Cloud Backup Express

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Cloud Backup Express

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Installation and Configuration Workflow for RFCBx

When installing our RFCBx product, the variety of platforms supported and the differences between how you install and configure each platform can easily result in confusion. As such, please reference this workflow to determine which path you need to take for each platform you deal with.

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Cloud Management Console

Installation Guide for Windows

You can obtain the latest version of the Cloud Management Console on our RFCBx Resources page:

http://rackforce.com/support/rackforce-resources/cloud-backup-resources/

1: Run the Installer

Run the Cloud Management Console by double-clicking on the Installer:

Under Windows Vista/7/8/8.1 you may receive a UAC (User Account Control) prompt when you first try to launch the installer; just accept it.

2: Choose Your Language

Choose the language of your Cloud Management Console:

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3: Move Past the Introductory Screen

Once the main window of the Cloud Management Console Setup Wizard comes up, click “Next”:

4: Choose Your Installation Location

Under most conditions, accept the default installation location and click “Install”:

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5: Complete the Installation

Click “Finish” when the installation is completed:

As you can see from the screenshot above, the Cloud Management Console will launch automatically if you do not un- check the checkbox in the final installation window. If it is the first installation, please follow the link to log into the Cloud Management Console, otherwise it will open the last connection:

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Create Device Accounts

In order to back up devices, you will need to create an account for them through the Cloud Management Console. This account is then used during the Installation and configuration of the Backup Manager on the device being backed up. In this section you will learn how to create a device account prior to installing the Backup Manager.

When you want to start backing up a new device, the Cloud Management Console (CMC) needs to set everything up first before you can install the Backup Manager (BM) on the device in question. The reason for this is that the installation of the BM can only succeed when there is a new entry in the CMC waiting for it to connect. Without this new entry in the CMC, there is nothing for the BM to connect to and its installation will fail.

1. Launch the Add Device Wizard

From within the CMC, go to the menu at the very top of the program, find the drop-down menu named Devices and click on it. Within that menu, near the bottom, click on the “Add Device…” entry.

2. Name and Classify the Device to be Added

The name of the device can only be something very simple – only lower case characters and no spaces. Dashes and dots are allowed, but be careful of any characters not found on a standard US-ANSI keyboard. If a character is not permitted, trying to type it will not succeed.

The type of device is also very important. This will tell the CMC how to connect to the BM so that you can configure and maintain backups on that system.

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3. Record the Resulting Password

At this step, the CMC automatically generates a password. Since with v14 of the CMC, you can reach the BM from within it, you no longer need to remember this password. However, you will need both the device name as well as the

password to install the BM on the device in question.

You now have the option of adding another device (if you have more than one to add), or finishing the process

4: Assign an Encryption Key

An encryption key is a special string of characters that is used to encrypt the data to be backed up before it even leaves the computer being backed up. As such, it is important to have not only a long and secure key, but also one that you can remember. If you lose this key, your backed up data is inaccessible forever! We cannot recover an encryption key, nor can we recover data when the encryption key has been lost.

The string you use is up to you – it can be as simple as a favourite phrase, or it can be a random string generated by an online service such as the GRC Password Generator. Whatever it is, store it carefully, because once you’ve lost it, your backed-up data is gone forever! It is also recommended to use a different encryption key for each device that you set up, so that if one key gets compromised, only the backups of one device is in danger.

5: Store, Save and Secure this Information!

The best thing to do is record this key in a way that it cannot get easily lost or stolen. Some of our clients make use of a password manager such as LastPass or KeePass, others have secure USB drives that they save plain-text files containing their passwords. It is recommended that you save the device name, password and encryption key on at least two separate secured devices or mechanisms, one in a safety deposit box offsite, and the other in a secured location on-site.

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Backup Manager Installation Guides

The Backup Manager is designed to provide a safe and secure IP backup for business and consumer customers. Our software is now more efficient with the introduction of dynamic slicing for Microsoft Office documents and many other popular file formats. At the heart of our solution is data-reduction provided by its client-side data de-duplication

technology, which rapidly reduces the amount of data that needs to be transported over the network and stored for the daily backup. Also, Backup Manager is easy to operate, as it requires no physical handling of backup media and has a simple straightforward user interface.

The next three sections will involve installation guides for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X; in that order.

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Backup Manager Installation Guide for Linux

This guide should provide you with a detailed description of the Backup Manager's installation on Linux. All you need is to follow the instructions given below.

1. Download the Installer onto your Server

You will first need to transfer the installer onto your server.

Go to RackForce’s Resources page for our Cloud Backup solution:

http://rackforce.com/support/rackforce-resources/cloud-backup-resources

and right-click on the appropriate installer (in the vast majority of cases, Linux 64-bit). From the resulting pop-up menu, you should be able to copy the URL that links to the file. The URL will look something like this:

http://rackforce.com/sites/default/files/static/rfcbx-<version number>-linux-x86_64.run For convenience sake, you can paste this into a text file, such as Notepad.

Next, connect to your Linux server via SSH, and once you have logged in, download the file to your server via wget:

# wget http://rackforce.com/sites/default/files/static/rfcbx-<version number>-linux-x86_64.run

(type wget, a space, and then do a right-click inside your ssh client to paste the URL from your clipboard into the window. Which is why we only copied the link from the RackForce downloads page!)

2. Grant Executable Permissions to the Installer

Now you will have to allow the installer to be able to execute on your server:

# chmod +x rfcbx-<version number>-linux-x86_64.run

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3. Install the software

You install software on Linux by putting a dot-forward-slash in front of the file name itself:

# ./rfcbx-<version number>-linux-x86_64.run

Note: If you get a Permission Denied error, it is because your tmp partition is set to noexec, which is A Very Good Thing.

This prevents executable scripts (such as malware, rootkits, worms and other nasty things) from running within your temporary files location, which is what you want on a secure system. In order to get around this, you need to create another temporary directory beside your installer, which will be used only by your installer and which will not have noexec limitations. You can do this like so:

# ./ rfcbx-<version number>-linux-x86_64.run --target rfcbxtemp

From here you will be asked about five different values:

1. The device name 2. The password

3. The encryption method desired (defaulting to AES-256, but AES-128 is just as secure) 4. The encryption key

5. The proxy server (typically empty, just hit the enter key to bypass)

The first, second and fourth values you set up in your Cloud Management Console when you went to add a new device to it, prior to starting this installation.

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4. Enable Remote Connection

Remote Connection needs to be enabled in order for you to be able to launch the Backup Manager through the Cloud Management Console. You can check to see if it is up and running with the following command:

# /opt/IASO/bin/ClientTool control.setting.list

If you see output which has the setting of EnableRemoteConnection with a value of 1, you are good to go!

On the other hand, if the setting has a value of 0, you will need to enter the following command:

# /opt/IASO/bin/ClientTool control.setting.modify -name EnableRemoteConnection -value 1 If you run the first command again, the value should now be set to 1.

5. Start/Restart the Service

Once the software is installed, its service will need to be started. Do so by using:

# service ProcessController start

or on other variants of Linux that diverge from RedHat:

# /etc/init.d/ProcessController start or on variants of BSD:

# /etc/rc.d/ProcessController start Be aware of the capitalization.

If the service has already been started by the installer, it may be a good idea to restart the service, especially if you had to make use of step 4 above.

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Backup Manager Installation Guide for Windows

We hope that our user-friendly interface will help you to easily and successfully go through Backup Manager Installation on a Windows operating system. All you need is to follow the instructions given below.

1: Download the Installer

To start an installation of the program, connect to the Internet with a web browser on the machine to be backed up and download the appropriate Windows installer from our RFCBx Resources page (http://rackforce.com/support/rackforce- resources/cloud-backup-resources).

2: Run the Installer

Once the program has been downloaded to your Downloads directory, run the installer to start the installer. The installer itself is silent, without any options. Once the installer is completed, it will launch the default web browser and bring you to the first page of the web-based configuration wizard.

3: Proceed to the Web-Based Configuration Wizard

Please turn to the web-based configuration wizard later in this manual.

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Backup Manager Installation Guide for Mac OS X

We hope that our user-friendly interface will help you to easily and successfully go through Backup Manager Installation on a Mac OS X operating system. All you need is to follow the instructions given below.

1: Download the Installer

To start an installation of the program, connect to the Internet with a web browser on the machine to be backed up and download the Mac OS X installer from our RFCBx Resources page (http://rackforce.com/support/rackforce-

resources/cloud-backup-resources). Once the program has been downloaded to your Downloads directory, run the installer to start the installation wizard. Follow the step-by-step instructions of the wizard to complete the process.

2: Extract and Launch the Program

When you download the program, it will be saved as a compressed zip file. You should be able to extract the installer by double-clicking on the zip file, whereupon it will extract into the same directory as the zip file. On versions of Mac OS X prior to 10.9, the installer should be able to launch automatically with a simple double-click. However, on versions of Mac OS X 10.9 and above, security can be set on that Mac that prevents any unknown and/or unsigned installers from successfully launching. If you get an error message saying that the installer cannot be opened, you need to go into your System Preferences, and “Allow Applications Downloaded from Anywhere”.

At the very least, you should be seeing this screen:

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3: Install for All Users

There typically is not much of an option here, as the program installs to all users by default:

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4: Accept the Default Install Location

You do have the opportunity to install this application to somewhere other than the Applications folder, but doing so is not advised:

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5: Enter your Administrative Username and Password

This is the username and password for the user account you are currently installing this program under.

6: Accept Incoming Connections

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7: Installation Completed Successfully!

Once the installer is completed, it will launch the default web browser and bring you to the first page of the web-based configuration wizard.

8: Proceed to the Web-Based Configuration Wizard

Please turn to the web-based configuration wizard later in this manual.

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Backup Manager Configuration Wizard for Windows & Mac OS X

Once the installer completes on a Windows or Mac OS X system, the default web browser on that system is launched and you are provided with a web-based configuration wizard. Please follow the steps below to fully set up your Backup Manager and ensure that backups are being completed.

1: Select Language

On the first screen of the Setup Wizard, specify the language of installation and then click “Next”.

2: Proxy Settings

In the Proxy settings screen, choose the appropriate type of proxy server and enter your credentials. Unless you have special network considerations, it is highly likely that you will leave this blank. Then click “Save” to continue the installation.

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3: Providing Access Credentials

On the Access control screen, enter the device name and password that you created for this specific machine (in the Cloud Management Console) in the appropriate fields, and click “Next”.

If the device name or password you have entered is incorrect, you will receive an error message as shown below. Click OK to return to the previous screen and then retype current user name and password.

4: Encryption Method

Specify the encryption method you would like to use for the security of the backed up data and click “Next”. While AES- 256 is the “superior” encryption over AES-128, be aware that it takes about 40% more resources to encrypt, and may slow down backups to an undesirable degree. As well, AES-128 by itself is feasibly uncrackable, so the difference between it and AES-256 is like comparing infinities – the difference in encryption strength is functionally irrelevant.

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5: Security Code

Enter your key in the Security code text field, re-enter the key in the Confirm field. Click Next to proceed.

Note: The security code requires special attention. The code can be any word or sentence of your own choice. Using this secret code, you can encrypt your files with a strong encryption algorithm, therefore keeping your private data secured and protected from an unauthorized access. The most important challenge is finding the best code, the one that you can remember, but that no one else knows or will guess.

If the same machine/device was used earlier and you have entered the right security code, you will get a warning message like the one shown below:

If this is expected, click “Yes” to continue installation.

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6: Schedule Your Backup

You can either schedule your backups to run daily at a fixed time or you can select making a backup each time you shut down your system. If you wish, you can activate both options. Once you have done this, select Next button to proceed to the following step.

7: Report Via eMail

In the E-mail address field, enter the email address if you would like to receive daily reports summarizing all your backup activities. The reports will then be sent to the address you have given. You can fill in two or more emails, which have to be separated with a comma (for example: [email protected],[email protected]). Using the drop-down list, you can also select the frequency at which you want to receive dashboards. Once you have done this, click the “Done”

button to complete the installation process.

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8: Conclusion

Once the installation is completed successfully, you will see the main Backup Manager's screen:

Please also be aware that the Backup Manager administrative interface is no longer meant to be run from the server it is installed on. As of v14, you launch the Backup Manager through your Cloud Management Console. A secure connection is made from the Cloud Management Console on your local machine to the Backup Manager your server, and the administrative interface is piped back through to the web browser on your local machine. As such, if you are doing an upgrade from a pre-14 version, rather than a clean install, please ensure that Accept Remote Connections is enabled under the Preferences tab.

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Cloud Backup Express