Unitrends uses a light-weight agent to protect Windows assets. Depending on the asset's operating system and configuration, this agent can be push-installed by the appliance or installed manually. Push install is recommended to reduce setup time. Once a Windows asset is set up for push install, agent updates can also be pushed, reducing maintenance time.
The following requirements must be met before installing the agent:
• | Administrative privileges for the user installing the agent. |
• | Approximately 1100 MB of free space on the Windows system drive, usually volume C:. |
(Applicable even if installing on a volume other than C:.)
• | Single Instance Storage (SIS) on Windows Storage Server 2008 is not supported and must be disabled for the agent to properly perform backups. |
• | To protect Exchange, SQL Server, or Hyper-V, the following VSS writers are required: |
– | VSS Exchange Writer is required for the Exchange agent. |
– | VSS SQL Writer is required for the SQL Server agent. |
– | VSS Hyper-V Writer is required for the Hyper-V agent. |
These additional requirements must be met to push-install the Windows agent:
Item |
Description |
Windows versions supported |
Windows XP, 2003 and up are supported (32- and 64-bit), with the exception of Windows 10. For Windows 10, install the agent manually. See Installing the Windows agent for details. |
Unitrends system version |
Release 7.0 and higher (8.2 and higher for Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1). |
Credentials |
Trust credentials must be defined for the Windows server asset on the backup appliance. See Managing protected assets for details. |
Windows environment |
The Windows machine must be configured as described in Installing the Windows agent. |
Windows configuration requirements
The following Windows configuration settings are required for the agent push feature:
• | Workstation and Server services must be running and set to automatic restart. |
• | For Windows Vista and later, Network discovery and Printer and File Sharing must be enabled for the current network profile (in Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center). |
• | For Windows XP Professional and 2003, File and Printer Sharing for Windows Networks must be enabled for the network adapter itself. Select Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings, right-click the adapter, select Properties and check File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks. |
• | For Windows XP Professional, turn off Simple sharing in Control Panel > Folder Options > View > Use simple file sharing. |
• | Trust credentials entered on the Unitrends Add Asset page must have administrative privileges. On systems with user account controls (UAC) enabled, at least one of the following must also apply: |
– | The trust credentials entered are for a domain administrator account. |
– | The trust credentials entered are for a system administrator account. Being a different member of the Administrators group is insufficient. If the administrator account is disabled, enable it by executing the following in an elevated command prompt: net user administrator /active:yes |
– | Registry key LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy must exist and be set to 1. |
• | Firewall rules must allow inbound and outbound traffic between both machines. Default Windows firewall rules limit many services to the subnet. If the backup appliance is outside the Windows asset's subnet, modify firewall Printer and File Sharing settings (TCP ports 139 and 445) to allow communication between the systems. |
• | For 32-bit assets only, the Windows machine must be configured with English as the default language. Select non-English default languages are supported for 64-bit machines. For a list of supported languages, see the Unitrends Compatibility and Interoperability Matrix. |
Add the asset as described in To add an asset. The agent is installed automatically (assuming all Windows agent requirements have been met).
In most cases, the Windows agent is automatically installed when you add the asset to the backup appliance. If you need to install the agent manually, use the procedures in this section.
From the Latest Agent Releases page on the Unitrends website, download the desired agent .msi file to the Windows machine.
You can then install the agent by launching the installer or from the command line. In most cases, you will use the installer. You will need to use the command line option if you have deployed a Windows 2008 server with the server core option, or are using Group Policy to deploy to multiple Windows machines. See the following procedures:
The agent installer loads all components in Unitrends_Agentx86.msi or Unitrends_Agentx64.msi onto the Windows asset during installation.
Preparing to install the agent
Consider the following before installing the agent:
• | For Microsoft SQL and Exchange servers, the Windows agent includes SQL and Exchange components to protect these applicationsFor more information, see Exchange backup requirements and considerations and SQL backup requirements and considerations. |
• | For Microsoft Vista assets, administrator privileges are required to install the agent. Please make certain that the user installing the agent has administrator privileges on the Vista server. Members of the Administrator group who have not been assigned administrator privileges will not be able to install the product successfully. |
• | For Windows Server assets, the agentperforms backup and recovery of the system state, including support for ISS, COM+, Cluster Database, and Active Directory. The agent must be installed on the Windows server while logged in using the local system Administrator account. If the local system Administrator account cannot be used for the installation, the Windows User Account Control facility must be disabled. Once the agent has been installed, User Account Control can be re-enabled. |
1 | Log in to the Windows system as a user that has full access to all files and folders on the system (i.e. local administrator). |
2 | Download the desired agent msi file from http://www.unitrends.com/support/latest-agent-releases. |
3 | Launch the downloaded file and follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation. |
4 | Review the license agreement and select I Agree to accept the terms and conditions. |
5 | Select an installation directory. The default directory is C:\PCBP. To install in another location (folder or volume), click Browse or manually enter the directory path. |
6 | Click Back to review or modify data, or click Next to begin the installation process. The installation can be interrupted at any time by clicking Cancel. |
Note: If the asset has a firewall enabled, the installer opens port 1743 and creates firewall exceptions for the necessary processes.
The protection software command-line option allows the installation, removal, and maintenance of the agent from the command-line. In addition, these command line options may be used in conjunction with Microsoft’s Group Policy methodology to deploy mass installations of agents.
The agent installer utilizes the msiexec command to manage the system protection software from the command-line. However, not all of the msiexec default parameters are supported with the installer. The following msiexec parameters are available:
/I - Installs and modifies the software.
/f - Repairs the software.
/uninstall - Removes the software.
/quiet - Installs software in quiet mode with no user interaction.
/l* - Enables logging.
FORCE_BOOT - If set to True, restarts the Windows machine after installing the agent If set to False, does not restart after installing the agent.
The following table describes the optional command-line parameters. These parameters are case sensitive and must be entered in upper case on the command line. The values specified for the parameter are not case sensitive.
Parameter name |
Parameter value |
Default value |
USNAPS |
True | False |
False |
BARE_METAL |
True | False |
True |
REMOTE_ADMIN |
True | False |
True |
ODM |
True | False |
True |
SQL_AGENT |
True | False |
True, if SQL Server is installed on the asset, otherwise False. |
EXCHANGE_AGENT |
True | False |
True, if Microsoft Exchange server is installed on the asset, otherwise False. |
INSTALLDIR |
|
"C:\PCBP" Note: Directory name must not contain spaces and must be enclosed in double quotes. |
IP |
|
127.0.0.1 |
FIREWALL |
True | False |
False |
Following are Windows agent installer command-line examples:
Example 1: Install using default values.
msiexec /i "C:\<Deploy>\Unitrends_Agent.msi"
where <Deploy> is the path of the downloaded agent
Example 2: Install with default values and turn on logging.
msiexec /quiet /l* "C:\temp\Unitrends.log" /i "C:\<Deploy>\_Agent.msi"
Where "C:\temp\Unitrends.log" is the full path location of the log file named Unitrends.log.
Example 3: Uninstall the agent.
msiexec /quiet /uninstall "C:\<Deploy>\_Agent.msi"
Deploying software is typically a simple task. However, this is not necessarily the case when the software being deployed must be installed on dozens, or even hundreds, of computers. Physically installing software on every single machine can be a burdensome task. Fortunately, Microsoft provides a much easier method through group policy-based software installation.
With the installer and command-line options, the ability to mass deploy installations is readily available. See the specific Microsoft Group Policy literature for details regarding the download and use of Group Policy software.
While the group policy-based technology may provide a number of ways to deploy software, this section describes use of the msi installer file to deploy and install software.
To deploy software via Group Policy
7 | An Active Directory domain is needed. Begin by creating a new Group Policy Object (see Microsoft documentation for details). |
8 | When the object has been created, select and edit it. If using the Group Policy Management Console, this action will invoke the Group Policy Object Editor. |
9 | Determine whether the Group Policy Object will be a computer configuration or a user configuration. Depending on the configuration selected, expand the Software Settings folder and select the Software Installation option. |
10 | Right-click Software Installation, point to New, and then click Package. |
11 | In the Open dialog box, type the full Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path of the shared installer package. For example: |
Important! Do not use the Browse button to access the location. Make sure to use the UNC path to the shared installer package.
12 | Click Open. |
13 | Click Assigned, and then click OK. The package is listed in the right pane of the Group Policy window. |
14 | Close the Group Policy snap-in, click OK, and then quit the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in. |
15 | Link the Group Policy Object to the domain by dragging the object to the domain name. |
16 | Double click the Group Policy Object name to add computers or users to the object. |
• | If the computer configuration was selected, the protection software will be installed on the specified computer(s) whenever it is restarted. |
• | If the user configuration was selected, the protection software will be installed on any computer in the domain where the specified users log in to the domain. |
• | Once installed, an entry for the application displays in the Add/Remove Programs interface of the Microsoft Windows operating system. |
Windows version |
MICROSOFT driver used? |
REBOOT required after installation? |
Windows XP |
NO |
YES |
Windows 2003/2003 R2 (32-bit & 64-bit) |
NO |
YES |
Windows Vista (32-bit & 64-bit) |
NO |
YES |
Windows 2008/2008 R2 (32-bit & 64-bit) |
YES |
NO |
Windows 2012 (64-bit) |
YES |
NO |
Windows 7 (32-bit & 64-bit) |
YES |
NO |
Windows 8 (32-bit & 64-bit) |
YES |
NO |
Windows 8.1 (32-bit & 64-bit) |
YES |
NO |
Windows 10 (32-bit & 64-bit) |
YES |
NO |