Overview
1. To initially configure an agent, you will log in to the appliance or D2C vault and locate the Agent settings button.
2. You'll then select the agent settings you wish to customize. These setting choices can include basic general settings, as well as backup volumes, compression, FastDelta, number of connections, ignored mount points, clustered shared volumes and local cache preferences.
3. After you complete this initial agent configuration, you can then manage bandwidth throttling, modify the aristos.cfg file, exclude agents from various activities, and troubleshoot common agent issues.
1. Log in to the appliance (or D2C vault) and open the Agent settings
Several core agent configuration settings can be managed from the appliance (or from the vault for Direct-to-Cloud endpoints.)
STEP 1a. Log in to the appliance
STEP 1b. Navigate to the Protected Systems Details page.
STEP 1c. Click the Agent button to open the agent settings control dialog.
Note: If you don’t see the Agent button under the Configure column, make sure your protected system is running agent version 2.30 or newer.
2. Select the agent settings to configure
Several types of agent settings may be controlled using Agent Configuration:
- General Settings
- Advanced Settings
- Local Cache Settings
The toggles on the left determine which settings will be sent to the agent.
Existing settings will be enabled and their values pre-populated in the control.
Important: Disabled settings will be removed from the agent configuration file. Disabling a toggle removes the setting from the agent config file and reverts that setting to its internal default value.
How to configure General agent settings
Within the General Settings section, you can control backup volumes, compression, and FastDelta settings:
Note: If you configured an access password when you installed the agent on the endpoint, you will see a Password field at the bottom of the Agent Configuration page. You must enter that password to save any changes made to settings on the Agent Configuration page.
(If you did not choose to configure an access password during the agent installation on the endpoint, you will not see the password field, and no password is required to save agent configuration changes.)
The following tools are available in the General Settings section:
How to configure Backup volumes settings
Recommended setting: Specify the desired volume(s) to include in this backup
- This field specifies which volumes to include in the backup.
- You can enter comma-separated specific drive letters to be backed up (i.e. C,E,F) or you can opt to set this field to blank, which backs up all volumes.
Note: When Backup Volumes is set to blank, the agent backs up all supported volumes, including potentially unwanted volumes such as external USB drives. We recommend that you specify desired volumes, so the agent captures only those specified volumes. This reduces the risk (for example) of a USB drive being unintentionally added to the backup. (The blank ('all') setting automatically excludes unsupported volumes, Windows container base images, locally attached volumes configured for local cache storage, iSCSI mounted recovery volumes from the appliance, and virtual drives created by Recovery Center.)
How to configure Compression settings
Recommended setting: Disabled on local LAN appliance connection
When to use compression
Typical compression ratio with average Windows data is about 1.5:1, which means that 3GB of data compresses down to about 2GB to be sent over the network. Network speeds below 20Mbps will benefit (have faster backups) with compression enabled. Network speeds over 100Mbps will suffer (take longer to complete backups.) Network speeds in between 20Mbps and 100Mbps may either benefit or suffer, depending on the compressibility of the data and the data compression level chosen. Data compression configuration parameters
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How to configure FastDelta settings
Recommended setting: enabled for large files like SQL or Exchange databases. FastDelta is a proprietary block change detection algorithm that dramatically improves the backup performance of large database applications like Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL. FastDelta is an optimized method for determining block changes to be sent during the backup. Enabling FastDelta can reduce backup times from hours to minutes for larger Exchange and SQL deployments. Because the agent no longer has to scan entire database files to find blocks that have changed since the last backup, it is now able to quickly determine only the changed blocks within the database since the last backup. FastDelta works best when dealing with large files like SQL and Exchange databases. We recommend enabling FastDelta for those types of servers. How to enable/disable FastDelta NOTE: FastDelta is turned OFF by default. To enable FastDelta on any of your Microsoft SQL or Exchange servers which are exhibiting long backup times, perform the following steps: 1. Stop the agent on the protected system. From the Services app on the target machine, stop and disable the agent service. ![]() 2.Navigate to the agent installation folder. ![]() 3. Open the aristos.cfg file with administrative privileges. ![]() 3. In the aristos.cfg file, update USE_FASTDELTA to true. Optionally, you can change USE_FASTDELTA to false if you want to disable it. Save the aristos.cfg file 4. Start the agent service on the protected system ![]() |
NOTE: Remember to save your agent settings when configuration is complete.
How to configure Advanced agent settings
Within the Advanced settings section of the Agent Configuration tool, you can set up the number of conncetions, the number of workers and any ignored mount points:
Number of connections controls how many parallel transmission threads are used when uploading data to the server. This setting is dynamically scaled by default based on the number of CPU cores and generally does not need to be modified. If you are running the agent in Microsoft Azure and experiencing backup disconnections, it may be necessary to reduce the number of connections to keep from over-saturating the NAT gateway. Recommended setting for protected systems running in the Azure cloud is 4. |
Ignored mount points excludes specific volumes that are mounted within another volume. Ordinarily, if you include a drive letter (C: for example), any volume mounted within that volume would automatically be included in the backup. However, if you should need to exclude certain mount points (Terminal Server Profile Disks, for example), you can specify the path to each mount point here, separated by semi-colons. (i.e. C:\Users) |
CSV (Cluster Shared Volumes) By default, support for Microsoft Cluster Shared Volumes is disabled. Use this setting to enable CSV. Enabling CSV provides specific support for backing up Cluster Shared Volumes in a Microsoft Failover Cluster. During each backup, whichever host in the Failover Cluster is the master for a Cluster Shared Volume will perform a backup of the volume. Over time, each host in the cluster will eventually take backups of each volume. Consult the Protected Systems Details page snapshot history for a record of which volumes were backed up by each server over time. For more details about support for Cluster Shared Volumes see this knowledgebase article. |
Remember to save agent settings when configuration is complete.
Note: If you configured an access password when you installed the agent on the endpoint, you will see a Password field at the bottom of the Agent Configuration page. You must enter that password to save any changes.
(If you did not choose to configure an access password during the agent installation on the endpoint, you will not see the password field, and no password is required to save agent configuration changes.)
How to configure Local Cache Settings
When enabled, the Local Cache Settings will generate a repository of block data on a local storage device. This helps accelerate recovery of Direct-to-Cloud endpoints.
Path: Specifying a path enables the local cache settings and designates the location where the data repository will be maintained.
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Username and Password are only required if you are using a network share path. The toggle controls both username and password, since they are required together.
Note: This password is never displayed or stored on the appliance or vault. This password (a) may be updated on the agent by entering a new value or (b) may be deleted by disabling the username and password fields. Remember to save agent settings when configuration is complete. |
Note: If you configured an access password when you installed the agent on the endpoint, you will see a Password field at the bottom of the Agent Configuration page. You must enter that password to save any changes.
(If you did not choose to configure an access password during the agent installation on the endpoint, you will not see the password field, and no password is required to save agent configuration changes.)
3. Manage configuration settings
Now that you have completed initial agent configuration, you can manage other settings:
Manage bandwidth throttling
Warning: Applying changes to the agent configuration while a backup is in progress may cause the running backup to fail. Please read the following information before applying changes to the agent configuration. |
How to manage agent throttling of Direct-to-Cloud network vault traffic
Since we released Direct-to-Cloud, your most frequent request has been for a means to limit the bandwidth of the agent.
Agent 2.27 now supports a new configuration file option NETWORK_MBPS=xx.x.
Adding this setting to the agent configuration file (aristos.cfg) will limit the total network upload speed of the agent during backups. Fractional values in megabits per second are supported. (i.e. NETWORK_MBPS=1.5 etc.)
Note: This article explains how to manage agent throttling of Direct-to-Cloud vault traffic.
For instructions on how to manage throttling the replication traffic between an appliance and a vault, see Replication throttling between an appliance and a vault
How to manage network bandwidth throttling
Agent 2.27 and newer features the capability to set a maximum outbound bandwidth limit and perform throttling of network upload usage. This is useful for Direct-to-Cloud deployments, to ensure that backup traffic does not negatively impact user experience and to prevent the agent from overwhelming the Internet connection.
Agent 2.x
To configure network bandwidth limits for Agent 2.x, modify the aristos.cfg file in the agent installation directory and add the following option:
NETWORK_MBPS=<limit> where <limit> is a whole or fractional numeric value expressed in Megabits per Second (i.e. NETWORK_MBPS=1.5 or NETWORK_MBPS=5, etc.)
Agent 3.x
To configure network bandwidth limits for Agent 3.x, modify the config.json file in the agent installation directory and add the following:
“send_mbps_per_second” : “<limit>” where <limit> is a whole or fractional numeric value expressed in Megabits per Second (i.e. NETWORK_MBPS=1.5 or NETWORK_MBPS=5, etc.)
Optionally, you may specify a separate network bandwidth setting for full backups. If no bandwidth setting is specified for full backups, they will default to the settings applied to Incremental backups above:
“send_mbps_per_second_for_full” : “<limit>” where <limit> is a whole or fractional numeric value expressed in Megabits per Second (i.e. NETWORK_MBPS=1.5 or NETWORK_MBPS=5, etc.)
Agent 3.x Settings Format
Note that Agent 3.x uses a new configuration file format from previous agent releases. Where Agent 2.x and earlier utilized a flat text file containing key names and values, Agent 3.x uses a JSON formatted structure that requires proper syntax to be present when modifying settings.
JSON is a structured format containing one or more keys with associated values. JSON objects contain sets of key/value pairs bracketed within ‘{‘ and ‘}’ characters to denote the beginning and end of the content. Keys and values are separated by ‘:’ and each set is separated by a comma. The value of a key may be another JSON object, allowing for nesting of complex values and objects within the JSON.
As an example, the network bandwidth settings described above would be represented as:
{
“send_mbps_per_second” : “1.5”,
“send_mbps_per_second_for_full” : “5”
}
How to manage disk IO throttling
Disk IO throttling
Agent 2.23 and newer features the ability to limit the maximum Disk IO operations on a per-volume basis during backup operations.
Limiting Disk IO is primarily useful in preventing the agent from impacting user performance during backups, particularly on virtual instances where physical disk storage is shared among multiple virtual systems. For more details on how to use Disk IO throttling, see Agent Simple Disk I/O Throttling.
Note: The <limit> defined below is expressed as a whole number integer in MB/sec (MegaBytes per Second). Limits are per-disk-volume, and data is read in parallel across all protected volumes on the system during a backup.
Note that fractional values are not allowed. Entering a fractional value will cause the setting to be entirely ignored by the agent.
Agent 2.x
To configure Disk IO throttling for Agent 2.x, add the following two values to the aristos.cfg file in the agent installation directory:
MAX_READ_MB_PER_VOLUME=<limit>
and
MAX_READ_MB_PER_VOLUME_FOR_FULL=<limit>
Agent 3.x
To configure Agent 3.x Disk IO throttling, add the following keys to the config.json file in the agent directory:
“max_read_megabytes_per_second_per_volume” : “<limit>
and
“max_read_megabytes_per_second_per_volume_for_full” : “<limit>
How to manage CPU priority
Agent 3.0.0 and newer support setting the CPU priority under which the agent will execute on the protected system.
Note: We do not recommend adjusting this setting unless you are directed to do so by Axcient Support.
To configure this option, edit config.json in the agent installation directory and set the following key:
“cpu_priority” : “<priority>”
<priority> may be one of: “High”, “AboveNormal”, “Normal”, “BelowNormal” , or “Idle”
The default Agent CPU priority value is “BelowNormal”
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Warning: Applying changes to the agent configuration while a backup is in progress may cause the running backup to fail. (For example, if you change the specified backup volumes.)
Modify the aristos.cfg file
You may sometimes need to update agent settings after the installation process.
For example, you might need to update the following details in the aristos.cfg file:
- A list of backup volumes.
- The IP address of the appliance.
How to find and change the aristos.cfg file
Find the aristos.cfg file
The aristos config file is located in one of the following two locations (if the agent was installed in the default location):
- 32-bit Systems: C:\Program Files\Replibit\aristos.cfg
- 64-bit Systems: C:\Program Files (x86)\Replibit\aristos.cfg
Before modifying aristos.cfg, make sure you stop and disable the service or the file will be write protected.
The default configuration is shown below:
1. From the Services app on the target machine, stop and disable the agent service.
2. Navigate to the agent installation folder.
3. Open the aristos.cfg file with administrative privileges.
4. Update settings in the aristos.cfg file.
For example:
Modify volumes to backup
The BACKUP_VOLUMES= line of the config file is an inclusion list. By default, the list will be blank, prompting a backup of all detected NTFS volumes. To set your inclusion list, specify the volumes you would want to back up, separated with commas. Please see the below image for an example:
Modify the number of worker threads
The number of worker threads per processor core is set to 4.
In some cases, you may need to reduce that number by manually specifying the number of threads. To modify the number of worker threads:
- Stop the service
- Open the aristos.cfg file with notepad
- Add the line NUM_WORKERS=X where X is the number of threads
- Save the file
- Start the x360Recoverservice
Note: Lowering the number of worker threads will reduce the speed of the backup. If the backups start overlapping, you may need to increase the time between snapshots
When you are finished, save the file and restart the agent service.
Exclude agent folders from antivirus scans
Modern antivirus solutions (especially heuristic-based solutions like Sentinel One) are highly complex.
Axcient strives to interoperate with all major antivirus vendors, and we perform extensive testing where possible.
But wild and crazy things still happen from time to time.
In the rare event that you need to explicitly exclude your antivirus utility from scanning the x360Recover agent, you may make the following exclusions to your scanning settings.
How to exclude the agent installation folder
Exclude the agent installation folder
The simplest way to exclude the agent from antivirus scanning is to exclude the agent installation folder entirely.
- By default, the agent installation folder is C:\Program Files (x86)\Replibit
- Be aware this location may have been changed during installation.
- The agent installation path can be found in the Windows Registry at HKLM\\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Replibit\Agent
If you wish to make a more targeted exclusion rule, exclude the following files inside the agent installation folder from scanning:
agentservice.exe
efsvss-2003-x64.exe
efsvss-2003-x86.exe
efsvss-2008-r2-x64.exe
efsvss-2008-r2-x86.exe
efsvss-2008-x64.exe
efsvss-2008-x86.exe
FastDelta.exe
ManagementService.exe
uefi-check.exe
UpdaterService.exe
NOTE: You must also exclude the Analysis Tool, which is within a subfolder of the agent installation folder:
AnalysisTool\AnalysisTool.exe
How to exclude AutoVerify / bootVM checks
During the nightly boot check, a communications driver is injected in the system image to create a COM port for communicating between the running VM and the appliance.
On rare occasions, some antivirus scanners block the installation of this driver and prevent Autoverify operations from completing successfully.
To prevent antivirus scanning from interfering with AutoVerify operations, add a scanning exclusion for:
C:\Windows\System32\axcomsvc.exe
Note: This file is not installed into the production environment. It is only deployed temporarily during nightly boot checks within the virtual machine image, and discarded afterward.
Troubleshoot agent issues
If you are experiencing registration issues, please check the following:
- Network connectivity: The agent must be able to communicate with the vault. If networking errors or other issues interfere with this communication process, the agent will not successfully register with the vault.
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Previous installations: The Direct-to-Cloud agent cannot currently be installed over an existing agent. If an agent has been previously installed, it must be uninstalled. You must also delete the existing agent folder
Failure to remove the previous agent files will prevent the Direct-to-Cloud agent from registering with the vault.
- Firewall considerations: The agent needs to communicate outbound on the internet to the vault on the following ports: 443, 9079, 9082, and 9090.
How to use agent orchestration to manage core settings
Warning: Applying changes to the agent configuration while a backup is in progress may cause the running backup to fail. (For example, if you change the specified backup volumes.)
Please review the following information carefully before applying changes to the agent configuration.
Agent orchestration uses the agent's endpoint manager service to update settings on the protected system.
When you click Save to update agent settings, an agent job is created and dispatched to the protected system.
You can monitor the progress of the job on the Jobs> Agent page:
The endpoint manager service on the protected system retrieves the job, applies the specified settings, and restarts the agent service.
The agent then reconnects to the appliance and posts the current settings, updating with any changes just applied.
Note: It can take up to 1 minute for the endpoint manager service to pick up and run the agent configuration job. It may then take up to 2 minutes for the agent service to restart and update the appliance with the new settings.
Remember: Applying changes to the agent configuration while a backup is in progress may cause the running backup to fail.
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