SUMMARY
Answers to common questions about setting up your free 30-day full-feature trial with Unitrends Backup.
ISSUE
The full version of Unitrends with the free 30-day trial is recommended if you are planning on purchasing the product or would like to try out all of the features available in the paid version. This version can be quickly deployed into VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, Nutanix AHV, Amazon AWS, or Microsoft Azure. For more information on supported hypervisors check the compatibility matrix.
The 30-day trial of Unitrends contains all of the enterprise features of the full version for the duration of the trial including the unlimited capacity to backup and restore VMs and physical servers, workstations, NAS devices, and Cisco UCS.
For an installation overview and detailed deployment guides, see this article on Getting Started.
- How do I get support for the 30-day trial?
- How do I register for my 30-day trial?
- What can I protect with the Unitrends 30-day trial?
- How much data can I protect with the 30-day trial?
- What should I use for backup storage?
- What resources are required?
- How can I deploy the 30-day trial?
- What browser should I use to access my appliance?
- Can I convert from the 30-day trial to the paid version?
- Can I convert from the 30-day trial to a Recovery-Series hardware appliance?
How do I get support for the 30-day trial?
Once you register for your 30-day trial you get free Gold-level support for the duration of the trial, which gives you access to our support chat, email support (support@unitrends.com), or telephone support (1-888-374-6124, locally in the UK 800 048 8847 or New Zealand 64800995028.
How do I register for my 30-day trial?
You can register your trial after deployment within the web GUI by navigating to Configure > Appliances, select your appliance, and click Edit, on the popup dialog click on the License tab, then click Update to launch the registration form. The registration form will launch in a new window and pop-up blockers must be disabled, select the "Register my asset" button and fill out the information found there. If you have already purchased the UB you can activate your purchase on this same page instead. Registering for the 30-day trial allows you to access support. Register your 30-day trial now, following Registering a Unitrends Backup.
What can I protect with the Unitrends 30-day trial?
The free 30-day trial has full hypervisor support for backing up and restoring VMware, Hyper-V, XenServer, and AHV VMs at the block level, unlimited agent-based protection of physical and virtual servers, applications such as Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, and Oracle, backup of NAS devices, and protection of Cisco UCS. Additionally, you can make backup copies to another Unitrends appliance, 3rd party cloud such as Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage Standard or Nearline, or Rackspace, attached disk storage, NAS devices, or iSCSI, as well as create replicas of your Windows agent-based backups and VMware VMs to your hypervisor.
How much data can I protect with the 30-day trial?
The free 30-day trial has the ability to protect an unlimited amount of unique data - your only limit is your available storage space! It is recommended that you use the attached disk storage for hypervisor IO stack interaction, size of available disks, expansion possibilities, and the ability to migrate to new hosts or storage; see our best practices for more details.
What should I use for backup storage?
It is recommended that you use attached disk storage for hypervisor IO stack interaction, size of available disks, expansion possibilities, and the ability to migrate to new hosts or storage; however, it is also possible to use NFS, iSCSI, or CIFS (non-Windows) storage and have the Unitrends appliance directly manage that storage. If you choose to connect storage outside of the hypervisor, Unitrends Backup will manage the storage rather than the hypervisor (through attached disks). Since externally connected storage devices receive lower priority than hypervisor-managed storage, it is critical that you use a supported external storage device to ensure optimal data integrity and adequate storage performance. You can find a list of supported external storage vendors and other considerations here. If you need to expand your internal backup storage, follow the procedures To add a disk and expand the storage device.
What resources are required?
A minimum of 2 virtual processors (CPUs), 4 GB of RAM, 100 GB of space for the VM's initial disk, and at least 200 GB of backup storage is required to run the web GUI, however, if you are using the 30-day trial to test backups in a production environment the minimum resources will likely not be sufficient. For production environments, it is recommended that you deploy at least 4 virtual processors (CPUs) and 16 GB of RAM in addition to your initial disk and backup storage. If you need to expand your internal backup storage, follow the procedures To add a disk and expand the storage device.
How can I deploy the 30-day trial?
Before deploying your appliance, make sure to check out our Deployment Best Practices guide to get the most out of your experience. You can always find the latest version of our deployment guides for all the hypervisors we support by visiting our documentation page
What browser should I use to access my appliance?
Both Chrome and Firefox are supported for our web GUI, but Chrome is highly recommended. Internet Explorer is not supported and may have some issues displaying certain items, but some features do work.
Can I convert from the 30-day trial to the paid version?
At any time during the trial you can use an activation code acquired by contacting your Unitrends sales representative, by calling 1-866-359-5411, chat with a Unitrends representative or tell us how to best contact you.
Can I convert from the 30-day trial to a Recovery-Series hardware appliance?
Yes, you can purchase a Recovery-Series appliance and migrate your existing configuration to your new system. Of course, you may keep your existing Unitrends virtual appliance available while using your new Recovery-Series solution. Additionally, you may also connect your Recovery-Series appliance to an offsite Backup copy target to extend your data protection.