Infrascale Disaster Recovery allows you to:

  • automatically back up data from computers and servers;
  • restore the required versions of the backup data;
  • retain backups for unlimited time; and
  • boot DR image backups as virtual machines (VMs) running on the primary or on the secondary cloud failover appliance (CFA).

Specifications for physical appliances

Current models

Model 960 965 1260 1265 1550 2750 4550
Usable storage 2 TB / 4 TB / 6 TB 6 TB 2 TB / 4 TB / 6 TB 6 TB 8 TB / 12 TB / 18 TB 32 TB / 40 TB / 60 TB 84 TB / 126 TB
Architecture              
CPU Intel Core i3 @ 3.6 GHz, 4 cores Intel Core i5 @ 2.8 GHz, 6 cores Intel Core i3 @ 3.6 GHz, 4 cores Intel Core i5 @ 2.8 GHz, 6 cores Intel Xeon E5-1620 v4 @ 3.5 GHz, 4 cores Intel Xeon E5-1650 v4 @ 3.6 GHz, 6 cores Intel Xeon E5-1660 v4 @ 3.2 GHz, 8 cores
CPU upgrade N/A N/A N/A N/A Up to 18 cores @ 2.1 GHz Up to 18 cores @ 2.1 GHz Up to 18 cores @ 2.1 GHz
RAM 16 GB, 2666 MHz, DDR4 32 GB, 2666 MHz, DDR4 16 GB, 2666 MHz, DDR4 32 GB, 2666 MHz, DDR4 64 GB, 2133 MHz, ECC, DDR4 128 GB, 2133 MHz, ECC, DDR4 256 GB, 2133 MHz, ECC, DDR4
RAM upgrade N/A N/A N/A N/A Up to 256 GB Up to 256 GB N/A
SSD 256 GB 256 GB 256 GB 256 GB 240 GB 480 GB 960 GB
HDD 2 TB / 4 TB / 6 TB @ 7200 rpm 6 TB @ 7200 rpm 2 TB / 4 TB / 6 TB @ 7200 rpm 6 TB @ 7200 rpm 4 TB / 6 TB @ 7200 rpm 4 TB / 6 TB @ 7200 rpm 4 TB / 6 TB @ 7200 rpm
Hot-swappable HDD bays 2 HDDs 2 HDDs 2 HDDs 2 HDDs 4 HDDs 12 HDDs 24 HDDs
RAID level RAID 1 RAID 1 RAID 1 RAID 1 RAID 5 RAID 6 RAID 6
Ethernet 2 × 1 GbE, IPMI 2 × 1 GbE, IPMI 2 × 1 GbE, IPMI 2 × 1 GbE, IPMI 2 × 10 GbE, IPMI 2 × 10 GbE, IPMI 2 × 10 GbE, IPMI
Physical specs              
Form factor Desktop NAS Desktop NAS 1U 1U 1U 2U 4U
Width × Depth × Height (in.) 10 × 5.5 × 7.1 10 × 5.5 × 7.1 16.8 × 22.6 × 1.7 16.8 × 22.6 × 1.7 17.2 × 19.85 × 1.7 17.2 × 25.5 × 3.5 17.2 × 26 × 7
Weight (lb.) 7 7 27 27 42 (without HDDs) 56 (without HDDs) 79 (without HDDs)
Power              
Power supply unit 1 × 250 W 1 × 250 W 1 × 350 W 1 × 350 W 1 × 350 W 2 × 480 W 2 × 600 W
(1000 W @ 100–140 V, 50–60 Hz; 1280 W @ 180–240 V, 50–60 Hz)
Voltage 100–240 V, 50–60 Hz 100–240 V, 50–60 Hz 100–240 V, 50–60 Hz 100–240 V, 50–60 Hz 100–240 V, 50–60 Hz 100–240 V, 50–60 Hz 100–240 V, 50–60 Hz

Legacy models

Model 550 950 955 1200
Usable storage 1 TB 4 TB / 6 TB 6 TB 4 TB
Architecture        
CPU Intel Celeron N3160 @ 2.24 GHz, 4 cores Intel Core i3 @ 3.7 GHz, 2 cores Intel Core i5 @ 3.6 GHz, 4 cores Intel Core i5 @ 3.5 GHz, 2 cores
RAM 8 GB, DDR3 16 GB, 2133 MHz, DDR4 32 GB, 2133 MHz, DDR4 16 GB, 1600 MHz, DDR3
SSD N/A 128 GB 128 GB 120 GB
HDD 1 TB @ 7200 rpm 4 TB @ 5900 rpm / 6 TB @ 7200 rpm 6 TB @ 7200 rpm 4 TB @ 7200 rpm
Hot-swappable HDD bays N/A 2 HDDs 2 HDDs 1 HDD (not swappable)
RAID level N/A RAID 1 RAID 1 N/A
Ethernet 2 × 1 GbE 2 × 1 GbE 2 × 1 GbE 2 × 1 GbE, IPMI
Physical specs        
Form factor Mini-PC Desktop NAS Desktop NAS Desktop NAS
Width × Depth × Height (in.) 5 × 5 × 2.2 10 × 5.5 × 7.1 10 × 5.5 × 7.1 10 × 5.5 × 7.1
Weight (lb.) 2 7 7 7
Power        
Power supply unit 1 × 40 W 1 × 250 W 1 × 250 W 1 × 250 W
Voltage 100–240 V, 50–60 Hz 100–240 V, 50–60 Hz 100–240 V, 50–60 Hz 100–240 V, 50–60 Hz

Requirements and support for virtual appliances

  Hyper-V VMware
Version 2008 R2–2016
2019 is planned for 2020 Q2		 vSphere ESXi 5.0–6.7
Location On-premises On-premises
Hardware requirements Same as for physical CFAs based on sizing needs Same as for physical CFAs based on sizing needs
Bootability Nested virtualization should be enabled.
Only Hyper-V 2016 supports local boot		 Nested virtualization should be enabled
White-labeling N/A Only with VMware vCenter

Deployment and replication configurations

CFA can automatically send data to another location. Secondary CFA is always passive, meaning it accepts the replicated data from the primary CFA, but cannot back up extra endpoints.

  Primary CFA on-premises and secondary CFA off-premises (in Infrascale cloud) Primary CFA on-premises and secondary CFA off-premises (in a public cloud) Primary CFA on-premises and secondary CFA off-premises (elsewhere other than in the Infrascale or a public cloud) Standalone primary CFA
Description Data is replicated to a secondary CFA in one of Infrascale datacenters in US, UK, or Canada. This is the default approach Data is replicated to a secondary CFA deployed within one of public clouds Data is replicated to a secondary CFA deployed elsewhere No replication. Data may be taken offsite by archiving to an external USB disk
Locations US (Utah), UK (Nottingham), Canada (Toronto) AWS, GCP, Microsoft Azure Customer’s choice N/A
Ownership and secondary infrastructure management Infrascale Customer Customer N/A
Seeding Yes N/A Yes N/A
Cloud boot Yes Microsoft Azure—Yes, as long as instance supports nested virtualization.
GCP, AWS—No		 Yes N/A
Cloud boot scalability Dedicated CFA—limited by hardware of the dedicated CFA.
Shared virtual environment—limited same as primary CFA, burst is available on request		 Limited by the secondary CFA, which can be burst by the customer Limited by hardware of the secondary CFA N/A
Orchestration and IP restore Yes N/A N/A N/A
VPN Yes, managed byInfrascale Yes, managed by customer Yes, managed by customer N/A
WAN acceleration Yes Yes Yes N/A
Redundant network and hardware infrastructure Yes Yes N/A N/A

Security and disk encryption

Hard disks in the primary CFAs (located on the customer’s premises) can be encrypted using LUKS,—an industry standard hard disk encryption system built into Linux.

Hard disks in the secondary CFAs (located in the Infrascale datacenters) are encrypted by default using the AES-256 algorithm.

See also

Learn more about the CFA disk encryption.

Transfer of data to the cloud is performed over AES-256–encrypted connection.

Datacenter security

Infrascale uses Tier 3 and Tier 4 datacenters. These are certified under SAS 70 Type II and SSAE 16, secured with video surveillance 24×7 and biometric access controls to limit physical access to the datacenter floors. All servers are security-hardened before deployment, patched, protected with antivirus software and firewalls.

Protected environments

VMware, Hyper-V, and physical machines

  VMware Hyper-V Physical machine DR image backup Physical machine file and folder backup
Hypervisor version VMware ESXi or vCenter 5.0–6.7 2008 R2–2019 1 N/A N/A
Deployment Without DR backup agent. VMware VM backups use snapshot functionality. CBT is used. Disk set backup can be configured. Independent persistent disks can be skipped DR backup agent on hypervisor using Microsoft VSS technology. Microsoft RCT is not supported With DR backup agent With DR backup agent
Backup types VM DR image VM DR image DR image File level, Microsoft Exchange Server database, Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox, Microsoft SQL Server database
Backup levels Full, incremental (synthetic full) Full, incremental (synthetic full) Full, incremental (synthetic full) Full, differential (file-level), incremental
Bootability Yes Yes Yes N/A
Backup        
Windows 2 Any version supported by hypervisor Any version supported by hypervisor Desktop: 7 SP1, 8, 8.1, 10 3

Server: 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019 3		 Desktop: 7 SP1, 8, 8.1, 10

Server: 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019
Linux Any version supported by hypervisor Any version supported by hypervisor N/A N/A
Unix Any version supported by hypervisor Any version supported by hypervisor N/A N/A
Microsoft SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017 4
Microsoft Exchange Server database Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010, 2010 DAG, 2013, 2016, 2016 DAG, 2019 Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010, 2010 DAG, 2013, 2016, 2016 DAG, 2019 Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010, 2010 DAG, 2013, 2016, 2016 DAG, 2019 Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 5
Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox N/A N/A N/A Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013
Boot on CFA 6        
Windows Desktop: XP SP3, Vista SP2, 7, 8, 8.1, 10

Server: 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019		 Desktop: XP SP3, Vista SP2, 7, 8, 8.1, 10

Server: 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019		 Desktop: 7 SP1, 8, 8.1, 10

Server: 2008 R2 SP1, 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, 2019 7		 N/A
Linux CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, 7

Debian 7, 8

Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, 13.04, 13.10, 14.04 LTR, 14.10, 15.04, 16.04, 18.04

Oracle Linux 6.1–6.6, 7.0–7.1		 CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, 7

Debian 7, 8

Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, 13.04, 13.10, 14.04 LTR, 14.10, 15.04, 16.04, 18.04

Oracle Linux 6.1–6.6, 7.0–7.1		 N/A N/A
Boot verification        
Windows With health check With health check With health check N/A
Linux Screenshot only Screenshot only N/A N/A
Restore        
Source VMware hypervisor or inside the VM Hyper-V hypervisor or inside the VM Physical machine with DR backup agent installed Appliance Network Share
VMware VM backup Yes, as VM

File-level restore to any client on CFA, or to the Appliance Network Share either as VM image component files or as files on disks		 File-level restore to any client on CFA, or to the Appliance Network Share either as VM image component files or files on disks File-level restore as VM image component files or files on disks File-level restore as VM image component files or files on disks
Hyper-V VM backup As VM image component files or files on disks to any running VM Yes, as VM

File-level restore to any client on CFA, or to the Appliance Network Share either as VM image component files or files on disks		 File-level restore as VM image component files or files on disks File-level restore as VM image component files or files on disks
Windows DR image backup Not as VM

File-level restore as DR image component files or files on disks		 Not as VM

File-level restore as DR image component files or files on disks		 Bare-metal restore (except to NVMe drives)

File-level restore as DR image component files or files on disks		 File-level restore as DR image component files or files on disks
File and folder backup File-level restore File-level restore File-level restore File-level restore
Microsoft SQL Server backup N/A N/A Database-level restore File-level restore
Microsoft Exchange Server database backup N/A N/A Database-level restore File-level restore
Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox backup N/A N/A Mailbox-level restore N/A

For browsing and restoring, Infrascale Disaster Recovery supports ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS, Btrfs, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, HFS, HFS+, JFS, ReiserFS, MINIX (1.0, 2.0, 3), exFAT, NILFS2, F2FS on both MBR and GPT partitions, or on software RAIDs or dynamic disks in Windows. ZFS and UFS were not tested. Windows Storage Spaces, Reiser4, and ReFS are not supported for browsing and restoring.

Virtual machines in Xen environments

Backup of a VM running on Citrix XenDesktop or XenServer can be performed with the DR backup agent installed on the VM. Boot on CFA or restore to a Xen environment of a DR image backup is not supported.

Citrix NetScaler VPX CFAs running on VMware or Hyper-V can be backed up and restored. Boot is not supported at the moment.

Backup schedules

Schedules support monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, by day of week with per-minute granularity backups.

Backup data retention

For backups of VMware and Hyper-V VMs, you can set retention to keep all backups up to 14 days, one per day up to 14 weeks, one per week up to 1 year, one per month forever.

For file and folder and DR image backups of physical machines, you can set for how long to keep full, differential and incremental types of backups.

Backup retention is set separately for primary and secondary CFAs.

Monitoring and reporting

CFA sends alerts and reports via email about the following events:

  • Backup and restore: VM automatic registration report, job success or failure, lack of job progress, daily and weekly summary
  • Security audit: User login notification and daily summary
  • System: New update available and system settings were changed
  • Replication: Failure, communication failure, summary report
  • License: Communication failure, violation, license warning

In the Infrascale Dashboard, there is backup monitoring section for all CFAs of the account with email notification and integration with ConnectWise Manage and Autotask PSA.

Integrations

White-labeling

CFA can be white-labeled to a certain extent—that is, some options will still have Infrascale name. White-labeling is supported on all physical CFA models, and on the VMware virtual CFAs.

White-labeling is not available for Hyper-V, Nutanix, AWS, GCP, and Microsoft Azure virtual CFAs.

Deduplication file system

Infrascale uses proprietary technology called deduplication file system (DDFS). All data is split in 64K-blocks, and only one unique instance of each block is stored on disk. We calculate the number of all instances in the entire stored data per each block.

  1. Direct VM restore to Hyper-V 2019 is not supported yet. ↩

  2. Operation in the environments with ODX enabled was not tested. ↩

  3. DR image backup does not support Storage Spaces, ODX-capable devices, and software-based RAID 5 arrays. ↩ ↩2

  4. Microsoft SQL Server 2019 is not supported yet. ↩

  5. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 DAG, 2016 DAG, and 2019 are not supported yet. ↩

  6. See details on booting backups on the CFA. ↩

  7. Hyper-V host boot is not available. ↩