Install or upgrade Windows agents

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

Administrator privileges

You must be the user administrator to install or upgrade the Windows agent.

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.)

Volume Snapshot Service (VSS) writers

To protect Exchange, SQL Server, or Hyper-V, the following VSS writers are required:

VSS Exchange Writer is required for Exchange protection.
VSS SQL Writer is required for the SQL protection.
VSS Hyper-V Writer is required for the Hyper-V protection.

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:

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:

Turn off Secure Boot, then run the installer again.

OR

Leave Secure Boot set to ON and run full image-level backups only. (The Volume CBT filter driver is required to run incremental image-level backups.)

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:

The Windows core agent.
The Windows Volume CBT driver (used to enable incremental image-level backups). To enable the Volume CBT driver, you must reboot the Windows server after the agent has been installed.
For Hyper-V servers or Windows servers with the Hyper-V role enabled, the Hyper-V CBT driver is installed. This driver is used for 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.
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 .

To sync inventory

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: