ISSUE
Can I use my previous backup solution until the Unitrends has completed it initial Full/Master?
Cause 1: I am concerned about the initial Full/Master backup taking a long time to complete.
Cause 2: I would like to have a second restore option in case the Unitrends becomes unavailable.
RESOLUTION
RESOLUTION 1 (to Cause 1): Unitrends strongly recommends only using one backup solution protects your Clients. If you introduce a second solution, the data backed up will only be accurate during the Full backup, if it is successful at all. As the solution completes its backup, it reports its success to the Microsoft operating system, indicating it success. The success message recieved by Microsoft is what allows it to perform the Archive bit changes and database truncations. The next solution to run a backup will be missing this data, and in the case of Unitrends, it may also read this detail and present an error that something other than Unitrends performed a backup.
RESOLUTION 2 (to Cause 2): You should complement your Unitrends Backup or Recovery-Series Appliance backup with one or more of the following for a fully redundant recovery solution:
1) Backup Copy - Cold (previously known as Archive): This allows you to copy backups from the Unitrends system onto removable media or a NAS, undeduplicated, in a compressed or encrypted format. It can be reloaded onto any Unitrends Solution for restoring onto any similar Client.
2) Backup Copy - Hot (previously known as Replication). This allows for an exact copy of the data on the Source system to be placed onto the Target. After the initial seed process (similar to the first time backup of the source), only the block changes received on the Source for new backups that the Target does not have need to be copied over. The advantage here is that the data is already on the Target system and can be made active as a virtual system in a moments notice with the use of Instant Recovery and/or Reliable DR. The Target has to be another Unitrends system of the same RecoveryOS version or higher, either Physical (Recovery-Series Appliance or UEB on Metal), Virtual (UEB for Virtual Machines), or Unitrends Cloud.