Altaro VM Backup is a very easy to use backup/replication software for VMware and Hyper-V environments. Altaro VM Backup Has Standalone Management and Monitoring Console. We'll talk about it in this post, all along with some other features. The latest version is
The latest version is Altaro VM Backup 6 which can optionally be installed in a configuration with an Altaro offsite server which allows having a second copy of your backups at another location. Having a copy of your backup somewhere else is number one priority of every admin who is responsible for the data he/she protects during his/her daily tasks.
The offsite backup jobs are configured through the same backup console. Check the How-to post where I run through the whole installation/configuration process here. The offsite server stores backups and can have different retention policies than the main backup server. Let's say you store 30 days of backups on site and then up to 6 months of backup on your remote backup copy server.
Note that the network configuration between the Altaro Backup server and the Altaro Offsite Server has to have some network ports open. TCP Ports 35101 – 35105 and 35109 – 35111 are used for communication between the Altaro VM Backup software and the Altaro Offsite Server and must be allowed through.
Standalone Management Console and Monitoring
Altaro has also a possibility to install the backup server on one side, and the Management console somewhere else. Rather than managing the solution via RDP it's possible to install the Management console on a laptop/desktop which is dedicated to monitoring.
It is not web based console. It's an executable which needs to be installed, and which then provides the management/monitoring UI to work with.
The Backup management console does not only the backup management but also a central monitoring. The central monitoring console can monitor several Altaro VM Backup Instances.
So you can switch between the Management and Monitoring….
You can expand/reduce the left-hand sidebar by clicking the left bar. What's shows only with icons on the left, then expands to full text
The remote management console can connect to single or many remote installations of Altaro VM Backup. As you can see on the image below, it's possible to add an additional Altaro VM Backup Instance.
Altaro is meant to be used for an SMB, but can also be used for DRS enabled vSphere clusters in enterprise environment where VMs are being vMotioned around, so the VMs aren't “attached” to the same host all the time. Altaro is clever enough to “follow” those VMs and back them up. Same for Hyper-V environments. Altaro can also run in a mixed environment, with the same level of pricing.
As being said, the solution is easy to configure/use and manage, with low-cost (based on per-host licensing, read below…)
Altaro has 3 editions:
- Free (free for 2 VMs) – with stripped down functions
- Standard – 5 VM per host limit
- Unlimited – Full featured version
The free version can backup just 2 VMs per host. All interesting features are in the more advanced, Unlimited edition. Free edition does not provide offsite backups, file level restore or a possibility to restore on a different host either. Check the edition compare and pricing here.
If you're running vSphere Essentials or Enterprise Plus, with more than 5 VMs per host, then The Unlimited edition is necessary. Altaro is licensed at Per-Host level (not per CPU), which is interesting considering many IT shops does have hosts with multi-CPU sockets. Imagine quadri-CPU socket host covered with single Altaro Unlimited Edition license for €495 …..
Price Includes 1 year of priority support and all version updates (SMA), and renewal after the first year is charged at 25% of initial license cost. Altaro has also volume discounts, starting from 10 hosts.
Check out other posts about Altaro:
- Altaro VM Backup 6 for VMware And Hyper-V Released
- Altaro Full Test Restore in a Sandbox
- How to setup an Altaro Offsite Server
- Altaro VM Backup – The Standalone Management Console – (This post)
- Altaro Backup Can be deployed on Server Core/Hyper-V Core
- Altaro VM Backup Best Practices
