Agentless Protection with Application Support (4043749)

Rapid recovery 6.2 introduces the ability to collect and display metadata for Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server applications when using agentless protection.  Agentless protection applies to VMWare ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines.

Application support for agentless protection includes:

• Backing up the metadata
• Performing Exchange mountability checks
• Performing Exchange checksum checks
• Performing Core-side SQL attachability checks
• Enabling log truncation for SQL and Exchange
• Driver letter identification for protected volumes

For application protection to be successful, the agentlessly protected VM must be powered on and the Core server must have direct network access to the VM. 

Review the following steps to enable application support for agentlessly protected machines. 

Before you begin, the following prerequisites must be in place. 

• Protect the VM with the Rapid Recovery Core:  The option to enable application support is not available during the protection process. The button to enable this capability is displayed on multiple pages in the UI after the SQL or Exchange machine is placed under protection.  For more information, see Protecting vCenter/ESXi virtual machines using agentless protection or Protecting Hyper-V virtual machines using agentless protection.
• Enable remote WMI access:  To allow WMI access, you must install and configure Windows Remote Management on the target virtual machine (VM). For more information, see the Microsoft knowledge base article at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384372(v=vs.85).aspx.
• Grant administrative rights remotely to local users:  Configure LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy by running the following administrative command prompt:

                 winrm quickconfig

• Obtain WMI root namespace access authorization:  For the Core to display application metadata, the VM must allow incoming network traffic on TCP ports 135 and 445, and to dynamically assigned ports 1024 to 1034.
• Allow remote access to SQL Server and Exchange:  This prerequisite varies depending on the application you want to support.
  • SQL:  Configure the Windows Firewall by opening ports 1433 and 1434.
  • Exchange:  Open the TCP and UDP port 389.
• Integrate the guest with the host:  Integration is done by installing the optimization package specific to the hypervisor:
  • For ESXi VMs, use VMware Tools, which is required for agentless ESXi VM protection.
  • For Hyper-V, use the Integration Services bundle, which is preinstalled on most Windows Server operating systems. 

Complete the following steps to enable application support for agentlessly protected VMs: 

1. From the Core Console, go to the Machines page.
2. Complete one of the following actions:
   1. To enable application support for a single VM, click the Actions menu for that VM, and then click Enable application support.
   2. To enable application support for multiple VMs simultaneously, select the VMs, click the Application Support drop-down, and then click Enable application support.
3. In the Edit Application Support dialog, enter the credentials for the VM. 

A green icon is displayed next to the name of the protected machine for which application support is enabled. 

If you want to add application credentials, you can do so by clicking SQL or Exchange at the top of the Summary page for the specific machine.