R1Soft Basic User Guide.
Once an order has been placed, and completed the Simply Hosting team will create the backup space and you will receive an email with the control panel login details.
We offer an additional, chargeable, service for a ‘one off’ backup setup and configuration, or you can configure it yourself.
The first thing to do is install and test the backup agent as described in the following article.
Setting up a backup policy(s).
R1soft is designed primarily as a backup to BMR (Bare Metal Recovery) product, however it can also be used to back up data and or SQL, Exchange, Plesk etc. (depending on the host O/S).
As it carries out a block level scan and backup ideally you should place the required content on a separate disk or partition otherwise the process can be slow to complete.
The interface is simple and most of the setup is Wizard based, you should consider the following, however:
Make sure you have enough backup space to meet your requirements, based on the fact that the first backup is full, and subsequent backups, only include the changes, however if those changes include data deletion, these will still be contained in previous recovery points and will not reduce the size of the quota but instead be ‘white space’.
Only set the schedule to back up as often as your requirements.
Keep the retention points to a minimum but as many as you think you’ll need, in the case of a BMR then 2 should be enough.
Every retention point will use space as shown in the example below:
Initial backup, 20 GB = 20 GB of space consumed.
Next backup 10 GB of changes = 30 GB consumed
Next backup 5 GB of changes = 35 GB consumed etc. etc.
Set up reports to confirm the success of the backups, and, when you are nearing the allocated quota.
Carry out regular restore testing of files to ensure that the backup is working as expected, which can either be done to the same or alternate location on the server, be downloaded to an alternate machine or be sent to a different host altogether (the agent must be installed on this machine though).
Consult the R1soft Wiki for further configuration options, or contact the Simply Hosting support desk by raising a ticket from the Customer Portal for any functional issues.
http://wiki.r1soft.com/display/ServerBackupManager/Home
Further information:
R1soft does not work with BIOS RAID, but works with most hardware RAID cards as well as O/S level software RAID
The product can migrate data from one server to another using the BMR option, (this will require a ticket to be raised in order for us to boot the destination server into a ‘live image’ with the agent).
For general use, it is best to accept all the default options, but be careful with the number of set retention points.
Ensure that you have a big enough quota to meet your requirement and if you require more space, we can easily upgrade the package subject to price adjustment.
If you have a requirement to back up multiple servers, we can easily add additional agents and increase the space if required, this means that all backups are managed via one Control Panel, but can have individual options and policies.
Backup data can be retained for as long as required from a compliance point of view, even if the server no longer physically exists.
All files can be downloaded to another machine, either in our, DC or elsewhere.
We have some backup servers located in an alternative location, if your requirement is to store this data off site, please speak to an Account Manager for more information.
Get in touch
If you need advice on R1soft or Backups, we’re here to help.
Call us on 0333 247 0222: Monday – Friday, 9am – 5.30pm.
Chat with us on LiveChat: Monday – Friday, 9am – 5.30pm.
Write to us: Send us a support ticket from your Simply portal and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
If you don’t have an account with Simply Hosting yet, you can also send our Sales team an enquiry and we’ll get back to you between 9am and 5.30pm, Monday to Friday.