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Install and Manage the Agent on Windows Servers

Install and Manage the Agent on Windows Servers

If the Windows firewall is active upon installing the Backup agent, you need to add a rule in the firewall to open the port 50051 for communication with the IBM Cloud® Backup and Recovery nodes. For more information, see Manage Firewall Ports.

Backup agent Component Requirements

Refer to the following table to determine which components to install with the agent service for the server type you want to register/protect.

Server Install Volume CBT Install File System CBT
Physical Server without MS SQL Yes
(allows incremental backup)		 No
Physical Server with MS SQL Yes
(allows incremental backup)		 Yes
(allows file-based SQL backup)
MS Exchange Server No Yes
VMware VM (using Installed agent) with MS SQL No No

Download and Install the Agent

Because of weaknesses in the SHA-1 algorithm and to align to industry standards, starting from the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery version 6.7 onwards, sha1 signing of IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery artifacts is dropped. Windows Agent installer which was previously signed with sha1 and sha256 hashing algorithms is now signed with only sha256 algorithm. Due to this, the legacy OS (Windows 2008 R2) users will notice a warning when installing the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery Windows agent.

To avoid the warning, install sha2 code signing support on the system where you are installing the agent.

This is only a warning, and you can click Run to continue with the installation.

For IBM Cloud Support information, see Physical Servers.

To download and install the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery Windows Agent:

  1. Navigate to Data Protection > Sources.

  2. Click Download Backup agent. Ensure the agent has been downloaded to the appropriate server.

    Note that the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery Windows Agent does not support file path names that are not compliant with UNICODE or UTF-8 encoding. The table below lists the encodings that are not supported.

    Language Locale Windows Code Page
    Simplified Chinese zh_CN 936
    Traditional Chinese. zh_TW 950
    Japanese-SJIS ja_JP 932
    Japanese-EUC ja_JP 20932
    Korean ko_KR 949

    The IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery Windows agent installation may fail even if the encodings are not supported.

  3. As an administrator with local system privileges on that server, run the executable with Run as administrator and complete the installation wizard.

  4. The agent starts automatically.

This installation does not require a restart. You can wait until a normal maintenance window (such as a Patch Tuesday) to restart. However, until you do, some Protection Groups that depend on Volume CBT will run in full backup mode.

Silently Install the Backup agent on Windows Physical Servers

You can install the Windows Backup agent on multiple Windows servers by running the following command in an Administrator CMD shell or Administrator PowerShell. (The servers must have access to the agent file.)

This is the principle method for completing the install with this release of Backup and Recovery. IBM Cloud® is planning a graphical installer in a future release.

<InstallerExeFile> [/type=<onlyagent|volcbt|fscbt|allcbt>] [/log=”<absolute-path-to-log-file>”] [/dir=”<absolute-path-to-install-location>”] [/username=<value> [/password=<value>]] [/verysilent] [/suppressmsgboxes] [/norestart] [/firewallrule=<value>] [/configfile <value>] /deleteconfigfile <value>] [/enforceusecustomcert=<value>] [/customcertstype=<Value>] [/IBM Cloud Backup and Recoverycustomcertpath=<Value>] [/userrootcapath=<path-to-root-ca-cert>] [/usercertchainpath=<path-to-agent-cert>] [/userprivatekeypath=<path-to-private-key-generated-for-agent>]

The default name for <InstallerExeFile> is IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery_Agent_<Version>_Win_x64_Installer.exe.

A sample command is shown below:

Backup_Recovery_Agent_5.0.0.0_Win_x64_Installer.exe /log=”C:\logs\install logs.txt” /verysilent /suppressmsgboxes /norestart /dir=”F:\Backup and Recovery Agent”

The command parameters are described below.

Parameter Description
/type=<onlyagent|fscbt|allcbt|volcbt |onlyagent|volcbtwithsbt|fscbtwithsbt |agentwithsbt> Specifies the type of installation.

* volcbt - Installs the Windows Agent Service and Volume CBT component.

* fscbt - Installs the Windows Agent Service and File System CBT component. This parameter enables incremental backups of Windows Server 2012 R2 or individual databases hosted by MS SQL Server.

* allcbt - Installs the Windows Agent Service, Volume CBT component and File System CBT component. This parameter enables incremental backups of Windows Server 2012 R2 or individual databases hosted by MS SQL Server.

* onlyagent - Installs only the Windows Agent Service and not the Volume CBT or File System CBT components.

* onlyagent- Installs only the Windows Agent Service and not the Volume CBT or File System CBT components.

* volcbtwithsbt- Agent, Volume CBT and Oracle SBT Library

* fscbtwithsbt- Agent, File System CBT and Oracle SBT Library

* allcbtwithsbt- Agent, File System CBT, Volume CBT and Oracle SBT Library

* agentwithsbt- Agent and Oracle SBT Library


The /type parameter is supported only for a fresh installation. It is not supported for upgrades. You cannot add or remove components during an upgrade.

If the volcbt parameter is not specified, volume based backups will always be full. Similarly, if the fscbt parameter is not specified, SQL and exchange file based backups will be full.
/log=”<absolute-path-to-log-file>” Records the events during installation and helps to debug the errors, if any, during the installation process.
/username=<value> [/password=<value>] The IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery Windows Agent Service is installed, by default, in the Local System account. Use these parameters to change the account under which the service will run. Note that the specified user account must have local administrator privileges on the server and should have the Log on as a service right.
/verysilent Suppresses the installation progress window.

If you specify this option during the agent installation, you should review the default values for all the other parameters such as /type, /dir, /username, etc., and explicitly add them with relevant values if the defaults are not acceptable.
/suppressmsgboxes Suppresses any message boxes if /verysilent is specified.
/norestart Prevents the setup from restarting the system following a successful installation, or after a Preparing to Install failure that requests a restart.
/dir=”<absolute-path-to-install-location>” Specifies the directory path in which the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery Windows Agent Service should be installed.

The installer will create the necessary folders if they do not exist. If this parameter is not specified, the system will install the Windows Agent Service in the default directory path: “%SystemDrive%\Program Files\IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery”.
/firewallrule=<yes | no> Specifies whether or not to open Agent port in the firewall. The default value is 'yes'.

The installer creates an inbound rule in the local firewall of the Windows machine for port 50051 and is bound with the Backup agent Service. Any domain policy settings that may negate this effect will have to be handled at the domain policy level. The installer creates rules only in the Windows Firewall application. If any other firewall application is in force on the machine then the user will have to create appropriate rules in the active firewall application.
/configfile <value> Specifies the path to INI file containing credentials for Agent service user account.

If the configfile parameter is not specified, the username and password command line parameters are ignored.
/deleteconfigfile <yes | no> Specifies whether to delete the configfile upon successful installation.
[/enforceusecustomcert=<yes>] Enforce the user to use a custom certificate while installing the agent.

If this is set to YES, then the subsequent fields should have valid values, else the agent will not start.

If the custom certificate is not found then the agent would not start.
[/customcertstype=usercerts|IBM Cloud Backup and Recoverycustomcerts] Specifies the type of custom certificates. Possible values include IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery Custom Certs and User Custom Certs.
[/IBM Cloud Backup and Recoverycustomcertpath=<path-to-agent-certificate-in-IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery-format> To be used only when /customcertstype = IBM Cloud Backup and Recoverycustomcerts.

Specifies the directory path in which the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery custom certificate for the agent is present.
[/userrootcapath=<path-to-root-ca-cert> /usercertchainpath=<path-to-agent-cert> /userprivatekeypath=<path-to-private-key-generated-for-agent>]” To be used only when the /customcertstype = usercerts, then these three parameters should be specified.

On Windows physical servers, the Backup agent logs are stored in C:/programData/IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery/.

Upgrade the Agent on VMware

Windows Agent

IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery recommends using the agent installer when installing the persistent agent. If the persistent agent is manually installed, use the following workaround to upgrade the agent:

  1. Log on to the server from which the persistent agent must be upgraded.

  2. Open an elevated command window, and then stop the earlier persistent agent service:

    net stop IBM Cloud Backup and Recoveryagent

  3. Download the Backup agent installer from the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery UI.

  4. Double-click the installer .exe file to initiate the installation. Follow the installer UI prompts.

  5. Do not choose to install any CBT drivers. Only upgrade the agent binary.

    This procedure upgrades the Backup agent and creates an entry in Control Panel > Uninstall Program.

VMware VMs that are not registered as a source on the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery need to upgrade the installed Backup agent manually.

  1. Download the Backup agent installer from the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery UI.

  2. Double-click the installer .exe file to initiate the installation. Follow the installer UI prompts.

  3. Do not choose to install any CBT drivers. Only upgrade the agent binary.

Upgrade the Windows Agent on a Physical Server

Scheduled upgrades of agents are supported on IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery.

You can use the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery UI to upgrade agents on a physical server.

  1. Navigate to Data Protection > Sources.

  2. If an upgrade is available, click Upgrade Agents.

To upgrade an agent individually, mouse over the corresponding actions menu and click Upgrade Agent.

Auto-upgrade of the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery Windows Agent

IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery upgrade process supports auto-upgrade of the agents running on sources.

The option to auto-upgrade Backup agent is not available on the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery with multi-tenancy configured. The auto-upgrade option is available only during cluster upgrade.

To enable auto-upgrade:

  1. In the IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery UI, navigate to Settings > Update, and select Upgrade tab.
  2. Select the Upgrade Backup agent on all servers in Sources checkbox to upgrade the agents on the source automatically after cluster upgrade.

Uninstall the Agent

The following uninstallation methods are available:

  • Use the Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel and Start Menu shortcuts in Windows versions where it is supported.
  • Use the uninstaller executable. The details of uninstaller executable are available in the registry value "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{99246986-0300-4B21-9A1C-DE278D8EC715}_is1\UninstallString". The default value is "C:\Program Files\IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery\Installer\unins000.exe", assuming C: is the default operating system installation volume and "C:\Program Files\IBM Cloud Backup and Recovery" is the default Backup agent install location.

Preserve registry settings when uninstalling the agent

Uninstalling the Backup agent normally clears registration settings from the registry. You can preserve registration settings in the registry by using the /preservesettings flag when uninstalling from the command line. Preserving registry settings is not supported when uninstalling from the UI.

Sample command:

unins000.exe /preservesettings