What are the system requirements for Altaro VM Backup?

Supported Hypervisors (Hosts)

Microsoft Hyper-V

• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 (core installation)
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2012 (core installation)
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 (core installation)
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2016 (desktop experience)
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2016 (core installation)
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2019 (core installation)

VMware

• vSphere: 5.0 / 5.1 / 5.5 / 6.0 / 6.5 / 6.7
• vCenter: 5.0 / 5.1 / 5.5 / 6.0 / 6.5 / 6.7
• ESXi: 5.0 / 5.1 / 5.5 / 6.0 / 6.5 / 6.7

It's important to note the version combination between ESXi and vCenter.

Note that the Free version of VMware ESXi is not supported as it lacks components required by Altaro VM Backup.

When making use of the NBD Transport mode, virtual disks cannot be larger than 1TB each.

Pass-through or RDM (Raw Device Mappings) are not backed up.

Supported Operating Systems

The Altaro VM Backup products can be installed on the following OS's:

Altaro VM Backup

• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 (core installation)
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2012 (core installation)
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 (core installation)
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2016 (desktop experience)
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2016
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2019
  
  Note that hosts must be in the same LAN and at the same physical site (same building). Setups with multiple physical sites must have an instance of Altaro VM Backup at each site.

Altaro Management Tools (UI)

• Windows 2008 R2 SP1
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Server 2016 (desktop experience)
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows 7 (64-Bit)
• Windows 8 (64-Bit)
• Windows 10 (64-Bit)

Altaro Offsite Server

• Windows 2008 R2 SP1
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1 (core installation)
• Windows Server 2012 
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2012 (core installation)
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 (core installation)
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2016 (desktop experience)
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2016
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Hyper-V Server 2019

Replication Support

[Hyper-V] A Windows Server OS is required for replication. The Altaro Offsite Server needs to be installed on a Windows Server OS that's matching the source host OS, where the production VMs are running. Below you can find a list supported OS's that you can replicate to:

[VMware] The host added to the Altaro Offsite Server must be the same OS as the source host being replicated from. Below you can find a list supported OS's that you can replicate to:

Required Hardware Specifications

Altaro VM Backup

• Minimum of i5 (or equivalent) processor
• 1 GB RAM + an additional 25MB RAM for every 100GB of data being backed up
• 1 GB Hard Disk Space (for Altaro VM Backup Program and Settings) + 15 GB (for temporary files created during backup operations)
• Minimum of 10% free disk space on each volume holding live VM data to be used for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy

Altaro Hyper-V Host Agent

• 500 MB RAM

   

Altaro Offsite Server

• Minimum of i5 (or equivalent) processor
• 1 GB RAM + an additional 25MB RAM for every 100GB of data being backed up
• For Replication, ensure that it has enough resources to boot your VMs

Software Prerequisites

• MS .NET Framework 4.6.2 and 4.7 (required for TLS1.2) on Windows Server 2012
• Minimum screen resolution for the Altaro Management console: 1280x800

Communication Ports

Below is a list of the default TCP ports used by our software and their purpose. All these ports must be allowed.

35106 : Communication for VMware 6.5, Backup and Restore operations.

35107 : Communication between Management Console UI and Altaro VM Backup

35108 : Communication from Altaro VM Backup to Altaro Hyper-V Host Agents

35114 : Communication for the Altaro Deduplication Service 

35116 & 35117 : Communication from v7 Clients with the Altaro Offsite Server

35119 : Communication from Altaro Offsite Server V7 UI to Altaro Offsite Server

35120 : Communication from Altaro VM Backup to the Altaro Offsite Server for Replication

35121 : Communication for the Altaro Deduplication Service for Amazon S3/Wasabi offsite locations

35221 : Communication between the Altaro Hyper-V Host Agents and Altaro VM Backup

35200 - 35220 : Communication from Altaro VM Backup to Agents for VMware Boot From Backup

80 & 443 : For Offsite copies to Azure Storage Accounts, Amazon S3 & Wasabi

443 & 7444 & 902 : Communication to VMware Hosts

Supported Backup Locations

• USB External Drives
• eSata External Drives
• USB Flash Drives
• Fileserver Network Shares using UNC Paths
• NAS devices (Network Attached Storage) using UNC Paths
• PC Internal Hard Drives (recommended only for evaluation purposes)
• RDX Cartridges
• Altaro Offsite Server (incl. Replication)
• Azure Cloud Storage Account
• Amazon S3
• Wasabi Cloud Storage Account

Note: Target storage partitions must be either of the below:

• NTFS/ReFS formatted
• Network Paths and accessible by SMB3.0

Note: Please ensure that the backup location chosen does not perform any sort of deduplication outside that of Altaro VM Backup.

Boot from Backup Requirements

• For Hyper-V Windows Server 2012 Host OS and onward are supported for Boot from Backup Drive. The Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service has to be running on the machine you're attempting to boot to.
• VMware requires ports 35200 - 35220 open on the firewall and it also requires an iSCSI Storage Adapter.
• The datastore chosen for must be VMFS.

File Level/Exchange Item Level Restore Requirements

• The partition must be NTFS/ReFS (through Instant Mount) (only for File Level) formatted
• The partition must be formatted as 'Basic' and not 'Dynamic'
• If the VM has Windows Data Deduplication role enabled, the role must also be enabled where the Altaro VM Backup machine is installed (through Instant Mount) (only for File Level)
• The files must NOT be encrypted or compressed at guest OS (VM) level
• Microsoft Exchange 2007 and later are supported up to Exchange Server 2019 Cumulative Update 4 (CU4)

Hyper-V Restore Version Compatibility

Virtual Machines backed up from Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and 2012 hosts have to be restored to hosts running Windows Server 2016 build 1607 or older.

Virtual machines backed up from Windows Server 2012 R2 and newer can be restore to hosts running up to Windows Server 2019. 

Naturally, you can restore to a newer operating system, but not to an older one i.e. you will be able to restore a VM backed up from a 2008 R2 SP1 host to a 2012 one, but not the other way round.