vmProtect 7: Even better virtual backup

With the (electronic) ink barely dry on our review of vmProtect 6, backup specialist Acronis has released version 7 of its vSphere backup and disaster recovery tool, adding yet more features to this already very capable product.

Like its predecessor, vmProtect 7 is designed to work with all versions of vSphere from 4.0 onwards, with support for both ESX and ESXi hypervisors — the exception being the free version, which doesn't have the required vStorage API.

Deployment, too, is unchanged with a choice between a self-contained virtual appliance and a Windows agent, both managed via a clear and usable browser interface. Nothing needs to be installed on the VMs and you now get vCenter integration, so backup and recovery tasks can be managed from the VMware management console.

Little changes in terms of VM backup and recovery, but you can now backup and rebuild the entire vSphere host. Indeed, if disaster strikes you can perform a bare-metal recovery of the hypervisor and guest VMs to the same or a different machine — an option that's hard to find on competitive products.

Elsewhere, the ability to continuously replicate virtual machines to a backup host makes for even faster recovery, while Exchange customers get new tools to recover the whole or parts of their mail server estate. This covers everything from the entire Exchange database down to user mailboxes and individual messages, contacts and so on.

The ability to document a step-by-step disaster recovery plan is another new option, along with cloud storage integration — although we were pretty sure that was in the previous version anyway.

Pricing remains the same at £375 per host processor, with no limit on how many VMs can be protected. Official VMware certification is still pending, but that doesn't detract from the product — and we're assured that certification will be through any day now.

Alan Stevens