Changes compared to 24.6.1

New Features​

• Added new “Back up extra system permissions and attributes” option for File and Folders Protected Items

Enhancements​

• Improved the clarity of error messages when data packs are missing from a Storage Vault
• Improved the clarity of error messages when Comet Backup fails to optimize an existing snapshot during a retention pass
• Improved the performance of backup jobs that do not take a filesystem snapshot
• Improved retry behaviour for S3 API requests that fail due to “unexpected EOF” errors

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed an issue where deleted files in a versioned S3 bucket would get undeleted if errors occurred when listing files during a retention pass
• Fixed an issue where installing Comet Backup on a Synology device would cause a warning popup to appear after installation finished successfully
• Fixed an issue where some NTFS volumes could not be recognised as NTFS partitions leading to browsing failure at the time of restore
• Fixed an issue causing Comet Server to crash when a missed backup job is generated from devices with unrecognized timezones
• Fixed an issue with SMB and FTP Storage Vaults overreporting the amount of data downloaded
• Fixed an issue causing Comet Server to crash when attempting to download a DSM 6/7 client installer when Comet Server was installed using the Linux (other) installer
• Fixed an issue with not retrying some types of network error during Reindex or Deep Verify operations
• Fixed an issue with “Hash Mismatch” error messages at the end of a job log if a user profile is being modified frequently
• Fixed an issue with Disk Image backups skipping partitions instead of affected blocks when the underlying hard drive is experiencing CRC errors
• Fixed an issue causing Storage Vault size measurements to be 8x larger against Comet Server Storage Role
• Fixed a Microsoft 365 listing issue where default permissions were receiving 403s from retrieving Site information
• Fixed an issue with restoring files from non-Windows devices to Windows devices when the file name contains a backslash
• Fixed an issue with retention passes on Storage Vaults without Object Lock showing Object Lock specific errors instead of the real retention pass error
• Fixed a cosmetic issue with “failed to list objects with prefix” error messages incorrectly being outputted when an S3-compatible Storage Vault is too busy to be used

Written by Callum Sinclair – Product Engineering Manager.

“What’s New?” is a series of blog posts covering recent changes to Comet in more detail. This article covers the latest changes in Comet Voyager over June 2024. 

There were three Comet releases during June – two in the Voyager release series, plus one update for our Mimas release series.

We’ve landed a few large and exciting features:

Faster Measurement of Storage Vault Sizes​

Enforcing Storage Vault Quotas is an important feature of Comet, providing our Managed Service Providers (MSPs) with the ability to restrict how much data a customer is allowed to back up. This feature offers flexibility to accommodate a wide range of business cases and ensures that resources are used efficiently.

In Comet version 24.6.1 and later, we’ve made a significant enhancement to how we measure the size of stored data in a Storage Vault. This improvement dramatically reduces the time required to start a back up job.

In our test cases, for a Storage Vault with a few terabytes of data stored it would take 10 or more minutes to measure how much data was stored. In Comet 24.6.1 this now takes a few seconds. This change benefits all our customers by enabling faster job initiation, which in turn means that jobs complete quicker.

This improvement not only enhances the user experience by reducing wait times but also optimizes resource usage, allowing our MSPs to provide even better service to their clients. We’re excited about this update and the positive impact it will have on your back up operations.

Software Build Role Tenant Settings​

Software Build Role is a Comet Server feature that is responsible for generating client software installers of Comet. When enabled, it activates the Download Client Software page in the Comet Server web interface.

We have now added the ability to enable or disable the Software Build Role per tenant, providing greater flexibility for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) using Comet. Additionally, we’ve introduced support to configure whether an admin account can change these settings via policy.

These enhancements offer MSPs more control over their software build configurations, allowing for tailored management and improved service offerings.

Constellation Role Memory Improvements​

Constellation Role is a Comet Server feature that provides insight across multiple Comet Servers and is essential tool for automatically removing unused storage. It works by verifying if data in a storage bucket belongs to an active user account on a Comet Server and removes data with no associated user, which can occur if a user is deleted without deleting their stored data.

In older versions of Comet, Constellation Role required a large amount of RAM to perform this function. However, in Comet 24.6.0, we have significantly reduced the RAM usage for Constellation Role, resulting in substantial speed and resource improvements. This means Constellation can prune larger amounts of data faster, and often more reliably.

This has a real benefit for our customers using Cloud Based storage, as removing unused data when it is no longer required is cost effective in the long run.

IP Rate Limiting Added to Comet Server Interface​

To improve the usability of our IP rate limiting controls, we have added the ability to configure them in our Comet Server web interface. Previously this feature was only configureable via directly editing the config file of the Comet Server.

By configuring IP rate limits you can control the maximum bandwidth for IP addresses using regular expressions and set limits in bytes per second. Multiple rules can be defined, creating rate-limiting domains that match incoming requests. Rate limits apply separately to ingress and egress traffic, allowing simultaneous upload and download limits.

IP rate limiting can help maintain consistent performance and fair bandwidth usage across all users, and with our latest Comet release, it is even easier to configure.

Impossible Cloud Webinar​

If you haven’t seen it, check out our recent blog post announcing our Impossible Cloud Integration as well as our joint webinar on Premier Cloud Storage & Backup for Europe’s MSPs on Wednesday, July 17th at 11am CET (Central European Time).

New Charging Model for Hyper-V and VMware Protected Items​

You will notice that Hyper-V and VMware Guests will be charged daily per Protected Item from July.

This updated charging model can lead to a reduction in your overall bill. By charging per day per Protected Item, we align costs more closely with actual usage, potentially lowering your expenses.

We’re committed to continuously improving our services and look forward to delivering even more enhancements in the future. Thank you for your continued support!

We’re proud to announce our partnership with cloud storage provider, Impossible Cloud. As a European-based company, this is a great option for IT Providers with GDPR compliance requirements. All data is securely stored within a European Cloud Provider in top-tier, GDPR-compliant, and ISO-certified data centers, eliminating the need for additional investment in data storage compliance.

Who is Impossible Cloud?​

Impossible Cloud is Europe’s premier cloud storage solution, designed to provide businesses with secure, scalable, and cost-effective data storage.

Their platform features built-in ransomware protection, unlimited hot storage, and 100% S3 API compatibility. Advanced security measures and significant cost savings makes Impossible Cloud an ideal choice for businesses looking to enhance their data storage capabilities.

How the Integration Works​

Comet’s user-friendly integration with Impossible Cloud allows you to easily select Impossible Cloud as your storage solution.

The integration includes Storage Template support for provisioning direct-to-cloud buckets for individual end-users. This feature can use Impossible Cloud’s IAM functionality for end-user support, as well as their partner API for MSPs who are looking to start reselling Impossible Cloud storage.

Object Lock for Protecting Data from Ransomware​

Another great feature we have with Impossible Cloud is Object Lock integration for creating immutable backups. Object Lock puts the data in an immutable state—it’s accessible and usable, but it can’t be changed or deleted. This provides complete defense against ransomware attacks, giving you peace of mind for data stored in the cloud.

Impossible Cloud IAM Storage Template with Object Lock

Cost Savings​

Another aspect that makes Impossible Cloud competitive for IT Providers is their price €7.99 per terabyte per month, with no egress or hidden fees. Impossible Cloud’s has a pay-for-what-you-use pricing structure which is designed to be transparent and predictable. This price is competitive with Wasabi, Backblaze and our own Comet Storage offering, with the benefit of allowing you to pay in Euros if you wish.

More Resources​

Find out more about the Comet Backup and Impossible Cloud partnership in our documentation and on Impossible Cloud’s website.

Webinar​

If you want to learn more about our integration partnership, join us for our joint webinar on Premier Cloud Storage & Backup for Europe’s MSPs on Wednesday, July 17th at 11am CET (Central European Time). If you can’t make it live, you can still register to get the recording sent to you after the webinar.

Changes compared to 24.5.1

Enhancements​

• Updated Microsoft 365 account listing to append “Disabled” attribute to user mailboxes for later informed inclusion at the UI level

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed an issue where Comet would not retry when cleaning up deleted tombstoned file versions from an S3-compatible target causing the job to fail
• Fixed an issue where granular restores are unable to open VMDKs from vSAN and snapshot extents for VMWare Protected Items
• Fixed an error in Microsoft 365 account listing caused when a personal site is missing an associated user
• Fixed an issue with backups being triggered on client upgrade when new the user profile’s LastStartTime had not yet been set
• Fixed an issue with Windows Server 2008 fallback upgrades where the upgrade fails due to support for TLS 1.2 being dropped

Changes compared to 24.6.0

Enhancements​

• Added a new option in the admin account policies that allows top-level admins to grant tenant admins permission to configure Software Build Role settings
• Significantly improved the performance of measuring Storage Vault sizes before a backup job starts

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed an issue causing Comet to occasionally crash when performing a granular restore from an NTFS file system
• Fixed an issue with the impersonating user banner showing incorrectly for direct user SSO logins
• Fixed an issue with Windows Server 2008 fallback upgrades where the upgrade fails due to support for TLS 1.2 being dropped
• Fixed a cosmetic issue where the Tenant name and “Online” status in the User’s page were not distinguishable in the Comet Server web interface

Changes compared to 24.5.1

Enhancements​

• Added more device filtering options when creating a Bulk Upgrade campaign in Comet Server web interface
• Added an option to specify a custom HELO/EHLO hostname when configuring SMTP or MX-Direct email delivery in the Comet Server web interface
• Added support for configuring IP rate limits in the Comet Server web interface
• Added support for configuring backup job bandwidth limits in different units such as KB/s, Kbit/s or Mbit/s from the Comet Server web interface
• Allowed retention passes to safely continue with a warning if Comet is unable to clean up deleted tombstoned file versions from an S3-compatible target
• Updated the MySQL Protected Item to prefer mariadb-dump over mysqldump on Linux devices
• Updated Microsoft 365 account listing to append “Disabled” attribute to user mailboxes for later informed inclusion at the UI level
• Reduced the memory usage when Constellation Role is deleting a very large bucket

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed an issue with Comet leaving temporary files in the Storage Vault if an error occurred when attempting a write when using Storage Role
• Fixed an issue with extra log messages appearing on Linux when locking or unlocking the Comet Backup desktop app user interface
• Fixed an issue with showing invalid restore options for non-Files and Folders backup jobs in the Comet Server web interface if the Protected Item had been deleted
• Fixed an issue with showing invalid restore options for some types of backup jobs in the Comet Backup desktop app
• Fixed an issue where Comet would not retry when cleaning up deleted tombstoned file versions from an S3-compatible target causing the job to fail
• Fixed an issue with OIDC-based authentication on the Comet Server when the tenant hostname, or request hostname, has mixed-case characters
• Fixed an issue with granular restore unable to open VMDKs from vSAN and snapshot extents for VMWare Protected Items
• Fixed an error in Microsoft 365 account listing caused when a personal site is missing an associated user
• Fixed an issue with backups being triggered on client upgrade when new the user profiles LastStartTime had not yet been set
• Fixed an issue causing the DenyConstellationRole permission to be respected by Constellation Role-related API endpoints even if the PreventEditServerSettings permission is not enabled
• Fixed an issue causing the DenyConstellationRole permission to be toggled on when the “Prevent viewing and editing server settings” checkbox is toggled on or off in the Comet Server web interface
• Fixed an issue with a slightly misleading error message when access to Constellation Role-related API endpoints is denied due to restricted admin permissions
• Fixed a cosmetic issue with truncating long page title text in the Comet Server web interface

Written by Callum Sinclair – Product Engineering Manager.

This article covers what’s new in our latest Quarterly release series from March 2024 to May 2024. Read the release notes here.

Comet 24.5.0 Enceladus​

We’re very pleased to announce our latest Quarterly release series – Comet 24.5 Enceladus. This is the the latest entry in our quarterly rollup series, that branches off from our main rolling Voyager development into a fixed target for you to qualify and build your service offering upon.

Enceladus is a moon of Saturn and is named after the giant Enceladus of Greek mythology. There are a few worlds that are thought to have liquid water oceans beneath their frozen shell, but Enceladus sprays its ocean out into space where spacecraft can sample it. From these samples, scientists have determined that Enceladus has most of the chemical ingredients needed for life, and likely has hydrothermal vents releasing hot, mineral-rich water into its ocean. Enceladus is about as wide as Arizona, and it also has the most reflective surface in our solar system. Because it reflects so much sunlight, the surface temperature is extremely cold, about minus 330 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 201 degrees Celsius).

For users coming from the previous 24.2 Mimas quarterly release series, Enceladus adds 6 new features and 38 enhancements. Some of the new features we are excited about are:

• Hyper-V Changed Block Tracking (CBT) support
• Impossible Cloud Storage Templates
• SMB Storage Vaults
• Comet Backup desktop app Protected Item wizard refresh
• Syncro integration
• Server Self Backup enabled by default

The full set of changes can be found in the release notes.

Webinar announcement​

If you’d prefer to watch rather than read, we’re hosting a webinar to discuss this new quarterly release and all the new changes. Please register before we go live on Tuesday 11 June (4pm EDT / 1pm PDT) to catch up on all the latest Comet news with Comet’s CTO, Mason – and as usual, there will be time for a live question-and-answer session at the end of the presentation.

As well as that, we have many more videos available on our YouTube channel, including guides on getting started with Comet, individual features, demonstrations with our technology partners, and webinars for previous quarterly software releases.

Microsoft Office 365 Protected Item Performance Improvements​

Over this month, we have made significant improvements to the backup performance of our Microsoft Office 365 Protected Item. These performance improvements mean the backup job completes faster, as well as reduces the amount of data we need to upload. We expect partners to see Microsoft Office 365 Protected Items finish up to 30 times faster.

Disk Image Drive Letter Selection​

When configuring a Disk Image Protected Item in the Comet Server web interface, it can be difficult to configure when the device is not currently connected to the Comet Server. To help partners configure a Disk Image Protected Item more easily, we have added a new option to select disks to protect by drive letter.

Bulk Upgrade CPU Limits​

Our Bulk Upgrade feature is a great way to keep Comet Backup desktop app installs up to date with the latest version that the Comet Server is running. However, for Comet Servers with many tenants using custom branding, a Bulk Upgrade campaign to upgrade older clients consumed significant CPU time building new client installers quickly.

In Comet 24.3.8 we added a new configuration option to limit the maximum number of CPU cores Comet can use during a Bulk Upgrade campaign. This is a fantastic improvement as it reduces the burden on system resources during a Comet Server upgrade. It also provides a more robust Bulk Upgrade campaign, as Comet Backup desktop app installs can be upgraded without overwhelming the Comet Server’s resources. For more information, you can check out our documentation here.

Windows System Backup Protected Item – Deprecation Notice​

Our Windows System Backup Protected Item is being deprecated. Before we added our Disk Image Protected Item, Windows System Backup Protected Item was a great way to backup and restore entire Windows disks. However, it required spool space (temporary storage) to be able to perform this backup. This means for a 500GB disk, Comet requires an additional 500GB of free space for this Protected Item to work.

Because of this limitation, and how difficult it is to setup, we have always recommended partners use our Disk Image Protected Item. To assist partners through this change, we have built a Windows System Backup to Disk Image conversion tool. For more information, you can see our documentation on the tool here.

We will be removing this Protected Item in November (Comet Release 24.11).

Changes compared to 24.5.0

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed a Comet Server crash that occurred when bulk upgrading Comet Backup clients remotely

Enceladus is the latest entry in our quarterly rollup series. It branches off from our main rolling Voyager development into a fixed target for our partners to qualify and build upon. 

Enceladus is a moon of Saturn and is named after the giant Enceladus of Greek mythology. There are a few worlds that are thought to have liquid water oceans beneath their frozen shell, but Enceladus sprays its ocean out into space where spacecraft can sample it. From these samples, scientists have determined that Enceladus has most of the chemical ingredients needed for life, and likely has hydrothermal vents releasing hot, mineral-rich water into its ocean. Enceladus is about as wide as Arizona, and it also has the most reflective surface in our solar system. Because it reflects so much sunlight, the surface temperature is extremely cold, about minus 330 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 201 degrees Celsius).

As for the software, Comet 24.5.0 Enceladus brings 6 new features and 38 enhancements, including Changed Block Tracking support for Hyper-V and adding Impossible Cloud as a Storage Template provider.

As always for a new quarterly release, there are two changelogs for 24.5.0 Enceladus depending on whether you are coming from the previous quarterly release or the previous Voyager release:

Changes compared to 24.2.3

New Features​

• Added a new restore option to only overwrite existing files if there is a difference in file content already written to the restore location
• Added a new permission for enabling/disabling the ability for an admin account to delete a Storage Vault
• Added new SMB Storage Vault type
• Added Impossible Cloud as a Storage Template provider
• Added new “Latest VM State (Changed Block Tracking)” option for Hyper-V for improved backup performance
• Added support for selecting Windows drives by drive letter when configuring a Disk Image Protected Item

Enhancements​

• Added informational headers to job logs that are exported to CSV (now renamed to Text) or Excel. Previously these headers were only included when exporting to Clipboard
• Added the ability to select which logs are exported from the Server Logs and Job Logs pages in the Comet Server web interface
• Removed Object Lock options from Storage Role in the Comet Server web interface and the Comet Server Service Manager
• Added a warning when starting the Comet Server starts if the Storage Role is detected to be using Object Lock
• Enabled Server Self-Backup by default for new Comet Server installations. This will not affect existing Comet Servers when they are upgraded
• Removed the File column on the Server Logs page on the Comet Server web interface
• Added a Last Message column to the Server Logs page on the Comet Server web interface
• Backup job logs now appear in the Console app on macOS
• Installing the Comet Client on Linux devices no longer echoes password characters to the terminal
• Improved the performance of the Comet Server when a large number of devices resume their live connection
• Added “Account Name” as an additional data column to the Devices page in the Comet Server web interface
• Improved the performance of browsing files and folders for granular restores
• Reduced the amount of data downloaded while browsing files and folders for granular restores
• Improved the performance of simulated granular restores
• Implemented restoration of metadata for files and folders restored during granular restore
• Improved the performance of granular restores when restoring directories containing few files
• Improved error handling when a file or folder fails to restore correctly in granular restores
• Refreshed the UI for the Protected Item wizard in the Comet Backup desktop app
• “After” tasks will now run even for jobs which have been cancelled
• Changed “Job History” on the Comet Server web interface to “Job Logs”
• Added an option to the IAM-Compatible Storage Template to choose between creating buckets or subfolders
• Added an option to the IAM-Compatible Storage Template to support Object Lock
• Added an option to the IAM-Compatible Storage Template to support creating buckets in non-default S3 regions
• Added “days” as a unit to the Object Lock settings field when configuring a Storage Vault with Object Lock in the Comet Server web interface
• Improved load performance of Server Logs page on the Comet Server web interface
• Added retrying for intermittent errors that occur when restoring data to UNC paths
• Added the ability to configure SQL timeouts for MSSQL restores
• Improved error message output for when a Hyper-V backup fails due to Hyper-V not being installed on the endpoint
• Added additional threading to single file downloads from Microsoft 365, and added retry logic for when the download URL has expired. Expired URLs can cause 401 errors.
• Added a label in the Comet Server web interface and the Comet Backup desktop app to distinguish if Protected Items are enforced via the policy
• Added the ability to convert Windows System Backup Protected Items to Disk Image Protected Items via the Users tab and Bulk Actions dropdown in the Comet Server web interface
• Improved Microsoft 365 Drive downloads by adding configurable account concurrency and adding concurrency to single file downloads
• Added configuration to the Comet Server to set the maximum number of CPU cores that are allowed to be used when generating new builds of the Comet Backup client software
• Added a new environment variable (COMETD_TMPDIR) to allow configuration of the temp directory used by the Comet Server when running in Linux

Changes compared to 24.3.9

Enhancements​

• Added Object Lock support to the Impossible Cloud Partner API Storage Template
• Added the ability to specify MIME types and content in custom remote bucket Storage Vault templates
• Improved Microsoft 365 account listing to handle uniqueness when multiple resources have the same display name
• Improved Microsoft 365 account listing to check and delist accounts that are not allowed to be accessed via Graph API

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed an issue on the Comet Server web interface causing contrast issues for download icons in dark mode

Changes compared to 24.3.8

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed an issue with backup jobs to the il-central-1 AWS region always failing
• Fixed an issue with the Constellation title in the Tenant dialog not showing in the Comet Server web interface
• Fixed an issue with the Comet Server web interface violating the strict CSP policy
• Fixed an issue causing a white background to show on some loading animations when using dark mode in the Comet Server web interface
• Fixed an issue with missing branding images in Comet Backup desktop app for Linux
• Fixed an issue with the message This Storage Vault was unlocked … appearing incorrectly when a backup job was experiencing network issues
• Fixed an issue causing alternate data streams on NTFS metadata files to cause errors during granular restores
• Fixed an issue with invalid filenames when switching from a custom-branded client installer to the pre-built Comet Backup-branded installer
• Fixed an issue with inconsistent validation between configuring custom client branding at the top-level versus for a Tenant’s settings