RetrospectBackup 18. 1
Astrongsolutionwithgood
managementfeaturesfor
backingupphysicalservers
andworkstations
SCOREPRICEMulti-Serverwith 1 yearsupport,
£2,167excVATfromretrospect.com
W
ithareleasehistorygoing
backto1989,Retrospect
hasplentyofexperience
withSMBdataprotection,andits
Backupproductcontinuestoevolve.
Onesignificantupdateinthislatest
releaseissupportforimmutable
cloudstorage,withuser-definable
retentionperiodstoensurethat
offsitebackupscan’tbetampered
withbyhackersorransomware.
Reportinghasbeenimproved,too,
withmoredetailonprotectedclients
andstorageusageandtheoptionto
regularlyemailtheinformationto
multipleaddresses.Acleveraddition
isareadoutofthepercentageoffiles
changedinthelatestbackup–ahigh
valuecouldindicatesuspicious
activity.Thewebconsolehasalsohad
anupgrade,toaccommodatethese
enhanceddetails,withanew
geo-trackingfeatureshowingwhere
remotebackupclientsarelocated.
Thestandardpackagedoesn’tback
updatafromappssuchasMicrosoft
ExchangeorSQLServer–thatcanbe
addedwithoptionalplugins–butall
versionscomewithfullcloudbackup
support.Over 2 0providerscanbe
appliedanimmutablestoragepolicy.
Wenoted,however,thatwhilethis
featurewasalsoavailableforGoogle
CloudStorageandWasabi,itwas
greyedoutforAzure.
Retrospectkeepsyouroptions
simple:alljobsarecreatedwitha
dailyschedule,andstartwitha
completebackupfollowedby
progressivepassesthatcopyonlynew
andchangedfiles.
RetrospectBackuphas
justonerealshortcoming:
it’salwaysfocusedon
securingphysicalservers
andworkstations,and
doesn’tsupportagentless
backupofVMwareand
Hyper-Vhostsandtheirassociated
VMs.Forthis,you’llneedtheseparate
RetrospectVirtualproduct.It’s
rumouredthatthesefeatureswillat
somepointbeintegratedintothe
mainBackupproduct,butthere’s
beennoofficialwordonthat,sowe
stronglyrecommendthatyoufinda
differentsolution,fornowatleast.
Whenthetimecomesfordata
recovery,ahelpfulwizardguidesyou
throughsourceselection;youcan
chooseanentiresystemorindividual
volumes,folders,files,databasesor
mailboxes,anddecidewhereto
restorethem.Fordisasterrecovery,
thewizardcanalsobuildabootable
flashdriveorISOimage,whichcanbe
usedtostartupadefunctsystemand
restoreitfromabackup.
RetrospectBackup18.1makeslight
workofprotectingphysicalservers
andworkstations.Thelackof
virtualisationsupportmeansitwon’t
suiteverybusiness,butit’seasytouse
andagoodspreadoflicensing
schemesmakeiteconomical,too.“Abootableflashdrive
orISOimagecanbeused
tostartupadefunct
systemandrestoreit
fromabackup”BELOWRetrospect
Backupcaneasily
backupallyourclients
withonescriptREQUIREMENTSWindows 7 /Server2008,
macOS10.8upwardsused,includingAmazonS3,Google
CloudStorageandAzureBlobStorage.
Thesoftwarecanalsobeinstalled
onawiderangeofhosts;weloadedit
onaWindows 10 Proworkstationand
haditrunninginfiveminutes.The
webconsolehelpsbyofferingan
onboardingassistantthatcreatesa
custominstallationpackage.
Althoughthebackuphostprovides
adiscoveryservice,theclientapphas
tobemanuallyinstalledoneach
system.Thisispainless,though,and
ifyoudefineyourjobsbeforeadding
clients,youcancreateacustomised
packagethatwillstartbackingupthe
user’ssystemassoonasit’sinstalled.
Asforbackupdestinations,there
areplentyofoptionstochoosefrom,
includingnetworkshares,cloud
storage,atapedrive,anopticaldisc
writerandalocaldiskvault.For
testing,weselectedanAmazonS3
bucketwithversioningenabled,andABOVETheweb
portalprovides
remoteaccesstoall
Backuphosts