The following information is designed to help you make decisions - before you begin working with x360Recover.
| SUPPORTED CONFIGURATIONS | UNSUPPORTED CONFIGURATIONS |
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IMPORTANT NOTICE: Windows Server 2025 has not yet been certified as supported by x360Recover. The Development team is currently working to resolve compatibility issues which are preventing BDR appliance-based virtualization recovery for protected systems running the Windows Server 2025 operating system. Please avoid upgrading systems to Windows Server 2025 until this issue is resolved. [Last updated 11.19.24] |
Supported Windows protected system configurations
- For details on supported Linux operating systems, see Linux for x360Recover
- For details on supported macOS operating systems, see (macOS) Install an agent
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Supported Windows Operating Systems
Note: Local Cache for Direct-to-Cloud mode agents requires (a) Windows Server 2008 R2 or newer server OS or (b) Windows 8 or newer desktop OS. * Windows 7 and Microsoft Server 2003/2008 systems are deprecated and end-of-life. Although x360Recover is able to perform backups for these operating systems, support is limited to basic troubleshooting and diagnostics.Supported Filesystems
Supported Networking
Supported DR Recovery Mechanisms
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Supported Application Aware Backups
** Only the Active Cluster member in the DAG group will receive a VSS-aware backup of the message store. Passive cluster members will receive a crash-consistent backup. (This is a Microsoft limitation of the Exchange VSS Writer.)Supported Virtual Disk Formats
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x360Recover protected data size limitations
Storage of protected system data in the Axcient cloud is intended to fit common use cases of MSPs and their customers. We have tailored our recovery SLAs and Cloud Fair Usage policies to ensure that the vast majority of MSPs core use-cases for data protection are covered. That said, there are limitations to our bundled cloud storage and specific protected system size limits.
The Axcient Fair Use policy spells out the terms of overall cloud storage limits based on the number and type of protected systems you have protected in the Axcient Cloud. Fair Use is intended to provide a reasonable storage pool capacity which most partners will find provides virtually unlimited cloud storage for their per-endpoint protected systems (based on the expected nominal average size of typical server and workstation endpoints) while providing Axcient with a means of remediation in the event of abuse by a partner.
See: Axcient’s Fair Use Policy for details.
100TB Protected System Limit
In addition to Fair Use limitations to the total storage pool usage, there also exists a practical size limitation for a single protected system endpoint. Axcient does not support storage of any protected system in the Axcient cloud where the total data consumption for the system exceeds 100TB. This 100TB size includes not just the in-use size of the protected system, but also the total aggregate of data consumed by the protected system backup retention.
Important: Backups and replication for protected systems exceeding 100TB may be halted to ensure proper operation of the Axcient cloud.
Partners that need to provide backups for protected systems larger than 100TB may do so using Private Cloud vaults hosted in your own datacenter.
Minimum hardware recommendations
x360Recover does not require you to purchase proprietary hardware. You can choose your own hardware if it meets the minimum hardware requirements; however, the hardware you choose must be compatible with Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver). Current versions of x360Recover ship an updated kernel, so please consult the Ubuntu 18.04 compatibility column in the following links.
The following links will assist you in determining whether or not the hardware you want to use will support Linux.
- https://ubuntu.com/certified/desktops
- https://ubuntu.com/certified/servers
- For individual components, like NICs or HBA controllers, visit https://ubuntu.com/certified
x360Recover minimum recommended hardware configuration:
OS: 8GB RAM, 4 Cores minimum recommended for 1-5 protected systems
Backing up more than 5 Servers:
- For every additional 5 Protected Systems (production servers being backed up), x360Recover requires 4 more GB's RAM and 2 more cores.
- Example: To backup 6-10 servers, x360Recover requires a minimum of 12 GB RAM and 6 cores.
Add the additional memory needed to support running the protected systems as virtual machines.
- Example: 2 protected systems that normally run with 4GB of RAM would need the standard 8GB of RAM plus 8GB of RAM for virtualization so a total of 16GB.
- It is highly recommended to use ECC RAM for data protection and performance.
Machine must have at least three hard drives:
Three physical hard drives are required as a minimum:
- One drive must be dedicated to the operating system. A minimum of 100 GBs is needed for the OS drive, but use of a 256 GB M.2 is recommended. NVMe is supported with x360Recover v8.2.3 and above
- The remaining two or more drives must be used for storage in a RAID1, RAID5 or RAID6 set.
- x360Recover uses a software RAID. If your BDR has a hardware RAID controller it must be set to a RAID0 or JBOD configuration. Some RAID controllers may not be supported.
Please note: Nightly Boot VM Checks are enabled by default and require an additional 2 GB of RAM and 2 available CPU cores to perform.
| Minimum Recommendations |
Compatability |
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Hard Drives |
SMR-based hard drives are not suitable as x360Recover storage devices** Three physical hard drives are required as a minimum:
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| Requirements to Back Up 1-5 Protected Systems: |
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| Requirements to Back Up 6+ Protected Systems: |
For every 5 additional Protected Systems, we recommend an additional 4 GB RAM and an additional 2 cores.
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| Virtual Machine Requirements: |
If you are planning to run Protected Systems as Virtual Machines for instant recovery, we recommend these additional requirements:
Include additional RAM and CPU cores:
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| Additional Considerations: |
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* Represents minimum recommended resources
** SMR Hard Drives
Shingled magnetic recording (SMR) is a hard drive storage technology that improves data density and storage capacity on disk, at the expense of write performance. SMR drives achieve high storage density by overlapping tracks of data slightly on top of neighboring tracks. The underlying storage mechanism writes entire tracks in a high density fashion that is not conducive to the random write patterns associated with the native copy-on-write functionality of ZFS. Severe performance limitations have been observed with x360Recover when employing SMR-based hard drives, and these storage devices are not recommended for use with x360Recover.
Firewall ports (inbound)
This article describes inbound firewall ports and public NAT mappings required by x360Recover.
- No inbound ports from the internet need to be opened at a customer location for appliances.
- Appliances connect to the Cloud and establish secure tunnel services for remote access via Management Portal (Legacy) or x360Recover Manager.
- It is best practice to place a hardware firewall between the internet and any device that requires inbound connections. Axcient vaults and portals should always be behind a hardware firewall, with inbound connections limited to the necessary ports listed below.
- We recommend enabling lockdown mode from x360Recover Manager for all devices to improve security and enable multi-factor authentication
For details on securing outbound communications, refer to this article.
Management Portal (Legacy)
The following inbound TCP ports must be NAT mapped and allowed to access the Management Portal:
- 22 SSH
- 80 (HTTP is redirected to HTTPS)
- 443 (HTTPS)
- 10,000-10,000+N* (Remote Management)
- 20000-20000 + N* (Axcient Remote Assist) is deprecated and is no longer needed
*Where N is the number of appliances and vaults communicating with the Management Portal.
Vault
The following inbound TCP ports must be NAT’d to the vault:
- 80 (HTTP is redirected to HTTPS)
- 443 (HTTPS)
- 9079 (Endpoint Manager)
- 9080 (Vault Transfer Service – Legacy)
- 9081 (Vault Transfer Service – VT2)
- 9082 (Cloudserver)
- 9083 (Disaster Recovery Access Layer)
- 9090 (Backup Manager)
Appliance
Important Note: Appliances do not require any inbound connectivity from the internet.
Appliances should not have inbound port mapping from a public IP address.
The inbound ports referenced here are solely for connections from agents located on the local LAN network.
The following TCP ports must be open between the x360Recover backup agent and the appliance: (Usually this only needs to be done if the backup agent and the appliance have a firewall between them.)
- 9090-9200 (Cloudserver)
- 15000-15999 (VNC Terminal Access)
- 860 and 3260 (iSCSI connections to appliance)
Note:
The following outbound TCP ports are available on Axcient-hosted Management Portals and vaults for email delivery of alerts and reporting
- 465, 587 (ssh/tls) for outbound smtp traffic
Timeouts
Some firewalls/routers have very low TCP timeout settings by default. These can affect long-lived TCP connections such as the connection between the appliances and vaults to the Management Portal. Always set TCP timeout settings for all x360Recover services to the maximum allowable on the device.
To increase the TCP timeout setting on SonicWall firewalls:
- Login to your Sonicwall device
- Go to the top-level menu item “Firewall”
- Choose “TCP Settings”
- Change the “Default TCP Connection Timeout” from its default value of 15 minutes to 720 minutes
Firewall ports (outbound)
Direct-to-Cloud (D2C) agent requirements
The x360Recover Direct to Cloud agent requires the following firewall ports to be open for outbound communications on the internet:
| TCP 80 (http) |
| TCP 443 (https) |
| TCP 9079 (Endpoint Manager) |
| TCP 9082 (Cloudserver) |
| TCP 9083 (Disaster Recovery Access Layer - DRAL ) |
| TCP 9090 (Backup Manager) |
Note: The list of IP addresses within our datacenter to which the agent must communicate is dynamic and subject to change
Recovery Center requirements
Recovery Center requires the following ports to be open:
- TCP/443 (https) to the vault (or appliance) holding the data to be recovered
- TCP/443 (https) to api.axcient.net
- TCP/9083 (Disaster Recovery Access Layer [DRAL]) to the Axcient Scale-Out Cloud storage node
- Please refer to Axcient Cloud IP addresses and application port ranges
Common requirements for appliances and vaults
All x360Recover devices must be able to communicate with the following destinations and ports:
Distributed Tunnel Service
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x360Recover License Portal
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Cloud Key Management Services
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Telemetry Services The x360Recover telemetry service utilizes a highly-dispersed cloud data provider with a large list of volatile IP addresses. A list of the current IP addresses in use can be found here |
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Update Manager
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Update Repository
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Ubuntu Package Mirror
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Appliance requirements
The x360Recover appliance is typically deployed on the same LAN as the protected systems it is servicing. This means NO inbound firewall rules are generally required. (The appliance has its own internal firewall restricting inbound traffic at the device level.)
However, if you have deployed a firewall between your protected systems and your appliance, the following ports need to be accessible:
Inbound traffic
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Outbound trafficIn addition to the common network ports listed at the top of this article, the x360Recover appliance requires the following ports and destinations to be accessible: Management PortalAppliances must be able to communicate with the management portal on the following ports:
VaultAppliances must be able to communicate with all Vaults configured for Replication
Scale-Out CloudAppliances must be able to communicate with all available Scale-Out Cloud storage nodes within the configured data center. The URLs and IP addresses of the Scale-Out Cloud are dynamic and subject to change as nodes are added over time.
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Vault requirements
Most partners use Axcient-hosted cloud vaults, in which case all network security is fully managed by the Axcient cloud engineering team.
However, if you are self-hosting some or all of your vaults, refer to the following when configuring your firewall rules:
Inbound traffic
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Outbound traffic In addition to the common network ports listed at the beginning of this article, the vault requires the following ports and destinations to be accessible: Management PortalVaults must be able to communicate with the Management Portal on the following ports:
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Supported operating systems for Recovery Center
Please refer to the full article here: Recovery Center
Recovery Center is a stand-alone application for Direct-to-Cloud (D2C) protected systems which allows you to recover data directly from the Axcient Cloud or Private Cloud, with or without a local cache device.
A note on operating systems: Any x360Recover Direct-to-Cloud (D2C) protected system (regardless of OS version) may be recovered using Recovery Center.
Supported operating systems for running Recovery Center include:
- Server 2008 R2
- Server 2012
- Server 2012 R2
- Server 2016
- Server 2019
- Server 2022
- Windows 11 64-bit
- Windows 10 64-bit
- Windows 8 64-bit
Note: Recovery Center installation is not supported on a Windows domain controller.
Do’s and Don’ts
- Installing additional packages commonly available within the Ubuntu package repository is generally considered safe, as such packages are tested extensively by Canonical and the Ubuntu community.
- Installation of additional third party packages and software should only be done if a genuine need for the software is demonstrated, and limited in scope to the bare minimum number of changes from the default environment to reduce the risk of impacting the product.
- Installing any package or software component that requires configuration of additional package repositories is unsafe and will most likely block your devices from Ubuntu OS-level upgrades.
- Likewise, installing any software from source code and compiling it onto the environment is highly likely to cause issues later during Ubuntu OS upgrades and should be avoided.
- Axcient does not recommend installing any Antivirus engine directly onto the BDR device, as several AV products have been shown to interfere with x360Recover software updates and the internal workings of the product.
Third party software
The x360Recover platform provides for a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) model to allow the maximum flexibility in choosing or re-using a wide range of hardware devices.
Along with this BYOD model comes a level of access to the BDR operating environment not typical of other solutions. This presents the ability for partners to install their own customized software solutions onto the BDR.
Installation of third party software onto your x360Recover BDR devices is unsupported by Axcient. Any such installations are undertaken at the risk of the partner and should be thoroughly tested before widespread deployment to your fleet.
Axcient performs extensive quality and regression testing around all aspects of the platform, but only with the default software configuration employed. Adding additional software components can have unexpected consequences and may impair the operation of your devices.
Advanced Format Disks (AFD)
Support for protected systems with Advanced Format Disks (Native 4K block size.):
- Backup and recovery of protected systems using 4K AF drives is supported with
- x360Recover agent version 2.25+ and
- x360Recover appliance/vault version 10.8.0+
- Recovery actions available for 4K AF drives include virtualization, mounting, iSCSI, and Bare Metal Recovery. (The export of 4K disks to virtual disk image is not yet supported.)
- Only RAW (KVM) and VHDX (Hyper-V) virtual disk formats support 4K disk images. This essentially limits recovery of physical servers using 4K drives to either KVM or Hyper-V virtual host environments
Important Note: You must recover "like for like" disks when using Bare Metal Recovery (BMR). For example, if your original disk is 512 (even 512e!), you cannot recover to a 4K disk ( and vice versa). This is because the physical block data cannot be converted during an imaging process.
Bare Metal Recovery (BMR)
x360Recover currently does not support bare metal recovery onto systems that utilize Windows-Only Drivers. These are typically embedded motherboard RAID controllers on very low-end servers or mid-range workstation devices. Examples of unsupported controllers include the Dell PERC S3xx series, Intel Cxxx controllers, and HP SmartArray B120/B320, as well as most white-box motherboard RAID controllers. These controllers are supported only in SATA/ATA Mode, not RAID Mode. Recovery options back to a physical server using one of these controllers is limited. You may either disable the ‘Fake’ RAID controller and revert to standard SATA mode, or alternatively you can load Windows on the physical hardware in Hyper-V mode and recover the system as a Hyper-V guest.
Virtualization
In general, any supported operating system that can successfully be backed up by x360Recover can be virtualized, including both legacy MBR-BIOS based systems, and newer EFI-BIOS based systems.
Deployment as a virtual machine
Limited support is available for deploying a x360Recover device as a virtual machine.
Axcient Support will provide support for x360Recover-specific problems only. Support for troubleshooting of performance, deployment, configuration, or other issues related to the hypervisor layer is not available.
x360Recover virtual machines are supported under the following requirements:
Hyper-V
Hyper-V host must support nested virtualization which requires either
- Windows Server 2016 or newer | Intel processor with VT-x and EPT
OR
- Windows Server 2022 | AMD EPYC/Ryzen processor or later
Hyper-V guest VM requires
- 12GB minimum
- 2 cores CPU minimum
- Configured as Generation-2 (EFI-BIOS)
- Secure Boot should be disabled for the guest VM
Additional Hyper-V requirements:
- x360Recover 10.5.0 or higher
Full instructions on how to deploy x360Recover as a Hyper-V virtual machine are here:
VMware
- VMware ESXi 5.5 or newer
- Intel CPUs only
- Virtual machines must have CPU-enabled passthrough of Intel VT
- 12GB RAM minimum
- 4 CPU cores minimum
- E1000 or VMXNET3 network adapter
- VMware Tools installed (Recommended)
Full instructions on how to deploy x360Recover as a VMware virtual machine are here:
Axcient does not perform rigorous testing of virtual deployments across a wide range of hypervisor major and minor releases. Issues encountered related to specific builds and releases of VMware are beyond the scope of Axcient Support troubleshooting and assistance.
IMPORTANT: Axcient x360Recover does not recommend deploying a virtual appliance to the same hypervisor hosts or storage pools as your production servers, as this provides no redundancy between your production systems and backup platform. Be aware that deploying x360Recover as a virtual appliance may have performance limitations compared to deploying on bare metal.
Unsupported hardware configurations for x360Recover devices
- Installing x360Recover to a USB boot volume is not supported
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Installing x360Recover as a virtual machine on XEN Server is not supported. x360Recover relies on KVM for hypervisor services, which is inherently incompatible with XEN.
- SMR-based hard drives are not suitable as x360Recover storage devices. Shingled magnetic recording (SMR) is a hard drive storage technology that improves data density and storage capacity on disk, at the expense of write performance. Severe performance limitations have been observed with x360Recover when employing SMR-based hard drives, and these storage devices are not recommended for use with x360Recover.
- We strongly recommend that you build your BYOD systems with at least 4 disks: one disk for the operating system, and at least three (3) disks for your data pool in a RAID configuration to provide redundancy.
- External SAN storage connected at less than 4 Gigabits (i.e. iSCSI over 1Gig Ethernet) is not supported.
- Back up of remote devices to an appliance over WAN or VPN connections is currently unsupported. We recommend you deploy a Direct-to-Cloud agent to a vault to accomplish this scenario.
Unsupported networking configurations
Backing up remote devices to an appliance over WAN or VPN connections is currently unsupported.
To back up protected systems which are remote from the on-site appliance, we recommended deploying the agent in Direct-to-Cloud mode and performing backups directly to the vault.
For details on deploying the Direct-to-Cloud agent, refer to the following articles:
Unsupported protected system configurations
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Unsupported Operating Systems
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Unsupported Networking
* Image-based backup and recovery can be a network-intensive operation. x360Recover does not recommend deployment on networks slower than 1Gigabit between the BDR and the protected system. |
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Unsupported Filesystems
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Unsupported Applications
Unsupported Configurations
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SUPPORT | 720-204-4500 | 800-352-0248
- Contact Axcient Support at https://partner.axcient.com/login or call 800-352-0248
- Free certification courses are available in the Axcient x360Portal under Training
- Subscribe to the Axcient Status page for updates and scheduled maintenance
Last updated November 2024
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