NAKIVO Backup & Replication Reviews

We are using this solution for backing up and replicating virtual machines.

We have a small environment with two hosts. Both of them are Levono servers with ESXi 6.5 U2 and fifteen virtual machines. All of the VMs are Windows and we have file, SQL, and Exchange servers.

Nakivo has enabled me to concentrate on other tasks without worrying about the daily backups. It has given us more confidence in the infrastructure thanks to the replication. The virtual machines are fundamental for the daily functioning of the company, so a failure would have a very damaging impact, and incur a great economic cost.

The quick and easy setup of the virtual appliance made it simple and fast to deploy.

The interface is easy to understand and it gets the job done with a clean GUI.

Efficient deduplication and compression.

It is fast, simple, powerful, and has a price without competition.

I would like to have the option of creating a subfolder per job in the backup repository because we had an issue where some files were corrupted and we lost the backup of the majority of the VMs.

I would like a clearer log of errors. I enabled the schedule for space reclamation on the repository, but after one day I found that the repository was detached and the GUI didn’t give a status of the scheduled task.

We didn't have a different backup solution for virtual environments.

I advise that this is the best product for medium or small environments according to my
cost-benefit analysis.

I tested Veeam, but I ultimately chose Nakivo because of the difference in cost.

We have a new VMware vSphere Cluster with several Virtual Machines (Windows-based and Linux-based). We needed a new backup solution for those new workloads. I deployed in a second site, a new backup server with a storage SAN directly attached. I deploy NAKIVO B&R in a virtual appliance and with it, I protect all of the inventory of the VMs and save the backups and data in a backup repository with an immutability feature.

At the moment, we don't use Replication, however, I studied this feature. Maybe I will deploy this feature in the future on some new vSphere hosts in a DRP site.

Nakivo's replication feature can permit configuration replicas in a different hardware platform with VMware vSphere. We protect all of our virtual machines in VMware vSphere and secure our data with the immutability feature; our virtual machines are Windows-based and Linux-based. We have SQL Server, IIS, Active Directory Instances, PACS, and File Servers.

The virtual appliance for VMware vSphere is easy to deploy, easy to manage, and we have no need for additional Windows licenses. NAKIVO has an immutability feature that protects our backup data. Nakivo is a backup solution good for the first steps in backup and replication uses cases. It offers low license costs and is very easy to deploy. 

I recommend the Virtual Machine Appliance for all VMware vSphere Infrastructures.

I deployed it to a second site with a new backup server with a storage SAN directly attached. I deploy edNAKIVO B&R in a virtual appliance and with it, I protect all the inventory of the VMs.

They need a better knowledge base with more information about support issues. 

I would like new recovery methods for my VM and live full VM restore overwriting and the ability to restore individual files on the VM (like VMDK, VMX).

I would like it if Nakivo could protect virtual machines with WSFC deployed on VMware (usually SQL Server clusters virtualized). 

I would like to restore my data on a cloud site. I would like a new replication method with zero RTO (better than snapshot replication). 

I would like new features for the backup agent for physical machines.

I've used the solution for one year.

We did previously use a different solution.

Nakivo is good for the first steps in backup and replication. If comes at a low license cost and is very easy to deploy.

We did evaluate other options. 

We use the solution for the backup of VMs and some replication.

We generally use Nakivo to backup in-house VMs. In more mission-critical situations, we also use the replication aspect of the product. This ultimately means that we can just switch on new hardware over to a replicated server at an instant, thus taking a lot of pressure off us in the case of mission-critical operations. It's a huge plus in any IT department. The product's strength is that it is easy to install and very easy to administer. I highly recommend it.

The solution has improved our organization a lot by making the product very easy to install and making it easy to understand its reporting. 

Nakivo has improved our organization largely due to the fact that it is an extremely robust backup system. 

It comes with a replication module that allows us to safeguard mission-critical servers. This has been applied on several sites by us with fantastic results as it becomes a great Plan B in case of a hardware failure or an outage of a primary system.

There is only one criticism and that is when we compared it with other vendors we found that although the backup speed was very fast, the restore speed was slower.

The backup and replication are great. 

We like the comprehensive email notifications with attached reports. This reporting is very very easy to set up and is saved in PDF format, making it extremely simple to both share and organize. A complete history trail can be shown with this product from inception to end of life.

It also has allowed us to replicate such servers as SQL and Exchange which is invaluable in areas of disaster recovery and other SOS situations. In the past, this has been a lifesaver and has even gotten us accolades from one client in particular.

There is a familiar error that pops up and that is a VM error as much as it is a Nakivo error.

It says that the job couldn't calm the VM and restores might be impacted. That error is, to say the least, a bit scary. I have seen this type of error on other backup systems also. I'm not really sure what can be done with VSS writers, et cetera, however, maybe VMware and Nakivo should get together and solve the issue. A reboot of the VM and/or reinstallation of VMware tools nearly always solve the issue on the specified guest.

I've used the solution for a good few years.

The solution is very stable running as an appliance.

The scalability is not an issue and has never been a problem as it runs as an appliance. We simply add more memory and cores, et cetera.

Support is excellent and turnaround time is very good. Nakivo is an exception in this area, in my experience. 

Positive

We use both Acronis and Nakivo.

Once we have installed this once, the learning curve is pretty much over. Its major strength is its ease of install and use.

We self-installed the solution on our client's hosts.

I don't have figures, however, the ROI has to be high.

I'd advise users to check the core/CPU licensing to understand how the licensing is charged.

These products, Acronis and Nakivo, are very similar, however, the replication from Nakivo makes it very attractive.

The simplicity of installation and use is it's strength. I highly recommended it.

Our primary use case is disaster recovery in case of a cyber attack, crypto-virus, etc.

We are using it to back up virtual machines from a VMware ESXi server, and there are individual jobs for every day. It keeps track of the daily changes and backs up only the changed data, which is much smaller than the whole virtual machine.

Nakivo has its own change block tracking. It is available in the free edition of VMware and it's not allowed to be used for backup software, but it's not a problem because Nakivo uses its own method to track changed blocks.

This product has helped to centralize backups and made it easy to recover data.

It can be deployed as an individual virtual machine to the VMware ESXi environment.

It doesn't need a lot of computing power, whether RAM, processor or otherwise.

Its runs silently and has a webpage where we can manage all of our backups. The webpage is clean and fast.

There aren't any major problems and it's easy to update.

There are a lot of options such as sending emails from each job about its status every day.

It manages the repositories well, it can clean space if it's needed, and it has self-healing capabilities.

The most valuable feature is full-VM recovery from ashes. If there is a data loss or a virtual machine in the VMware environment gets corrupted by a cyberattack or storage failure, there is a full consistent backup in the Nakivo backup repository. It can be recovered to the same hardware, or to a brand new VMware ESXi environment in less than half a day, even if there is a lot of data.

We have been covered by this software over the past year, and the recovery has been tested in our production environment. As such, we are satisfied with this solution, even when compared to others.

I would like to see support for backing up from other platforms, such as physical machines.

The mail recovery options could be improved. We used this feature often but it's a bit slow.

Sometimes, the backup speed to the NFS repository that we use in our environment drops from 400 MB/s to 50 MB/s, but it might be a problem in the network, which is something that we're investigating.

We have been using Nakivo for more than one year.

This is a stable solution.

This product is very scalable.

Technical support is helpful.

Prior to Nakivo, we were using Duplicity.

The initial setup is easy.

We set it up ourselves.

This product provides good value for the price.

We evaluated Veeam but opted for Naviko.

This is a product that continuously improves over time.

Our primary use case is to automatically backup our production virtual servers on our dedicated backup storage. As we moved those servers to a new VMware 7 environment, we were looking for a new backup solution. We wanted one that was easy to set up, running on-premises, provides an integration to connect with our active directory, has an intuitive user interface to configure and schedule the backup jobs on our needs, includes a simple way to restore backups, and provides a good price-performance ratio.

The biggest improvement with Nakivo compared to our old open-source backup solution is that we do not need any manual checks to see if the backup runs are completed successfully. This is because we configured automated e-mail notifications. Therefore we will never miss any failed backup jobs and can immediately react to issues.

The easy creation and modification of backup jobs allow us to split the work between more people because the effort for an introduction and training to learn how to use Nakivo is much lower than with other solutions.

The most important feature besides the easy management of the different backup jobs is the automated e-mail notification functionality. It gives us the confidence that whenever an unexpected failure occurs, we will be informed, can check the root cause quickly, and re-run the backup job manually.

We use the Nakivo API to integrate the Nakiov backup solution into our automated server provisioning process, to make sure that every production server gets backed up without any additional manual effort.

As we are using the product for only three months, I don't have any important improvement points that I can mention here. So far, Nakivo backup works fine and does exactly what we are expecting from it.

From an administrator usage perspective, the interface is very intuitive, but maybe the wizard for creating and modifying backup jobs could look a little fancier. I consider this to be only a very small improvement point and it definitely has no impact on the capabilities of the Nakivo backup solution.

We have been using Nakivo for three months.

Nakivo has a good price-performance ratio.

Nakivo Backup and Replication is used to back up mixed virtual and physical machine environments, consisting of multiple VMWare VSphere 6.x virtual machines and a variety of Windows Server, Windows 10, and various Linux release physical machines.

Backups and replicas are stored on local, LAN, and remote WAN physical volumes, as well as local virtual datastores. While our primary recovery scenario has been to recover full virtual and physical machines when problems develop, we have also made extensive use of Nakivo's file and folder recovery options.

Because Nakivo Backup and Replication is very easy to install and maintain, time and resources aren't wasted with installation, management, or use. Since the recovery of both full machines and discrete files and folders is easy to manage, we're able to rapidly respond when machines crash or users delete necessary files and folders.

This not only minimizes our time and expenses but enables our supported clients to bring machines quickly back to service and their end-users to regain access to those necessary files and folders.

Nakivo Backup and Replication's web-based management interface enables intuitive, rapid, and seamless configuration and management of all backup and recovery functionality across the enterprise.

It is not necessary to needlessly waste valuable time and resources figuring out how to configure backup and replication repositories, add source physical and virtual machines to inventory for backup, configure and schedule backups and replications, or recover full machines or granular recovery of specific files and folders.  

While many useful cloud-based improvements and enhancements are added with each release, we would like the ability to do raw metal restores from bootable media. Using an independent bootable media to restore full physical machines would enable physical machines that may be serving as Nakivo Director or Transport machines to be reliably restored to service without undue delay, ensuring that an enterprise's local environment remains intact.

We've been installing and maintaining Nakivo Backup and Replication for the past three years.

Nakivo Backup and Replication is very reliable and relatively fast across the network.

Customer service has proven to be responsive and always capable of helping determine a proper solution to any problems.

I am using Nakivo for backup and replication in both virtual and physical environments. The product is excellent, easy to use, and has a lot of beneficial features. On top of all that, the support team is excellent they will assist from deployment to go-live, and have a great after-deployment support service.

I can say that Using Nakivo Backup and replication adds extra layers of redundancy to my client's environment.

The backup for physical machines and replication for the virtual environment are the most valuable aspects.

They need to add a failover feature to the Essential Pro license in case the environment is a simple virtual environment and the client does not need to upgrade.

We've used the solution for two months.

So far, the application has been very stable and does not require many resources from the existing environment.

Nakivo is very scalable and fits many environments and architectures.

They have a great customer support and service team.

Positive

Prior to Nakivo, I used other solutions, however, due to pricing and license models, I preferred Nakivo.

The initial setup is straightforward.

We implemented the solution in-house and with a vendor team. They were very responsive and knowledgeable. 

Prior to choosing Nakivo, I did evaluate other solutions. I chose Nakivo for many reasons, from pricing to licensing models, to service and support.

We use Nakivo as a great addition to our client's VMware environment for backups. We have multiple clients and were looking for an easy backup solution. We were looking for a product that is easy and simple to use. This product perfectly fit and ended up becoming a mainstay in our portfolio of products that we can't live without. We have had several instances where Nakivo has really shined and helped us to recover from potential issues very quickly. Nakivo hasn't only met those expectations, it's surpassed them!

For our portfolio management services, Nakivo is simply perfect. Our team can react in a really short time if a backup doesn't work correctly. When we need a backup or only some files, it is really easy to restore and fix the problems. It is absolutely a time win and has improved our reaction times. Our clients are very happy and it is perfect that Nakivo runs perfectly with Synology disk drives. 

Our technicians don't want to miss it anymore and if a client doesn't want to backup with Nakivo, then the backup is the client's problem. 

The fact that it works with Synology is a big valuable point. Also, that we can check the functionality of a backup so easily. Cloud integration is valuable because the ability to not only backup locally, but to the cloud, has been a great addition to the already fantastic product. We can save so much time with Nakivo and are very happy that we found it and loved to use it for our solutions. 

Last but not least the support is absololutly perfect. Every time we had a problem they helped us instantly.            

I see two things that could improve:

• The way encryption is currently working could be improved. Currently, it's not possible to encrypt the backup to an NFS share directly. It needs to have the encryption within the Transporter/VM to enable encryption, which isn't optimal. So I'm hoping that in the near future this function will be implemented.
• Sometimes there is strange UI behavior with changes not being saved without any good message as to why.

But those are only small points and they are not very painful. 

We have been using Nakivo for two years.