Backup & Recovery | News

Barracuda Backup Service Now Includes VMware Host Support

• By Leila Meyer
• 04/19/12

Barracuda Networks has released version 4.2 of its Barracuda Backup Service, which now includes VMware host support.

According to Guy Suter, general manager of the Barracuda Backup Service, VMware holds 75 percent of the virtualization market, but, until now, VMware users who wanted to back up their VMware sources using Barracuda Backup Service would have to install the agent on each guest machine and back those guests up the same way they do their physical machines. However, VMware users could not back up their entire ESX/ESXi virtual machine image.

With version 4.2, VMware users will be able to back up and restore both their physical and virtual environments. Barracuda Backup Service deduplicates images of virtual servers to minimize storage requirements, and data is backed up to an onsite Barracuda Backup Server. From there, it can be replicated to the Barracuda cloud storage service or another Barracuda Backup Server for disaster recovery protection. Offsite transfers use compression and encryption for speed and security.

"The Backup Server communicates through the vStorage API for Data Protection (VADP) and exposes all sources on a vSphere host for backup," wrote Andy Jensen, product manager for Barracuda Backup Service in a blog post. "Additionally, multiple vSphere hosts can be accessed through the vCenter Server product. The solution currently requires at a minimum access to the vSphere Data Protection API which is included with the VMware Essentials Plus license."

Barracuda Backup Service version 4.2 supports VMware ESX 4.0.x and 4.1.x; VMware ESXi 4.0.x, 4.1.x, and 5.0.x; and VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x, 4.1.x, and 5.0.x. It also continues to support Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft HyperV.

Barracuda Backup Service is available now worldwide. The upgrade is free for Barracuda customers with active Energize Updates subscriptions.

Further information about Barracuda Backup Service can be found on the Barracuda site.