Operating systems for backup and recovery
You can back up and restore data located on Windows OS, macOS and GNU/Linux. Please see the table below for the full list of supported operating systems:
| Windows versions | macOS versions | GNU / Linux versions |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Parallels are not officially supported for Backup Manager when backing up macOS with Windows parallels. If you wish to use Backup Manager in this situation, there may be abnormalities so please test the backup by doing a restore as soon as possible. Two backup accounts may be necessary to backup both the macOS Files and Folders and the Windows Files and Folders.
Backup on devices using Operating Systems which are not officially supported may still work, but as we no longer test these versions, we cannot guarantee full functionality. In situations where the device cannot be upgraded to a supported OS, you may encounter issues with new features, or there may be abnormalities so please test the backup by doing a restore as soon as possible.
Note for Windows:
On Windows devices, Backup Manager supports 32 or 64-bit architecture.
Note for macOS:
Pre 10.14 Mojave: as of version 21.10 of Backup Manager, macOS versions prior to 10.14 are no longer officially supported.
10.14 Mojave and later releases: Ensure you enable macOS Full Disk Access for the Backup Manager before running backups.
Note for GNU/Linux:
In addition to the major Linux distributions that are regularly tested in-house, it is possible to run the Backup Manager practically on any GNU/Linux distribution that meets the following requirements:
- Architecture: x86 or x86_64/amd64
- Kernel: 2.6.9+ with NPTL
- glibc: 2.4 or greater (all data sources except for MySQL); 2.5 or greater for the backup and recovery of MySQL
- LVM for the backup and recovery of the system state
Data sources for backup and recovery
The Backup Manager handles individual files and directories as well as complex systems such as these:
- MS SQL
- VMware
- Hyper-V
- MS Exchange
- MS SharePoint
- Oracle
- MySQL
You can also back up and recover the configuration of your operating system (the "System State" data source) and Microsoft 365 protection.
Please view Data sources for system compatibility details.
Please view the full documentation data sources page for system compatibility details.
Backup-related features
"Yes" next to the name of an operating system means that the feature is available on all supported versions of that operating system.
| Feature | Windows | macOS | GNU/Linux |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-time backups (initiated manually) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Scheduled backups | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Flexible backup selection (manual file selection, exclusion filters, priority files) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic file selection (adding certain types of files to the backup selection automatically) | Yes | No | No |
| Seed loading backups (for large data sets) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pre- and post-backup scripts (for example, shut down the system after backup) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| LocalSpeedVault (a backup copy on a local drive or a network share for faster backups and restores) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Archiving (archived backup sessions will never be deleted from the Cloud) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Detailed reports on the statuses of backup sessions (displayed on the Overview tab) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Backup of open files (especially files belonging to MS SQL, MS Exchange, |
Windows 7 and later | No | No |
| Backup of encrypted files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Backup of archived files (all common types of archives are supported) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Backup of data located on local disks, removable storage drives mounted as fixed drives (Windows and Linux) and local network resources | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Backup Accelerator (speedy subsequent backups of large files) |
Yes |
No | No |
Recovery-related features
"Yes" next to the name of an operating system means that the feature is available on all the supported versions of that operating system.
| Feature | Windows | macOS | GNU/Linux |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-time restores (initiated manually) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Continuous restores (synchronous with backups) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Flexible data selection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Choice of target location (the ability to recover data to the original location or a new one) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Detailed reports on the statuses of restore sessions (displayed on the Overview tab) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bare metal recovery (recovering a failed system directly to bare hardware without a prior OS installation) | Windows 7 and later | No | No |
| Virtual disaster recovery (recovering a failed system to a virtual machine) | Windows 7 and later | No | No |
All the recovery-related features except for the bare metal recovery are available in the Recovery Console (a multi-instance recovery tool for system administrators).
Common features
The rest of the features are available on all the supported operating systems.
- Multi-lingual support - The Backup Manager can be used in any of these 9 languages:
- English
- Dutch
- Russian
- German
- Spanish
- French
- Portuguese
- Norwegian
- Italian
- Interface selection - You can operate the Backup Manager through the command line or use the graphic user interface
- Custom branding - You can brand the Backup Manager for your end users removing references to the developer (this is done through the Backup & Disaster Recovery Console). Use a custom name, logo, color scheme, and icons
- Remote management - You can install the Backup Manager remotely through the Backup & Disaster Recovery Console and send remote commands to the Backup Manager devices of your end users
- Proxy connection - The Backup Manager can work from behind a proxy server
- Email reports - Enable the delivery of email notifications on the statuses or recent backup and recovery sessions. This can be done by an end user in the Backup Manager or remotely by a service provider or a system administrator
- Bandwidth usage control - Be sure your bandwidth usage will never exceed a specified limit
- Updates - You can update the Backup Manager to the latest version by downloading the latest version and installing it on top of the current one or by letting the app update itself automatically. For full details see Update Backup Manager
Linux devices on versions pre-16.11 do not auto-update
Data processing technologies
Backup data is processed locally on the client side and then sent to remote storage. Data processing is not platform-dependent so all users can benefit from advanced data processing technologies such as deep deduplication, delta slicing, directory hashing, compression, secure encryption, caching and so on.
8dot3
Cove Data Protection (Cove) supports the use if 8dot3 names.
The host PC (Recovery Console, VDR) must be configured with "Enable 8dot3 name creation on all volumes on the system". This can be done by:
- Log on to the device as an account with Administrator permissions
- Open command line as an Administrator
- Run the command:
fsutil 8dot3name set 0
