Components

Agents

Agents are applications that perform data backup, recovery, and other operations on the machines managed by Acronis Cyber Protect.

Agent for Windows is installed along with Agent for Exchange, Agent for SQL, Agent for Active Directory, and Agent for Oracle. If you install, for example, Agent for SQL, you also will be able to back up the entire machine where the agent is installed.

Some agents can be installed only on machines with specific roles or applications, for example, Agent for Hyper-V is installed on machines running the Hyper-V role, Agent for SQL – on machines running SQL databases, Agent for Exchange – on machines running the Mailbox role of Microsoft Exchange Server, and Agent for Active Directory – on domain controllers.

Choose an agent, depending on what you are going to back up. The following table summarizes the information, to help you decide.

What are you going to back up?	Which agent to install?	Where to install it?	Agent availability
			On-premises	Cloud
Physical machines
Disks, volumes, and files on physical machines running Windows	Agent for Windows	On the machine that will be backed up.	+	+
Disks, volumes, and files on physical machines running Linux	Agent for Linux		+	+
Disks, volumes, and files on physical machines running macOS	Agent for Mac		+	+
Applications
SQL databases	Agent for SQL	On the machine running Microsoft SQL Server.	+	+
Exchange databases and mailboxes	Agent for Exchange	On the machine running the Mailbox role of Microsoft Exchange Server.* If only mailbox backup is required, the agent can be installed on any Windows machine that has network access to the machine running the Client Access role of Microsoft Exchange Server.	+	+ No mailbox backup
Microsoft 365 mailboxes	Agent for Office 365	On a Windows machine that is connected to the Internet.	+	+
Machines running Active Directory Domain Services	Agent for Active Directory	On the domain controller.	+	+
Machines running Oracle Database	Agent for Oracle	On the machine running Oracle Database.	+	-
Virtual machines
VMware ESXi virtual machines	Agent for VMware (Windows)	On a Windows machine that has network access to vCenter Server and to the virtual machine storage.**	+	+
	Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance)	On the ESXi host.	+	+
Hyper-V virtual machines	Agent for Hyper-V	On the Hyper-V host.	+	+
Scale Computing HC3 virtual machines	Agent for Scale Computing HC3	On the Scale Computing HC3 host.	+	+
Virtual machines hosted on Windows Azure	The same as for physical machines***	On the machine that will be backed up.	+	+
Virtual machines hosted on Amazon EC2			+	+
Citrix XenServer virtual machines			+****	+
Red Hat Virtualization (RHV/RHEV) virtual machines
Kernel-based Virtual Machines (KVM)
Oracle virtual machines
Nutanix AHV virtual machines
Mobile devices
Mobile devices running Android	Mobile app for Android	On the mobile device that will be backed up.	-	+
Mobile devices running iOS	Mobile app for iOS		-	+

*During the installation, Agent for Exchange checks for enough free space on the machine where it will run. Free space equal to 15 percent of the biggest Exchange database is temporarily needed during a granular recovery.

**If your ESXi uses a SAN attached storage, install the agent on a machine connected to the same SAN. The agent will back up the virtual machines directly from the storage rather than via the ESXi host and LAN. For detailed instructions, refer to "LAN-free backup".

***A virtual machine is considered virtual if it is backed up by an external agent. If an agent is installed in the guest system, the backup and recovery operations are the same as with a physical machine. Nevertheless, the machine is counted as virtual when you set quotas for the number of machines in a cloud deployment.

****With an Acronis Cyber Protect Advanced Virtual Host license, these virtual machines are considered as virtual (per host licensing is used). With an Acronis Cyber Protect Virtual Host license, these machines are considered as physical (per machine licensing is used).

Other components

Component	Function	Where to install it?	Availability
			On-premises	Cloud
Management Server	Management Server is the central point for managing all of your backups. With the on-premise deployment, it is installed in your local network. It manages the agents and provides the web interface to users.	On a machine running Windows or Linux.	+	-
Components for Remote Installation	Saves agent installation packages to a local folder.	On the Windows machine running the management server.	+	-
Scan Service	Optional component that enables antimalware scan of backups in a cloud storage, or in a local or network folder. Scan Service requires Microsoft SQL Server or PostgreSQL database. It is not compatible with the default SQLite database that the management server uses.	On the Windows or Linux machine running the management server.	+	-
Bootable Media Builder	Creates bootable media.	On a machine running Windows or Linux.	+	-
Command-Line Tool	Supports the command-line interface with the acrocmd utility. acrocmd does not contain any tools that physically execute the commands. It only provides the command-line interface to Cyber Protect components - agents and the management server.	On a machine running Windows, Linux, or macOS.	+	+
Acronis Cyber Protect 15 Monitor	Provides graphical user interface for Agent for Windows and Agent for Mac. It shows information about the protection status of the machine on which the agent is installed, and allows its users to configure the backup encryption and proxy server settings. In Windows, Acronis Cyber Protect 15 Monitor requires that Agent for Windows is installed on the same machine.	On a machine running Windows or macOS.	+	+
Storage Node	Stores backups. It is required for cataloging and deduplication. Storage Node requires that Agent for Windows is installed on the same machine.	On a machine running Windows.	+	-
Catalog Service	Performs cataloging of backups on storage nodes.	On a machine running Windows.	+	-
PXE Server	Enables booting machines into bootable media through the network.	On a machine running Windows.	+	-