We’re pleased to share that we’re putting the finishing touches on a significant update to Managed Online Backup, following on the heels of last week’s upgrade to Backup Manager (RC Agent v9.13.4). In the next release we’ll be adding the ability to perform Bare Metal Recovery in MAX RM, and give access to MAX Backup’s Virtual Drive and the Recovery Console tools – we expect to release this shortly and will let you know as soon as it goes live.

With extended Managed Online Backup you can proactively backup and restore entire systems, offering customers an end-to-end business continuity service, all managed from the MAX RM Dashboard. Users of MAX Backup will already be familiar with these powerful features, for those who are new to these services, here’s a quick overview:

• Bare Metal Recovery (BMR): This technology lets you recover your system directly to bare hardware without a prior OS installation. The technology relies on a custom recovery environment running from a bootable USB or CD media. Bare metal recovery is similar to Virtual Disaster Recovery in that they both require a backup of the Windows File System and System State to rebuild a failed Windows system.

• Recovery Console: This is a new multi-instance recovery tool that enables system administrators and service providers set up proactive data recovery from servers and workstations to any location. It lets you recover data belonging to the following data sources: Files and Folders, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, Hyper-V, VMware, Virtual Disaster Recovery (Full System Recovery).

• Virtual Drive: This utility allows you to mount a virtual drive on the target machine and access all of the device’s backup contents from the online storage or LocalSpeedVault (where configured) through a file browser, as you would a physical drive on the local computer.

Here are a few screenshots to show you where you can find the new options in the Dashboard:

1. In the Managed Online Backup dropdown menu, you’ll now see a new ‘Download’ option, from where you can download and install MAX Backup’s Recovery Console, the Bare Metal Recovery tool, and Virtual Drive feature (1)

2. To use the new services, you need a device’s Encryption Key along with the device name and password – you can get this from the Managed Online Backup tab on the Edit Server or Edit Workstation dialog (2)

3. Once you select this option you’ll be prompted for your Dashboard password for security. It will then give you the credentials you need to use the new features (3)

Of course, the new features are subject to a user’s Dashboard permissions – to see them you need to have ‘Usage’ turned on under Managed Online Backup in the Roles and Permissions section of the Dashboard.

Here are the full release notes:

Summary for Service Release
– Service release focused on customer support priorities
– Dashboard v6.10.2
– No Agent change

Dashboard v6.10.2
FEATURE: Added support for Bare Metal Recovery and Continuous Restore to Managed Online Backup
FEATURE: Added download links for Bare Metal Recovery, Recovery Console & Virtual Drive tools under Managed Online Backup
FEATURE: Added ability to securely request recovery credentials on the Edit Device dialog for use with Bare Metal Recovery & Recovery Console tools
UPDATE: Added logging to User Audit Report for recovery credential requests for Managed Online Backup
BUGFIX: Resolve sporadic issue to ensure the Take Control Report always shows the session start and end times
BUGFIX: Address an issue whereby some devices stopped receiving Managed Antivirus definition updates
BUGFIX: Correct hung Managed Antivirus Bitdefender scans that appear to be running for days
BUGFIX: No longer prompt user for action on behavioral threats if deselected in Managed Antivirus policy
BUGFIX: Added in language support to password reset