Arkeia Unveils a New Version of its VMware vStorage Agent

Providing the ability to restore a single file or a directory from the backup of a complete Windows or Linux virtual machine, Arkeia Software has released a new version of its VMware vStorage agent.

Arkeia's vStorage Backup Agent for VMware's vSphere 4 family of products reduces the costs and complexity typically associated with backup in virtual environments, the company claims.

Authorized users can now use Arkeia's web user interface to select the file or directories to be restored and to save them either to the original virtual machine, to an alternate virtual machine, or to a physical server, with this upgrade to Arkeia's Backup Agent for vSphere. The Arkeia Network Backup Agent for vSphere utilizes VMware's latest vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP).

“Arkeia's new agent for vStorage lets us further improve the service levels that we offer our customers," reports Guido Dolci, CTO at Sfera Networks, a regional MSP in Italy.  "Arkeia's leverage of VMware's Change Block Tracking already shortened backup windows with block-level incremental backup.  Now, we can reduce time required for granular file restores on both Linux and Windows guest operating systems”

In June 2010, support for VMware's Changed Block Tracking (CBT), essential for fast, incremental image backups, was delivered. Arkeia offers file-grain restore for both Windows and Linux virtual machines, unlike other vStorage solutions. The company also supports both native file systems and file systems positioned on a Linux logical volume manager (LVM). Arkeia's vStorage agent provides backup and recovery support for ESX(i) 3.5 and VMware vSphere 4.0/4.1 (including vCenter) platforms.

In December 2010, the company revealed its vStorage Virtual Appliance used to package the Arkeia vStorage Backup Agent as a virtual appliance. Rapidly deployed on any vSphere hypervisor, the appliance is used to backup other virtual machines on that hypervisor or other vSphere hypervisors. The vStorage Virtual Appliance from Arkeia offered comprehensive support for VMware vSphere 4—any combination of vCenter, ESX, and ESXi—as well as VMware Infrastructure 3. 



Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Raju’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell