NovaStor DataCenter
Release notes,             life cycle,          supported systems

New features

• The following new backup types are natively supported:
  
  • Nutanix AVH
  • MySQL/Maria DB
  • PostgreSQL DB
  • Oracle DB

Improvements

• Login with multi-factor authentication
• Linux file backup with support for source deduplication
• Restore security through dual control principle
• GDPR Reporting

Fixes

• ...

Improvements

• The extended configuration of the backup clients has been further simplified.

Fixes

• Linux file backups now support paths up to a length of 4096 characters without errors.
• File archiving (backup with archive flag) works again in all configurations.
• MS 365 backups no longer fail in configurations where neither backup server nor client are started on the CommandServer.
• When restoring from single tape, the backup client now reacts to a sent abort signal at any time.

Improvements

• It is now also possible to control maintenance/cloning via multi-part jobs.

Fixes

• AES-256 encrypted own backups can now restore the DB without a previous restore.
• The recovery of encrypted VMware VMs is now also possible if they use TPM devices.
• A rare crash in backup server cloning has been fixed.
• The hardware key for offline activation can be displayed again for new installations.
• Active Directory users who are not members of any group known to the NovaStor DC management server can no longer log in.
• The Microsoft 365 backup is also executed because the backup client and server run on different machines.

Improvements

• The default tape hold time for multiplexer tape backup has been improved so that fewer loads are required for consecutive backups.
• The possible error messages when creating media pools have been improved.

Fixes

• The multiplexer setup for tape media pools is no longer grayed out by default.
• The listing of Active Directory groups in the user administration can now list more than 1000 groups.
• Incremental Linux file backups no longer perform full backups in all configurations.
• UI: The schedule for the storage of media pools is now also displayed directly after attaching in the backup scheme, without reloading.
• Multi-part jobs themselves no longer count as jobs when it comes to the maximum number of jobs executed in parallel. This behavior could lead to the components of a multi-part job not being executed in the event of misconfiguration.
• The SSL settings of the PE boot image are now correct.
• The English version of the UI no longer displays umlauts in the single tape configuration.

New features

• S3 storage (cloud) as storage target (licensable)
  
  • Backups and clones to S3-compatible storage (e.g. AWS, IONOS, Wasabi...)
  • Support for object-locked storage to protect against ransomware.
• MS365 Sharepoint Backup
• The DataCenter Backup Client can now also be deployed as a docker container
  
  • This allows, for example, direct backup from NAS systems such as QNAP (Container Station) or Synology.
• Complete Linux-only support. VMware backups also no longer require a Windows server. This increases security while reducing Microsoft license costs.

Improvements

• Simplified management of access data
  
  • All access data for systems such as Azure, DB Server, VMware vSphere can now be managed centrally.
• Disaster recovery now also works from single tape drives.
• The performance of deduplicated backups on slow storage configurations such as RAID 5 has been significantly increased.
• Backups/clones to single tape drives now support the subsequent ejection of the tape after the backup has been completed.

Fixes

• Backup/cloning to single tape drives can now also be canceled during preparation.
• Proxmox Linux VMs are now correctly recognized as VMs and no longer as physical systems.
• Linux Disaster Recovery finds the correct backup again.
• Incremental Hyper-V backups can be restored without any intermediate steps.

Fixes

• File backups that were created before version 9.2 and do not use the optimized search now generate correct FET values. (Only relevant when licensing according to the FET model)
• It is no longer possible to create media pools with spaces at the end.
• Restored job results from previously failed backups are now correctly cleaned up by maintenance.
• Single tape backups can now be canceled while waiting for the tape drive.
• The Hyper-V restore now only displays servers that also have the Hyper-V role.

Improvements

• Individual disks can now also be excluded from replication for VMware replication jobs, in the same way as for backups.

Fixes

• Script and multi-part job results are displayed in reporting again and not just in the dashboard.
• Restoring the self-backup of the central management server under Linux is available again via the UI.
• Existing MSSQL and Exchange jobs no longer show 'Client not reachable' when the server is reachable.
• Repeatedly calling portscans on the port of the Remote Command Executor no longer causes it to restart.
• The repair mechanism for the media pool inventory is now also available for 'Disk media pools' and no longer ends with errors.

Fixes

• Bare Metal Restore now ends without an error message if the restore was successful.
• The self-backup no longer attempts to back up temporary files.
• Media pools with canceled file backups now show more information about the respective backups.
• File restore now restores the files from all selected backups in parallel if multiple backups are selected.
• File recovery no longer shows a re-index dialog when browsing empty directories.
• Active Directory backups can now also address the backup server with node alias and thus use a separate backup network.
• An error with VMware backups on hosts with CPUs > 15 years old has now been fixed so that the backups run successfully.
• The number of messages in the job output for file backups with SACL errors has been reduced.
• The cleanup of MS 365 backups no longer remains in monitoring if there is nothing to delete.
• When updating Linux clients, an old DataCenter process no longer hangs sometimes.

Fixes

• Hyper-V clones on single tape can be restored via the UI.
• A rare error in the incremental backup of VMware VMs, where faulty blocks were displayed, has been fixed.
• The granular restore of file backups no longer displays the dialog for re-indexing the file lists when browsing empty directories.
• In environments with more than 50 unreachable clients, the CommandServers no longer require more memory.

Improvements

• The superfluous filters for deleted servers/backup clients have been removed from the node management.
• The memory requirement for calculating the FET has been significantly reduced.
• Errors due to lack of disk space during VMware/Hyper-V backup are now better reported.

Fixes

• Single tape backups reinitialize empty tapes correctly.
• Single tape clones with the same drive as destination can now be started simultaneously and wait for each other if necessary.
• The retry mechanism for failed differential file backups now also starts further attempts with DIFF and no longer with FULL scheme.
• In environments with low performance, backup jobs are no longer started twice under certain circumstances.

Improvements

• Browsing Hyper-V hosts when creating backup jobs is now much smoother.
• Error handling for Active Directory backups now provides more information about the cause of the problem that has occurred.

Fixes

• MS 365 backups run again without interruption in environments > 100 mailboxes.
• Single tape backups with the same drive as destination can now be started simultaneously and wait for each other if necessary.
• When using clients/organizations, only the credentials available for the user are now displayed for selection in the overview of VMware hosts.

Improvements

• Active Directory Backup now also works with the FRS Writer.
• The connection test in the backup scheme now works for any backup sources and destinations, including alternating pools and storage groups.
• The media pool overview and filtering within it has been simplified.
• File backups with optimized search can now be better canceled during the search process.

Fixes

• A spontaneous restart of the file backup server no longer occurs.

Fixes

• Backups and clones on single tape, which transfer several backups at once, no longer fail.
• The error message when searching an empty tape drive has been corrected and is now understandable again.
• Creating schedules with a numbered day of the month is possible again.

Improvements

• It is no longer possible to accidentally remove the backup server functionality from the CommandServer. This sometimes led to errors in tape management.
• The configuration of single tape media pools is now displayed in detail in the backup scheme.

Fixes

• The backup scheme is now displayed correctly again when GFS media pools are used.
• When restoring Linux file backups, only Linux clients are now displayed in the target selection again.
• The granular restore for Hyper-V now also works if neither 'automount' nor the automatic assignment of drive letters is set.
• The content of individual tapes is now always displayed correctly in the UI.
• Active Directory backups can now be cloned.
• Active Directory backups now report errors in the job report.
• Active Directory backups no longer abort if umlauts are used in the SYSVOL.

Fixes

• Active Directoy Backup only works if DFS replication is available.

Fixes

• Multi-part jobs can be edited again.
• Deleting tapes on the media management now also works if the previously assigned media pool has been deleted.
• Incremental Hyper-V backup no longer falls back to full backup if the connection is lost during the backup.

New Freatures

• Microsoft 365 Backup
  • Fully integrated MS 365 backups of Exchange and OneDrive
  • Feature becomes available via a license upgrade
  • Exact billing according to secured mailboxes
• Microsoft Active Directory backup
• Deduplication
  
  • VMWare backups on disk can now be stored deduplicated in addition to compression and encryption, which requires significantly less storage and increases backup speed many times over.

Improvements

• Tape Library
  • The overlay has been further simplified.
  • Tapes can be deleted from the inventory.
  • Tapes can be deleted individually, even without maintenance.
  • By default, library commands are no longer executed when the Tape UI is opened, making the application available more quickly.
• Installer
  
  • The installers now only contain the clients of the OS for which the CommandServer is also used. This saves space and increases the update speed. In heterogeneous environments with Linux/Window mixed operation, the required client installers are loaded automatically.
• Simplification of the storage configuration
  
  • A distinction is no longer made between agent and image pools. Only one media pool is required for disk storage of any kind.
• VM backups with Linux as storage
  
  • In addition to Windows, all backups can now also be backed up to Linux backup servers.

Fixes

• Hyper-V 2012: VMs that were created with the VHD format can be backed up again.
• All restore jobs are now executed correctly even with more than 4 Hyper-V restores in parallel on one machine.
• The sizes of VMs in monitoring are now consistent for both backup and cloning.
• MS Exchange backups that are waiting for the next free slot will now be executed in any case.
• MS Exchange restores from incremental backups are displayed again in the monitoring/reporting.
• In case we try to clone VMware/Hyper-V backups to a full disk, the error is now displayed correctly in the report.
• Granular file recovery from LTO 9 single tape drives now safely restores all selected files.
• Image pool cloning can now also be canceled if the network connection is unstable, including reporting.

Fixes

• Fixed a crash of the backup server during tape backup on Ubuntu 22.
• Duplicated MS SQL jobs can now be edited again, there is no longer an error in the UI.
• The self-backup now excludes temporary files of the tape configuration and thus reduces the potential warnings in the report.
• There are no more sporadically displayed duplicate root directories when browsing Windows file backups.

Fixes

• The monitoring for multi-part jobs/ execution plans and retentions again shows progress in every case.
• The connection test for backup jobs with image media pool as target no longer shows communication errors if the connection is OK.
• Image media pools that have been updated since version 9.2 and for which the 'Merge' flag was not set are handled correctly during clean-up, so that more memory is freed up.
• Under high load on the clients, there is now sufficient waiting time to retrieve the results of completed backups.

Fixes

• Mail notifications for restores are now sent in any case.
• VMware backups with individual, excluded disks are backed up again excluding the marked disks.
• The SAN mode for VMware backups is available again.
• The monitoring/reporting returns correct values for Linux file restores.

Fixes

• MS SQL Backup
  
  • Databases with umlauts in the name are saved again.
  • Databases with the character string 'database' in the name are saved again.
  • The internal database tempdb is automatically skipped during the backup.
• Multipart jobs / execution plans with MS Exchange backups are successfully completed again.
• Reports can once again be successfully sent to more than one e-mail address.
• The ESXi VM restore works again analogous to the restore via vSphere.
• The license check no longer fails sporadically with a JSON error.
• The REST API documentation is available again in an updated version.
• Hyper-V backups of fixed disks no longer require a full backup.

Fixes

• Image pool cloning into two clone targets in parallel, one of which is a tape, runs without errors again.
• Hyper-V restore of single tape drives is completed again without the restore stopping sporadically.
• The reporting of differential VMware backups that are backed up to an agent media pool has been corrected.

Fixes

• MS SQL databases with spaces in the name are saved correctly again.
• Image pool storage started in parallel on a backup server now works again without 'hanging entries' in the monitoring.
• Image Pool storage no longer sometimes fails with the message that the job cannot be found.
• VMware replication starts again without an error message that a media pool is missing.
• Mails are sent again without a configured password on the SMTP gateway.

New Features

• MS SQL backup and restore
  
  • 3 login methods are now supported: Trusted, SQL user or Windows user can be used.
  • Point-in-time recovery is possible.
  • Up to 32 SQL backups can be performed in parallel with one client.
  • The MS SQL Copy function is supported.

• Reporting
  
  • Each backup job can be marked with a criticality to highlight the prioritization of individual backups.
  • Completed jobs can be provided with a comment, for example to describe the troubleshooting.
  • The application indicates when a new update is available.
  • The audit report can now also be scheduled and can be configured via report management. The basic configuration now takes place via the setting.

• NovaStor DataCenter now has a maintenance mode
  
  • If this is switched on, no new backup jobs are started so that maintenance tasks can be carried out on the infrastructure without shutting down the application completely or generating errors during the execution of jobs.

• User administration
  
  • NovaStor DataCenter now allows authentication and rights management of and for Active Directory users and groups.

• VMware Backup Verification / Test Restores
  
  • VMware backups can now be automatically verified and/or restored via a job. The VM is booted directly from the backup, checked and then shut down again and the result is displayed in the reporting.

• VMware Restore Templates

  • A VMware restore, including all settings, can be saved completely as a template, e.g. to preconfigure test restores or disaster scenarios.

Improvements

• When using single tape drives, it is now possible to configure the conditions under which a tape is used, whether it is initialized or overwritten and what is executed if an incorrect tape is inserted, independently of the backup or clone job.
• Backup server for VMware and Hyper-V backups
  
  • Individual VM backups can be deleted.
  • Individual disks can be excluded from the restore process.
• Update
  
  • Updates are now paused if an agent still has active job
• Schedules can now be paused. This means that the execution of backups can be controlled centrally and it is no longer necessary to edit each job individually.
• The security of user accounts has been increased by numerous mechanisms.
• Partially failed jobs can now be restarted directly from the report manager.
• VMware backup jobs can now be filtered by VMware tags and other criteria.
• Media pools can be provided with an upper limit for used storage space in addition to the lower limit for free storage space. This makes it easier to monitor the utilization of the backup storage.
• The usability of the web interface has been extensively revised to enable faster, more intuitive operation.
• When starting a job manually, you can choose between Full, Diff, or Incr. Backup can be selected.
• In the schedule, you can define for each backup job whether it should back up full, diff or incr.
• There is now a global filter in the backup schema view that takes all backup levels into account.
• The user settings, such as e-mail notifications, are now located in the account area at the top left together with all other user options such as language selection or logout.

Fixes

• ...

Fixes

• When backing up to a storage group, it is now displayed correctly if no execution period matches.
• The self-backup can only be executed as a full backup.
• The incorrect execution of Execution Plans / Multi-Part orders after the update from version 9.2.15 to 9.2.16 has been fixed.
• A VM backup server with insufficient resources no longer leads to hanging Hyper-V backups.
• Restoring files to a cluster now also works again from the web interface in addition to the command line.
• The creation of diagnostic information in the event of an error now also works for incompletely configured agents.
• A superfluous error entry in the report when cloning to tape has been removed.
• A very rare error in the online license check has been fixed.

Improvements

• The restore speed of backups/files cloned to tape library has been increased.
• The single view that can be configured in reporting for backup jobs that consist of several individual jobs is now also used in the Web UI and not only when creating sent reports.
• The VM Browser now keeps its current folder when refreshing while browsing.
• The REAR integration (Linux) has been revised so that it also works with newer installations.

Fixes

• An error in the calculation of the data volume of Hyper-V backups has been fixed. In some cases, the total FET volume may decrease as a result.
• Tape Library: A rare multiplexer crash has been fixed.
• When uninstalling a backup server, no more services remain in the Windows service management.
• The function to delete unknown backups from a disk media pool now works consistently.
• If a cloning process was terminated due to insufficient memory, successful clones are no longer displayed as faulty.
• Explicitly configured VMs that were specified in backup jobs individually and not via the host/folder are now marked as faulty.
• The VM search in installations with vCenter >= version 8 now delivers reliable results even with > 100 VMs.

Improvements

• Monitoring now displays both the average speed of the backup job and the current throughput as well as the scheme.
• In multi-part orders/execution plans, the schema can now be specified for backup orders so that the default schema no longer has to be used.
• An existing disclaimer is no longer overwritten during the update.

Fixes

• A very rare error when cloning backups to single tape drives has been fixed.
• Connecting agent pools when starting backup jobs is now stable even under very high load.
• GFS/GVS media pool can be edited again without errors.
• After the 9.0.17 update, users whose password was blank can now also log in successfully.
• Drive names with umlauts under Windows no longer generate errors in the file browser.

Fixes

• Missing certificates for JAVA have been added. This makes it possible to send mail from the application again, which was deactivated with version 9.2.13.

Improvements

• The client update now cleans up all running NovaStor DataCenter processes before installation.
• The backup server configuration of the VM BackupServer now allows you to set the maximum number of parallel sessions (backups/clone/restore).

Fixes

• For file backups, the temporarily created file lists are now also removed from the CommandServer in the event of an error.
• The installation of the client on IBM AIX no longer reports any missing files.
• The progress indicator for large (>1 TB) backups has been improved.
• Numerous error messages have been improved.
• Tape Library: Editing or creating new partitions on migrated Media Management Servers can no longer lead to invalid configurations.
• Tape Library: Backups that were saved directly to tape are now offered for restoration again depending on the retention times.
• Tape Library: Unknown backups on tape can no longer lead to failed retentions.

Fixes

• The vulnerabilities in the logging module Apache Log4j (CVE-2021-45105, CVE-2021-45046), which are classified as critical, have been closed!

Microsoft Windows

• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 until 2025
• Microsoft Windows 11
• Microsoft Windows 10
• Microsoft Windows 8.1 

Linux

• RedHat / Centos 7.x – 9.x, Stream
• Debian 8 - 12
• Ubuntu 16.04 – 24.04 LTS
• Fedora 28 - 41

Unix

• IBM AIX 7.2, 7.3
• Solaris 10 (x64, SPARC)
• HP-UX (on request)
• BSD (on request)

Business applications

• Microsoft 365 (Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams)
• Microsoft Active Directory
• Microsoft Exchange 2013 and higher
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and higher  
• Lotus Notes/Domino

Hypervisor

• Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 and higher  
• VMWare vSphere 6.5 and higher 
• Nutanix

Databases

• Adabas 10.x and higher 
• DB2
• Informix 7 and higher 
• MaxDB 7.4 and higher 
• MySQL/MariaDB 5.5 and higher 
• Oracle 11.2 and higher 
• PostgreSQL 9 and higher  
• SAP R/3 (Oracle/backint)
• SAP R/3 (Oracle/RMAN)
• SAP R/3 (MaxDB)
• SAPDB 6.x, 7.

Hardware

• Management Server (Commandserver)
  • CPU: x86-64 processor (4 cores or more)
  • RAM: 4 GB (8 GB recommended) plus an additional 0.1 GB per concurrent job
  • Disk: 2 GB for the basic installation plus additional
    
    • 1 GB per 1,000,000 files to be backed up simultaneously
    • 10 MB per VM backup
• Backup / Tape Server
  • CPU: x86-64 processor (4 cores or more)
  • RAM: 4 GB (8 GB recommended) plus an additional 0.1 GB per concurrent job
  • Disk: 2 GB for the basic installation plus additional
    
    • 500 MB per 1,000,000 files to be backed up simultaneously
    • 10 MB per VM backup
  • Tape: NovaStor Datacenter is completely library/drive manufacturer independent
• Backup Client
  • CPU: x86-32/64 processor (2 cores or more)
  • RAM: 4 GB (depending on the number of files/VMs per backup job
    performance can be increased with more memory
  • Disk : 1 GB for the basic installation plus additional
    
    • 300 MB per 1,000,000 files to be backed up simultaneously
    • 10 MB per VM backup

Operating systems

• Only 64 bit for management / backup / tape server
• 32/64 bit for backup clients
• UNIX system support only on request for backup clients and tape servers

Other

• Die Hostnamen der am Backup beteiligten Maschinen müssen zu IP v4 Adressen auflösbar sein.
• Für Hyper-V wird das .NET Framework in Version >= 4.7.2 benötigt.
• Für VMWare wird mind. die Version 6.7 Update 2 empfohlen.
• Unter Windows 2012 wird für den Management Server und den Tape Manager eine Powershell Version >= 5.1 benötigt.