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Comet Overview

Comet Software Features

The Comet software is split into multiple roles. It can be considered to be (at least) two separate features;

  • the "Management Console", which is responsible for handling users and logs; and
  • the "Storage Gateway", which is responsible for storing and replicating the raw data.

Management Console used to be known as "Auth Role".

Storage Gateway used to be known as "Storage Role".

This design allows you to scale either, without necessarily scaling the other.

For example, if a user or tenant requires storage in another region, you could run an additional Self-Hosted Storage Gateway while keeping users in the same Management Console.

Alternatively, if your storage capacity is exceeded, you can create an additional physical Storage Gateway installs without needing to duplicate user handling.

In addition to these two, there is also Cluster Manager, used to oversee your backup infrastructure with Comet.

Licensing

Self-Hosted Comet requires network access to lic.cometbackup.com on port number 443.

Serial Numbers & Licenses

This relates to Self-Hosted Comet Only

Your serial number for Comet is used to request a short-term exclusive lease from a central licensing server. Self-Hosted Comet will not start without a valid lease, and no other running instance of Comet can use the same serial number until the short-term exclusive lease expires. There is a grace period of a few days to allow for temporary license-server unavailability or non-contactability (exact details will not be published).

At the time of writing, Comet stores data about the current lease within the comet-license.db file. Loss of this file results in loss of lease.

The external IP address and hardware configuration (exact details will not be published) should not change for an existing Comet. Otherwise, the central licensing server may refuse to grant a new lease for the serial, or might cause a running instance of Comet to refuse the existing lease (exact details will not be published). The external IP address is locked to the Comet install with a particular serial number. You can remove and/or turn off the IP Lock feature via the 'My Services' page. This is useful if you are moving your Comet install to a new location with a new external IP address.

You may grant any number of additional serial numbers via https://cometbackup.com/ . Your support representative is also able to 'relax' leases on an existing serial number (for instance, when moving IP addresses or upgrading hardware). You can also do this for yourself via the 'My Services' page.

Telemetry

Comet (Self-Hosted and Comet-Hosted) submits information about user accounts to a central licensing server, in order to correctly price your subscription.