ShadowXafe Comprises
• Support for both Hyper-V and VMware environments.
• OneSystem - OneSystem is the central interface for ShadowXafe.
• The Protection Environment - The Protection Environment includes the hosts, clusters, virtual and
physical machines that you want to protect.
• Storage - The Storage is where your backups are located (Storage name, site, and path). You can
select or define these storage types: NFS, iSCSI, SMB, or StorageCraft Cloud.
• Policies - Policies define the snapshot frequency, storage destination, Retention settings, and
replication targets.
Deployment Details and Requirements
Ports
• Private OneSystem uses ports 40049 through 40057 (control).
• ShadowXafe Service Leader and OneXafe Solo use port 40051* (data).
• OneSystem uses port 443 (SSL).
*You only need to use port 40051 on a remote ShadowXafe Service Leader (or Solo 300) in another offsite
datacenter if you are trying to send data to the remote Service Leader (or Solo). For example, this port needs to
be open on a remote machine or device if you will be replicating to that remote machine.
All Systems
• ShadowXafe can use NFS, SMB, and iSCSI as primary storage destinations. The StorageCraft Cloud
can be used as optional secondary storage.
• StorageCraft suggests reducing the size of the images before backing them up. This includes deleting
unnecessary data from within the images.
Hyper-V
• StorageCraft Agent MSI (same MSI as described above) also used for deploying OneSystem and
Service Nodes on Hyper-V, and agents on Hyper-V.
VMware
• StorageCraft Deployment Tool ISO - used for deploying OneSystem and Service nodes on VMware.
Service nodes can also deploy to free ESXi.
• StorageCraft Agent MSI - for installing agents on VMware. The agent can also be used for backup
and full restore.
•
Requirements
For Hyper-V
Deployment to Hyper-V Concepts and Best Practices
• Deploy OneSystem (run the Agent MSI) on the Hyper-V host.
• Deploy OneSystem only once for your network.
• Find the IP address for OneSystem under the Networking tab of the Hyper-V manager.
• Use a static IP address for OneSystem (the director) to prevent loss of communication between
OneSystem and the nodes.
• Deploy as many Service Node-agents per host as needed. You must include the IP address of the
OneSystem VM for each Service Node.
• Use [Link] as the loopback for OneSystem. Use OneSystem's real IP address when you configure
each Service Node deployment.
Supported Operating Systems and Requirements
Hyper-V Backup
Host-based - Supported Operating Systems and Requirements
ShadowXafe supports only 64-bit Agent operating systems.
• Windows Server 2019 x64
• Windows Server 2016 x64
• Windows 10 Pro (build 1803 or newer)
Note: Windows Server 2012 R2 x64 is not supported for Host-based backups.
For VMware
• ESXi or vCenter environment.
• ESXi version 6.0 or newer for Hosts and Virtual Machines (VMs).
• System Requirements for deploying ShadowXafe:
o At least one Network Interface Card
o 10 GB free on the datastore
• Supported Browsers: Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
• vCenter must support clustering if you want to use VirtualBoot.
Processors and Memory
• OneSystem - ShadowXafe automatically configures 4 processors and 16 GB of RAM for OneSystem
during deployment. You can increase these values for the machine if needed.
• Service Node - ShadowXafe also automatically configures 2 processors and 4 GB of RAM for
Service Nodes during deployment. You can increase these values for the machine if needed.
Limitations
• Do not use root as the admin account username for the ShadowXafe appliance.
• RDM disks are only supported via agent based protection.
• ShadowXafe connects with SMB 2.1.
o SMB 1.0 and 2.0 servers cannot be used as storage targets.
o Some NAS devices require SMB 3 to be enabled in order to enable 2.1
• APFS, LVM, ReFS, XFS, and Windows Dynamic disks cannot be used for file and folder recovery.
• Cannot use Windows Server Cluster Shared Volumes.
• Additional steps are required to virtualize EFI machines in the cloud.
• The Windows Agent for ShadowXafe does not protect dynamic disks. For example, a spanned volume
on a Windows Agent can't be protected.
Not Supported
• Backups on ESXi version 5.5 or older.
• EBR is not supported for agent based backups.
ShadowXafe Agent Windows Support
Note: ShadowXafe supports only 64-bit Agent operating systems. The Windows Agent MSI blocks
installation on 32-bit operating systems.
• Windows Server 2019, 2016, 2012, 2012 R2, 2008 R2
• Windows 10 and Windows 7 (64-bit)
Note: Secure Boot on Windows 7 is not supported.