Q: How do I contact you for support?
Answer:
Dial our Support Center at 888.374.6124 or e-mail us anytime at support@Unitrends.com or Login to the support portal.
Q: What is a DPU?
Answer:
The DPU is our on-premise device for ensuring continuous data protection and business continuity; the acronym stands for Data Protection Unit (those engineers have a wicked creative streak, don’t they?). DPUs allow you to protect local data (files, folders, and all user data) on your servers, desktops and laptops. They also allow full system recovery of an entire mission-critical server through Unitrends’ BareMetal™ technology. Finally, they support offsite electronic vaulting to a DPV (see below).
Why have an on-premise device? Why not just have the computers you wish to protect send the data to be protected directly to some “cloud” of servers somewhere across the country? The major reason is that an on-premise device is required for rapid recovery. If you lose a server, the fastest mechanism available using an SaaS (Software as a Service)-based cloud architecture is typically to ship a new disk from the site at which your data is protected. With Unitrends, you can do a baremetal restore (BMR) in and be back in operation in minutes, not hours or days.
In addition, an on-premise “store and forward” architecture enables Unitrends to offload your computers from most of the tasks associated with backup and data protection. In addition, if a customer chooses to take the next step up to disaster recovery, our on-premise DPU performs advanced data de-duplication that goes far beyond compression in terms of reducing the need for wide area network bandwidth that is required. In other words, we help you achieve T3-like bandwidth from a T1 line (or OCx bandwidth from a T3 line, and so on, and so on) by eliminating duplicate blocks of data that have to be sent to the vault.
Q: What is a DPV?
Answer:
The DPV is an off-premise device for disaster recovery. Our on-premise DPU device “vaults” its data to an off-premise DPV which then stores that data. In the case of a disaster in which not only the protected computers but the DPU itself is no longer operational, the DPV is used to restore the DPU.
Q: I have several locations in a Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO) topology. Can your on-premise DPU device also act as an off-premise DPV device for a different office?
Answer:
It can, through a unique technology that Unitrends offers called “cross-vaulting.” Cross vaulting allows our on-premise DPU device to have a split-personality – for the computers you wish to protect at the site of the DPU, the DPU behaves as a DPU. However, for the computers at your remote office or branch office, that same DPU behaves concurrently as a DPV.
Q: We currently use tape to backup information. How is your approach different?
Answer:
The difference is that with Unitrends’ Disk-to-Disk (D2D)-based technology, you have a much better chance of not only backing up your data, but of recovering it successfully! Unitrends take a simpler, more secure approach than the old school method of copying data to tape; this lets our users recover lost files immediately, and rebuild failed systems to a fully-operational state, in as little as an hour. This compares to multiple days with older technologies. Our approach is called Rapid Recovery.
Tape is a fantastic backup medium; unfortunately, it is a lousy recovery medium —your data goes in, but it often doesn’t come out. This is the reason that Disk-to-Disk (or D2D) data protection has grown so popular, so quickly—because regardless of any advances made in tape, it remains a horribly ineffective and unproductive way to recover protected data.
Disk has a lower MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) than tape and is significantly more reliable than tape. Disk is a random access device; tape is a sequential device. So with disk, you aren’t subjected to the constant sawing of rewinding/retention as you futilely attempt to find that missing file. Tape rotation, required because tape has only a limited number of read/write cycles, is a nightmare. Even if your tape still works, you’re subjected to erase cycles and retention operations when you use tape.
Q: How can I take my files off-site? If your system is Disk-to-Disk, then do I actually have to take the entire system home with me?
Answer:
No, you don’t. Unlike tape, in which you have to be concerned with rotation cycles, Unitrends manages the equivalent of backup sets automatically.
If you’re concerned with disaster recovery (i.e., you want to take the protected data off premises to protect against either malicious threats or natural disasters), then we recommend using Unitrends’ vaulting services. If you have only one site, many of Unitrends’ resellers offer our VSP (Vaulting Service Provider) program; please contact Unitrends sales at in order to learn more about this program.
Another option is the use of our on-premise data protection archiving devices: the Single- (SDA) and Recovery-Archive. The SDA offers advanced disk-based archiving that is available for our on-premise DPUs. The Recovery-Archive provides the same functionality, but with up to four disk drives for greater capacity.
Q: Does Unitrends handle Exchange mail servers any differently than the normal backup setup?
Answer:
Yes. Unitrends offers special support for Microsoft Exchange that directly supports the features of Exchange.
Q: Can we restore
individual mailboxes/messages¹?
Answer:
Yes. Optional granular restore is available for Exchange and granular restore via ConsoleOne is available for GroupWise.
Q: Does Unitrends handle SQL Server any differently than the normal backup setup?
Answer:
Yes. Unitrends offers special support for Microsoft SQL that directly supports the features of SQL. Unitrends can create SQL backups in two ways. First, our Microsoft SQL Backup/Restore agent is included as part of the software that comes with each DPU. Second, we can back up the standard .bak formatted files generated through the use of the native Microsoft Maintenance tools.
Q: Does Unitrends support backing up laptops?
Answer:
Yes. However, it is important that devices with a non-persistent connection have a persistent connection during the backup cycle.
Q: Does Unitrends support Mac OS and OS X¹?
Answer:
Yes
Q: How much does it cost to have a data protection/rapid recovery system in place?
Answer:
The initial cost is often much less than what you would pay for a traditional tape backup solution. Our solutions are inherently scalable; because almost everyone’s data volumes grow over time, your investment also usually grows somewhat over time. For larger enterprises using many DPUs and vaults, it’s possible to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars protecting many, many systems. The cost really depends on how much data you want to protect, and how many snapshots of that data you wish to retain—that’s it.
Q: How does Unitrends pricing work, specifically? Are you going to nickel and dime me each time I add another computer or another operating system I want protected?
Answer:
Unlike most companies, Unitrends does not charge our customers for the number of machines to be protected, nor do we charge you for protecting different operating systems. We regard those as extraneous factors that other vendors use as excuses to run up your bill. We take a completely different approach.
Our Recovery-7 series use our No Limits™ licensing which means that there are no storage- or client-based limits associated with licensing; instead, the appliance may be used up to its physical capacity.
Our other appliances use a storage based license that is based on the size of the data that is to be protected.
Q: How would we install and support a Unitrends product?
Answer:
Installation of a Unitrends DPU or DPV is generally performed by either a Unitrends Systems Engineer or by a Unitrends Authorized Partner Engineer. We have gone to great efforts to ensure our DPU/DPV solutions are easy to deploy, easy to manage, and provide for simple and rapid data recovery.
Q: I have a SAN in my infrastructure. Can I protect it using Unitrends? How about a NAS, or USB external drives attached to my servers?
Answer:
Yes. SANs and USB external drives are supported via volume-level connections through a computer in your environment that has a Unitrends retention virtualization agent installed. NASs are supported via mounted connections through a computer in your environment that has a Unitrends retention virtualization agent installed.
Q: I have a SAN in my infrastructure. Can I use it along with my Unitrends DPU?
Answer:
Yes. Although Unitrends does not support peer-level connection directly to the SAN, you can backup up SAN data through any client that is connected. This allows any Direct Attached Storage (such as a boot drive in the client) to be protected as well.
Q: I have a virtual server environment. Can I protect it using Unitrends?
Answer:
Yes. Virtual server environments are supported both at the virtual machine (GOS – Guest Operating System) level and at the physical machine (HOS – Host Operating System) level.
Q: What happens in the event of a DPU catastrophically failing (e.g., due to fire, flood, wind, or some other reason?
Answer:
If your entire premises is affected, then the first order of business is to get your computers back up. Assuming that the DPUs and all of your computers are no longer operational, then this is done using replacement DPUs and the previous data that has been vaulted. If only a DPU is affected, and the DPUs are no longer operational, then this is done using a replacement DPU that is minimally restored from the previous data that has been vaulted.
If you were not using vaulting, but were using archiving, then you must replace the DPU and reload from the archives. If you remembered to take your archives off-site, this is possible; if your archives were involved in the catastrophe, then in effect you weren’t using either vaulting or archiving. If you were not using vaulting or archiving, then you must replace the DPU and all of its data will be lost. This is why Unitrends recommends vaulting; it is our recommendation for everyone who desires true disaster recovery protection.
Finally, in the rare case in which a DPU failed and lost data but remained operational, Unitrends ships installation media with each DPU and provides support through its Data Assurance programs to help you reinstall the DPU.
Q: If I have open files on my servers when a backup runs, what happens?
Answer:
For operating systems that support open file backup via a technology such as Windows VSS (Volume Shadow Service), Unitrends handles this via the native operating system mechanisms. This is a major Unitrends advantage over “agentless” technologies. Those vendors use fancy words such as “autonomic healing” to basically say that if a file is open, they’ll retry and hope eventually that it will be closed. Of course, anyone using Microsoft Outlook knows that many such applications are essentially never shut down, and hence the “.PST” file is never closed!
For operating systems that do not support open file backup natively, Unitrends uses its own snapshot technology, taking maximum advantage of what native operating system support exists for backing up open files.
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Q: We have multiple locations to protect. How can I protect and get my data off-site?
Answer:
Unitrends supports ROBO (Remote Office/Branch Office) topologies highly efficiently via our on-premise Data Protection Units that are able to vault to our off-premise Data Protection Vaults.
Another feature Unitrends provides is cross-vaulting, which allows ROBO locations to host our on-premise DPUs with a “split personality”—the DPU devices offer on-premise protection while also offering off-premise “vault” protection to other ROBO locations or to the customer’s central location.
Q: What is Secure Data Sync?
Answer:
Secure Data Sync (SDS) is an advanced data de-duplication, asymmetric replication protocol that allows for data synchronization between one or many on-premise DPUs to an off-premise DPV. It’s the technology that allows Unitrends to use precious wide area network bandwidth more effectively and productively.
Q: What is an SDA? What is an MDA? What is a Recovery-Archive?
Answer:
The SDA (Single Drive Archive) is advanced disk-based archiving that is available for our on-premise DPU protection device. The MDA (Multi-Drive Archive) is advanced disk based archiving solution that supports multiple disk drives. The MDA is a legacy product; it has been replaced by the Recovery-Archive. The Recovery-Archive supports up to four disk drives.
Q: What is BareMetal Recovery (BMR)?
Answer:
BMR (BareMetal Recovery) is one of the driving forces behind rapid recovery. A BMR backup takes an image of the system disk of a protected computer. If the system disk is damaged or lost, a baremetal recovery means that you can recover that system to its previous operational state—and by previous operational state, we mean not just the file system and application data (unstructured and structured data) but the actual system state of the operating system.
Let’s take a Windows server as an example. When you do a baremetal recovery, you recover not just the Exchange application and its data, but also the registry and other system state information associated with Exchange (or SQL, or Active Directory, or Sharepoint, or any other application). This means you do not have to go through the tortuous step of re-installing your entire server.
Q: What's the difference between Cold BareMetal and Hot BareMetal backup?
Answer:
Cold BareMetal is performed by booting the server off of a Unitrends BareMetal boot media and performing the BareMetal backup when the system is not booted into its native OS. Hot BareMetal can be performed on the system while it is still booted into its native OS, and fully operational.
Q: Is there a difference between block-level and sector-level backups?
Answer:
No, both refer to BareMetal backup technology.
Q: What kind of impact will a Unitrends DPU have on my server performance while it's running a Hot BareMetal or Cold BareMetal backup routine?
Answer:
The normal nightly backup produces very little demand on the client, typically between 15%-20% when running. Hot BareMetal backups are about the same, and neither will interfere with normal server activities. Cold BareMetal, on the other hand, requires the client be shut down and off-line while the backup of the OS takes place.
Q: What's the difference between a BareMetal backup and a file backup?
Answer:
BareMetal backups are performed at the partition level, while file backups copy all the files on the system. BareMetal backups are used to restore the machine to a fully functional state after which the last master and last incremental file backups can be applied to bring the machine back to the most current state.
Q: What kind of impact will a Unitrends DPU have on my network performance?
Answer:
Minimal. The DPU is designed to be a lights-out, scheduled service. This means that you control when backups take place and when network performance is impacted. The DPU is capable of accepting a large amount of data from concurrent clients which has the potential to create increased network traffic; however, running backups during normal operating hours is generally undetected.
Q: What kind of impact will a Unitrends DPU have on my server performance?
Answer:
Minimal. Typical modern server overhead is 5% or less, and our backup processes do not interfere with normal server activities.
Q: What's the difference between buying a Unitrends appliance and Norton Ghost or other Symantec products?
Answer:
Symantec is a company created non-organically through a merger and acquisition strategy that has left the company, in our opinion, with a fragmented product line and a weak support channel. Symantec has a wide array of products and services that not only don’t work together effectively, but are vertically sliced such that a customer is constantly charged for minor features, new computers to be protected, different operating systems, and the like.
With all of these disparate features and products, and with the requirement that the customer purchase a server, the server’s operating system, networking hardware, storage, and so on, implementing a Symantec solution often resembles a science kit. Science kits are fun if you want to experiment and learn science; however, if you’re actually trying to get something done science kits aren’t the answer.
And when something doesn’t work, whether it’s the server, the operating system, the storage system, the network, or Symantec’s backup/restore product, you’re left talking to multiple vendors all pointing fingers at each other.
Unitrends delivers an integrated, simple, and elegant appliance that is plugged into the on-premise network (and optionally the off-premise network) and begins protecting your computers immediately.
In addition, unlike Symantec, Unitrends does not charge our customers according to the number of machines to be protected, nor do we charge you for protecting different operating systems. Unitrends’ pricing is based on the amount of data that you wish to protect and how many of the protection snapshots you wish to keep. (See the questions in this FAQ on pricing.)
If you want to add another computer to be protected, or another operating system, or another application – you do that with no incremental cost. Only when you need to protect more data, or retain it over a greater number of time periods, would your costs rise.
Q: What's the difference between full backup and incremental backup? Which does Unitrends support?
Answer:
A full backup is a “master” backup, which backs up all the files on the system. An incremental backup backs up all the changed files from the last master. Unitrends supports both full and incremental backups.
Q: When I do a restore, will Unitrends defragment my files at the same time?
Answer:
Unitrends’ systems do not defragment the files when they performs restores. This is a matter of policy; Unitrends software protects your computers, but does not alter your computers in any way. However, using our single-pane of glass Web 2.0 advanced management console (which is called the RRC, or Rapid Recovery Console), it is possible to specify before and after commands that could perform any function desired on the client, or on the on-premise protection device, including but not limited to file defragmentation.
Q: Where can I go to learn more about the Unitrends product roadmap?
Answer:
Ask your reseller or Unitrends Regional Sales Manager to share upcoming release and roadmap information. Call us at 800.648.2827. In addition, current clients should watch for your monthly Support Services Newsletter, in which we communicate product updates and other important information.
Q: Where do I go to get more detail on error codes?
Answer:
Please contact Support Services for questions regarding an error message. Call 888.374.6124 or e-mail support@Unitrends.com.
Q: I have a one man IT shop and we currently only protect a fraction of our data. What can Unitrends do for me?
Answer:
No matter how large or small your business, Unitrends’ Data Protection Units enable everyone to easily protect and recover in the event of data loss, or a system crash, in a matter of minutes versus hours or days—and without reinstalling your operating system or applications. We help you sleep better at night, knowing that all of your critical data is fully protected. We also provide business continuity solutions that protect against true natural disasters. No longer will you get that sinking feeling in your stomach, wondering whether the last tape backup will actually work in a crisis.
Q: Are you still supporting CTAR? If so, where can I get more info?
Answer:
Unitrends still uses some of the native CTAR functionality within its on-premise and off-premise data protection devices; however, we do not offer CTAR as a stand-alone product.
Q: Where are your offices located?
Answer:
Unitrends is headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina. We have sales and technical support teams based around the United States, and deliver our products through premier value-added resellers nationwide. Our products are available in the United Kingdom, the European Union, and other countries through local distributors.
Q: What operating systems do you support?
Answer:
Unitrends supports more than 100 versions of applications and operating systems. These are defined specifically on this web site.
Q: I'd like to use tape to archive my old data. Does Unitrends support that?
Answer:
If you can avoid using tapes, we recommend it. We recommend our Single Drive Archive (SDA) and our even larger-capacity Recovery-Archive, both of which allow you to create archives on disk sets instead of tape. The SDA and Recovery-Archive currently support, respectively, 1.5TB and 6TB of raw storage (with compression, this means the user typically sees storage of about 3TB and 12TB.
Tertiary tape backup is supported, although not recommended, for those cases where a customer has a great deal of data that must be stored for a very long time. This is in essence a “bridge strategy” that Unitrends supports as disk capacities and pricing continually encroach upon this last refuge of tape.
Unitrends supports tape using what is called in the storage protection industry a Disk-To-Disk-To-Tape (D2D2T) strategy. Please contact us sales@unitrends.com to discuss the specific tape devices we support in this fashion.
Q: Does encryption change the efficacy of compression?
Answer:
By design, encryption increases the entropy of a message; thus compression is typically less efficient after encryption (because compression works via pattern matching and replacement.) The degree of efficacy loss is dependent upon the actual data itself. It’s possible, if the data lines up on 256-bit boundaries, for encryption to have almost no impact on compression. It’s also possible for encryption to almost completely wipe out the benefit of compression.
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