Unitrends Virtual Backup 8.0 Sneak Peek

I have participated in the Unitrends Virtual Backup 8.0 (formerly PHD Virtual Backup) beta program, and Unitrends has been kind enough to allow me to share my finding with you on my blog. Please note while the screenshots below still show PHDVirtual logo, I believe these will be replaced with the Unitrends logo in the official release.

I have downloaded the beta and the first thing that has impressed me is their new setup wizard. It is really slick to say the least, just for those in doubt, below is the screen shots of the setup wizard while trying to deploy it for the first time in my environment.

The below screenshot are an actual setup steps that I took from my lab environment and not from Unitrends website or documentation as I can see these setup wizard simulating many power point slides I have seen before for how descriptive they are. Well done Unitrends!

Unitrends Virtual Backup Wizard

This is the first screen I was welcomed with as soon I pointed my browser to the appliance. Yes, that was an instructional video that explain the PHD Virtual topology in a very quick manner and here is the video for those of you curious to see what that video was about.… Read More

Backup & Archive to the Cloud with PHD Virtual Backup 6.5

PHD Virtual has approached me for feedback on their upcoming PHD Virtual Backup 6.5. I have been granted access to an early beta version of the product to try it out, while they have added many enhancement to the product, the one that have got my attention the most is being able to send your backup or Archive directly to the Cloud.  As I have not tried their backup to the Cloud feature which was released in 6.2, I have decided to test out combined with their new backup archiving to the Cloud feature to be introduced in PHD Virtual Backup 6.5.

With many Storage Cloud Services out there & many more expected to surface in upcoming few months, this backing up & in particular archiving could become of high demand. Further, as many of the Storage Cloud Services offers a price per GB that is very hard to beat with in-house  storage, the solution will become attractive from cost perspective. As most things in the market today, the bigger bulk you buy of a certain item, the less you have to pay per item. This explain why Costco & Walmart(Mega Stores in general) for example can offer cheaper prices than smaller super markets.… Read More

PHD Virtual ReliableDR is SLA focused

I have just been shown a demo by PHD Virtual of their latest version of ReliableDR, & the first thing I have noticed as the title stated that it is fully business SLAs focused. With the shift today to models like ITaas & IaaS where the availability of the full application from a business perspective is becoming more critical each day, more organizations will be looking for solutions that ensure they are meeting these SLAs. ReliableDR does a great job at this, as it does not only allow a user to configure protection groups based on your business SLAs from a Disaster recovery perspective, but will do the auditing of these SLAs (RPO/RTO) for you.

I have seen it mentioned that you can now test/audit your DR –  RPO/RTO on hourly basis, which I believe might be achievable for a few critical applications.  But, I believe the more realistic approach will be testing/auditing the majority of VMs in a large scale environment on daily/weekly basis. We need to give PHD Virtual credit for creating a solution that can automate the testing of your DR – RPO/RTO without any required user interaction after being setup. They are not just helping you cut the huge cost associated with the labor of carrying regular DR testing and all the long hours and downtime required for it, but they even provide detailed reporting on what SLAs you will be meeting & which ones you will fail to meet based on real testing data specific to your environment.… Read More

PHD Virtual Backup version 6.1 Enhancements

phd Virtual Backup v6.1Its interesting how fast is the virtual backup space is developing these days. PHD Virtual Backup version 6.0 which was released back at the end of August less than 3 months ago had many amazing features added to it at that time, which I have reviewed in an earlier post at: PHD Virtual Backup version 6.0 is here. Just a quick reminder of a few of these:

  1. Application Aware Backups
  2. Encryption
  3. Instant VM Recovery (Give you an amazing RTO)
  4. Backup Testing / Verification

No worry, I am not here to repeat my earlier post about PHD Virtual Backup version 6.0 but as the title say I am going to cover the new features in PHD Virtual Backup v6.1 which should go GA in few days. Oh yeah although when you hear v6.1 you would think its a minor update with few bug fixes specially it hit us less than three months of version 6.0 being released(at least I thought that way at first), but to my surprise it had included major enhancements and even few more features that are no less useful than the ones they introduced in version 6.0. Let’s take a look to what new features PHD Virtual has brought with this new release:

1- Instant VM Recovery for Full/Incremental Backup Mode.… Read More

PHD Virtual Backup version 6.0 is here

By the time this article is published, PHD Virtual Backup version 6.0 has been announced. There were a few features that impressed me and thought I would try it out and see how well it performs in my lab.

I will start covering the features from the least exciting to the most fascinating feature to keep you reading to the end of the post. Yeah! You heard it right they have come up with some fascinating features that worth checking out at VMworld 2012.

PHDVB v6.0 Top Feature #5: PHD Virtual Backup is Easy to install

Many of the fantastic backup solutions out there are so tough to setup, PHDVirtual is not one of them. They have made it even easier to deploy by delivering it as a virtual appliance. Installing PHD Virtual Backup is nothing but a simple 6 step process as illustrated below:

1. Download PHD Virtual Backup v6 here, then Install the PHD Virtual Backup Console and Plug-In by double-clicking the installation executable.

2. When the installation wizard completes, deploy the PHD Virtual Backup VBA by deploying the appliance OVF.

3. When deployment completes, make sure the VBA has an IP address then connect to the PHD Virtual Backup Console by right-clicking the VBA VM and selecting

PHD Virtual Backup > Console.… Read More

PHD Virtual Monitor for VMware Step by Step Installation & Configuration

As I have spent sometime evaluating PHD Virtual Monitor to post the review on my Backup & Disaster Recovery/Management blog TSMGuru Blog, I have went through the installation/configuration process and thought I may as well share them on here for people trying to install or just test PHD Virtual Monitor for VMware. On here, I will be showing how to quickly get up and running with PHD Virtual Monitor, though if you want to read my review of it before testing it your self you can find it at: PHD Virtual Monitor for VMware Review

Before you start you will need to make sure the below prerequisite are met by the machine you will use for PHD Virtual Monitor for VMware:

– First of all make sure you are using a supported operating system. PHD Virtual Monitor for VMware is supported by the following Operating Systems.

  • Windows XP
  • Windows Server 2003
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Server 2008 32-bit or 64-bit.

– The machine where you are setting up PHD Virtual Monitor for VMware should have at least 2GB of RAM and a 4GB page file.

– Static IP is highly recommended

– For the testing environment or an environment with less than 50 devices to monitor, the default Microsoft SQL Express will be sufficient.… Read More

PHD Virtual backup & replication for vSphere installation and configuration

As I have spent sometime evaluating PHD Virtual Backup & Replication for vSphere to post the review on my Backup & Disaster Recovery blog TSMGuru Blog, I have went through the installation process and thought I may as well share them on here for people trying to install or just test PHD Virtual Backup & Replication for vSphere v5.3.1. On here, I will be showing how to quickly get up and running with PHD Virtual Backup & Replication, though if you want to read my review of it before testing it your self you can find it at: PHD Virtual Backup and Replication for VMware vSphere Review

Being distributed as a virtual appliance actually speed up the implementation of PHD Virtual Backup & replication for vSphere. Below is a summary of the steps you need to follow to initially install and configure PHD Virtual Backup & Replication v5.3:

1- Download the PHDVirtual backup software from http://www.phdvirtual.com/trial-vmware-5

2- Extract the PHDVB_5_3_1_VMware.zip to any folder

The PHD Virtual Backup installation package contains:

  • PHDVB_Install.exe: The PHD Virtual Backup installation file to install the plug-in and PHD Virtual Backup Console.
  • PHDVBA.ovf: The PHD Virtual Backup Appliance OVF.
  • PHDVB_Exporter_Install.exe: The PHD Virtual Backup Exporter installation file to install the PHD Exporter Console.
Read More