Specifications
AegisGrid in facts and figures
In short: AegisGrid backs up Windows and Linux computers, virtual machines on Hyper-V, Proxmox VE and Xen, and Microsoft 365. Data is deduplicated by content, encrypted with AES-256-GCM or ChaCha20-Poly1305 before it is sent, and written to up to eight destinations in one run. The details are below.
Platforms
| Computers backed up | Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022 and 2025; Linux (x86-64, glibc 2.34 or later, tested with Debian 12 and 13, Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 and 10, AlmaLinux 9 and 10, Rocky Linux 9, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 and 16, openSUSE Leap 16) |
|---|---|
| Programs | Agent, restore, job scheduler and updates on Windows and Linux; backup server on Linux; management console and Target console on Windows; web interface for job scheduler and backup server in a current browser; on Linux, setup and updates install missing system packages with apt-get, dnf or zypper if wanted |
| Hyper-V | Whole VMs through a recovery checkpoint, application-consistent through VSS in the guest, change tracking (RCT) for fast follow-up backups |
| Proxmox VE | Proxmox VE 8 and 9; whole VMs with all disks, UEFI variables, vTPM state and configuration; storage LVM, LVM-thin, ZFS, Ceph RBD and qcow2 (directory, NFS, CIFS); short freeze through the QEMU guest agent; fast follow-up backups (CBT) through QEMU dirty bitmaps for all storage types; restore as a new VM, disk by disk or in place |
| Xen | VMs on Xen (xl) with all disks and configuration, with memory if wanted (the restored VM carries on where it stood at the backup); restore as a new VM or in place |
| Microsoft 365 | Exchange Online (mail, calendars, contacts, tasks), OneDrive and SharePoint through Microsoft Graph with your own app registration; restore as an export |
Back up
| Kinds of backup | Files and folders, volumes, partitions, whole disks, images, whole VMs, Microsoft 365 |
|---|---|
| File backup | Up to 64 paths per profile, exclusion patterns and default exclusions; Linux: permissions, owners, times, extended attributes with POSIX ACLs, symbolic and hard links; Windows: attributes, times, owners and NTFS permissions, alternate data streams |
| Consistency | Windows: VSS across all drives involved; Linux: LVM snapshot (ext2/3/4, XFS) or reading live, re-reading files that changed; pre/post hooks for databases and applications |
| Follow-up backups | Unchanged files are taken over from the previous run; Windows reads changes from the USN journal; free space of NTFS and ext2/3/4 and zero areas are not stored; VMs on Hyper-V (RCT) and Proxmox VE (CBT) read only the areas changed since the last backup |
| Deduplication | Content-defined (FastCDC), chunks of 256 KiB on average; across all backups of a store, also between computers and between file, disk and VM backups |
| Chunk IDs | SHA-256, BLAKE3 (default for new stores) or XXH3-128; key-dependent with encryption |
| Compression | zstd (also adaptive), lz4 or none, per chunk |
| Backup chains | None: every version is complete and restorable on its own |
| Interruptions | Resumption always on: after standby or a lost connection in the same run, after power-off or a crash at the next start; only what the destination lacks is sent. Held backups continue at the same point, from the moment of the first start: VMs keep their checkpoint or snapshots, finished disks, sections and files are not read again, on Windows even after a restart |
| Ransomware warning | For file backups: an unusually high share of new, changed or deleted files compared with the last runs, or many typical extensions; the run is marked, a message goes out, older versions stay protected for 30 days by default |
Store and protect
| Destinations | Up to eight in one run: local or USB disk, NAS, your own backup server (also at a second site), AegisGrid cloud storage, S3-compatible object storage |
|---|---|
| S3 object storage | Directly from the agent on Windows and Linux or as a copy of whole stores from the backup server; always encrypted; immutability through S3 Object Lock (governance or compliance); connection check before the first backup |
| Encryption | AES-256-GCM or ChaCha20-Poly1305 per store, on the computer being backed up, before transfer; the key stays with the customer |
| Transfer | TLS with a pinned server certificate, API keys per directory |
| Immutability | WORM storage with a retention lock on the backup server, on S3 through Object Lock; the lock of single backups can be extended |
| Retention | Per destination by days or by generations (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) |
| More copies | Mirroring whole stores to a second location or to S3, export of single backups as an archive for tape or USB disk |
| Check and repair | Check of all stored objects (scrub), repair from a second copy, partial restore of damaged backups |
Restore
| Single files | Search by name across all versions, every version of a file, comparison of two versions; to the original location, to another folder or as a ZIP archive; ticked in the management console |
|---|---|
| Version as a folder | Read-only on Windows (ProjFS) and Linux (FUSE), removed automatically when idle |
| Files from disks and VMs | On Windows and Linux: provide a disk of a disk or VM run read-only, without restoring it; show volumes as folders, take files or a ZIP archive; Windows reads NTFS, ReFS, FAT and exFAT without an additional driver; in the management console with tick boxes |
| Disks and VMs | Every version on its own, in parallel; VMs as a new VM or disk by disk, also straight from the backup server; restore in the background; restore wizard in the management console to the original or another disk, as a VHDX file (Windows) or as a new VM, with the destination checked first; Proxmox and Xen VMs also in place with an earlier version, the previous disks are kept until the restore has succeeded; optionally only differing blocks are written back; after a host has been set up anew, with the old VMID or name and the MAC addresses |
| After the licence ends | Restoring from your own backup servers and destinations remains possible |
Backup server and check restore
| Backup server | Linux; privileged parts separated, data processing under its own unprivileged account; several customers separated, quotas per customer; hold backups and release them again, the computers continue by themselves after the release |
|---|---|
| Jobs | On incoming backups, mirrorings and restores, by schedule and in flows; limits for CPU time, memory and disk access per job; usage measured per customer |
| Check restore | Restore as a test; read-only file system check (ext2/3/4, XFS, Btrfs, vfat, NTFS, LVM in the image) per disk and partition; read every file with a checksum and compare with the last check; signs of ransomware (file type, entropy, extensions, ransom notes) |
| Virus scan | ClamAV, read-only; a finding with the first affected and the last clean backup; signatures also for backup servers without internet access |
| VM start | QEMU/KVM without a network or in an isolated network, dependent VMs in order; check by screen, guest agent or TCP port; report with traffic lights and screenshots |
Operation, evidence and interfaces
| Job scheduler | Linux and Windows service, parallel jobs, schedules as cron or RFC 5545 rule, public holidays per region, time windows, catching up on missed runs, jobs by hand only; pause with continuation at the same point, bandwidth limit; failed jobs retried (number and interval adjustable), a warning when a job has not succeeded for a set time |
|---|---|
| Web interface | Built into job scheduler and backup server, over the same HTTPS API as the consoles; web users with the roles administrator and read only, every request signed, the password never leaves the browser; own certificate possible; five languages, light and dark, also on narrow screens |
| Windows event log | Job scheduler and updates write service start, job and update results with fixed event IDs (source “AegisGrid”) |
| Interfaces | Documented HTTPS APIs for job scheduler and backup server with roles for reading and managing; results by email |
| Evidence | Log as JSON Lines with a SHA-256 chain, daily Ed25519 seal, copy by syslog (RFC 5424, UDP/TCP/TLS) or to a second backup server, export as CSV/JSON, signed monthly report as PDF |
| Updates | Ed25519-signed, self-test before switching over, automatic return to the previous version on an error, staged rollout possible; running backups are held for the length of a job scheduler or backup server update and continued afterwards |
| Languages | Programs, consoles, messages, emails and reports in English, German, Spanish, French and Croatian; every message with a fixed number |
| Manual | Online manual in English and German with search; F1 in the consoles and the setup opens it at the matching section |
| Provider | MSD Computersysteme GmbH, Germany; development and support in Germany |
Terms such as deduplication, WORM or check restore are explained in the glossary. What has been added recently is listed under What's new in AegisGrid.
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