Changes compared to 25.3.4

Changes compared to 25.3.3

Enhancements​

New option to back up everything in a Microsoft 365 domain​

In previous versions of Comet, the "Select all except..." option for Microsoft 365 Protected Items was provided as an alternative way to select accounts, allowing for the automatic inclusion of new accounts and potential exclusion of others. User feedback was that the behaviour of this option was unintuitive, and so we have elected to remove this option in favour of a more intuitive alternative.

In Comet 25.3.4, we are introducing the new "Back up everything" option for Microsoft 365 backups. This option provides a simple way to back up everything within a domain, including any accounts that are added later.

To back up everything with exceptions, users should instead create a group in Microsoft 365 and have the group auto-assign to new accounts. Users to be excluded can be removed from the group, and this group can then be selected in Comet.

Changes compared to 25.2.1

Enhancements​

VMware Protected Items configured using Changed Block Tracking can now fallback to a full backup​

VMware Protected Items that have been configured to use the Latest VM state (Changed Block Tracking) mode will now fallback to performing a full VM backup when Comet detects that more than 50% of the disk has changed. This speeds up the backup peformance when large parts of the VM has been modified.

Changes compared to 25.3.2

Enhancements​

Linux Disk Image snapshot driver now installs automatically​

Comet uses a custom Linux kernel driver backupsnap61 to snapshot a block device during a Linux Disk Image Protected Item backup.

In previous releases, backupsnap61 had to be installed manually using the backupsnap61-install.sh script found in the Comet Backup install directory.

Without backupsnap61 installed, Comet can't guarantee it can get exclusive read access to a block device. This will appear as a warning in a Linux Disk Image backup job log.

Now, backupsnap61 is installed automatically by Comet to ensure a snapshot driver is always available before starting a Linux Disk Image backup.

Changes compared to 25.3.1

Enhancements​

Linux recovery environment ISO can now be built without Docker on Linux​

Creating the Linux recovery environment ISO using Comet Backup on a Linux endpoint can now be done without requiring Docker to be installed. This simplifies the install requirements to build the Linux recovery environment and also reduces how long it takes to build the recovery environment.

VMware Protected Items configured using Changed Block Tracking can now fallback to a full backup​

VMware Protected Items that have been configured to use the Latest VM state (Changed Block Tracking) mode will now fallback to performing a full VM backup when Comet detects that more than 50% of the disk has changed. This speeds up the backup peformance when large parts of the VM has been modified.

Changes compared to 25.3.0

Enhancements​

• Added further improvements to cleaning up jobs stuck in a running state when a device is restarted

Changes compared to 25.2.0

Enhancements​

Safe vault unlocking via key rotation​

As part of our efforts to improve the experience of using Comet, in Comet 25.3.0 we have added functionality to automatically change Storage Vault access keys for some of our supported storage providers, allowing admins to manually unlock compatible Storage Vaults without the risk of data loss.

Vaults can also be automatically unlocked when specified criteria, configured in user policy settings, have been met.

The following Storage Vault types are currently supported:

• Comet Storage
• Amazon AWS
• Wasabi
• S3 Generic
• IAM Compatible

Annual schedule and retention options​

Comet 25.3.0 adds support for setting yearly schedules and retention rules - great for long term storage, archival, and compliance requirements.

Changes compared to 25.2.0

Enhancements​

Improved Visibility Of Shared Vaults​

To make it easier to find vaults that are shared with other devices, the "Show Storage Vaults in use by other devices" option has been moved directly under the Storage Vault selector.

This makes it significantly easier to backup to or restore from a Storage Vault that is owned by other devices in the same user account.

Rhea 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.

This Quarterly release is named after Saturn's moon Rhea. Fun fact: Rhea might have its own ring system, which would make it the only moon in our solar system to have rings.

As for the software, Comet 25.2.0 Rhea brings 11 new features and 14 enhancements, including direct virtual machine restores into Hyper-V and VMware, User Grouping, Single device ownership of storage vaults and more.

Changes compared to 24.12.5

New Features​

Comet Server Roles and Features Renamed​

As part of our efforts to improve the usability of Comet, all Comet Server Roles have been renamed.

• Auth Role has been renamed to Management Console.
• Storage Role has been renamed to Storage Gateway.
• Constellation Role has been renamed to Cluster Manager.
• Software Build Role has been renamed to Backup Agent Downloads (and moved to a setting of the Management Console).

These changes better reflect the capabilities of each role making it easier for new and existing customers to understand what each role does.

As part of this change, the Comet Server Service Manager (CSSM) has been renamed to the Comet Core Service Manager (CCSM).

The Comet Server web interface has also been update to reflect this changes, grouping the related side menu pages and settings under each of the new names.

Storage Templates Setting Moved To Own Section​

Self-Hosted Comet Management Console Only

Storage Templates are Comet's recommended way to configure and deploy Storage Vaults for your backup infrastructure. Findng the Storage Templates settings on a Self-Hosted Management Console has been made significantly easier.

In older versions of Comet, the Storage Template settings were found as part of the Management Console (previously Auth Role) settings. This has now been moved to its own settings section which is a lot easier to find.