1. TO PROTECT AND
RESTORE:
Paragon’s Backup and Recovery Solution
Yields True Efficiency and Intuitive
Functionality
By Kim Borg, Editor in Chief,
Computer Technology Review

2. Talk about disaster averted.
Paragon Software Group has managed to set itself apart from close competitors in
the backup and disaster recovery space, such as Symantec, Acronis and Veeam, by
combining in a single product both backup and recovery for virtual servers and
workstations as well as physical servers and workstations.
The Paragon Protect & Restore 3 (PPR) solution – which utilizes a distributed
architecture, effectively lightening the load on individual servers and the network
– supports various backup and restore scenarios, including backup of physical
servers and workstations, agentless backup and replication of ESX clients, agentbased protection of virtual Windows machines on any other common Hypervisor,
as Efficiency and Intuitive Functionality well as both file-based and image-based
backups.
Additionally, a transparent backup administration process stores backups
according to company requirements and archives them in second-tier storage or in
the cloud. Let’s take a closer look under the hood.
“After a thorough review, it’s clear that Paragon has
taken the backup and recovery game to the next
level with PPR3. For SMBs and mid-enterprise
businesses alike, PPR stacks up well against similar
offerings from industry heavyweights such as
Symantec’s Backup Exec, Acronis’s True Image and
StorageCraft’s ShadowProtect.”

3. Installation: Administration Server and
Console
Handily enough, PPR’s Administration
Server and Administration Console are
the only two components in the system
which need to be physically installed via
the installation media. Essentially, the
server acts as the brains behind the
operation, telling what machines where
and when to back up. Meanwhile, the
console functions as a single pane of
glass-type interface to the server,
allowing multiple users to be logged in
and making changes simultaneously.
the user is in the system. This feature
allows the user to quickly and efficiently
restore a system without having to click
around in different areas and through
numerous menus. Needless to say,
that’s not only significant but often vital
in a backup and recovery environment.
In addition to a main viewing window,
the console also features tabs that
allow the user to access the different
areas of both the infrastructure and the
backup system itself.
Configure Discovery Policy
PPR’s Configure Discovery Policy feature
Installation: Administration Server and lends a true set-it and-forget-it
Console
atmosphere to the interface by tracking
an Organizational Unit (OU) in the
The console also allows for a silent
Active Directory infrastructure and
installation of additional components
automatically performing a silent
on all Active Directory and workstation
installation upon detection of any new
computers directly through the network machines being added into that OU.
using Windows WMI services. This
This means that any new machine will
function is sure to bring smiles to IT
be automatically added into the user’s
administrators’ faces, as it allows them
backup infrastructure and, if configured
to simultaneously roll out installations
with policies, also automatically added
to hundreds of computers from the
into a backup policy.
comfort of their desks.
Static tabs in the console interface
remain available regardless of where

4. ESX Bridge
Backup Servers
PPR’s ESX Bridge allows users to create
an API connection to an ESX server,
which will subsequently permit them to
perform operations on that ESX server
directly from the console so that they
can create replicas of their virtual
machines as well as agentless backups.
These backups can then be transferred
from the data stores on the ESX server
to anywhere within the backup
infrastructure. In addition, the ESX
Bridge allows the user to create virtual
machine replicas that remain powered
off. Should disaster strike, you can
immediately power up the replica and
instantly resume the service of this
system for maximum business
continuity.
This is where PPR’s distributed
architecture comes into play, allowing
for a two-tiered solution, one that
incorporates both primary and
secondary storage. These two tiers of
storage, quite simply, give the user
more options when it comes to saving
both time and money.
PPR also provides users with the ability
to launch a replica from the software
rather than requiring them to go into
the ESX client and launch it from there.
This means users only need to log into
PPR and handle the infrastructure from
there so that they’re instantly back up
and running.
For example, if the user is backing up to
a primary storage location that contains
a RAID array of expensive SaaS hard
drives and doesn’t necessarily want to
keep the backups on that expensive
type of storage, there exists an
archiving feature that, after the backup
to the primary storage, will archive it
onto more affordable secondary
storage. This two-tiered storage model
allows PPR to perform the backup
locally on site before moving it to an
offsite location, such as a disaster
recovery center or corporate
infrastructure center.
Another notable function in the Backup
Server solution is its ability to import
storage.

5. Typically, when transferring data
between remote offices and the
corporate office or to a DR location, a
user has hundreds of gigabytes or even
terabytes of backups that take an
inordinate amount of time to transfer
over a sluggish WAN or Internet
connection. That’s where the import
storage feature comes in: It allows users
to perform the backup locally to a USB
drive, which they then would ship to
the remote location or corporate office
and easily import that storage directly
from the PPR infrastructure. After an
initial full backup, users are performing
only small, incremental backups which,
obviously, are much more manageable
to transfer over a slow WAN or Internet
connection.
It’s important to note that with the PPR
system, Paragon bills customers based
on the machines they’re actually
backing up. So, in essence, whether
customers have one backup server or
100, they will be billed only for the
machines that are being backed up.
Machines View
As its name implies, the Machines View
affords the user with detailed and
consumable information about the
machines – both physical and virtual –
in the backup infrastructure. This
includes information about the IP
address, workgroup, domain and
operating system associated with each
machine, along with the roles installed,
the volumes and any network adapters
connected to each machine as well as if
it’s online or offline.
"Machines
View also
allows users
to see all of
their virtual
machines
and, if
applicable, an
OS label, host
IP address
and amount

6. Perhaps the most notable part of
Machines View is its outstanding
organization options. Users can
organize by OUs in their Active
Directory infrastructure, by domain,
workgroup, operating system version
and even time zone, which, perhaps
surprisingly, proves incredibly useful
when setting up policies in corporate or
enterprise environments.
Machines View also allows users to see
all of their virtual machines and, if
applicable, an OS label, host IP address
and amount of occupied space.
Setting Up a Machine Backup Policy
Upon launching the physical Machine
Backup Policy Wizard, the user will be
prompted to name the backup policy
and the destination. Here, users are
armed with information about disk
usage on individual storage locations.
After selecting the settings for where
and how often users want to back up,
along with how long they wish to keep
backups, they then designate what
they would like to back up—whether it
be the entire computer or just specific
objects. Both types of backups allow for
a full bare-metal recovery and back up
all volumes connected to the computer
along with system volumes and boot
information.
Volumes can be specified by label or by
drive letter. It’s worth noting that if
certain volumes exist on the system
that haven’t been mounted with a drive
letter, they can still be backed up
through the PPR software.
Of course, after choosing what they’re
backing up, users can pick and choose
to what computers they’d like to assign
the Machine Backup Policy. In addition,
the user can assign backups according
to computer state – whether it’s online
or role pending, for example – by
domain, by workgroup, by operating
system and by time zone. The time zone
option is key, as most companies prefer
their backups to be scheduled outside
of business hours.
With this policy, too, the user can
choose to back up not only individual
computers but also entire groups. The
process of selecting entire groups to
back up in an OU works in conjunction
with PPR’s Discovery Policy, so that

7. any new computers added into the OU
will not only receive an installation
package and silent installation, but also
automatically be added into the Backup
Policy. A validation process then
ensures that all settings have been
entered correctly and deals with any
problems before performing an initial
backup.
Scheduler
As infrastructure moves outside the
enterprise and the purview of the IT
organization, maintaining containerbased security becomes more and more
difficult. An alternate approach,
embedding at least some
security(specifically confidentiality) into
the document itself, is fast becoming
amore viable option. It provides away
for IT to re-establish security policies
that are meaningful and realistic, even
in a cloud and BYOD environment.
Retention Policy
Whether it’s created on the storage
itself or through the Backup Policy, the
Retention Policy allows users to take a
full backup as the starting point and
incremental backups thereafter. A new,
full backup can be performed on a
regular basis, or a series of incremental
backups can be rolled up into a new full
backup, eliminating the need to create
a full backup from scratch every time.
This is a true time and data transfersaver if you’re moving that backup
across a WAN connection or storing it in
other locations within your
infrastructure.
If users do choose to set individual
retention policies for the Backup Policy,
they can choose not only a time-based
retention policy but also a size-based
one, ensuring against a certain
threshold on data storage capabilities.
Conveniently, the time-based retention
policy can range from a few hours to
many months or years.

8. Virtual Machine Backup Policy
This policy creates a replica or clone of
a virtual machine that remains offline.
This allows the user to incrementally
update that clone so that it’s always up
to date. As with PPR’s other policies,
the Virtual Machine Replication Policy
allows users to schedule updates as
frequently or infrequently as they like.
Additionally, if you schedule updates to
occur every five minutes, for example,
then, should a virtual machine go down,
all one has to do is launch the virtual
machine replica or clone from the
product. Voilà: the system is instantly
restored to an up to-date clone. It’s no
small thing that you can be back up and
running in the time it takes to boot up
that virtual machine in your
infrastructure.
Restore Policies
The restore policies are such that users
can back up several hundred machines
as easily as they can an individual
machine. To find individual machines, a
user can type in “C,” for example, to
bring up all machines with “Cs” in their
name and “O” to further narrow down
the search. When you’re in restore
mode, every second counts, so we
found this procedure to be equal parts
fast and intuitive.
In addition, as with the product’s other
policies, the Restore Policies give users
the option to restore the entire
computer or individual volumes, after
which they are supplied with a
Recovery-ID in order to create the
policy. What’s nice is that the policy will
remain in effect until it is physically
deleted out of the system.
Users also have the capability of
restoring individual files on either a
remote or local machine, which gives
them the ability to restore a file that an
end-user deleted directly through the
PPR product.
PPR’s Notification Policies allow users to
get as granular or as broad as they like
with their notification preferences. For
example, you can be notified one very
failure and success of every
maintenance policy. Notifications can
be sent to as many email recipients as
the user designates; plus, the email
system is intuitive so that if you do add
a new user and a notification, then they
will automatically be added to the email
list.

9. Activities and Events
Activities are divided into Current
Progress, Running Tasks and Scheduled
Tasks. Running tasks, if backing up
multiple machines, will let you know if
any of those machines failed.
Meanwhile, scheduled tasks allow users
to modify tasks directly from the
Scheduled Tasks View so they don’t
have to jump back and forth between
multiple tabs in the infrastructure.
Past Activities
In addition to detailed task information,
Past Activities contains Log Entries and
Policy Reports. The Log Entries will
show just the events associated with a
specific task that have run, while the
Policy Reports show what happened
and every time a task has run. Armed
with this amount of information, if you
do encounter a problem, you can easily
determine if that problem was with the
infrastructure, the operating system or
even the network.
Pricing and Licensing
Paragon Protect & Restore 3 is available
in Windows Workstation, Windows
Server and VM editions and is licensed
per physical machine or, in the case of
the VM edition, per socket. Pricing
starts at $999 per server for the
Server edition, $89 per machine for the
Workstation edition, and tiers down
from that point.
One year of maintenance comes
included with the license. The
maintenance contract includes
unlimited U.S.-based support, as well as
Upgrade Assurance, which means free
upgrades during the term of the
contract, to ensure users always have
the latest version of the product.
After a thorough review, it’s clear that
Paragon has taken the backup and
recovery game to the next level with
PPR3. For SMBs and mid-enterprise
businesses alike, PPR stacks up well
against similar offerings from industry
heavyweights such as Symantec’s
Backup Exec, Acronis’s True Image and
StorageCraft’s ShadowProtect. Indeed
PPR sets itself apart, not only by
providing one solution for both virtual
and physical environments but also by
offering up the most economical
solution, based on pricing comparisons
for both servers and workstations.
To learn more about Paragon Protect &
Restore or the company’s partner
program, please visit www.protectrestore.com.

10. About Paragon Software Group
Founded in 1994, Paragon Software offers a complete line of backup & disaster
recovery (BDR), imaging, virtualization and hard disk management solutions.
Paragon serves its customers and partners from offices around the world,
delivering its software and services to SMB and large enterprise customers
through a network of VARs, MSPs, DMRs and OEMs, as well as online through the
company web site. www.paragon-software.com
About Computer Technology Review
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