BackupAssist ER: fully automated, “disk to disk to cloud” backup software for Windows Servers.


BackupAssist ER makes it easy, giving you Express Recovery for low downtime, and Expert Response options in an affordable software package.

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  • BackupAssist ER gives you all the traditional benefits of a straightforward backup software package, with the strong recovery options previously only found in more complex systems. Enterprise level backup and recovery at SME friendly pricing. Cyber-resilience has never been so easy!

  • Express Recovery: Predictable recoveries for all major disaster scenarios, locally or in the cloud
  • Expert Response: clear recovery procedures for calm, measured corrective action
  • Eliminate Ransoms: CryptoSafeGuard helps shield backups from ransomware, so you can restore
  • Extended Retention: retain and retrieve data, even years later, for easy recordkeeping
You're prepared for any disaster with a predictable and successful recovery
  • Downtime and lost productivity when systems fail or are damaged by natural disasters or crime
  • Administrators struggle with rebuilds, ad-hoc procedures and pressure situations
  • Companies and government departments forced to pay ransoms, even if they were backing up
  • Prospect of permanent data loss and fines for regulatory violations
The most expensive backup in the world is the wrong backup.



WHAT IS BACKUPASSIST ER?

BackupAssist ER is a lightweight software package that you install onto your Windows machines.

Easily set up and schedule system image backups.

These backups can be sent locally (on-premise) and into the cloud.

Recover locally (on-premise), or remotely (cloud) - from either your local or cloud backup

CryptoSafeGuard helps keep your backups safe from ransomware.

Numerous recovery tools are provided - including granular file recovery, the VM Instant Boot recovery, the full Bare Metal Recovery, and granular recovery of Exchange Server items.

Get the benefits and recovery options provided by DRaaS or appliance based systems, at a fraction of the cost.



BackupAssist ER gives you many of the benefits and recovery options provided by DRaaS
and appliance based systems, at a fraction of the cost.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU

BackupAssist ER allows you to protect your Windows systems with state-of-the-art backups, giving you enduring resilience to cyber events, keeping you in business even if disaster occurs.

Cybercrime: Hacking, Hijack

Natural Disaster, Fire, Equipment Theft

Malicious Insider Activity & Sabotage

Ransomware


There have never been more ways to lose data, as cybercrime has exploded in recent years. Now you can easily insure yourself and extenuate risks with BackupAssist ER.


Using BackupAssist ER delivers these great benefits and capabilities:

Enduring Resilience


Cybercrime is an unfortunate part of 21st century life. Add to that, the traditional risks of natural disasters, theft, and malicious insiders.


Resilience is about preparing for, withstanding and recovering from attacks and disaster events.

Eliminating Ransoms


So many organizations back up their data but still have to pay ransoms when they’re hit. Why? The devil is always in the detail.


The right backup, like BackupAssist ER, with CryptoSafeGuard, mitigates against many of the risks that catch others out.

Expert Response


Disaster situations are extremely stressful, emotionally draining and testing for emergency responders.


With BackupAssist ER, you can respond like an expert, instead of reacting haphazardly, by following our well documented recovery playbooks.

Extreme Recovery


Full server recoveries are often required in adverse and challenging circumstances. You cannot rely on always having the same hardware or cloud as your recovery target.


BackupAssist ER can back up any source (physical, virtual, cloud) and recover to any target (physical, virtual, cloud) with the same Lifeline Recovery media.

Easy Restore


Users frequently make mistakes and require specific and targeted pieces of data to be restored from backup.


BackupAssist ER comes with granular restore tools for both files & folders and Exchange mailboxes.

Extended Retention


Many laws mandate extended data retention. Keeping historical backups is an ideal way to meet these requirements.


Retrieve your data from backups, even years or decades later, thanks to our well designed procedures and systems.



HOW DOES BACKUPASSIST ER WORK?

BackupAssist ER protects your Windows systems with state-of-the-art backups, giving you the full range of recovery options for different circumstances – P2P, P2V, V2P, V2V, P2C, V2C.

This delivers enduring resilience to cyber events, keeping you in business even if disaster occurs. Let's look into the technical details.

Next Generation, Disk-to-Disk-to-Cloud backup

Modern cyber-resilience requires system backups that are stored both onsite and offsite.
BackupAssist ER delivers this with a fully automated backup system.

BackupAssist ER features a Disk-to-Disk-to-Cloud (D2D2C) architecture*.


  • The first stage is a drive image, performed to a local disk.
  • The second stage is replicating the drive image to the cloud.

This architecture enables both full system recovery and granular restores.

Recovering from your local backup gives you the fastest recovery time. Meanwhile, the cloud copy is a dependable fallback in case your local backup has been destroyed.

BYO storage model means you can control exactly where your data is stored, while fully owning your backup data, and saving on costs.

Data portability and redundancy are easy because both the local and cloud copies of the backup can be further replicated:


  • Local backups – can be replicated by copying the backup directory.
  • Cloud backups – can be replicated into a different storage container by copying all blobs across.
  • You can recreate a local backup from the cloud copy by using the Download Cloud Backup feature.

This architecture gives you numerous recovery options – so you can choose the best recovery depending on your particular situation.

* As an alternative to D2D2C, it is possible to simply perform straight Disk-to-Disk backups.

Backup Engine: BackupAssist’s NextGen drive image engine.


Supported destinations:

  • any locally mapped disk (USB, iSCSI),
  • network share (including NAS)

Backup file format: VHDX file

Past versioning: achieved through reverse incremental (reverse delta)

VSS support: all VSS compatible applications are supported via VSS snapshotting when the backup runs.

Compression: to maintain compatibility with the VHDX file format, the local backup is not compressed.

Compression: to maintain compatibility with the VHDX file format, the local backup is not compressed.

Encryption: optionally encrypt using AES-256 encryption controlled by secret password.


Resilience to failure:

  • if a backup is interrupted, the subsequent backup will auto recover
  • because of the reverse incremental design, you will never suffer a broken chain of incremental backups or need to collapse incremental backups to save space.

Manually replicating the backup: simply copy the BackupAssistBackups directory to a new destination.

Backup Engine: BackupAssist’s file-based cloud backup engine.


Supported destinations:

  • Amazon S3 bucket
  • Microsoft Azure Blob Storage container
  • Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage
  • S3 compatible cloud storage

Backup file format: proprietary deduplicated, compressed and encrypted data blob

Past versioning: every past version is independent of each other, due to the design. There are no differentials or incrementals. The retention policy for cloud backups (the number of past versions to retain) is independent of the retention policy of the local backup.

Deduplication and compression: achieves typical space savings of 50% to 75%.

Encryption: data is always encrypted using AES-256 encryption controlled by secret password.


Resilience to failure:

  • if a backup is interrupted, the subsequent backup will auto recover

Manually replicating the backup to another cloud storage provider: simply copy the entire contents of a cloud storage container to a new destination.

Manually downloading the backup: you can recreate a local backup in VHDX format by downloading a cloud backup using the BackupAssist ER console.



For more details, see the product walk-through – install, set up and start a disk-to-disk-to-cloud backup in 4 minutes 51 seconds.

VM Instant Boot for Emergency Response

Get running again in just a few minutes.

If your server goes down, and productivity has ground to a halt. VM Instant Boot allows you to boot your backup directly as a Hyper-V Guest machine.

  • Suitable for situations where your local backup is intact.
  • Works regardless of whether your original machine was physical or virtual.
  • Any suitable machine can be used as the Hyper-V Host. The host's OS does not matter.
  • The original backup is always preserved 100% - there are no writes over existing backups.
  • You can boot your latest backup, or any historical backup.

Preparing an existing BackupAssist ER backup for VM Instant Boot is easy.


Every BackupAssist ER backup comes with a command line tool called “vm-instant-boot.exe”. This applies even if you downloaded your backup from the cloud copy. This tool performs the magic of making a backup bootable in Hyper-V.


  • Firstly, you then need a machine that can act as a Hyper-V Host. We recommend Windows Server 2019 for best results.
  • Then connect the backup to this host machine and run command prompt. Run the tool to list your available backups, and choose which backup to make bootable.
  • Run the tool to make your selected backup bootable. The process takes under a minute to run.

After completion, differencing disks will be created for each volume that was backed up. You then use those differencing disks in Step 2.

Create a new Hyper-V Guest machine and point the guest’s virtual hard disks to the differencing disks that were created in Step 1.


Then simply run the machine.


It may need to reboot a few times as new hardware is detected and device drivers are installed.

After booting your machine as a Hyper-V guest for your emergency recovery, business operations can resume.


You can then plan for what you would do for a long-term recovery.


Many administrators will choose to do a full Bare Metal Recovery to new hardware, at a scheduled period of downtime (such as the weekend). The process for this is straightforward.


  • Back up your instant boot VM to a different (temporary) location.
  • Take your VM Instant Boot guest offline.
  • Perform a BMR from the backup of the temporary location.
  • After the BMR is complete, you can resuming backing up to the original backup device.


For more details, see the product walk-throughs:

Bare Metal Recovery with Lifeline Recovery Media

When the worst happens and you need to do a full server rebuild from bare metal, reach for your Lifeline Recovery Media.

  • Bootable Recovery Environment - boot a "blank" machine in order to reimage your computer from backup
  • Extreme recovery situations are handled with ease – P2P, P2V, P2C, V2P, V2V, V2C, C2P, C2V, C2C
  • One disc for all Window OS versions, making it super convenient for administrators
  • Commence your recovery with just 5 mouse clicks – it’s that simple.

When to create it: normally you only need to do it once. We recommend creating your Lifeline after setting up your first backup job. However, it can be created at any time.


Supported media: USB Flash Drive, or ISO


Supported Operating Systems: you can create Lifeline using any Operating System (Windows Server 2012 or later), and use it to recover any supported operating system.


Size of media: approximately 512MB.

On physical machines: insert your USB media into the computer, and boot off Lifeline.

On virtual (guest) machines: copy the ISO file to the host on which you are recovering. Then configure your hypervisor to attach the ISO as a CD/DVD drive.

Loading drivers: from within the Recovery Environment, you may load additional drivers.

Recovery process: you can select which disks to re-image. You can specify which volume to recover to which disk.

Recovering to different sized disks: you can recover any volume to a new disk as long as the new disk is of equal or bigger size. Volumes may be recovered to different disks of smaller size, as long as there is enough space to host each volume.


  • Original machine: single 4TB disk, with 2 volumes, each 2TB.
  • Recovery machine: two 3TB disks.

This scenario is allowable, because each of the 2TB volumes can fit onto the new 3TB disks.


Hardware independent recovery: Lifeline supports recovery to dissimilar hardware. One or more reboots may be required after the recovery is complete, as Windows installs new drivers.

Command Prompt: you may start a command prompt within Lifeline and run useful tools such as diskpart.


Diagnostics: if you encounter a problem, Lifeline can create a diagnostics file that will help BackupAssist Support troubleshoot the problem.


Remote sessions: Lifeline media includes the ability to open a remote session so that BackupAssist Technical Support can assist.



For more details, see the product walk-throughs:

Granular Recovery for Files, Exchange and Apps

Oftentimes, your recoveries will be in response to user accidents. When all you need back are some files or emails, BackupAssist ER’s granular recovery comes to the rescue.

Files and folders can be recovered from either a local or cloud backup.


Restore options:


  • Restore to original location, or alternate location.
  • Optionally restore NTFS security attributes and access controls.
  • Optionally take ownership of files and folders after completion.
  • Restoring from the cloud – apply throttling to control bandwidth usage.

VSS applications can be recovered from either a local or cloud backup.


BackupAssist ER creates application-consistent backups using VSS to ensure that the application data is complete and consistent with each backup.


Different applications offer different levels of granularity in the restore. For SQL and Exchange, you can choose specific databases to restore.


Restore options:


  • Restore to original location, or alternate location.
  • Optionally restore NTFS security attributes and access controls.
  • Optionally take ownership of files and folders after completion.
  • Restoring from the cloud – apply throttling to control bandwidth usage.

BackupAssist ER includes the Exchange Granular Restore, a dedicated console that makes it easy to locate and recover specific mailbox items.


Exchange Granular Restore can be run on local backups only. If you need to restore from your cloud backup, you can download the Exchange backup files first.


These items can be restored:


  • Restore these items: Email messages, calendar, contacts, tasks, journals, notes
  • Restore to original Exchange Server, an alternate Exchange Server (same or different mailbox), or PST file.
  • Search for items within the Exchange Database.


CryptoSafeGuard Protection against Ransomware

Ever wonder why so many businesses still have to pay ransoms, despite having backups? CryptoSafeGuard mitigates many of the risks associated with ransomware.

Without CryptoSafeGuard:

Ransomware can attack your backup files directly in exactly the same way that it can attack data files on any of your infected systems.


With CryptoSafeGuard:

CryptoSafeGuard blocks unauthorized file access to the backup files, providing a shield between your backup files and ransomware.

Without CryptoSafeGuard:

The other way ransomware can harm your backups is indirectly, by attacking files on your file system. When the next backup runs, those corrupted files will be backed up, displacing your original files.


With CryptoSafeGuard:

When suspicious activity is detected, CryptoSafeGuard springs into action, preserving the last known-good backup, and sending an SMS alert to the registered administrator.





See our full product line-up for comprehensive cyber-resilience.


Product Capabilities Recommended for... Learn more
BackupAssist (core license) Essential and enhanced cyber-resilience.
Full backup and recovery for Windows Servers - drive imaging. 		All organizations running Windows Servers. Backup Capabilities - Deep Dive
Restore & Recovery - Deep Dive
Cloud Offsite Add-on Back up files to the cloud (Azure, S3, private cloud) with deduplication, compression & encryption. If you need fully automated offsite backups. Cloud Offsite Add-on
Exchange Granular Add-on Granular restore of Exchange mailboxes, and
individual emails, contacts, notes, calendar entries. 		If you run an on-premise Exchange Server. Exchange Granular Add-on
Hyper-V Advanced Add-on Rapid VM Recovery, to spin up a VM within 5 minutes. Granular restore of files within VMs. If you run a Hyper-V environment. Hyper-V Advanced Add-on
SQL Continuous Add-on Near-continuous backup and point-in-time recovery for SQL Server. If you run an on-premise SQL server. SQL Continuous Add-on
Tape Archiving Add-on File backups to tape drive, for long term data retention and backup archiving. If you use a standalone tape drive. Tape Archiving Add-on
Multisite Manager Manage many installations of BackupAssist Classic, across many sites, from a single pane of glass. If you have 5 or more installations ofBackupAssist Classic. Multisite Manager
BackupCare CryptoSafeGuard ransomware protection.
Free software upgrades and updates.
Annual tune-up consultations, phone support, and more. 		All users of BackupAssist Classic. BackupCare Subscription
CryptoSafeGuard ransomware protection