How to Set Up and Use HDP for Business

Applicable Products

• HDP for Business
• QuTS hero 6.0.2 and later

Purpose

This tutorial takes you from an empty QNAP NAS to a working backup environment: install HDP for Business, build a site, bring virtual machines and computers under protection, create a protection policy, copy backups off site, and restore and verify them. Each section stands on its own, so you can jump to the task you need.

Prerequisites

• A QNAP NAS running QuTS hero 6.0.2 or later. A mid-to-high-end model is recommended for the Management Server.
• An available storage space with enough free space.
• HDP for PC/VM 2.4.1.871 or later installed on the same NAS.
• Virtualization Station 4.2.0.257 or later, if you plan to use Instant Restore or Backup Verification.
• An administrator account on the NAS.

1. Install HDP for Business

1. Sign in to the NAS as an administrator and open App Center.
2. Search for HDP for Business and click Install.
3. Click Open. The welcome page appears.
4. Click Set up HDP for Business. The setup steps page opens, where you allocate storage and check dependencies before initializing.

Dependency check

Virtualization Station is handled differently: the page only reports whether it is installed and whether the version is sufficient. If it is missing, the options related to Instant Restore are grayed out. You can install it from the guided flow on this page.

Select a storage space

The system creates a shared folder named HDP_Business in the storage space you select. The storage space cannot be changed after initialization, so choose carefully. A storage space is grayed out when it has exceeded its alert threshold or when it is encrypted. If no storage space can be selected, free up space in Storage Manager, and then click Refresh.

HDP for Business never deletes this folder. It remains on the storage space even after you uninstall the app, so your backup data is preserved. To use a different storage space later, delete the HDP_Business folder in Storage Manager first.

Run the initialization

Click Initialize. HDP for Business takes over the existing HDP for PC/VM automatically, without interrupting running backups. Unfinished backups continue after the takeover. When the process completes, the NAS is a Management Server.

2. Build a Site

A site is one Management Server, up to four Backup Servers, and optionally one standby Management Server.

1. On the Management Server, go to Site Management and click Join > Generate Invite Key.
2. Copy the Server URL and the Invite Key, and send them to the administrator of the Backup Server. The key can be used once and expires after five minutes; click Regenerate if it expires.
3. On the Backup Server, go to Site Management and click Join > Join Site.
4. Enter the Management Server URL and the Join Key, then click Join. The page shows This server is managed.

On the Management Server, the device moves through Connecting, Syncing, and Online.

Standby Management Server and switch over

In the Add Failover Server area, select a Backup Server to act as the standby. The system checks whether every Backup Server can reach it, because they connect to it after a switchover. You can still add it when some servers report Unreachable, but those servers may be unmanageable after a switchover.

To hand management control to the standby, use Manage > Switch Over on the Management Server, or the Switch Over area on the standby's own page. Scheduled tasks pause during the process and resume automatically.

Transfer workloads to another Backup Server

To retire or release a Backup Server, click the three-dot action menu in its row on the Site Management page and select Transfer. The workload settings move in bulk to the destination Backup Server, which takes over the backup operations.

3. Add What You Want to Protect

Virtual machines

Virtual machine backup connects to the hypervisor to read the inventory. No agent is installed inside the virtual machines.

1. Go to the Hypervisor page and click Add, then select the platform.
2. Enter the name, host IP address, server port, user name, and password, then click Add.

Connecting a hypervisor only retrieves the inventory. Add the virtual machines as workloads on the Workloads > Virtual Machine page, in one of two ways.

• Select specific virtual machines: click Add, select the source platform on the left, expand the datacenter or host in the Host and Clusters view on the right, select the virtual machines, and click Select.
• Create an auto protection rule: click Auto Protection Rule > Create, then set the rule name, the source inventory folder, the target Backup Server, and the protection policy. Virtual machines added to that folder later are protected automatically.

Windows computers

Physical computers are protected by HDP for Business Agent. On the Physical Device page, click Add, download the installer, and create a Join Key that binds a Backup Server and a policy. Install the agent on the computer and connect it with that key. For the full procedure, see the HDP for Business Agent tutorial.

File servers

A file server is added over SMB on the Workloads > File Server page. Click Add and complete the wizard: connection settings including host, port (445 by default), account, password, and timeout; the source paths and the target Backup Server; the protection policy; and the summary.

4. Create a Protection Policy

Two policies are built in and cannot be deleted: Default Policy, which runs daily at 09:00, and Default Manual Policy, which runs only when you start it. Both keep 30 versions. To create your own:

1. Go to Protection Policy and click Create > Machine Policy.
2. General: enter a unique name and select the policy type. A standard protection policy manages versions by the retention rule; an immutable protection policy prevents backups from being modified or deleted within the retention period and can only be set in days. The type cannot be changed after creation.
3. Backup Settings: set the retention rule — a number of versions (30 by default), a number of days (30 by default), or Smart Versioning — and the schedule, which can be manual or automatic with a minimum interval of five minutes.
4. Advanced Settings: configure the Virtual Machine, Physical Device, and Database tabs as needed. This is also where you select Enable Backup Verification.
5. Backup Copy: optionally copy each backup to remote storage. Set up the remote storage first, as described in section 6.
6. Summary: review and click Create.

5. Run and Monitor Backups

• On a schedule: the policy runs at the time you set.
• Manually: on the workload page, click the Backup icon in that row, or select several workloads and click More > Backup.

Check progress and history on the Activities page, and the health of the whole environment on the Dashboard, where every figure can be clicked to drill down.

6. Copy Backups to Remote Storage

A backup copy keeps a second copy of your backups in remote object storage, so the data survives the loss of the Backup Server. Supported types are QuObjects, myQNAPcloud Object, Amazon S3, Wasabi, and S3 Compatible.

1. Go to Remote Storage, click Add, and select the storage type.
2. Connection: enter the access key and secret key, add the endpoint if the type requires one, and verify the connection.
3. Bucket: select a bucket. Only buckets with Object Lock enabled can be selected, so that backups cannot be modified or deleted.
4. Password: optionally enable password protection for end-to-end encryption, using 8 to 64 characters with uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
5. Summary: review and click Create.

Keep the password safe. If it is lost, the backups in that bucket can never be decrypted or recovered, and the password cannot be changed.

Then open the protection policy, select Enable backup copy on the Backup Copy step, and set the target, the retention, and the schedule.

Recover backups from a bucket

When the versions on a Backup Server are lost, or a new Backup Server takes over an existing bucket, click Import Workloads in that storage's row, select the workloads, and click Import. The result is grouped into Relinked, Updated, and Skipped. A workload imported to a machine other than the original is always Unmanaged: you can restore from it, but you cannot assign a policy to it.

7. Restore

Open Backup Explorer, select a backup version, and click Restore. Then select the restore type.

Instant Restore

Virtualization Station must be installed and initialized on the Backup Server, with at least 2 GB of available memory. The wizard has five steps: General, Convert, Storage, Network, and Summary.

On the Convert step, decide what happens to the restored machine:

Free space required for a conversion: the target storage briefly holds two copies of the disks during the conversion, so make sure the File Location has free space of at least twice the disk size of the virtual machine. The intermediate copy is removed automatically when the conversion finishes.

If you kept the machine as temporary, you can convert it later: on the Activities tab of Backup Explorer, click Convert in that task's row. Tasks already marked Converted no longer offer the action.

8. Verify That Backups Can Boot

With backup verification enabled, HDP for Business starts a temporary virtual machine from each completed backup and records the boot as a video. Virtualization Station must be installed and initialized on the Backup Server, with at least 4 GB of available memory.

1. In the protection policy, on the Advanced Settings step, select Enable Backup Verification on the Virtual Machine or Physical Device tab.
2. Set the Video Duration in seconds. The default is 120 and the range is 30 to 600. Allow enough time for the machine to boot fully.
3. To watch the result, open the workload and go to its Backup Versions tab. The Backup Verification Status column shows the outcome of each version, and you can narrow the list with the Backup Verification Status filter. Open the action menu of a version and select Play Verification Video or Download Verification Video. The same actions are available from Backup Activities.

Backup Activities lists the verification as a task of the type Backup Verification, with the same two actions in its action menu. The dialog shows the workload name and the verified backup time above the player, and the video can be downloaded or opened full screen from the player controls. A video exists only when the verification succeeds.

9. Isolate a Backup Server with AirGap+

AirGap+ creates physical isolation for critical assets by shutting the Backup Server down on a schedule. A device that is powered off cannot be reached over the network, which puts the backups stored on it out of reach of ransomware, insider access, and unauthorized connections.

1. Go to Site Management and click the name of the Backup Server to open its detail page.
2. Open the Airgap+ tab.
3. The weekly grid covers every hour of every day, from 12 AM to 11 PM. Select the hours during which the server is protected. Selected hours are marked Deny all collections, and unselected hours remain No settings applied.
4. Click Apply. The button is enabled only after you change the grid.

During the protection period the Backup Server is shut down, no backup collection runs on it, and it appears as Offline in Site Management. Logs of that device cannot be queried while it is offline, because log queries are forwarded to the device in real time. The Logs page on the Management Server records the applied schedule and the next power-off time.

What's Next

• How to Protect a Windows Computer with HDP for Business Agent