x360Recover - Release Notes for 8.3.0

Release Overview

x360Recover  8.3.0 is a major new feature release, delivering a new cloud experience (Scale-out Cloud, Instant Cloud Recovery) and automated backup recovery testing (AutoVerify).

New Features Summary

• Scale-out Cloud: One vault in the Axcient cloud can scale out to handle any amount of data or endpoints
• Instant Cloud Recovery: Near-instant virtualization of backups in the Axcient cloud (support-assisted)
• AutoVerify: Automated daily testing of data & application integrity on local appliances
• NVMe drive support for local BDR appliance hardware
•  Support for installing in EFI boot mode

Enhancements Summary

• Default to E1000 (Gigabit) network adapter in Live Mode Virtualizations
• Use VirtIO network adapter when enabling VirtIO for Virtualization
• Enhancements to package manager (for more resilient upgrades)
• Removed legacy software packages that are no longer needed (for faster updates)
• Removed Apache and all dependent modules (for better security)
• Various MongoDB updates
• Internal API endpoint security enhancements

 Bug Fixes

• Disabled network interfaces are now visible in UI or Aristosnet
• Backup Manager timeout-related issues are resolved
• MBR and EFI disk boot fixes
• Vault to vault migration fixes

=====================================================

New Feature Details

Scale-out Cloud

Previously, each vault in the Axcient Cloud was restricted to storing a limited number of endpoints and data (TB). Larger partners had to manage multiple vaults, including the headache of migrating data between vaults to keep them sized appropriately. Replication performance was inconsistent and, in some cases, unacceptably slow.

The Scale-out Cloud delivers an entirely new cloud experience. Partners will receive a single cloud vault that can be a replication target for an unlimited amount of data and unlimited number of endpoints.

Data for protected systems replicated to a scale-out vault will automatically be distributed across our entire cloud.

Furthermore, a new storage architecture has been implemented, which provides consistent and highly performant replication speeds. (In our benchmark tests, replication speeds over the Internet from a single appliance have exceeded 1 Gbit/sec.)

The roll out of the Scale-out Cloud will happen automatically after the software release of 8.3.0 has finished. In July 2019, new vaults within US regions will be provisioned as scale-out vaults. Scale-out vaults for Canada and European regions are coming later in 2019. Existing cloud vaults will be automatically converted with minimal downtime and no involvement required from partners throughout the remainder of 2019.

Please contact your Partner Success Manager if you wish to be on the waiting list to convert sooner.

We will be emailing partners individually with more information about their conversion schedule.

Read more about Scale-out Cloud here:

Instant Cloud Recovery

Scale-out vaults in the Axcient Cloud now also benefit from Instant Cloud Recovery, which allows any protected system snapshot previously replicated to the Axcient cloud to be instantly virtualized.

Once an Axcient Continuity Cloud node is provisioned through a support-assisted process (1-hour SLA), replicated backup snapshots can be directly connected via ISCSI and instantly virtualized for testing or live disaster recovery scenarios.

Data does NOT need to be converted to VHDX or VMDK first.

x360Recover Instant Cloud recovery is subject to Continuity Cloud pricing. (See your Axcient Partner Success Manager for details.)

AutoVerify

Previously, our partners (whether using x360Recover or other backup solutions) had to either (1) rely on backup success messages and hope that data was good during recovery, or (2) periodically perform labor-intensive recovery testing to get their own assurances.

The industry has had nightly automated Boot VM screenshots for a while, but this only provides a guarantee that the OS is bootable, and not that all data is good and recoverable. Additionally, partners had to visually inspect screenshots for correctness.

AutoVerify solves all of these challenges.

AutoVerify builds on the nightly Boot VM Check process. It automatically performs deep runtime testing of the protected system to ensure full recoverability within expected Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs).

The enhanced backup validation provided by AutoVerify operations allows for a high level of confidence in the integrity and recoverability of your backups. This will reduce the time spent manually fixing issues that might occur during a recovery or fail-over virtualization.

At launch, AutoVerify will confirm that the system booted successfully with critical services running, and that the integrity of every file system is 100% good.

Future versions will bring additional types of data and application-specific automated testing.
To learn more, please visit the AutoVerify KB article. 

==============================

Enhancements Details

Networking Enhancements

When virtualizing in Live Mode on a local BDR appliance, the virtual machine now defaults to using a virtual Intel E1000 adapter to provide full gigabit networking support to the VM.

If you choose to enable VirtIO when virtualizing a protected system, the virtual machine will be provided with a paravirtual network adapter as well as the normal paravirtual SCSI controller. VirtIO networking enables up to 10Gbe networking performance within the running VM. 

Auto Update Best Practices

We recommend that Enable Auto Update is enabled on the Settings -> Update Manager page on each of your x360Recover devices.

We also recommend that you enable Auto-Enable Remote Assist When Upgrading so that remote access will be available to our development team should something go wrong with your upgrade.

This will ensure that your x360Recover devices are updated with the latest software enhancements in a timely fashion, and that the x360Recover Support team will have a short window of time to access and repair any troublesome devices without requiring user intervention.