Image Disaster Recovery Agent
The Image Disaster Recovery Agent in UltraBac is the same agent that is used in UBDR. The functions and screens are the same, as well as the instructions.
The UltraBac Image Disaster Recovery Agent uses "snapshot" technology to take a sector level backup of a physical disk or partition. The UltraBac Locked File Backup Agent is integrated with the Image Disaster Recovery Agent, ensuring the backup is a complete and consistent snapshot of the selected disk(s). An Image Disaster Recovery Agent backup is used to quickly restore a failed disk or operating system without the need for re-installing the operating system.
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NOTE: For information on performing a Static Mirror Image backup using the Image Disaster Recovery Agent, please visit the "Static Mirror Image" section of the User Manual:
UltraBac User Manual: Static Mirror Image
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NOTE: The UltraBac Image Disaster Recovery Agent supports Windows software RAID only when configured as RAID-0 or RAID-1.
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NOTE: Starting with UltraBac v.9.5.0 the Single File Restore (SFR) option has been modified to use mountable image backups, and only supports writing to BackupPath devices.
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NOTE: The Single File Restore (SFR) option to "Upload to a copy of the cloud device" currently only supports Amazon S3, Wasabi, and Google Cloud Storage.
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NOTE: UltraBac cannot restore to smaller GPT partitions. If it is a necessity, you will need to plan ahead as this cannot be done in a disaster situation. Using Windows Device Manager, right click the partition in question and select "Shrink Volume." Enter a size that is smaller than the partition size you wish to restore to. Once the volume size has been reduced, run an image backup. You can now restore this new backup to the smaller GPT configuration.
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Setup and Configuration
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NOTE: To create an image backup of a remote system, the UltraBac Image Disaster Recovery Agent must be installed on the system being imaged. For more information on installing the Image Disaster Recovery Agent, please visit the "Installing UltraBac" section of the User Manual:
UltraBac User Manual: Installing UltraBac
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Creating an Image Set
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Launch the Backup Wizard by selecting the Backup tab, and clicking "New."
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Click "Image Disaster Recovery Agent" to highlight the option, and click "Next."
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Set the Image Agent options, and click "Next."
Fig. 1 - Disaster Recovery/Image Agent Options.
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Type a set description, as it will appear in the backup log, into the "Set Description" field. Click "Next" and "Finish."
Fig. 2 - Image set loaded in the File Viewer.
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Save the set by clicking "Action"/"Save Backup Set" from the main "Backup Set" menu.
Image Agent Options
Options for image backups:
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Always back up partitions individually – Allows partitions to be individually selected. If unchecked, only a full disk can be selected.
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Enable in-use cluster backup for partitions with known filesystems – The image set will only back up the in-use clusters on the selected disk or partition, excluding all empty disk space.
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Enable single file restore (Supports BackupPath only) – Writes the backup to a new UltraBac format that allows mounting of the image backup. This provides the ability to mount a virtual volume of the backup to allow individual files and folders to be restored. Enabling this option also allows the image to be uploaded to a cloud device in addition to a backuppath device.
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Maximum Number of Full Backups to be maintained in the Backup/Cloud Path [1-31]: – Set a value between 1 and 31 for the maximum number of full backups to be maintained in the backup and cloud paths. For example, if a value 2 is used, then the first full backup along with its incremental backups in the same backup/cloud path will be deleted(pruned) after the successful third full backup. This way UltraBac would maintain the last 2 full backups as per the set value. This feature is useful to save space and cut storage costs as well as acts as an easy retention policy for this backup set.
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Upload a copy of the backup to a cloud device: – In addition to writing a SFR backup to a backuppath, the backup will be copied to the specified cloud device. This option currently ONLY supports Amazon S3, Wasabi, and Google Cloud Storage cloud devices.
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Delete any existing files in this cloud device. – This feature deletes all files in the selected cloud device/bucket BEFORE writing a new full backup. Note that if UltraBac’s immutability flag is set AND the cloud provider’s immutability option for the bucket is also set that the no files will actually be deleted until the set number of immutability days has passed.
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Immutable Cloud Storage (Check this if the selected cloud storage is immutable. – This flag enables writing full and incremental backups to all cloud providers that support immutable buckets. Normally an UltraBac incremental backup modifies a small existing file but this was changed to work in conjunction with cloud immutability. With the immutability flag set UltraBac now creates a new small file rather than modifying the existing metadata file. This new method enables writing incremental backups to buckets with an unexpired immutability period. Note that this flag can also be set to on when writing backups to non-immutable cloud devices/buckets and will become the default method in a future release.
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Freeze all drives – Freezes all physical disk drives during an image backup of the system. This will allow databases and other applications that are installed across multiple partitions to remain consistent when restored from an image backup. UltraBac strongly recommends that you use a database agent to back up databases.
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Enable Incremental or Differential backup – Enables the tracking of changed clusters and set creation necessary to perform an incremental or differential image backup.
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Full backup – Backs up the full partition or disk, and clears the ".idx" file used to track disk changes.
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Incremental backup – Backs up all clusters modified after the last full or incremental backup.
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Give warning if the volume's data is changed more than this percentage (%): - Report a warning in the backup log if the changed blocks on a volume being backed up is larger than the percentage given. Example if 1% was given and full backup of a volume was 10Tb and the incremental had 150Gb of changed blocks a warning would be written to the backup log.
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Abort backup if the volume's data is changed more than this percentage (%): - Abort the backup if the changed blocks on a volume being backed up is larger than the percentage given. Example if 20% was given and full backup of a volume was 10Tb and the incremental had 2.5Tb of changed blocks the backup would abort. This option paired with Email notification would alert you to a potential issue quickly rather than waiting on a huge backup to finish.
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Differential backup – Backs up all clusters modified after the last full backup.
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NOTE: With "Enable Incremental or Differential backup" checked, a full backup must be performed before a incremental/differential backup can be run.
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Enable backup to Virtual disk file format (VHD / VHDX / VMDK) – Writes the backup output to a VHD / VHDX (Microsoft Hyper-V), Replication to Microsoft Azure, or VMDK (VMware ESX) file in a secondary data stream.
Restoring an Image Backup
An image backup can be restored several ways:
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Partition or disk restore using the UltraBac Management Console
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Single file restore using the UltraBac Management Console
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Partition or disk restore using UBDR Gold
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Static Mirror Image restore
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NOTE: An active operating system partition cannot be overwritten by an image restore.
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Partition/Disk Restore
A full image restore through the UltraBac Management Console requires the target disk be prepared before restore.
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Partition level restore – Restore target partition must be of equal or greater size than the original source partition, and unassigned of a drive letter.
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Disk level restore – Restore target disk must be of equal or greater size than the original source disk, and the disk must be unpartitioned.
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NOTE: Only one disk or partition can be restored per restore job.
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To begin the restore process:
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Launch the Restore Wizard by selecting the Restore tab, and selecting the index source.
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Select and load the index for restore.
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Select the disk or partition for restore.
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Click "Action"/"Restore this Backup."
Fig. 4 - Disaster Recovery Image Restore Wizard.
- Choose either Express Mode or Advanced Mode. Express Mode chooses the "Source Information" by default, while Advanced Mode allows the user to select the "Source Information." Click "OK."
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NOTE: Single File Restore (SFR) is only displayed if the image was taken with SFR enabled.
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Express Mode – Can only be used if you are restoring an image back to the same hardware using the same disk configuration (MBR). This mode will attempt to match source and target partitions. If you cannot restore or use the original MBR (meaning you which to change partition size or location), you must use the Advanced Mode.
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Fig. 5 - Express Mode Settings.
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- Advanced Mode - Allows you to change a partition's size, or restore to a partition located on a different disk. This option is also used to perform a dissimilar hardware restore.
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Source – List of disk(s) / partition(s) contained in the backup. If a disk / partition is selected and added to the queue it will be removed from the list.
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Target – List of disk(s) / partition(s) available to be restored to. If a disk / partition is selected and added to the queue it will be removed from the list.
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Mark Partition as Active – The target disk will be marked as active. This disk will then be used to attempt to boot the restored OS. Should only be used on the disk containing the Windows boot loader partition.
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Restore MBR (Master Boot Record) – Will restore the MBR of the selected source disk to that of the selected target. This will overwrite an existing MBR on the target. This will fail if the target disk is too small. If the source disk contains multiple partitions and the target disk is too small, only partition(s) that will fit on the disk will be created.
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Restoring to Dissimilar Hardware (P2P, P2V, V2P, V2V) – After the restore is completed UltraBac will inject driver(s) necessary to allow the restored OS to boot on the dissimilar hardware. Chipset, display, network, etc. drivers will need to be updated manually after booting into Windows.
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Add to Restore Queue – Adds the selected source and target partition to the restore queue.
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Remove from Queue – Removes the highlighted line from the restore queue.
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Fig. 6 - Advanced Mode Settings.
- Source Information - Shows the disk and partitions information contained in the backup.
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Fig. 7 - Source Information.
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After the restore completes, reboot the system to activate the restored disk or partition.
Single File Restore
This option is available only if "Enable Single File Restore" is checked during the creation of the image set. If the preference was selected, you will be able to mount each partition.
To begin the restore process:
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Launch the Restore Wizard by selecting the Restore tab, and selecting the index source.
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Select and load the index for restore.
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Select the disk or partition(s) for restore.
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Click "Action"/"Restore this Backup."
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Click "Single File Restore Options."
Fig. 8 - Single File Restore Index loaded in the File Viewer.
Fig. 9 - Single File Restore options.
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Select the correct "Hard disk" and "Volume" to be mounted. Click "Mount."
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Once the volume is mounted, a Windows Explorer window will be opened to the mounted RAM disk drive letter.
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Copy the files or folders needed.
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Click "Unmount All" when you are finished.
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NOTE: If the set or UltraBac is closed before the backup is unmounted, simply launch UltraBac Management Console and click on “Unmount All Volumes” located at “Tools” / “UBDR.” This will unmount any UltraBac mounted Image SFR, Hyper-V, or vSphere agent backups. Alternatively, follow the same steps required to mount a backup until the "Unmount All" option button is visible.
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RAID Array Strategies and Considerations
There is no distinguishing difference in the process of backing up and restoring to a RAID array or restoring to an ordinary IDE drive. There are some limitations to be aware of when imaging and restoring RAID arrays:
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The RAID array must be configured prior to the restore through the manufacturer’s RAID configuration utility.
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The level of RAID (RAID 0, striping, RAID1, mirroring , etc.) during backup should be consistent with the level of RAID during restore.
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To restore all partitions back to the original location on a rebuilt RAID array, the MBR should first be restored to the destination disk to create the partition table.
