Install or upgrade the agent software on all Windows assets that you will be protecting with this Beta release. You must install the agent manually by using the steps in To install the 10.3.0 Windows agent. Push install is not supported for this Beta release.
Notes:
• | Windows backups – After upgrading the Windows agent to Beta version 10.3.0, a full backup may be required. In these cases, the appliance cannot run an incremental or differential until a full backup runs and: |
– | If you attempt an on-demand incremental or differential, the appliance promotes the backup to a full. |
– | If the next job is a scheduled incremental or differential, the job fails. After this failure, the appliance promotes the next scheduled run to a full. Once this full succeeds, subsequent incrementals and differentials run as scheduled. |
• | Hyper-V assets – You must manually sync inventory (or wait for the nightly inventory sync to run) to enable the appliance to discover hosted virtual machines and to enable Windows image-level backups of the Hyper-V server. After installing the Beta 10.3.0 agent and adding the Hyper-V asset to the Beta appliance, click the Gear icon in the upper-right of the UI and select Inventory Sync: |
• | Exchange protection – Additional steps are required before you can run Exchange application backups. See To allow Exchange application backups for details. |
The agent installer loads all applicable components onto the Windows asset during installation. The following are included with the Windows agent:
• | For Hyper-V servers or Windows servers with the Hyper-V role enabled, the Hyper-V CBT driver is installed. This driver enables faster Hyper-V incremental backups. (You do not need to reboot to enable this driver.) |
• | For Microsoft SQL and Exchange servers, SQL and Exchange components are installed. You can then run application backups to protect these databases. |
• | (Optional) For Windows assets that are eligible for image-level backups, the installer provides the option to install the Windows Volume CBT driver. This driver is used to enable incremental image-level backups. You must reboot the Windows server to enable the driver after the agent has been installed. |
Before upgrading or installing the Windows agent, the following requirements must be met:
Requirement |
Description |
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Administrator privileges |
You must be the user administrator to install or upgrade the Windows agent. |
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Hyper-V incrementals |
Installing the Unitrends Windows agent on a Hyper-V server also installs a Hyper-V CBT driver that enables faster Hyper-V incremental backups. If you will be running Hyper-V incrementals on the Beta 10.3.0 appliance and are upgrading from a pre-10.1.0-3 agent version, you must manually uninstall the older Windows agent before installing the 10.3.0 agent. Uninstall the older agent by using the Windows Add/Remove Programs interface. (For details, see To uninstall the Windows agent.) |
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Volume Snapshot Service (VSS) writers |
To protect Exchange, SQL Server, or Hyper-V, the following VSS writers are required:
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Image-level incrementals on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 |
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 must be running SP1 to install the Unitrends Windows Volume CBT driver. If SP1 has not been installed, the Volume CBT driver is not supported and this installation error displays:
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Image-level incrementals on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 |
On some later build versions, the Windows Volume CBT filter driver cannot be installed if Secure Boot is set to ON and you see this installation message:
Do one of the following:
OR
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Windows server core and other operating systems that were deployed without a Graphical User Interface |
Install the agent by using the Windows msiexec command, as described in Installing the Windows agent in the Administrator Guide for Recovery Series, Recovery MAX, and Unitrends Backup. This method installs the following:
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Follow these steps to install or upgrade the Windows agent:
1 | Log in to the Windows asset as a user that has full access to all files and folders on the system (i.e., local administrator). |
2 | Access the MSI installer on the Unitrends appliance by entering \\<ApplianceIP>\windows_agents in the Windows File Explorer: |
3 | Double-click the MSI file to launch the installer. |
MSI file names:
• | Unitrends_Agentx64.msi - core agent for 64-bit Windows assets |
• | Unitrends_Agentx86.msi - core agent for 32-bit Windows assets |
4 | Click Run. |
5 | Click Next to proceed. |
6 | Select an installation directory and click Next. |
The default directory is C:\PCBP. To install in another location (folder or volume), click Browse or manually enter the directory path.
Notes:
• | Approximately 1100MB of temporary installation space is required on volume C:, regardless of where the software is ultimately installed. |
• | If you do NOT install to C:\PCBP, the installation does not include the Hyper-V CBT component. If you are running Hyper-V host-level backups and want to use this driver, you must install to the default location. Paul C says this was fixed in Kings...you can install win agent anywhere but H-V CBT driver is always installed on the system drive (usually C:). |
7 | Click Next to begin the installation process (or click Back to review or modify data). The installation can be interrupted at any time by clicking Cancel. |
Note: If a firewall is enabled on the Windows asset, the installer automatically opens Port 1743 and creates the necessary firewall exceptions.
9 | After the agent is installed, click Next to set up the Volume CBT driver. |
Notes:
• | If you selected No in step 8, the Unitrends Volume CBT Filter Driver Setup installer does not display. Windows agent installation is complete. |
• | If this Volume CBT driver version has already been installed, the Unitrends Volume CBT Filter Driver Setup installer does not display. Windows agent installation is complete. If needed, reboot the Windows asset to enable the existing Volume CBT driver. |
• | If an older Volume CBT driver version has already been installed, you are given the option to install this driver version and advised as to whether the new driver is required for subsequent incrementals. |
• | If a newer Volume CBT driver version has already been installed, you are given the option to install this older driver version. |
• | The Volume CBT driver is installed in C:\PCBP\Installers. |
10 | Click Install to begin the installation process (or click Back to review or modify data). The installation can be interrupted at any time by clicking Cancel. |
11 | Click Finish to exit the installer. |
12 | You must reboot the Windows asset to enable the Volume CBT driver. Click Yes to reboot now or No to reboot at a later time. |
Notes:
• | If the Volume CBT driver has not been installed or has not been enabled, image-level incrementals are not supported. Any scheduled incremental is automatically promoted to a full backup. If you attempt to run an on-demand incremental, you receive a message indicating that only full backups are supported. |
• | An image-level incremental is automatically promoted to a full backup in these other cases: |
– | There is a problem detected with the Volume CBT driver. |
– | A newer Volume CBT driver version is installed but has not been enabled. To run incremental backups, enable the new driver by rebooting the Windows asset. |
– | The version of the Volume CBT driver that was included with the Windows agent is greater than the version that is enabled on the Windows asset. To run incremental backups, you must install the new driver and then reboot the Windows asset (see the next bullet for details). |
• | The installer for the associated Volume CBT driver is placed in C:\PCBP\Installers. You can install this driver at any time by running the installer, called uvcbt.msi. After installing the driver, you must enable it by rebooting the Windows asset. |
• | The Windows agent and the Volume CBT driver are installed as separate, independent packages. Uninstalling the Windows agent does not uninstall the Volume CBT driver. (To uninstall the Volume CBT driver, use the Windows Control Panel Add/Remove Programs feature to remove uvcbt.msi.) |
13 | (If needed) For Exchange assets, additional steps are needed before you can run Exchange application backups. See To allow Exchange application backups for details. |
14 | (If needed) For Hyper-V assets, additional steps are needed to discover hosted virtual machines and to enable Windows image-level backups of the Hyper-V server. See To sync inventory for details. |
To allow Exchange application backups
Additional steps are required before you can run Exchange application backups. After installing the Beta 10.3.0 agent and adding the Exchange asset to the Beta appliance, use this procedure to allow application backups:
1 | Select Configure > Protected Assets. |
2 | Select the Exchange asset and click Edit. |
3 | Check these boxes: Show Image Level Backup Settings and Allow granular application backups. |
4 | Click Save. |
5 | Create an Exchange backup job. For details, see in the . |
For Hyper-V assets, you must manually sync inventory (or wait for the nightly inventory sync to run) to enable the appliance to discover hosted virtual machines and to enable Windows image-level backups of the Hyper-V server. After installing the Beta 10.3.0 agent and adding the Hyper-V asset to the Beta appliance, click the Gear icon in the upper-right of the UI and select Inventory Sync:
Note: If you installed the agent by using the command line method or by using Group Policy, remove or repair the agent by using the command line method. See this topic in the in the Administrator Guide for Recovery Series, Recovery MAX, and Unitrends Backup for details: Command-line installer for Windows agents.
1 | In the Windows Add/Remove Programs interface, select the Unitrends Agent in the list. |
2 | Click Uninstall, then Yes to confirm. |
The agent is uninstalled:
3 | If needed, repeat this procedure to remove the Unitrends Volume CBT Driver. |