Welcome to the final release of 2025! Here are the key updates:
- Linux BMR GA – Process of restoring an entire Linux system onto a completely blank physical or virtual machine with no pre-installed OS.
- In-Place Archive Backup GA – Extends Microsoft Exchange protection to archived mailboxes for comprehensive protection and to support compliance.
- Critical Configuration Changes Enters Public Preview – Provides MSPs and IT teams with proactive visibility into changes to backup profiles that could critically impact backup integrity.
Legal Disclaimer: Any usage of the product while in Limited Tech Preview or Public Preview is provided as part of early access. Features may change before general availability, and performance or availability is not guaranteed.
What’s New in the Cove?
Management Console
Enhanced Backup Visualization
An enhanced donut chart has been added to the main dashboard to provide clear visibility into high-frequency backup sessions (i.e. backup intervals of less than 4 hours and less than 1 hour). This enables quick identification of workloads configured for frequent backups, supports SLA adherence, and helps MSPs and IT teams proactively manage backup performance for critical workloads.
Executive Summary Reports Enhancements (Public Preview)
Users can now generate multiple reports for multiple end customers or office sites at once within a single streamlined workflow. This enhancement simplifies operations, boosts overall productivity, and improves the scalability of MSPs or IT teams managing large portfolios by eliminating repetitive, individual report creation tasks.
Anomaly Detection – Critical Configuration Changes (Public Preview)
Critical Configuration Changes enters Public Preview in Cove 25.12, making it available for all users. This capability provides MSPs and IT teams with proactive visibility into changes to backup profiles that could critically impact backup integrity.
Built-in to Cove, it continuously monitors key backup and platform configurations and sends just-in-time alerts when an anomalous modification occurs. When a critical backup configuration change is detected, users will receive the following email alert:
- What happened: (e.g., backup schedule deleted, retention reduced, backup selection modified)
- Who performed the action (name and email)
- When it occurred (date and time)
- Suggested remediation steps (if applicable)
These alerts will help you quickly identify potential malicious activity and remediate issues before data loss occurs. Currently, this is focused on backup configurations for servers and workstations. As we continue to enhance this capability, coverage will also be extended to Microsoft 365 backup configurations.
Increased Active Session Duration
The maximum active session time in Cove has been extended from 8 hours to 10 hours, allowing users to stay logged in longer without interruptions.
Microsoft 365 Protection
In-Place Archive Backup GA
In-Place Archive Backup for Exchange Online is now GA. This extends Microsoft Exchange protection to your archived mailboxes, enabling backup and restores or archived emails alongside the primary mailbox for comprehensive data protection and compliance.
The following improvements have been made as part of GA:
- Improved stability and reliability of backup and restore operations
- Added a new “M365 In-Place Archive backup” column to the default Microsoft 365 Backup Dashboard for easy visibility and fast onboarding.
*In-Place Archive backup remains included in your standard Cove Microsoft 365 billing for protected users. No additional charges apply.
Group-Based Data Protection (GBDP) Enters Public Preview
GBDP lets you use Microsoft Entra ID Security Groups to define which groups of users are protected in Cove Microsoft 365 instead of manually selecting them one by one. This helps you quickly protect the right organizational units (e.g. employees vs. contractors, teachers vs. students) without protecting or paying for the whole tenant.
Here’s how it works (Public Preview scope):
- Applies to Exchange Online and OneDrive in this initial Public Preview
- Choose Entra ID Security Groups to define which users are protected.
- For a given tenant, group-based and individual user-based protection are mutually exclusive (you configure protection either by groups or by individual users, not both at the same time).
- Auto-include new users can be enabled for protected groups so newly added group members are automatically added.
We’d love your feedback during the preview. If you have suggestions or questions, please use “Send us your comments” under Features Lab, or “Share feedback” under the Exchange & OneDrive tab.
Continuity
One-Time Restore to Hyper-V: Specify VM Name and Restore to Existing VM
We have added the ability to specify a VM name when performing a One-time Restore to Hyper-V, including the option to restore into an existing VM.
Previously, the system generated a VM name automatically and it wasn’t possible to reuse an existing VM to preserve its configuration, making the process slower and less flexible.
With this enhancement, you can now enter a custom VM name during restore. If a VM with that name already exists on the hypervisor and you want to restore into it to retain its settings, simply enable the “Use existing virtual machine” toggle. Please note that in this case the VM’s data will be replaced with the data from the backup.
Backup Manager
Linux Bare-Metal Recovery (BMR) GA
We are happy to announce that Linux BMR has graduated to GA. Linux BMR is the process of restoring an entire Linux system, including the operating system, applications, and data onto a completely blank physical or virtual machine with no pre-installed OS. This capability is essential for disaster recovery to help ensure business continuity.
Resources and Events
New Cove Resource Center
Cove has a new central hub for key resources including onboarding tours, trainings, webinars, past release notes, and other documentation to keep you informed and support ongoing learning.
Become a Master of Disaster Recovery (January 14th)
Join this free, interactive Masterclass on January 14th, 2026 that prepares you and your team to respond before a disaster strikes. Register here.
Need Support Before Yearend?
Email ask.cove@n-able.com.
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