2012
Aug 7th
Review of Altaro Hyper-V Backup 3.5
notice: Altaro are giving away two Nexus 7’s to testers of their Hyper-V backup for Windows Server 2012 beta. Check out all the details at the bottom of this blog
Background
The crew at Hyper-V.nu were offered a first glance of Altaro Hyper-V Backup back in May 2011. We agreed to do a review of the beta version of the product. That particular version of the beta did not have support for Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) and we provided feedback to Altaro about this shortcoming. As our Great Big Hyper-V Survey of 2011 showed, over 94% of users with Hyper-V clusters use CSV. We were pleasantly surprised how quickly Altaro responded by adding support for CSV in one of their next beta’s. So we did a second review testing the backup and recovery of guests living on cluster shared volumes on a Hyper-V R2 SP1 cluster.
Since then Altaro released their RTM of version 2, version 3 and v3.1 which have continued to add functionality, ease and performance. You can find a change log of Altaro Hyper-V Backup here: http://wiki.altaro.com/releases/change-log-for-altaro-hyper-v-backup
One noticeable improvement in version 3 was installation of the product on a cluster. When on a cluster the application could detect each node and configure them during the installation. You only needed to install Altaro Hyper-V Backup on one node and it would then automatically deploy modules on all other cluster nodes. Additionally, the administrator was able to manage all guests across all nodes from a single console. This meant that all backups, restores and configuration could be done from one centralized console. In a cluster environment all guests could be backed up to a single backup target such as a USB drive, a NAS or a disk on a SAN. Even when guests moved around in the cluster, Altaro Hyper-V Backup would take care of that.
By using a technique called ReverseDelta, incremental backups could be made at tremendous speed. The last version introduced ReverseDelta v2 which made incremental backups at least 300% faster.
Version 3 of Altaro Hyper-V backup also dealt with one of CSV’s shortcomings: redirected access during backup operations (backup node claiming ownership of disk and redirecting I/O across the CSV network for all other nodes for that CSV disk). A new scheduling feature called ‘Scheduling Groups’ was introduced which allowed a quick and easy drag & drop of Hyper-V guests to one or more defined Scheduling Groups. It would group guests on the same CSV together in order to decrease time required in redirected access mode. If you are a Data Protection Manager user, you will appreciate this feature as DPM does not do this for you automatically. It is also quite time consuming to even select multiple Hyper-V guests for backup and add them to their Protection Group.
Click on More for the rest of the post
VSS Crash-Consistent vs Application-Consistent VSS Backups (1)
May 1st
I can recommend an interesting 2-part series of blogs which helps you get a better understanding of the theory behind successful backups. In the first blog on Altaro’s Hyper-V blog, VSS Crash-Consistent Backups are compared to Application-Consistent VSS Backups.
When designing any IT solution, many administrators often consider “Backup” to be little more than another box on a long list of items to check off. They verify that the software and hardware they’re using will handle the load, configure it to back up on a reasonable schedule, and forget about it. Some will take the extra step of restoring some data to an alternate location as a test. Hardly any go through the full exercise of simulating an actual catastrophe. Most of the time, this practice is completely harmless. Unfortunately, if disaster does strike, there are often more questions than answers. Planning ahead is critical, and that involves knowing what sort of backup you need and if your backup application can provide it.
You can continue the article here:
http://www.altaro.com/blog/vss-crash-consistent-vs-application-consistent-vss-backups-post-1-of-2/
Look out for the second part of this blog!
Altaro Starts New Blog for Hyper-V & Windows Administrators
Jan 31st
New Hyper-V Blog
Altaro who introduced an easy to use backup product for Hyper-V in 2011, informed us they have just launched a new Hyper-V blog. Their first article goes into good detail about Hyper-V Dynamic Memory and can be found here: http://www.altaro.com/blog/hyper-v-dynamic-memory-explanation-and-recommendations-2/
Version 3 of Altaro Hyper-V Backup
We can also announce that version 3 of Altaro Hyper-V Backup will be released on February 7.
Some of the new features are:
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Central Management console on CSV Cluster
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Increased backup performance with ReverdeDelts V2
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Great new ‘Schedule Groups’ – allows easier backup scheduling
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Live backup of Linux VMs
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5Drive Swap / Rotation.
Currently beta 2 is available here:
Altaro Hyper-V Backup is now launched
Aug 11th
Today Altaro launched their new Hyper-V Backup product. As you can read in the review we wrote earlier, the virtual machine backup software includes support for Cluster Shared Volumes and the very useful Fire Drill feature. Altaro offers 3 editions including a freeware edition. Pricing can be found at the end of this page:
http://www.altaro.com/News_Altaro-Software-brings-Hyper-V-backup-to-SMBs.php
Altaro was kind enough to offer Hyper-V.nu a complimentary unlimited license for Altaro Hyper-V Backup which is worth $445
| Full Altaro Hyper-V Backup Give Away License
I am giving away a full license to the reader who retweets my announcement on Twitter and gets retweeted by the tweeter with the highest number of followers. You can tweet as much as you like. Please send me an e-mail with a copy of this RT to hans [at] hyper-v.nu before Sunday the 14th 2011 noon CET By all means, go to http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v-backup/ for more information on the product! |
Reviewing Altaro Hyper-V Backup including CSV support
Aug 2nd
Back in May, Femi Adegoke reviewed an early beta version of Altaro Hyper-V Backup which was geared to easily backup & recover Hyper-V guests using the Hyper-V VSS Writer. Now Femi submitted his second guest blog focusing on how to protect guests in a clustered Hyper-V environment.
By Femi Adegoke
This is a follow up to our previous blog post from May 2011:
http://www.hyper-v.nu/archives/hvredevoort/2011/05/altaro-hyper-v-backup-review/
One interesting feature in this Altaro Hyper-V Backup release is support for CSV:
http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v-backup/
The current revision of the software is 2.0.8.0 BETA, download size is approximately 12.1 MB.
Our test was performed on a Dell 4 node Hyper-V cluster running 2008 R2 SP1 with a few virtual machines.
Installation
Installing the software was fast & easy and involved only a few mouse clicks. Can you believe that?
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This software installs in less than 3 minutes per node.
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No agent is required inside each guest
Dashboard
Dashboard view (this so schweeet…)
ALTARO Hyper-V Backup Review
May 30th
I received notice from Altaro that they were looking for beta testers for their new Hyper-V Backup software.
Because I was very short on time, one of my Twitter followers Femi Adegoke (@awedio) reacted to one of my tweets so I thought I might ask him to review the product. Well he was very quick to accept my invitation. So here it is, our first guest blog post!
Let me first briefly introduce our guest blogger: Femi Adegoke lives in Thousand Oaks, Southern California. He is in charge of fixing all things IT for healthcare company WGA Management in California. Femi holds a degree in Architecture and Masters in Business. Currently he is implementing VDI using Quest vWorkspace with Hyper-V.
By Femi Adegoke
In Hyper-V world, these are exciting times.
The 3rd party eco-system is growing up. We are seeing new products come to market.
Via Twitter, I hooked up with one of the kings of hyper-v.nu, Cluster MVP, Hans Vredevoort (@hvredevoort). He asked if I would be interested in doing a review of Altaro Hyper-V Backup.
Altaro Software is a technology start-up that recognized the need to develop easy to use and innovative backup software that goes beyond traditional backup functionality. Altaro Hyper-V Backups works on Windows 2008 R2 (all editions), Windows 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows Hyper-V Server R2 (core installation) and should be installed on the Hyper-V Host (not within the guest).
Some features in Altaro Hyper-V Backup:
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Hot Backups – Back up running VMs without stopping them.
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Fully Hyper-V Aware – Altaro Hyper-V Backup does all the complex config connections and allows you to backup any instance in 5 clicks or less.
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Agent Less – Installs on Hyper-V Host without installing anything within the VM itself.
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Flexible & Fully Featured – Backup or Restore Individual VMs without having to restore an entire volume.
The current rev of the software is Beta 2.
The test was performed on a Hyper-V host running 2008 R2 SP1 with 2 virtual machines.
Installation
Installing the software was fast & easy, about 6 mouse clicks. Next, next….x6
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