Beta Release Notes

Release Description
7.0.0b3
December 19th, 2012
    Centralised Administration and Remote Console
    • NEW: HTTPS support
    • Improved job monitor and "run job" process
    • Streamlined startup process for the Remote Console
    • So many bug fixes and enhancements
    Backup Console
    • Beautifully enhanced UI
    • NEW: Restore Home page and tool selection
    • Multiple bug fixes and enhancements

    Miscellaneous
    • Significant CPU and memory usage improvements
    • Hyper-V Config Reporter support on Server 2012
    • Many other bug fixes and enhancements
7.0.0b2
November 20th, 2012
    The new major features of the v7 beta include:
    • LAN based Central Administration using a web browser
    • Remote Control of the BackupAssist Backup Console
    • Enhanced usability and a fresh new UI
    • Improved VHD support (Image catalogues, Hyper-V GRC)
    • Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 support

    There have also been many improvements, enhancements and bug fixes in this beta, and these will continue for the live release. Please note that while BackupAssist's full functionality is available on Windows Server 2012, the following new features will not be supported in full in Version 7.0:
    • ReFS (Resilient File System) - the BackupAssist Single Instance Store is not supported, and other advanced features of ReFS not supported
    • SMB 3 (Server Message Block) - Backup history for imaging backups on SMB 3 shares is not supported, open file backup of SMB 3 shares is not supported
    • CSV (Cluster Shared Volume), storage spaces and other advanced features in Server 2012 are not supported

6.4.0
February 23rd, 2012
  • NEW: Support added for iSCSI as a dedicated backup destination.
    • Imaging, file replication, and zip backups all supported
    • Up to twice as fast as other backup destinations
  • NEW: Recoveries from iSCSI supported with RecoverAssist
  • NEW: RecoverAssist - Windows™ recoveries made easy!
    • Recover to dissimilar hardware from different devices
    • Easy to add hardware drivers whilst building your own recovery media
    • Help repair broken recoveries with useful tools at your fingertips
    • Smartly integrated with BackupAssist
6.0.0rc
August 18, 2010
  • Mailbox backup:
    • Important: Fix dictionary exception in BuildRestoreInfo
    • Fix the bug causing an empty mailbox line to appear in the monitor/report
    • Update in attempt to fix the “delete” advanced option
  • NEW: Hyper-V Config Reporter:
    • Added shortcut for this to start menu
  • Important: Rsync:
    • Make warnings about missing fscache and obfuscation files more user-friendly.
    • Test capabilities before attempting NTFS streams backup or restore.
    • Pass –8-bit-output to rsync to ensure that Unicode characters are displayed as UTF-8 instead of being escaped
    • Rsync: fixes to --restore-nt-streams.  Was making an invalid assumption about the order in which file are restored.
    • Rsync: fix file list sorting issues that were preventing SIS working (among other things) when file name obfuscation was enabled.
    • RsyncEncryption: disable timeout for backups when using encryption, and also for restores. This is to prevent a timeout occurring while rsync is encrypting/decrypting a large file.
  • Zip:
    • Tape: Fix restore bug preventing restore on some tape drives, due to not using only the tape drive’s specific block size on reads
    • Delete the associated.auz file when removing old zip backups
  • TrueCrypt compatible encryption:
    • Fixed exception preventing configuration of notifications for TrueCrypt-compatible jobs
  • Ntbackup:
    • Restore - launch TrueCrypt.exe instead of ntbackup.exe if an NTbackup backup is TrueCrypt-encrypted.
    • Prevent NTBackup embedded mailbox engine from running if no mailbox has been selected for backup.
  • BackupAssist Restore Console:
    • Clear the restore task status icon on start (fixes bug where unmatched mailboxes that are subsequently matched remain red until the task completes)
    • Improve popup message prompting user to change the backup medium during an incremental zip restore
    • Suppress the password error message which appeared in the restore log even before the user entered the password
    • Fix frozen Restore Console when browsing for alternate backup location
  • V4/5 to V6 upgrader:
    • Improve error handling during upgrade process if a single file fails to migrate
    • Fix “black background” ui issue
  • Imaging:
    • Increase the timeout on the BAExchPlugin service start/stop
    • Prevent exceptions in the multi-time picker due to out of range values
  • Misc:
    • Fix bug preventing logging of error message during initial service startup
    • Fixed Amazon S3 ui (for S3Rsync destination) to match current Amazon text
    • VSS: add some extra exception handling to allow for corrupt or missing backup components document.
  • Help:
    • Update help for version 6
6.0.0b4
July 22, 2010
  • Important – Service memory fixes:
    • Fixed 2 memory issues causing the BackupAssist Service’s memory usage to continually increase when performing many mailbox backups
  • Important - Mailbox backup fixes:
    • Fixed Exchange 2010 support on servers without Public Folders (previously getting BA1883 error with “fail one provider” message on these systems)
    • Fixed ArgumentOutOfRangeException bug during mailbox backups when using no grouping period (single pst)
    • (one of the above fixed memory issues was specific to mailbox backups, so mailbox jobs will see the biggest improvement)
    • Fixed issue causing mailbox retrieval to fail if the number of mailboxes is larger than the default server fetch limit (1000 or 1500 depending on AD version)
    • Fixed “false positive” -1073741819 exit code (when a dummy session is required to patch Exchange MAPI)
    • Fixed BA1 due to NullReferenceException caused when there is a problem retrieving the mailboxes to backup
  • Important: System state backup/restore:
    • Fixed bug causing some system state files to be accidentally skipped during backup, resulting in Active Directory not being backed up/restored
    • The restore console now ensures that the system is in Active Directory Restore Mode before allowing Active Directory restores
  • New: TrueCrypt-compatible encryption:
    • File Replication and Ntbackup jobs can now take advantage of our TrueCrypt compatible encryption container, providing industrial strength encryption for these job types
    • Supports most backup destinations, and provides full backup and seamless restore using the BackupAssist Restore Console
  • New: VSS application detection:
    • Automatically start the SQLWriter (VSS writer) service if it’s available but not started
    • Automatically enable the Exchange VSS writer on SBS03 systems where the registry key has this disabled (the default)
    • Add step in the Initial Setup Wizard to ask users if it’s OK for us to restart the Exchange Information Store service if we’ve re-enabled the Exchange VSS writer (otherwise the change won’t take effect)
  • New: SQL 2008 and SQL 2008 R2 support in our SQL Addon, both 32bit and 64bit versions supported
  • New: BA settings Export and Import functionality allowing jobs and basic configuration settings to be exported from a BA install and then imported into a new install, or to overwrite the settings in an existing install
  • Upgrader:
    • Fixed to avoid prompting for upgrade in irrelevant scenarios
    • Now waits for a few seconds after stopping the service, in case the service process is still holding a lock on files during the upgrade
  • Rsync encryption:
    • Increased robustness of filename obfuscation
    • Cleanup old data from the filename obfuscation table
    • Fixed bug in job cancellation that caused the job to hang for 60 seconds after cancelling
  • Imaging jobs:
    • Backup catalogues now work properly when backing up to non-NTFS locations, eg. most NAS devices
    • End of day backups now create a full catalogue rather than a mini catalogue
    • Fixed bug causing backup to continue even if the wrong media is inserted for relevant media checking options
    • Imaging of unmounted (hidden) volumes
      • Now we show the label of the volume if it isn’t mounted (was showing blank)
      • Fixed selection check of unmounted volumes (was failing, causing minor warning in report)
      • Fixed so that the Files/Folders view again shows hidden volumes for imaging jobs on R2
  • BackupAssist Restore Console:
    • Multiple fixes for system state restore on Windows 7 and XP systems, using file rep and zip jobs
    • Multiple fixes and enhancements to Mailbox restores, including:
      • The ability to choose/change the destination mailbox(es) when migrating from one server to another
      • Fixed bug where duplicates are sometimes restored for pre-existing items
      • Fixed datetime representation error when showing mailboxes for an “all time” backup
      • New Mailbox restore option allowing automatic finding and copying of the relevant backup pst files to a single directory, simplifying search and restore of individual mail items
      • Mailbox backups no longer redundantly store the pst files in the catalogue, removing potentially confusing restore options
      • Outstanding issue: Public Folder restores can still fail, fix in progress
      • Fixed exception when restoring mailboxes to an alternate server in some cases
      • Hide the redundant “alternate source” option for mailbox restores
    • Multiple other minor fixes
  • Misc:
    • HyperV Granular Restore Console - mounting of backups on non-NTFS locations, eg. most NAS devices, is now supported
    • The Backup User Identity screen now warns users if the BackupAssist Service account has been changed from “system”
    • EULA changed to include license info for rsync, rsyncrypto, openssl and argtable2 (used in Rsync engine)
6.0.0b3
June 7, 2010
Mailbox
  • Important: fix for "pst not found" issue
  • Important: fix for "null reference" exceptions due to incorrect Public Folder handling
  • New: upgrade ability for exbackup
Rsync
  • New: Obfuscation of file and folder names in encrypted rsync backups
Zip
  • Important: fix bug causing the zip process to run slowly
  • Enhanced: restore of incremental and differential zip backups will now retrieve files from previous incremental/full backups if necessary.
Imaging
  • Enhanced: now generate a summary catalogue for intra day backups, for use in the BackupAssist Restore Console (previously only done for the last run of the day)
  • Fixed: error message for restores when running on older Windows versions without UAC
BackupAssist Restore Console
  • New: now supports restore of system state on Server 2003 and XP machines (file replication and zip)
  • Important: Mailbox restore changes
  • Fixed bug during selection of Alternate Server for restore
  • Fixed bug in handling of Public Folder backups
  • Enhance descriptions for restore tasks, and show an error if BackupAssist can't find a matching destination mailbox
  • Hide as-yet-not-implemented restore option (restore of psts to specific folder)
Hyper-V Granular Restore Console
  • Important: fixed bug causing validation to incorrectly occur prior to the mount
  • Fixed: avoid spurious error message when running on older Windows versions without UAC
V6 upgrade
  • Important: fixed bug causing failure in upgrading settings from v5 to v6
  • Change several outstanding v4/v5 text references to v6
6.0.0b2
May 17, 2010
  • New: Rsync improvements - Beta 2 is our first step towards a “cloud ready” rsync solution:
    • The changes are intended to support secure, efficient and hosting-friendly rsync backups
    • All of the enhancements are client-side only, which means you can use your existing server configuration
    • Fully integrated with the BackupAssist Restore Console for quick and simple restoration
  • Rsync encryption and compression at the server
      • Encryption and file compression are applied before transfer, so your data is safe even during transfers without SSH
      • Retains rsync’s highly efficient bandwidth utilisation (transfer compression)
      • Industry standard encryption keeps your data safe on the server
      • Automatic compression also reduces space usage on the server
  • Rsync support for NTFS streams, including security attributes
      • NTFS data is backed up to the server
      • The data may be optionally encrypted/compressed on the server (see 1. above)
      • Since the NTFS data is stored separately on the server, the core files are available for viewing/use on the server (unless encryption/compression is applied)
    • Watch out for further rsync enhancements in future betas
  • New: Mailbox and Public Folder restores – from PST to Exchange
    • Fully integrated with the BackupAssist Restore Console for fast and easy restores
    • After finding the latest Mailbox job, a new Exchange item is available for selection
    • Simply choose one or more mailboxes or Public Folders to restore, determine the date range to backup, and restore
    • Great for mailbox recovery or even Exchange server migration – just rebuild your server with the desired mailboxes, and then restore
    • All previously exported data for a job is available for restore after your next backup
    • Look out for more flexible migration possibilities in future betas
  • New: Hyper-V Granular Restore Console
    • New guest “save” functionality allows easily re-creating or migrating a guest from a host backup – automatically merges in any Hyper-V snapshot data into base vhd files ready for re-use
  • Plus all of the enhancements and bugfixes that went into the latest 5.4.6 maintenance release:
    • Mailbox:
      • Important: Fix for issue with “ANSI PST using Exchange” problem where pst files may not be updated in some cases, including a recovery UI on initial run of console after upgrade
      • New: Full support for Exchange 2010
        • NOTE: For Unicode PST backups, 64bit Outlook 2010 is not supported, but 32bit versions of Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 are supported
        • NOTE: For ANSI PST backups, you will need to upgrade to the latest version of Exchange 2007 MAPI, and you can do this with the BackupAssist Console (Exchange 2010 is not supported when using MAPI from the Exchange 2003 Management Tools)
      • Fix the process’s execution environment so that MAPI loads properly in more scenarios (should avoid MAPI_E_NOT_INITIALIZED errors and possibly even MAPI_E_UNCONFIGURED)
      • Multiple mapi configuration errors are now detected and fixed automatically in the mapisvc.inf file (eg. “item not found” and MAPI_E_NOT_FOUND)
      • NOTE: in UAC environments this may require temporarily allowing edits to the mapisvc.inf file in the system32 dir (syswow64 on 64bit machines)
      • Automatically remove invalid characters when building the .pst path and filename
      • New facility to automatically upgrade to the latest version of the Exchange 2007 MAPI client from within BackupAssist
      • Diagnose the “ambiguous name” error when Backup User Identity has a mailbox “alias” or “display name” that is similar to another mailbox(es), along with several other common problems
      • Several Public Folder backup fixes
      • Note: if BA1893 errors are encountered (fatal crash), you will need to upgrade to the latest version of Exchange 2007 MAPI, which you can do with the BackupAssist Console
      • Fixed scheduling bug preventing Mailbox jobs from being run manually after midnight (also fixes this for SQL jobs)
      • Improved Exchange MAPI version number reporting
      • The plain text report is now output using current globalization settings
    • Rsync:
      • Fix UI issue when switching between ssh configuration and rsync options for "rsync daemon over ssh tunnel"
      • Fix UI issue after changing the tunnel settings for “rsync daemon over ssh tunnel”
      • 6885: Escape parentheses in paths when sending to remote rsync to avoid interpretation by the shell.
      • 6914: Fix bug that could prevent SSH tunnel being closed down correctly if user cancelled the "Test Connection" dialogue when using rsync daemon over ssh tunnel.
      • 6914: Fix bug which was preventing restore when using rsync daemon over ssh tunnel.
      • 6628: Seeding will now work with server core (there's a text box available in addition to the browse button)
    • Zip:
      • 6777: Fix “hanging” issue preventing the backup from ever completing
      • 6805: Report a specific condition if a tape drive cannot be set up because the BUI is not an Administrator
      • 6718: Fix a specific exception when run out of disk space at the point of writing the central directory
      • 6887: Handle scenarios where the VSS snapshot fails, like when 3rd party snapshot utilities are preventing VSS from running
      • 7153: Fix tape restores to report failure instead of success, for some tape issues
    • Imaging:
      • 6901: Imaging: fix bug which would cause selection check to fail when backing up volumes with no drive letter assigned.
      • 6898: Imaging: disable file/folder and system state selections for NAS destinations on 2008R2.  They are not supported by wbadmin.
    • CMC:
      • 6888: Improve the message logged for CMC failures that can be caused by some security software blocking the relevant web requests (was showing “incorrect format” exception)
      • Decrease the size of the backup reports sent to CMC, to avoid hitting size limitations on the server
    • Hyper-V Granular Restore Console:
      • By default only show the most recent backups. The remainder can be searched with a single click
      • Added a progress bar during the mounting process
      • In the “select partition” form, don’t allow OK to be pressed unless a partition has been selected
    • Installer: now supported on systems running .Net Framework v4.0
    • Other fixes:
      • 6802: Drives such as RDX and CD now show up for selection in the FilesAndFolders area
      • 6832: Backup catalogue: fix race condition that could potentially cause the incorrect data to be written to the backup catalogue
      • 6894: Prevent some vss problems from affecting the backup
      • 6843: Fixed null ref in GlobalPrinterList
      • 6793: Preventing progress bar from causing exceptions based on value
      • 6643: Fixed possible index out of bounds error in NASOptionsControl
      • Fix for the Exchange consistency check on Exchange 2003 servers: the “/i” parameter is now included properly on the eseutil command line when checking edb files (this prevents stm files from being checked in conjunction with edb files, which would only ever pass after a clean shutdown)
      • Prevent “inner classes aren’t supported” error message from appearing in the log
      • The console now allows additional time for the service to start after an install or upgrade
6.0.0b1
March 9, 2010
  • Full Incremental, Differential and Copy backup support in ZIP jobs
  • File and folder restore from Image backups using the BackupAssist Restore Console
  • System State backup and restore for File Replication and ZIP jobs
  • VSS application backup and restore for File Replication, ZIP, Rsync and Imaging jobs.
5.4.0b3
December 23, 2009
  • Support for multiple partitions in a single VHD
  • Running the Hyper-V Granular Restore Console requires elevated rights
  • Support for running the restore console as a non-default administrator
  • SATA support for non-hot-swap SATA controllers - correctly removes the drive after the backup; improved media preparation
5.4.0b2
December 14, 2009
  • Fixed a common exception while adding Exchange servers. This most often occurred when the BackupAssist machine was not on a domain.
5.4.0b1
December 11, 2009

Hyper-V

  • Fix major bugs causing phantom drive letters and failed mounts.
  • Loads latest view of requested guest drive (in case of hyper-v guest snapshots).
  • Fixed so that the "Detect" button rescans VSS properly.
  • Fixed so that the backup times displayed are in local time (not UTC).
  • Server Core and Hyper-V Core machines no longer attempt to call the WIndows restore GUI ? instead they are prompted to enter wbadmin /? at the console.

Intra Day

  • Imaging jobs now support scheduling to run multiple times per day.

Blu Ray

  • Blu-Ray drives are now supported on 2008 R2 and Windows 7.
  • Fix Blu-Ray "erase" (applies to all rewritables).

Imaging

  • Added up-front detection of wbadmin, and an inbuilt installer for Windows Server Backup.
  • The Hyper-V UI now shows a loading message while it's searching for Hyper-V guests.
  • Added a button to automatically select all drives required to backup all Hyper-V guests (not available on Server 2008 R2).
  • If any Hyper-V guests require a drive that is currently not selected, they are shown at the top of the guest list.
  • Volume selection now warns the user when they select a volume greater than ~2TB (Windows has limited support for these).

EBS Addin

  • Fixed broken addin registration.
  • - fixed icon exception during Refresh.

SQL Transactional

  • Fixed bug causing invalid historical reports from showing in the reports list after a service restart.

Other

  • Zip: improve error handling during compression and report missed files as skipped.
  • Zip: improve robustness of memory handling.
  • Improved error handling in restore console.
  • Remove invalid options from ntbackup jobs.
  • Fixed a couple of rare exceptions in the UI, including one that occurred when in Prepare Media.