The protecting procedure requires the following tasks be completed before you begin:

• The Rapid Recovery Agent has been deployed and installed on the machine you want to protect.
• The machine you want to protect was restarted after the Agent installation.
• A repository has been created and is accessible from the Rapid Recovery Core.

This topic describes how to start protecting the data on a single machine that you specify using the Protect Machine Wizard. To protect multiple machines using one process simultaneously, see About protecting multiple machines.

NOTE: Unless using agentless protection on a VMware or ESXi host, or a Hyper-V host, the machine you want to protect must have the Rapid Recovery Agent software installed to be protected. You can choose to install the Agent software prior to this procedure, or you can deploy the software to the target machine as a part of completing the Protect Machine Wizard. For more information about agentless protection and its restrictions, see Understanding Rapid Snap for Virtual.

For more information about installing the Agent software, see “Installing the Rapid Recovery Agent software” in the Rapid Recovery Installation and Upgrade Guide.
 If the Agent software is not installed prior to protecting a machine, you will not be able to select specific volumes for protection as part of this wizard. In this case, by default, all volumes on the agentlessly protected machine will be protected.

??Rapid Recovery supports the protection and recovery of machines configured with EISA partitions.

When you add protection, you need to define connection information such as the IP address and port, and provide credentials for the machine you want to protect. Optionally, you can provide a display name to appear in the Core Console instead of the IP address. If you change this, you will not see the IP address for the protected machine when you view details in the Core Console. You will also define the protection schedule for the machine.

The protection process includes optional steps you can access if you select an advanced configuration. Advanced options include repository functions and encryption. For example, you can specify which Rapid Recovery repository you want to use. You can also specify an existing encryption key (or add a new encryption key) to apply to the data saved to the Core for this machine. For more information about encryption keys, see Encryption.

The workflow of the protection wizard may differ slightly based on your environment. For example, if the Rapid Recovery Agent software is installed on the machine you want to protect, you will not be prompted to install it from the wizard. Likewise, if a repository already exists on the Core, you will not be prompted to create one.

Caution: Rapid Recovery does not support bare metal restores (BMRs) of Linux machines with ext2 boot partitions. Any BMR performed on a machine with this type of partition results in a machine that does not start. If you want to be able to perform a BMR on this machine in the future, you must convert any ext2 partitions to ext3 or ext4 before you begin protecting and backing up the machine.

1. From the Rapid Recovery Core Console button bar, click Protect.

   NOTE: If you have not yet create a repository, a dialog box alerts you that no repository was found and prompts you to create one. Clicking Yes opens the Create Repository wizard. For more information about repositories, see Repositories.

   The Protect Machine Wizard appears.

2. On the Welcome page, select one of the follow installation options:
   • If you do not need to define a repository or establish encryption, select Typical.
   • If you want to define a repository or if you want to establish encryption, select Advanced (show optional steps).

     Optionally, if you do not wish to see the Welcome page for the Protect Machine Wizard in the future, select the option Skip this Welcome page the next time the wizard opens.

3. When you are satisfied with your choices on the Welcome page, then click Next.

   The Connection page appears.

4. On the Connection page, enter the information about the machine to which you want to connect, as described in the following table, and then click Next.

   Table 43: Machine connection settings

   Text Box	Description
   Host	The host name or IP address of the machine that you want to protect.
   Port	The port number on which the Rapid Recovery Core communicates with the Agent on the machine. The default port number for Windows machines is 8006. The default port number for Linux machines is 22 (SSH).
   User name	The user name used to connect to this machine; for example, Administrator (or, if the machine is in a domain, [domain name]\Administrator). Enter the user name or, to use a set of credentials saved to Credentials Vault, use the drop-down list and select a user name. Optionally, to save your credentials to Credentials Vault, click the plus sign next to the text box. For more information, see Credentials Vault.
   Password	Enter the password used to connect to this machine, or select a set of credentials from the drop-down list, which are listed by user name.

   If the Install Agent page appears next in the Protect Machine Wizard, that means that Rapid Recovery does not detect the Rapid Recovery Agent on the machine and will install the current version of the software. Go to step 6.

   If the Upgrade Agent page appears next in the wizard, that means that an older version of the Agent software exists on the machine you want to protect.

   NOTE: The Agent software must be installed on the machine you want to protect, and that machine must be restarted, before it can back up to the Core. To have the installer reboot the protected machine, select the option After installation, restart the machine automatically (recommended) before clicking Next.

5. On the Upgrade Agent page, do one of the following:
   • To deploy the new version of the Agent software (matching the version for the Rapid Recovery Core), select Upgrade the Rapid Recovery Agent software to the latest version.
   • To continue protecting the machine without updating the Agent software version, clear the option Upgrade the Rapid Recovery Agent software to the latest version.
6. Click Next.

   The Protection page appears.

7. Optionally, on the Protection page, if you want a name other than the IP address to display in the Rapid Recovery Core Console for this protected machine, then in the Display name field, type a name in the dialog box.

   You can enter up to 64 characters. Do not use the special characters described in the topic prohibited characters. Additionally, do not begin the display name with any of the character combinations described in the topic prohibited phrases.

8. Select the appropriate protection schedule settings as described below:
   • To use the default protection schedule, in the Schedule Settings option, select Default protection (hourly snapshots of all volumes).

     With a default protection schedule, the Core will take snapshots of all volumes on the protected machine once every hour. To change the protection settings at any time after you close the wizard, including choosing which volumes to protect, go to the Summary page for the specific protected machine.

   • To define a different protection schedule, in the Schedule Settings option, select Custom protection.

     Schedule options are added to the wizard workflow.

9. At the bottom of the Protection page, if you are re-protecting a machine previously protected in this Core, and want to keep the previous configuration, select Keep current settings.
10. Proceed with your configuration as follows:
    • If you selected a Typical configuration for the Protect Machine Wizard in step 2 and specified default protection, then click Finish to confirm your choices, close the wizard, and protect the machine you specified.
    • If you selected Advanced configuration for the Protect Machine Wizard in step 2 , and default protection, then click Next to see repository and encryption options.
    • If you selected a Typical configuration for the Protect Machine Wizard and specified custom protection, then click Next and continue to the next step to choose which volumes to protect.
    • If you selected Advanced configuration for the Protect Machine Wizard in step 2, and default protection, then click Next and proceed to step 13 to see repository and encryption options.

    The first time protection is added for a machine, a base image (that is, a snapshot of all the data in the protected volumes) will transfer to the repository on the Rapid Recovery following the schedule you defined, unless you specified to initially pause protection.

11. On the Protection Volumes page, select which volumes you want to protect. If any volumes are listed that you do not want to include in protection, click in the Check column to clear the selection. Then click Next.

    NOTE: Typically, it is good practice to protect, at minimum, the System Reserved volume and the volume with the operating system (typically the C drive).

12. On the Protection Schedule page, define a custom protection schedule and then click Next. For details on defining a custom protection schedule, see Creating custom protection schedules in Simple Mode.

    If you already have repository information configured, did not indicate that you want to change the repository, and you selected the Advanced option in step 2, then the Encryption page appears. Proceed to step 16.

    If you already have repository information configured, and you selected the Advanced option in step 2, or if you indicated you want to change the repository, then the Repository page appears. Proceed to step 13.

13. On the Repository page, select the repository you want to use to store recovery points for this machine, and then click Next.
14. On the Encryption page, do one of the following:
    • If you want to use encryption keys for data stored in the repository, select Encrypt the data at rest in a repository, and then do one of the following:
      • To select an existing encryption key to apply to all new data stored in your repository, select Encrypt data using Core-based encryption with an existing key, and from the Select encryption key drop-down menu, select the encryption key.
      • To define a new encryption key at this time to apply to all future data stored in your repository, select Encrypt data using Core-based encryption with a new key, and then enter information about the key as described in the table below:

      Table 44: Define new encryption key

      Text Box	Description
      Name	Enter a name for the encryption key. Encryption key names must contain between 1 and 64 alphanumeric characters. Do not use prohibited characters and prohibited phrases.
      Description	Enter a descriptive comment for the encryption key. This information appears in the Description field when viewing a list of encryption keys in the Rapid Recovery. Descriptions may contain up to 254 characters. Best practice is to avoid using prohibited characters and prohibited phrases.
      Passphrase	Enter a passphrase used to control access. Best practice is to avoid using prohibited characters. Record the passphrase in a secure location. Quest Data Protection Support cannot recover a passphrase. Once you create an encryption key and apply it to one or more protected machines, you cannot recover data if you lose the passphrase.
      Confirm passphrase	Re-enter the passphrase. It is used to confirm the passphrase entry.

    • If you want to encrypt all data that transports over a network, select Encrypt the data in transport over a network.

      NOTE: This option is enabled by default, so if you do not want to encrypt data in this fashion, clear this option.

15. Click Finish to save and apply your settings.

    NOTE: The first time protection is added for a machine, a base image (that is, a snapshot of all the data in the protected volumes) transfers to the repository indicated in your Rapid Recovery Core following the schedule you defined, unless you specified that the Core should initially pause protection. For information on pausing and resuming protection, see Pausing and resuming protection.