Today, we’re pleased to announce that Backup & Recovery “Documents” for workstations becomes generally available (GA) in the first set of RMM territories after a successful release candidate (RC) period. This innovation in workstation backup offers purpose-built protection of all key user files including Word, Excel, PowerPoints, CSVs and many more, all automatically selected on workstations with single click deployment.

The release is currently live in the Asia Pacific region and selected European territories. The US / Americas region and the majority of the European locations, including Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and the Nordic countries are due to follow in the next few days. We’ll let you know once the update is available in each territory.

Turnkey Protection for Workstations

Backup & Recovery “Documents” will back up all your critical user files twice a day, offering 56 restore points, with the convenience of self-service restore for users. Files and documents can be restored in minutes in the event of a ransomware attack, a lost or stolen laptop, or other emergency, providing security and business continuity to your clients at an extremely competitive rate. Workstation backup provides a highly effective defense against security intrusions and is an essential component of any multi-layered security offering.

Backup & Recovery “Documents” runs on version 17.9 of SolarWinds Backup, which we’re rolling out to RMM installations when you upgrade to the latest RMM Agent version, v10.7.1. Please see last week’s announcement for more information about the performance and feature improvements in Backup version 17.9.

With Backup & Recovery “Documents” being made GA, you’ll be able to set this option at Client and Site level using the Backup & Recovery “Settings” dialog to turn it on for workstations:

Go to the Settings dropdown menu, then select Backup & Recovery > Settings:

Please note: In order to turn Backup & Recovery Documents on, you must first upgrade your Windows workstations to use the latest Agent v10.7.1, the new GA Agent. To do so, go to the Agent dropdown menu and select ‘Agent Auto-update Settings’.

We encourage you to view Backup & Recovery “Documents” as an essential component in managed IT security offerings, and recommend applying it at Client and Site level. However, it is also possible to enable “Documents” at individual workstation level by going to the Edit Workstation dialog for a computer on the latest Agent, then turning Documents on via the Backup & Recovery tab:

Double click a workstation on the latest Agent, then go to Backup & Recovery to enable Documents: 

With Backup & Recovery “Documents”, use Backup Manager to quickly and easily restore from any of the last 28 days’ backups. Backup Manager also offers clients the ability to perform a restore themselves. The Backup Manager tool is simplified to provide just the options you need: the ‘Overview’ and the ‘Restore’ sections:

Please be aware that if a workstation is currently using the existing “Professional” version of Backup & Recovery, and you wish to change this to “Documents”, that you must first turn Backup & Recovery off for the workstation, client or site in question. Once Backup & Recovery has uninstalled, you can turn it back on, this time selecting “Documents” as your backup package.

Here’s the complete list of file types that are automatically detected and backed up with Backup & Recovery “Documents”:

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

One final but important note: While the Backup & Recovery “Documents” feature is now generally available, we’ll not be charging for the service for the month of November. December will be the first billable month of this feature. It means you can test and deploy Backup & Recovery “Documents” entirely free of charge for a few more days – we hope you take advantage!

Summary for Service Release
– Backup & Recovery “Documents” GA, with option to enable at Client and Site level
– Dashboard v6.50
– Windows Agent v10.7.1 GA, no new RC agent. Please note, v10.7.1 will also show as the RC Agent, but to confirm, it is the new GA Agent. 

Dashboard 6.50
FEATURE: Enable Backup & Recovery “Documents” at Client and Site level in the Backup & Recovery Settings dialog
UPDATE: A new link to the Filter Manager section from the device view dropdown menu in the north panel
BUGFIX: Resolve issue causing the Performance Monitoring Check to report a timeout and not generate the report

Windows Agent 10.7.1 GA
BUGFIX: Ensure Kaspersky Anti-Virus is detected correctly in the Antivirus Update Check

Windows Agent 10.7.1 includes all the updates since the current production Agent v10.6.1:

Agent 10.7.0 RC
FEATURE: New Backup & Recovery ‘Documents’ feature for out-of-the-box workstation backup
UPDATE: Backup Manager agent for Backup & Recovery upgraded to v17.9