We’re pleased to announce version 17.9 of SolarWinds Backup is currently available in RC mode for SolarWinds RMM. Newly created backup accounts running RC Agent 10.7.0 and up, including all new Backup & Recovery “Documents” accounts, will automatically install and run the new Backup 17.9 version, which contains many performance and feature improvements as detailed below. 

Existing server and workstation backup accounts that are updated to RMM Agent v10.6.1 and up, will be also be upgraded to Backup version 17.9. This migration will take place in the background after initially installing Backup version 16.11 – please read the ‘Upgrade Path’ notes below for more information about the upgrade process.

Backup version 17.9 is a cumulative release of features introduced since version 16.10 and includes major architectural development designed to improve performance, responsiveness and scalability of the Backup & Recovery infrastructure. The majority of the enhancements seen in this release are built around this new architecture:

— Faster Recovery and Shorter Backup Windows – Speed, efficiency, and reliability have always been a core technology focus for SolarWinds Backup. In this update, we have focused on optimizing efficiency and speed of both backup and restore, along with improvements to optimize available bandwidth utilization and enhance software performance. Users can expect to see a positive impact to the initial and ongoing backup times as well as restore and recovery times.

— Backup Register Optimization – We have optimized and reduced the amount of catalog data that is required to be downloaded from the cloud.  This download of catalog data is required when re-deploying the Backup Manager, when performing a Bare Metal Recovery, or enabling Continuous Recovery within the Recovery Console. Partners may notice shorter recovery times for large systems or devices with longer than normal retention periods.

— Recovery Console – Continuous restores and on-demand restores will now utilize this new architecture to display the available restore sessions and directory tree structure more quickly. Please ensure that you have updated your Recovery Console installations to the latest version to ensure compatibility.

— Metal Recovery – BMR sessions will display the available restore sessions more quickly, and the directory tree structure will allow restores to be started in much shorter time frames. Please update your USB thumb drives and boot media to the latest version. Our Bare Metal Recovery tool has been enhanced so that the backup register is now written directly to the disk being recovered instead of the USB boot media or a temporary network share when using the .ISO image.  This will improve performance during restores and use less resources.

— Cleaning Enhancements – Cleaning is a background maintenance process used by the Backup Manager to purge expired data. We have made significant performance improvements to the cleaning cycle, allowing it to complete more easily in between backups. Partners with large or frequent backups may notice shorter session duration and see reduced storage usage on their Local Speed Vault.

— Default AES-256 bit Encryption – We have updated the Backup Manager to default to AES-256 bit encryption for all new installations. Prior deployed devices continue to use AES-128 bit encryption.

— VMware 6.5 Support – Host-level backup and recovery, Virtual Disaster Recovery and Continuous Restores from the Recovery Console now support VMware 6.5. Please ensure that you have updated all of your backup components to the latest version to ensure full compatibility.

— Windows Server 2016 Support – Protect your files, applications and VMs hosted on Windows Server 2016.

— “Documents” Backup for Windows Workstations – We now have a new backup option called Documents, an affordable, fully automated cloud backup of business documents* on Windows workstations:

• Cloud Only: Backup and restore to/from the Solarwinds cloud
• Windows Workstations Only: You don’t use this to protect a file server
• 100% Automated: No need to select what or when to backup
• Auto Scheduling: Backup twice daily for 28 days (up to 56 restore points)
• Auto Selection: Only includes specific document* types, not the full system
• Unlimited File Count: No limit to the number of protected files
• Affordable pricing: Contact your account manager for region specific pricing
• Protected document files:

Documents – .DOC | .DOCX | .ODT  | .PAGES | .RTF | .TXT | .WPD | .WPS
Data Files – .CSV | .PPS | .ODC | .ODF
Page Layout Files – .PDF | .ODG
Presentations – .KEY | .ODP | .PPT  | .PPTX
Spreadsheets – .XLP | .ODS | .XLS | .XLSX | .numbers

For more information about Backup & Recovery Documents, please refer to this earlier post.

B&R Download Links

Backup & Recovery v17.9 includes updates to the downloadable tools Recovery Console, Bare Metal Recovery, and Virtual Drive. The updated links will be made available in RMM in the coming days, please download the latest versions in order to work with devices that are using Backup v17.9. For devices on Backup v16.10 or earlier, you need to use the ‘pre v17’ version of the download tools.

Coming soon: New v17.9 compatible Recovery Console, Bare Metal Recovery and Virtual Drive downloads

Upgrade Path from version 16.10 to version 17.9

Newly created Backup & Recovery accounts, including all B&R “Documents” accounts, will automatically install Backup v17.9 and start off on this version.

Existing Backup & Recovery accounts will initially migrate from v16.10 to v16.11 when you upgrade to RMM Agent 10.6.1 and above. They will subsequently be updated to v17.9 in the background, without requiring any further RMM Agent updates. Please note that this upgrade is scheduled in our backend system and that there may be a gap of several days from initially installing Backup version 16.11 to the system updating to version 17.9.

To check which Backup version a device is on, go to Backup Manager, then click ‘Backup & Recovery’ top left of the screen. This will open up an info panel stating the Backup version, and also which B&R product the device is using (Documents, Professional, or Server).

During the upgrade to 17.9 partners may experience slightly longer upgrade times during which the Backup Service Controller service is stopped.  Partners should not interrupt this upgrade process and the should take care that any automation which is monitoring and restarting services does not interrupt the upgrade process.

End of Life Operating Systems

We are announcing the end of development, testing and auto updates for specific manufacturer’s published End of Life and End of Support (EOL\EOS) operating systems. This includes:

• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003
• Microsoft Windows Vista
• Microsoft Windows XP
• VMware ESX 5.0 and earlier (Host level backup only)

All existing backup and restore functionality will remain in the current versions of the backup product, however support will be limited and new software releases will not be developed or tested on these platforms, nor will they be eligible for Auto Update.

End of Life Applications

We are announcing the end of development and testing for specific manufacturer’s published End of Life and End of Support (EOL\EOS) applications. This includes:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
• Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 and earlier

All existing backup and restore functionality will remain in the current versions of the backup product, however support will be limited and new software releases will not be developed or tested on these platforms, nor will they be eligible for Auto Update.

Customer Issues / Bug fixes

Issue – Addressed recovery to Hyper-V naming issues on non-English Windows installations
Issue – Addressed issues with Virtual Drive that prevented browsing the root volume
Issue – Addressed issue where Continuous Restore completes with Technical error #522
Issue – Addressed an issue where delta restore of MS SQL was not working properly
Issue – Made improvements to consistency checks to better handle aborted backups
Issue – Addressed an issue where the BMR tool could fail to format the USB stick.
Issue – Addressed a seeding issue where ServerTool.exe could not support a 255 character path name.
Issue – Corrected an issue where the Spring Time Change could cause a backup session to not start.
Issue – Corrected an issue where the ‘Skip files that have not changed’ option was not working for work for File and Folder and Network Shares, when specifying a ‘Restore to’ location.
Issue – Corrected an issue where Backup filters applied to a directory (c:\directory ) only work one time.
Issue – Addressed an issue where downloading the Backup Register during BMR was performing very slowly.