Hi Dave ,
You can have 2 agents to be installed side by side, but only if one is managed and the other one is standalone.
But, if in the managed backup you won't need to provide credentials to the agent as they would be taken from the managed web console, for standalone you would need to type credentials to the storage.
We never thought of scenarios like you described, but it would work in the way I shared.
Thanks

That's good to know. Thanks.

Hi Anton,

I tried downloading and installing the standalone, in restore only mode.
I added an S3 account, it connected fine, and I was able to select my buckets.

However, when I try to create a restore plan, it doesn't appear to see anything in the bucket.

When i view the bucket in cloudberry explorer for S3, it sees the folders MBS-<id>, with the systems inside them.

Is the standalone restorer CAPABLE of restoring data backed up with the managed product?
If it is, how do i get it to see the data?

-regards,
Dave

That won't work, I'm afraid, at least without modifying the folder structure(removing MBS ID folder). We scan the root location for the backup prefix with the standalone client, and managed version of the product looks for the MBS ID folder first, then the backup prefix, due to that it won't be possible to get this working "out of the box" and should be used only in case of emergency restores if you don't have any other option.

Hi Matt & Anton,

So there is no straightforward / direct support for an mbs dashboard administrator for example to simply retrieve something from a backup, without first:

• deploying a computer
• installing the same (or higher) managed version of the client
• and registering it to that user's account

That's surprisingly awkward!

Is that deliberate?

It seems like it would be a common use case:

Suppose ServerA for User-ITAdmin dies; and I need to pull the latest backup of key accounting files immediately to DesktopB for User-Accountant so they can access and work with them in single user mode, while a replacement server is provisioned and fully restored.

Or suppose a HyperV Server running VM1 to VM4 dies; and I want to first restore the VM2 definition and disk image to a desktop; so I can host it from Win10 HyperV temporarily while we provision a replacement server, and bring everything back up.

Another scenario i was looking at trying:

One of the things I was considering trying to do was to setup a system that could be turned on, run a series of restore plans to restored key critical data from several different systems, operating under different user accounts, and then turn it off again; to create a secure offsite offline backup of that data.

This is all simply not really possible or supported, right?

You can change user account on any existing machines remotely via the Gear button > Edit account. This is done due to various reasons, including security and saving on requests to the cloud by using repository database.

Suppose ServerA for User-ITAdmin dies; and I need to pull the latest backup of key accounting files immediately to DesktopB for User-Accountant so they can access and work with them in single user mode, while a replacement server is provisioned and fully restored.

Or suppose a HyperV Server running VM1 to VM4 dies; and I want to first restore the VM2 definition and disk image to a desktop; so I can host it from Win10 HyperV temporarily while we provision a replacement server, and bring everything back up.

Another scenario i was looking at trying:

One of the things I was considering trying to do was to setup a system that could be turned on, run a series of restore plans to restored key critical data from several different systems, operating under different user accounts, and then turn it off again; to create a secure offsite offline backup of that data. — db ots

1) This works fine, all you need is a machine with the backup software installed on it. After that just log in under the same user and choose the backup prefix to see your data.

2) VM edition can't be installed on a desktop machine, but you can install the software on any other server machine and create a restore plan there.

3) This is achievable, but very time-consuming, since it involves logging in under several users and restore procedures can take a lot of time, depending on your network speeds.

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your reply.

1) This works fine, all you need is a machine with the backup software installed on it. After that just log in under the same user and choose the backup prefix to see your data. — Matt

The machine i want to restore to is already setup with a different user with their own backup plans scheduled.

Changing to a different user, and running a one-off restore, sounds like it should work. And this should even be pretty easy to do via the RMM, which is good.

But will signing in with a different user disrupt what is already going on? If I simply change back to the original user after the restore is done, will the scheduled backups for that user and system just resume where things left off?

2) VM edition can't be installed on a desktop machine, but you can install the software on any other server machine and create a restore plan there. — Matt

Yes, I actually just noticed that in testing myself. Is there no way to simply retrieve the VM definition/disk image to a desktop? Lots of sites only have one server. Even if i could pull just the VHDX file out that would be terrifically useful.

3) This is achievable, but very time-consuming, since it involves logging in under several users and restore procedures can take a lot of time, depending on your network speeds. — Matt

Agreed.

But will signing in with a different user disrupt what is already going on? If I simply change back to the original user after the restore is done, will the scheduled backups for that user and system just resume where things left off? — db ots

Yes, logging in back as the original user should pose no problems. Just make sure schedule is disabled when doing it. You can re-enable it quickly once restore from another account is complete.

Yes, I actually just noticed that in testing myself. Is there no way to simply retrieve the VM definition/disk image to a desktop? Lots of sites only have one server. Even if i could pull just the VHDX file out that would be terrifically useful. — db ots

Everything that was backed up by our software needs to be restored by it, so if all of your machines are in one network environment I can suggest to maybe restore VM on a server machine and transfer the VHDX file to your desktop PC.

Everything that was backed up by our software needs to be restored by it, so if all of your machines are in one network environment I can suggest to maybe restore VM on a server machine and transfer the VHDX file to your desktop PC. — Matt

Lots of small environments only have one physical server. And even in environments that have 2 or 3; if they are all production servers, I don't necessarily want to touch them. Especially in a virus or ransomware scenario. If I have an option not to run the restore there I want to know about it.

Anyway, it appears that if I just want to be able to just pull an arbitrary VM out of the backups; I need a spare server with hyperV role with cloudberry vm edition installed; and the backup user account information for server it was hosted on.

I can cope with these limitations / restrictions; but its good to know about them in advance.

Pretty much all caveats of your use case have been clarified by Matt above.

To add to that, please refer to our image-based restore guide here:
https://mspbackups.com/Admin/Help/backup-and-restore/backup-agent/win-agent/ibb-win/restore-image-win

There is more information on performing the restores, including restoring them as virtual hard drives that can be then mounted in the virtual environment (Hyper-V or VMware-based).

Please let us know if we should further elaborate on any points.