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Rapid Recovery 6.5 - Installation and Upgrade Guide

Overview and System Requirements Installing Rapid Recovery Upgrading Rapid Recovery Managing Rapid Recovery licenses

About installing the Rapid Recovery Agent software

Consider whether to protect machines in your Core using Rapid Recovery Agent, agentlessly using Rapid Snap for Virtual, or using dual protection. See the subsection Choosing Rapid Recovery Agent, agentless, or dual protection.

Determine which machines to protect in your Core using each method. See the subsection Install Rapid Recovery Agent on the following machines.

Review the methods to obtain the Rapid Recovery Agent software and determine which method you will use. Then obtain the software, and install on the machines you want to protect on the Rapid Recovery Core. See Obtaining Rapid Recovery software.

NOTE: Quest recommends retaining the binary installer file for any currently installed Rapid Recovery software product. You can use this file in the future to reinstall, repair, or remove the software.

Finally, add the machines to protection on your Core using the appropriate Protect Machine wizard. For more information, see "Protecting machines" in the Rapid Recovery User Guide.

Choosing Rapid Recovery Agent, agentless, or dual protection

Agentless protection offers several advantages to Agent-based protection, and some restrictions. These are described in the Rapid Recovery User Guide topic "Understanding Rapid Snap for Virtual." If interested in reducing the amount of licenses consumed, see the topic "Choosing Agent-based or agentless VM protection" in the same document. For instructions on protecting VMs agentlessly, see "About protecting multiple machines" and its subtopics, also in the User Guide.

Rapid Recovery Agent offers several unique features not available for machines strictly protected using Rapid Snap for Virtual. These features include:

  • Using Live Recovery on Windows-based machines
  • Performing a SQL attachability check from a protected SQL Server machine
  • Protecting dynamic volumes (for example, spanned, striped, mirrored, or RAID volumes) at the volume level (agentless is restricted to the disk level)
  • File-level restore of dynamic volumes (agentless requires BMR which restores all data)
  • Gathering metadata on a protected Oracle 12c server
  • Displaying the actual amount of space used on a VM with a thick provision eager zeroed disk type
  • Truncating Exchange Server and SQL Server logs separately on a server with both installed
  • Capturing application-consistent backups of protected SQL Server, Exchange Server, and Oracle servers (also available for agentless protection of SQL Server and Exchange only if you specifically enable application support)
  • Restoring Hyper-V VMs on CIFS using VHD format l
  • Restoring files in a Hyper-V guest VHD (.vhd) format l or a Hyper-Vguest VHD Set (.vhds) format

If you need any of these features, use Rapid Recovery Agent to protect your physical or virtual machines.

NOTE: As of release 6.2, unless using capacity-based licensing, a Rapid Recovery software license is consumed from your Enterprise license pool for each installation of Rapid Recovery Agent installed and protected on your Core.

You can use dual protection of Hyper-V or vSphere ESXi guest VMs—protecting the VM using Rapid Snap for Virtual and also installing Rapid Recovery Agent. This lets you take advantage of Agent-specific features.

NOTE: If protecting virtual machines on ESXi and Hyper-V hosts, and the hypervisor hosts are added to your Core, Quest recommends associating the VM with its parent host in machine settings. This ensures an additional license is not consumed from your Enterprise license pool.

For more information about linking the protected VM with its hypervisor host, see the User Guide topic "Viewing and modifying protected machine settings" (specifically the Hypervisor setting in step 3). Also see Protected hypervisor hosts and license consumption in this document for information about the differences between protecting a hypervisor host and a VM, and relevant license consumption concepts.

For Agent-based protection, install the Rapid Recovery Agent software on machines that you want to protect with Rapid Recovery Core using the criteria specified below.

For information about obtaining Rapid Recovery software, see Obtaining Rapid Recovery software.

Install Rapid Recovery Agent on the following machines

Install the Rapid Recovery Agent software on machines that you want to protect in your Rapid Recovery Core for:

  • Every physical machine that you want to protect using the Agent software.
  • Every supported virtual machine that you want to protect using the Agent software. 
  • Every VM (node) hosted on a Hyper-V cluster that you want to protect using the Agent software.
  • Every Hyper-V host you want to protect in your Core, and on every Hyper-V host for which you want to use Rapid Snap for Virtual agentless protection.

If you want to use Rapid Snap for Virtual agentless protection for Hyper-V and ESXi guest VMs, run the Protect Multiple Machines wizard. For Hyper-V server, the Protection Options page lets you deploy the Rapid Recovery Agent software to the Hyper-V host.

NOTE: There is no need to install Rapid Recovery Agent on the vSphere ESXi host. Rapid Recovery Core uses VMware APIs to connect to ESXi VMs directly.

For more information about protecting a hypervisor host, see Protected hypervisor hosts and license consumption. For information about supported hypervisors and versions, see "Hypervisor requirements" in the Rapid Recovery System Requirements Guide.

Protected hypervisor hosts and license consumption

When you add a Hyper-V or vSphere ESXi hypervisor host to protection on your Core, we refer to this as "protecting the host." This protection is differentiated from typical protection because the data and OS on a protected hypervisor host server itself are not backed up by the Rapid Recovery Core. Instead, you enable the Rapid Snap for Virtual feature of Rapid Recovery for the host. You can then agentlessly protect any of the guests VMs on the protected host.

The host is depicted in the protected machines menu with a specific icon, as shown in the following table. Protected VMs on any hypervisor host are listed as children of the host in the machines menu. Unless it is linked with its parent hypervisor host, an agentlessly protected machine uses a different icon than machines protected using Rapid Recovery Agent.

Table 1: Icons for hypervisor hosts and agentless machines
Icon Description
[Protected ESXi host] Protected ESXi host
Protected ESXi VM
[Hypervisor host] Protected Hyper-V host
[Hyper-V VM] Protected Hyper-V VM
[Protected machine - standard or linked agentless VM] Standard protected machine or
linked agentlessly protected machine
   

Protected hypervisor hosts are added to the Rapid Recovery License Portal, and licenses are deducted from your pool accordingly.

License consumption is calculated to be advantageous for users of agentless protection. For example, when using Agent-based protection, any machine (physical or virtual) protected in your Core with Rapid Recovery Agent consumes one license from your Enterprise pool. This is true even for application servers (such as Exchange Server, SQL Server, or Oracle Database 12c) with multiple CPU sockets.

Hyper-V or vCenter/ESXi hypervisor hosts protected in the Rapid Recovery Core consume one license from the pool for each processor socket. If your hypervisor host has six CPU sockets, 6 licenses are consumed from the Enterprise pool. Additional licenses are not consumed when more VMs on the protected host are protected agentlessly.

However, you are not penalized if not protecting many VMs. In the same example, if you protect a hypervisor host with six CPU sockets and protect only two virtual machines on that host, only two licenses (one license per VM) are consumed.

If you previously protected specific machines on a hypervisor host using Rapid Recovery Agent, and you subsequently protect the host, you can avoid the double consumption of licenses by ensuring each guest VM is associated in the Rapid Recovery Core with its protected parent hypervisor host.

When establishing protection rules in the Protect Multiple Machines Wizard, you can choose Protect machine agentlessly if it is already protected with Rapid Recovery Agent. This option typically establishes the link between the VM and its host, causing one fewer license to be deducted from your pool for each protected VM (with Agent installed) on the same protected host.

At any time, in General settings (at the protected machine level), you can explicitly associate a VM with its protected hypervisor host. The process of linking the guest VM with its parent hypervisor host is described in the topic "Viewing and modifying protected machine settings" in the Rapid Recovery User Guide.

Installing the Rapid Recovery Agent software on Windows machines

Deploy the Rapid Recovery Agent installer file to the machine you want to protect using one of the methods described in About installing the Rapid Recovery Agent software. Then launch the installer program as described below to install or upgrade the software on each Windows machine you want to protect in the Rapid Recovery Core .

NOTE: You must run the installer with local administrator privileges.

The procedure for installing on Windows Server Core editions differs than other versions of Windows, since that version describes how to install from the command line. For more information, see Installing the Agent software on Windows Server Core Edition machines.

Complete the procedure below to install or upgrade the Rapid Recovery Agent software.

  1. From the machine you want to protect, double-click on the executable Rapid Recovery Agent installer file to start the installer.

    Depending on the configuration of your machine, the User Account Control window or the Open File - Security Warning window may appear.

  2. If prompted for permission, confirm that you want to run the installer and make changes to the system.
  3. If .NET components are missing or need to be upgraded, accept the prompts to download and install the framework. This may require a reboot.
  4. In the Setup dialog box, from the language drop-down menu, select the appropriate language and then click OK.
  5. Choose from one of the following:
    • If this is the first time the Rapid Recovery Agent software is being installed on this machine, the installer prepares the installation, and then the Rapid Recovery Agent Installation wizard appears. Proceed to step 6.
    • If this machine has an earlier version of the AppAssure Agent or Rapid Recovery Agent software installed, you will see a message asking if you want to upgrade to the current version. Click Yes, and proceed to step 8.
  6. In the Rapid Recovery Agent Installation wizard, on the Welcome page, click Next to continue with the installation.

    The License Agreement page appears.

  7. On the License Agreement page, select I accept the terms in the license agreement, and then click Next.

    The Prerequisites page appears.

  8. The Rapid Recovery Agent Installer verifies the existence of the prerequisite files.
    • For new installations, if the prerequisite files exist, a message appears indicating that all prerequisites are installed on the machine. Proceed to step 9.
    • If prerequisite files must be installed on this machine, the Rapid Recovery Agent Installer identifies which files are needed and displays the results accordingly. Click Install Prerequisites and proceed to step 9.
    • When upgrading, if the prerequisite files exist, the Prerequisites wizard page is skipped, and the first page to display on the wizard is the Progress page. This page includes a status bar that lets you monitor the progress of the installation. When the installation is complete, the Completed page appears. Skip to step 15.
  9. When the installation of the prerequisite files is completed, click Next.
  10. Do one of the following:
    • For new installations, proceed to step 13.
    • For upgrades, proceed to the next step.
  11. On the Prerequisites page, if prompted to restart your machine, confirm that you want to restart.

    The server restarts. Once you authenticate, the installer launches automatically. A prompt appears asking you to confirm if you want to upgrade.

  12. Click to accept the upgrade.

    The Rapid Recovery Agent Installation wizard proceeds to the Progress page, and includes a status bar that lets you monitor the progress of the installation.

    When the installation is complete, the Completed page appears. Skip to step 15.

  13. On the Installation Options page, review the installation options. If necessary, modify them as described below.
    • In the Destination Folder text box, review the destination folder for the installation. If you want to change the location, do the following:
      1. Click the folder icon.
      2. In the Browse to Destination Folder dialog box, select a new location.
      3. Click OK.
    • In the Agent port Number text box, enter a port number to use for communication between the Agent software on the protected machine and the Rapid Recovery Core.

      NOTE: The default value is 8006. If you change the port number, be sure to make note of it in the event that you need to adjust configuration settings at a later time.

  14. Once you are satisfied with the installation options, click Install.

    The Progress page appears, and includes a status bar that lets you monitor the progress of the installation.

    When the installation is complete, the Completed page appears. For new installations, skip to step 16.

  15. For upgrade installations, in the Completed page, review the essential steps and events that occurred during installation.
  16. On the Completed page, if you see a message indicating that the system must be restarted before the installation takes effect, perform one of the following steps:
    • To restart now, select Yes, I want to restart my computer now.

      The installer wizard closes, and the machine restarts. Rapid Recovery Agent is ready to protect your machine in the Core.

    • To restart later, clear the Yes, I want to restart my computer now option.

      NOTE:Quest strongly recommends restarting your machine when prompted; until you restart, the latest drivers and features of Rapid Recovery Agent are not available.

      The installer wizard closes, and the Agent installation is complete. To use Rapid Recovery Agent with the latest drivers, restart when possible.

Related topics

Installing the Agent software on Windows Server Core Edition machines

Complete the steps in the following procedure to install the Rapid Recovery Agent software on a Windows Server Core machine.

NOTE: The following procedure installs the Agent software in console mode. To install in silent mode instead, append /silent to the installer file name on the command line. For example, Agent-X64-6.3.X.xxxxx.exe /silent.

  1. Download the Rapid Recovery Agent installer file from the Rapid Recovery License Portal or from the Downloads page on the Rapid Recovery Core Console.
  2. To begin the installation, type the path and name of the installer file.

    For example, if the installer is located in path C:\installers, type the following command and then press Enter: 

    C:\installers\Agent-X64-6.3.x.xxxxx.exe

    The installation program launches, and the Setup dialog box appears.

  3. In the Setup dialog box, select a language and then click OK.
    The dialog box closes, and the Select installation progress console displays, showing prompts for required input.
  4. At the destination folder prompt, type the destination path to install the Rapid Recovery Agentfiles.
    For example, type C:\Program Files\AppRecovery\Agent and then press Enter.
  5. At the port number prompt, type the desired port for the Agent software.
    For example, type 8006 and then press Enter.
  6. If the installer identifies prerequisite files, each is listed in the console. To continue the installation at the prompt, type 1 to confirm and then press Enter.
    The console refreshes and shows you installation progress.
  7. After installation is complete, if you are prompted to restart the machine, type 1 to confirm and then press Enter.

    If prompted, you must restart the newly protected machine to begin protecting your data using Rapid Recovery Core .

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