I want a managed backup solution for PC's used by one person that's not part of a network or company.
In concert with MR, is SM fully capable of backing up an individual standalone laptop that's not part of a network or company, rather it's just one person's laptop?

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uit - 28 March 2022 1:11 PM

I want a managed backup solution for PC's used by one person that's not part of a network or company.
In concert with MR, is SM fully capable of backing up an individual standalone laptop that's not part of a network or company, rather it's just one person's laptop?

Hi,

This does depend on exactly what you want to be able to do with the standalone laptop - all the Site Manager Agent requires to be able to manage a computer is for that computer to be able to make an outgoing network connection to the Site Manager server via IP address - there's no requirement for domains, shared accounts, DNS resolution etc. It can also (with care) be done across VPNs. If you have a valid licensed Reflect install on the same computer, no additional licensing is required for the Agent or Site Manager - just install the Agent alongside Reflect and configure to talk to the Site Manager server.

The drawbacks are that when this connection is not present, the computer will lose it's licensing connection and will not run or backup. This means that an intermittently connected computer would either require standalone Reflect with local scheduling or backups would start when the computer connects to the Site Manager server. Site Manager can monitor, report on, cancel and pause backups from standalone Reflect. 

Kind Regards,

Alex

Macrium Development

See our reviews on

Hi Alex I believe I face a similar issue.
I would like to manage my MR Home installations across my home network. Scanning computers does not work, adding them manually via DNS or IP I can add them, however they will never connect. Is there a guidance in the KB how to set this up in a workgroup enviroment. From the description it should be possible to manage MR home without Agents (MAL) licenses, this was also told to me by Jack if I am not mistaken

+x

 

alQamar - 24 June 2022 9:02 PM

Hi Alex I believe I face a similar issue.
I would like to manage my MR Home installations across my home network. Scanning computers does not work, adding them manually via DNS or IP I can add them, however they will never connect. Is there a guidance in the KB how to set this up in a workgroup enviroment. From the description it should be possible to manage MR home without Agents (MAL) licenses, this was also told to me by Jack if I am not mistaken

Hi,
I can't say for sure what the issue is that you're having, but in general adding a computer in Site Manager makes it available in the computers list - you can add any valid NetBIOS name to this list. Computers will only connect once the Site Manager Agent is installed on them. This can be achieved using the Remote Install option, or if there are network issues preventing this, the MSI files are available in the Site Manager interface (Computers -> More Actions -> Manual Agent Installation).

The Agent will examine your computer and if a valid Reflect installation is present, it will send that information up to the Site Manager server on connection. The Site Manager server will then allow access to that computer without requiring an additional Agent license.

Kind Regards,

Alex

Macrium Development

See our reviews on

Hi Alex, so an agent is needed nevertheless? if MR Home is found by the agent it does not require a MAL license?

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alQamar - 30 June 2022 7:59 PM

Hi Alex, so an agent is needed nevertheless? if MR Home is found by the agent it does not require a MAL license?

Hi,

Yes, the agent is always required - this contains the agent service required to perform comms to the site manager server. The Agent will coexist with standalone Reflect installs quite happily.

You can manage up to 4 home edition Reflect installations in Site Manager with no additional licenses - just install the agent on the computer, set the Site Manager server name/ip in the install and it should all work. If you have more than 4 home edition installs on your network, our support team can help get things working.

Kind Regards,

Alex

Macrium Development

See our reviews on

Hi Alex,
I see. The limit of four is unfortunate. I have more home devices, I hoped to manage there. Thanks for flagging this, so I would rather stay with the current local solution.

+x

 

alQamar - 1 July 2022 3:43 PM

Hi Alex,
I see. The limit of four is unfortunate. I have more home devices, I hoped to manage there. Thanks for flagging this, so I would rather stay with the current local solution.

Hi,
You can have more than 4 home licenses, you will need to contact our support team to enable this and they will be able to enable this.

Kind Regards,

Alex

Macrium Development

See our reviews on

oh that's awesome, but it won't work outside the same VLAN or even other remote networks I guess?
usecase: manage home licenses of my family in one single pane.

+x

 

alQamar - 3 July 2022 3:41 PM

oh that's awesome, but it won't work outside the same VLAN or even other remote networks I guess?
usecase: manage home licenses of my family in one single pane.

To successfully use Site Manager, each agent needs to be able to connect to the management port of the site manager server (port 51515 by default) by name or IP, this is an outgoing connection from the agent. It would be possible to do this over the internet, but although the connection is encrypted, we would recommend against this and use some form of VPN instead. 
You'd also need to make sure that each agent could communicate with whichever repository it backs up to over SMB, as the Agent backs up directly to the repository for speed. This is not relevant if you're leaving the backups as locally scheduled ones in Reflect.

Kind Regards,

Alex

Macrium Development

See our reviews on