vmProtect Wishlist
Dear Community,
This thread is dedicated to the question regarding what you would like to see added or changed in the vmProtect product.
All the comments get forwarded to the Development team directly, so rest assured your opinion will be taken under consideration.
Thank you!
disable task :
to remove the schedule of a task is a workarraound. you will loose the time and date settings and also your retention settings
for many jobs this makes it not userfriendly i still would like to "disable" and enable the task again when i have done maintenance.
realworld: the storage node were the backups go needs mainrtenance.. for 4 8 or 10 hours. then disabling all tasks that put data on this machine i would like to disable ;) .. and even better disable all tasks to a destination would be the ideal world. and to simplt disable a task would make it work
jan
Better file/folder restore.
The way restore for single files or folders is done now is REALLY ugly, slow and annoying. I had to restore a folder with 10 GB of contents today. Just to see I have to export those files to a zip file (which downloads only at 10Mbit although the whole network is 1Gbit). Save that BIG zip file somewhere to export it later on to the original location loosing all NTFS rights.
By the way the onboard windows unzip destroys the umlauts in the zip file. I also had to install 7zip to get the umlauts right. Of course I had seen that AFTER I waited a long time to get the files extracted. (Windows 2003 Server Std. 32 Bit).
So restore of those 10GB cost me a WHOLE DAY!
So the wishes are:
- Native Windows Agent to directly resore files to the local filesystem preserving NTFS attributes and permissions.
- Or: Restore of files/folders directly to a CIFS share
- Or: A least: LET ME MOUNT vmProtect TIBs in Windows Explorer like those TIBs of Backup & Recovery (By the way: If they are complete different why not choose another file extension?)
Another one: Specify a split-filesize for always incremental backups.
If you chose "Always incremental" the resulting archive will be one huge file. I would prefer that you can configure a split size (like in Backup & Recovery).
I'm saving my vmProtect backups to a CIFS share on a local Linux server. From time to time I use rsync on the linux server to get the backup offsite. The delta algorithm of rsync does a great job on that huge tib as far as bandwith is concerned. But it takes a long time to build the hash sums for the delta-x-fer. If the file were splitted in more smaller parts rsync could leave out those files with no changes and just calculate the delta-hash for those TIB-files with changes. Which would really speed up the whole xfer.
I know Acronis wants to sell Backup & Recovery Virtual Edition for offsite backups. But vmProtect doesn't make much sense if it's preventing you from building your own simple offsite backup solution.
Better file/folder restore.
..So the wishes are:
- Native Windows Agent to directly resore files to the local filesystem preserving NTFS attributes and permissions.
- Or: Restore of files/folders directly to a CIFS share
- Or: A least: LET ME MOUNT vmProtect TIBs in Windows Explorer like those TIBs of Backup & Recovery (By the way: If they are complete different why not choose another file extension?)
+1, really... restoring files as a traditional backup/restore application is really missing, points like this could consider organisations to choose a different kind of software.. or even it would be backup and recovery 11 Virtual Edition , if this uses the same CBT type backup then this looks a better solutions. but still vmprotect in a normal sized vmware enviroment would be more expensive..
ability to save the configuration in case you need to re-install the appliance would certainly be helpful
cheers
Wish:
To have a single file full backup file everyday (no incrementals).
At the moment the minimum passage of time for a full backup to be done is 1 day so you end up with the scenario of:
day 1) full backup file
day 2) incremental file (based on day 1)
day 3) full backup file
day 4) incremental file (based on day 3)
and so on...
The option to specify the days is a counter that will not go below 1, giving the result above.
Step4: Backup type: Create full backup if: Backups are older than >1< day(s)
Hi all,
Thank you for your comments, and suggestions. I just forwarded all of them to the Development team.
Rest assured your feedback is taken under consideration, and we sincerely appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us, as it helps us to improve the product to suit your needs.
Thank you.
Already mentioned and am seconding here
- Enable/Disable Backup Jobs Button.
- Restores are NOT to a Zip file as this is a real problem as mentioned above. I had the same issue.
- To be able to Exclude whole virtual disks. I have 5 disks in a VM of which 3 don't require backup. Not being able to exclude them is making my backup massive.
- TIB files Issue: I use many Acronis products including Server. I find it impossible to differentiate between vmProtect backups and TrueImage backups. As noted above, either rename them to something else OR allow us to Load the TIB in Explorer. The latter would be preferred
Other:
- Regional Settings: Have a regional settings so the I can have DD/MM/YY rather than MM/DD/YY without having to install a different version. The other version doesn't work for restores. ANyhow a single "English" install with regional settings should suffice.
- Comments: A place to add comments about the backup. I am totally lost over what backups are what now!
- Error Logs: If you select a completed Task and for whatever reason the location cannot be found. Please have the logs indicate where the location is rather than just reporting "Message: Cannot find location".
- Restoring Of Virutal Machines - Naming Convention: Allow us to choose the naming convention.
- Example, A back taken on the 05th April restores as: MyServer-PDC.SBS2011_Apr 5, 2012_1_AB3F2405-DE8A-4E8C-9039-29E5258E4300.vmdk We really don't need the added 51 charactors added to the name i.e. _Apr 5, 2012_1_AB3F2405-DE8A-4E8C-9039-29E5258E4300
it also confuses things as that may become the the Live Server and NOT APR 05 - Backup jobs Template: A way to save a Backup Template rather than having to start from scratch each time.
I have many more suggestions and will pop back (I hear you sigh). vmProtect has great potential once a few creases have being ironed out. Hopefully in time this will be the case. Happy developing :-)
Would it be possible to get any details about the effectiveness of the deduplication? All you can do is turn it on or off right now.
Btw, Paddy, your comments are spot on. There's still a lot of rough edges on this product which need polishing. But i also see a lot of potential.
The ability to attach backup result (Success/Fail/Warning) and machine name to subject of backup report would be useful. :)
Mike
ability to save the configuration in case you need to re-install the appliance would certainly be helpful
cheers
+1
- Scheduled Tasks: Include an Extra Column in the Tasks window "Next Run Time" OR Better Still have a Seperate Window for them.
Reason: Currently there is no way of knowing what is Scheduled. One has to highlight Past Jobs to determine this.
ability to save the configuration in case you need to re-install the appliance would certainly be helpful
cheers
+1
The ability to attach backup result (Success/Fail/Warning) and machine name to subject of backup report would be useful. :)
Mike
+1
Just a bug note. Fix the "Check for Updates" in Acronis Virtual Appliance.
I just tested with vr Build .5144 installed and it says I am using latest version when in fact latest is Build .5155.
Great product. Most of the suggestions in this post would make it even better!
- In regards to email notification, I would love to see "Successful/Failed/Warning" in the email subject. I don't want to have to open the email for the status.
- Logs that are readable when sent via email. As of now it's mostly plain text with a mixture of HTML
- Easier restoration. For example, allow us to mount the backup as a Windows drive (for example, vmProtect could emulate iSCSI in the same manner that PHD Virtual does during restores). In addition to Dennis' recommendations above...
- Please add a daylight saving time option
- Keep the Update XML up to date: http://download.acronis.com/AMP6/de-DE/update.xml
- Boot Disc with Management-Connection for P2V-Migration
- saving option for credentials in storage locations
- better logfile view, you can´t see what VM is meant when an error/warning occure
- better task view
- in single file backup, include the VM Name in the *.TIB File Name not only Archive_2012_05_12_19_00_28_986D2.TIB
- more to come
The option to have the verify complete after all machines have been backed up would be great. Currently it backs up the first machine in under an hour but then spends 3-4 hours verifying, then it takes 30 minutes to backup the next machine followed by another 2 hours of verifying. I'd rather have the actual backups complete in the first 2 hours, and then it can take the next several hours to verify.
The option to have simplified email notifications. The ones I get on my phone are nearly useless as so much text and html is jumbled all together. All I really want to know is did each machine succeed or fail, when did each machine start and finish backing up, when did the verify start and finish, and how much was backed up.
The option to schedule verification. Right now it can only be run on demand.
The ability to attach USB drives to the appliance. I couldn't get it working even by adding the USB controller to the appliance, whereas this works fine for my Windows VMs. Also, when I tried to have the appliance use a Windows network share it would always fail.
Ability to export all jobs and configuration to a file so you can import them into another vmProtect incase you upgrade or need to rebuild your vmprotect appliance.
I would like it to clean up snapshots. I have a problem in build 5144 where it periodically does not detach the drive and then vmware cannot clean up the snapshots. If left unmonitored snapshots build up and it can become a dangerous situation with the possibility of corruption, filled datastores, and headaches.
I'd like to see it to be more robust and better at error handling. Too many backup jobs fail and for what good reason? It's gotten better with each version so I hope the day will come where backups will simply work all the time like they are supposed to.
Backup templates so you can deploy the same settings for each server.
A Calendar view to see what times your backups start so you don't put too many around the same time period which slows things down.
Ability to join a windows domain. Maybe it would then save the credentials for backing up to SMB shares. Make sure it supports Level 5 LAN Manager Authentication (NTLMv2 response only: Refuse LM & NTLMv1). This is used in the enterprise where security is always a concern.
A client app that connects to the appliance to manage it may be a neat idea. The webgui is so slow. In fact it takes well over an hour to display any log files at all. Tried it in IE9 and Chrome... same results.
To add to my last post...
Maybe an option to prune the logs so it does not take so long to load them. Perhaps a setting to erase logs older than X number of days. I may set it to only keep 30 days of logs then.
In the Tasks list the column headings are Name, Type, State & Progress and Last Finish Time. I would love to see a column showing when the job is scheduled to start next. This way I could sort by this column and count how many VM's are scheduled to backup at the same time (or within minutes of each other). Then I can better distribute my schedule.
It would be nice if the Last finish time could display the date and time rather than (4 d 22 h ago). For example 05/27/2012 8:15 AM). Again I could sort by this column and the sort would be either correct time descending or ascending order depending on how many times I click the column heading.
Ability to add text to the body of email notifications, along with variables. For example I want to send e-mail notifications only when a backup fails. Well if I could write some details in the body I would write a template like %machinename% backup failed at %date% %time%. Then have a check box to attach an error log to the email. Support likes to collect logs for troubleshooting and the current log interface is very slow. If we had the log for a failed backup automatically attached in an e-mail then we could use it in a support case.
Also save credentials for connecting to SMB shares for storing backups. It does not always seem to be doing that for me. Sometimes it forgets then I have a whole night of failed backups because it could not connect. It would be nice if it would work with LAN Manager Level 5 (NTLMv2 Only) authentication so I could use a domain account to my storage array, rather than using a local storage array user account. Right now if I try to use a valid domain username and password to connect to my storage array, it immediately locks that AD account out. I have a feeling its because it does not correctly negotiate NTLMv2 or Kerberos authentication to the domain. Luckily my storage array (EMC Celerra CIFS server) can have locally created users on it.
To add at the previous post :-)
- More legibility of logs
- Possibility to retry failed jobs (automatically)
- Validation of TIB is very very long (24 hours for 200 Go), when an incremental job is done, the validation process validate the full TIB not the changed block
- Exchange restoration is very very long (1 hour to mount temporally VM with a store of 20Go)
- Support of VMWARE Virtual Tape Library, or RDX or Tape
- Bug with mail send at the end of the job (error data send with some internet provider), we are obliged to use gmail smtp
- Possibility to send two different emails at the end of job (one for technician more fully, another for customer like the PRA in XML). Because the actual mail is more complex to understand for a customer
Thanks, the Acronis products are very useful.
Handling of RDM's !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really consider it a bug that it doesn't give options to handle them currently. They should be skipped by default. Right now vmProtect includes them in the backup, so for a 2x2TB RDM mirror vmProtect says you need 4TB of backup space when it should only be backing up the 30GB OS drive.
File restore browsable for linux LVM!!!!
now i need to restore a complete vm (takes a loooong time) to simply browse a file for a linux server.
please add support for browsing lvm on linux
to make double backups to have the backups on two location is not an option especially with large backups van validation times
so replicating the Archives (tib) files to another location would be really usefull.. i dont mean replicating vm's in some situations ok. but i would preffere to have multiple Archive locations then replicated vm's
Требуется автоматическое переключение на реплику в случае отказа исходной виртуальной машины.
1.Backup the VMP Config
2.Backup a VMP Appliance using another VMP Appliance
3.Better Reporting having nice laid out charts/graphs and stats tables (Time,Size and Transfer Speed of backup)
4.DeDup reporting and stat's
5.Ability to select VMDK's to backup
6.Exchange backup is very slow, it takes too long to mount the VM but this might be because i'm using LAN based backups. The last time a restored some files it took 45 minutes to boot the VM from the backup
7.More backup locations like NFS as SMB can be a little slow and FTP does't support Single File (Not VMP problem though) or maybe the option to host your own Private Online backup server using the same or cut down technology Acronis use would be nice, Private Offsite backup Server on customer hardware.
Just a few options
Thanks
Nigel
Nigel makes some very good suggestions above!
The issue of backing up or exporting the VMP job settings keeps coming up. Taking that a step further, would it be possible to have the backup/replication task settings sent with the disaster recovery plan? For example, the settings for a replication job are sent as an attachment, maybe zip or XML. That way you always have readily available copies of all tasks. In a worst-case disaster scenario where you only have VM backups and last night's backup reports, this would simplify rebuilding the appliance - just import the file into your new VMP machine and you are ready to go.
The option to include/exclude entire disks/paritions in both backup and restore would be very nice to have. For example, I have a file server that stores databases, documents, application installers, temporary files, etc. I have purposely placed the OS, important databases and documents and the less important installers and temp files on separate virtual disks. This way the 50GB of important data is not mixed with 300GB of unimporant data. Ideally I would be able to backup/restore the OS and important data disks without having to waste time or space transferring 300GB of data that's not critical, especially in a distaster or testing scenario.
Acronis True Image Home can do this, so surely it can somehow be included in the business-grade vmProtect 9. :)
+1 for this option..
BUT!! the incremental restore /vmflashback option in vmProtect 8 helps alot in this situation.. but being able to seperately restore a certain partition would be really nice.
I also want a log in the mail that is easier to read.
Maybe a table with columns where the servers are mentioned, next column the status, next column the error code and the last column a link to a possible solution.
This would help me very much, I receive mails of 100+ servers and now it's almost not possible to see which server backup failed.
I also want a log in the mail that is easier to read.
Maybe a table with columns where the servers are mentioned, next column the status, next column the error code and the last column a link to a possible solution.
This would help me very much, I receive mails of 100+ servers and now it's almost not possible to see which server backup failed.
I also have a few machines that have no VMWare tools installed, I want to configure that these machines do not have the tools installed and that I don't receive a warning for these machines.
Make it possible to copy text from the "Detailed Message" section of the log. This is only an issue with the vCenter Plug-in for some reason. I can copy from the web based admin tool.
Make it easy to "Clear All" or "Clear Selected" tasks from the View ... Tasks section, rather than one by one by clicking the "garbage bin".
When I do a restore, and want to restore to a different location, the drop down lists "restore to same location" and the IP of the host (which means "different location"?). This is not intuitive.
File Recovery: Seems incredibly slow. I see this has been mentioned earlier as well.
I am getting around 1MB/sec when trying to download the zip of a single large file.
It would be quicker to restore the entire VM and copy across the network at this rate!
I would also like to see some sort of listing of "Known Issues" and a timeline of when the next release is scheduled for. If this issue (with the File Recovery) was mentioned back in April, and it's now 7 months later and the issue is still there, that doesn't really instill confidence that this is an actively developed product!
There is something about the user interface that just doesn't seem quite right. I am not a UI designer, but the 3 tabs "Actions", "View" and "Configure" just don't seem intuitive to me.
I would have thought that as the product is mainly for taking backups, there would be a "Backup" tab, and from there. you could create backup tasks, restore from them, configure them, run VMs from them etc.
To edit a Task, you first need to go to the "View" tab, then click "Tasks", then the Edit option. This seems a little long-winded and makes no sense.
Also, a "Task" tab would have made more sense to me. The options on the "View" tab seem like they are just there for the sake of it, and not really that useful.
The "Configure" tab also - seems a bit pointless - most of these settings are set once and then not touched again, why waste a whole tab for them?
Duplicate to tape.
Please.
Allowing duplication to cloud or another disk and not to tape is very disappointing.
I have licenses for this product but gave up on it and switched to Backup Exec (which has issues as well, but not this one).
The option to have the verify complete after all machines have been backed up would be great. Currently it backs up the first machine in under an hour but then spends 3-4 hours verifying, then it takes 30 minutes to backup the next machine followed by another 2 hours of verifying. I'd rather have the actual backups complete in the first 2 hours, and then it can take the next several hours to verify.
+1
The option to schedule verification. Right now it can only be run on demand.
+1
Ability to export all jobs and configuration to a file so you can import them into another vmProtect incase you upgrade or need to rebuild your vmprotect appliance.
+1
Wish for a backup location "media pool" or "storage group" for vmProtect.
I am running vmProtect8 from a Windows 2008 R2 "media" server. It has several local drives that I have limited to 2 TB each. I would like vmProtect to be able to take 3 of these drives (D:, E:, and G:) and make them into a media pool, let's call it "Tier1_local_drives". I would like to be able to make 8 backup jobs that direct their output to the "Tier1_local_drives" media pool, and let vmProtect take care of balancing the amount of data written to each of the drives.
Thanks,
Greg
It is very important that the Large Scale Recovery is available for all size of business. I recently learned that vmprotect 8 can not use the Large Scale Recovery service. I believe that the main propose of storing backup to online storage is for disaster recovery (when local backup not available). If there is no way to retrieve the online backup as quick as possible, the online storage will become useless. Consider if you lose your datacenter, you may not even have internet service. Waiting for internet to restore and download the backups, it may take weeks to recover a business. I don't think any business can accept this at all. That's way the Large Scale Recovery is very important for online storage.
I wish to see the Large Scale Recovery option for vmprotect or separated tools to do this.
Thanks,
Aldous
I second Aldous Leung's comment.
On another note, it would be very nice to have detailed archive validation results. Something along the lines of I select an archive to validate, and it shows a screen with the available recovery points color-coded in red and green
The ability to have local storage volumes larger than 2TB is an absolute MUST HAVE.
ability to save the configuration in case you need to re-install the appliance would certainly be helpful
cheers
+1
+1000000000
AND multiple appliance/central management feature(s)
USB Drive pool support would be helpful and the addition of an RSYNC client would mean that for me, VMProtect would be a complete solution.
Thank you
Variables for email.
Currently we backup 34 virtual machines. For each task we backup a machine we have to go into more options and setup the e-mail so that the custom subject line contains the virtual machine line on failure.
Send email on job failure
Include log of job
For instance Acronis vmProtect backup did not work correctly (%machinename%)
If you could use a variable like %machinename% then we could put this in global backup options. Basically set it one time instead of 34+ times.
but thats still a VMware restriction
The ability to have local storage volumes larger than 2TB is an absolute MUST HAVE.
but thats still a vmware restriction, not an issue in vmProtect
but why not use cifs to connect to a storage that can do more then 2tb?
hello... LAN FREE??
If vmprotect can stick toghether 2TB luns with LVM to one big storage that would work..
Wish for a backup location "media pool" or "storage group" for vmProtect.
I am running vmProtect8 from a Windows 2008 R2 "media" server. It has several local drives that I have limited to 2 TB each. I would like vmProtect to be able to take 3 of these drives (D:, E:, and G:) and make them into a media pool, let's call it "Tier1_local_drives". I would like to be able to make 8 backup jobs that direct their output to the "Tier1_local_drives" media pool, and let vmProtect take care of balancing the amount of data written to each of the drives.
Thanks,
Greg
have you tried to create a windows software raid ? i know its not the best solution, i wont use this too, but it is one workaround ;)
maybe windows 2012 server with the storage pools is either an option ?