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.
As always for a new quarterly release, there are two changelogs for 25.2.0 depending on whether you are coming from the previous quarterly release or the previous Voyager release:
Changes compared to 24.11.2
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 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.
User Grouping
In Comet 24.12.0, it is now possible to group users in the Comet Server web interface. This will allow users belonging to a department, company, cost center, etc. to be grouped logically inside Comet. This makes it easier to find customers belonging to the same group as well as easily roll out policies for everyone assigned to a group.
Single Device Ownership Of Storage Vaults
In Comet 24.12.0, a new User setting is available to choose if devices that share the same user account login should back up Protected Items to a shared Storage Vault or isolated Storage Vaults. There are pros and cons of each option:
Pros of shared Storage Vaults: Data from multiple devices stored in a shared Storage Vault can take advantage of Comet's deduplication, reducing overall storage requirements.
Cons of shared Storage Vaults: Devices are able to see and restore all data from the other devices, and it is possible for backups to be delayed or missed on a device due to the Storage Vault being locked for retention jobs.
Pros of isolated Storage Vaults: Devices cannot see or restore data from other devices, and there is no risk of delayed or missed backup jobs due to the Storage Vault being locked.
Cons of isolated Storage Vaults: Backup data will not be deduplicated between devices, increasing overall storage requirements
To configure isolated Storage Vaults, when configuring a new user account select the "Provision storage vaults automatically ..." option under Storage Vault Provisioning. For existing users, head to the users account page and set the "Automatically create Storage Vaults for newly registered devices" option to a Storage Template.
To configure shared Storage Vaults, when configuring a new user account select the "Provision storage vaults once ..." option under Storage Vault Provisioning. For existing users, head to the users account page and set the "Automatically create Storage Vaults for newly registered devices" option to (none).
Enforce Password Change On Next Login
Self-Hosted Management Console Only
In Comet 24.12.0, a new Admin Accounts setting is available to enforce that the password for the admin account is changed the next time they log in. This feature can be used to regularly enforce that passwords used to log in to a Comet Server web interface are changed.
Rate Limiting for Failed Login Attempts to a Comet Management Console
Self-Hosted Management Console Only
In Comet 24.12.0, a new License & Access setting is available to block users and IP addresses after repeated unauthorised logins. This feature should be used in combination with other security features such as Multi-Factor Authentication to protect against malicious attempts to gain access to your Comet Server.
Impossible Cloud added as Storage Vault location
In Comet 24.12.2, Impossible Cloud has been added as a new location when configuring a Storage Vault for a endpoint. This makes it easier to roll out Impossible Cloud as a cloud storage destination.
IP Whitelist Settings Available for Admin Accounts in the Comet Server web interface
Self-Hosted Management Console Only
To improve secure access to a Comet Server, in Comet 24.12.3 it is now possible to configure allowed IP addresses for admin accounts when logging in. This means Comet will only allow admin logins from a predefined list of IP addresses. These addresses can be configured in the Comet Server web interface.
Restore Hyper-V and VMware Protected Items directly into new Hyper-V virtual machines
Comet 24.12.5 introduces the ability to restore virtual machine Protected Items directly into new Hyper-V virtual machines.
This brings:
- Restore Windows & Linux virtual machines: Both Windows & Linux virtual machines can be restored.
- Faster VM Restores to Hyper-V: VMs are converted on the fly at restore time into a format Hyper-V can boot.
- VM Migrations: VMware (vSphere or vCenter) virtual machines can be restored to Hyper-V using Comet.
Direct restores into Hyper-V is available from the Comet Management Console and from the Comet Backup desktop app. The following screenshots are from the Comet Management Console.
NOTE: For direct Hyper-V restores, the Comet Backup desktop app must be running on the same endpoint as Hyper-V is installed on.
Restore Hyper-V and VMware Protected Items directly into new VMware (vSphere or vCenter) virtual machines
Comet 24.12.5 introduces the ability to restore virtual machine Protected Items directly into new VMware (vSphere or vCenter) virtual machines.
This brings:
- Restore Windows & Linux virtual machines: Both Windows & Linux virtual machines can be restored.
- Faster VM Restores to VMware: VMs are converted on the fly at restore time into a format VMware can boot.
- VM Migrations: Hyper-V virtual machines can be restored to VMware using Comet.
Direct restores into VMware (vSphere or vCenter) is available from the Comet Management Console and from the Comet Backup desktop app. The following screenshots are from the Comet Management Console
Restore Disk Image Protected Items Directly into Hyper-V or VMware (vSphere or vCenter) virtual machines
Comet 24.12.5 introduces the ability to restore Disk Image Protected Items directly into a new Hyper-V or VMware (vSphere or vCenter) virtual machines.
This brings:
- Restore Windows & Linux: Both Windows & Linux Disk Image Protected Items can be restored.
- Physical to Virtual (P2V) Migrations: Physical devices can be migrated to virtual machines.
- Faster Disk Image Restores: Disk Image Protected Items can be restored to virtual environments, without requiring physical hardware.
Disk Image restores into Hyper-V or VMware (vSphere or vCenter) is available from the Comet Server web interface and from the Comet Backup desktop app. The following screenshot is from the Comet Server web interface.
Enhancements
Reduced Memory Usage During Backup and Restores
In Comet 24.12.0, some key optimizations have been made to how index files are stored in memory and what information Comet requires during a backup or restore. As a result, memory usage has been reduced by up to 40% for all backup or restore jobs.
Improvements to Retrieving Windows Disk Information
Previously, Comet made use of the WMI API to retrieve Windows disk information before a Windows Disk Image backup.
In Comet 24.12.0, Comet now uses the DeviceIoControl API to improve the reliablility of fetching Windows Disk Information before a backup job can start
Solves Known Error Message: Browsing disks: Finding disk drives: Class does not exist.
Granular Restore Performance Improvements
In Comet 24.12.2, Granular Restores from Disk Image, Hyper-V or VMware Protected Items will complete up to three times faster. This means faster restore times when you need to restore critical files as fast as possible.
Additional Impossible Cloud supported regions
In Comet 24.12.2, support for Impossible Cloud regions eu-east-1 and eu-west-1 has been added.
Hyper-V Protected Item using the All VM snapshots
Hyper-V Protected Items that are configured to use the All VM snapshots option backs up Hyper-V VMs using VSS. From Comet 24.12.3, using this option will take a separate VSS snapshot for each Hyper-V VM that is being protected. This significantly improves the reliability of backing up your Hyper-V VMs when using the All VM snapshots option.
White-Label Comet Storage
In Comet 24.12.3, it is now possible to white-label Comet Storage. This is an improvement to our white-label system to ensure that all Comet related brands can be white-labeled as your own.
New Interface for Configuring IP Address Ranges in the Comet Server web interface
Self-Hosted Management Console Only
When configuring IP bandwidth restrictions or IP whitelist setttings in the Comet Server web interface, from Comet 24.12.3 a new interface will be shown. Previously, configuring IP settings required creating a IP regex which can be difficult to configure for multiple address ranges. Now, the interface shown will allow you to enter IP address ranges in a wizard editor and convert the IP addresses to a regex behind the scenes. This makes it a lot easier to configure IP settings for your Comet Server.
Automatically Show All Snapshots When Restoring from the Comet Server web interface
Prior to Comet 24.12.3, Comet used a lightweight system for selecting snapshots, allowing only selecting the "Latest" option until you used the "Show All" button. To make the process of selecting snapshots more intuitive, and also to make the behaviour consistent with the Comet Backup desktop application, the Comet Server web interface will now also show all snapshot versions automatically without requiring you to first use the "Show All" button.
Schedule Dialog improvements for the Comet Server web interface
In Comet 24.12.3, improvements have been made to the Schedule Dialog on the Comet Server web interface. In particular, this brings the layout in sync with the layout of the desktop application. They also simplify the amount of configuration that is required to create a new backup job schedule as most of the configuration has been moved into a new advanced tab.
Microsoft 365 data can now be restored to a new user
In Comet 24.12.3, it is now possible to restore Microsoft 365 data (including Contacts, Calendars, OneDrive and Sharepoint) to a recreated user account. This improves Comet's ability to restore Microsoft 365 data in a disaster recovery situation.
URLs for Malware and Failed Access Files Are Now Outputted During a Microsoft 365 Protected Item Backup
When Comet skips a file during a Microsoft 365 Protected Item Backup, this can be due to the file being reported as Malware by Microsoft 365 or because Comet does not have the correct permissions to access the file. Now, Comet will list the exact URL of the file it failed to backup and list the reason why. This makes it much easier to debug and diagnose why a file was not backed up correctly.
Automatically Rescan LVM2 Partitions after Disk Image Restore in Linux Recovery Environment
After restoring LVM2 partitions, Comet will now automatically show the new devices in the recovery environment. This means you are able to confirm the Disk Image restore worked as expected without needing to leave the recovery environment.
Improved User Experience when deleting Default Protected Items created by Policy
Previously, deleting a default Protected Item from a Policy would delete the Protected Item from all Users and Devices the Policy is applied to. This meant it was impossible to remove the Default Protected Item from the Policy, but keep the Protected Item.
In Comet 24.12.5, new Comet Server web interface dialog prompts have been added to give admins greater control over what Default Protected Items should be kept and should be removed. This means admins can make changes to Policies at any time without impacting the Default Protected Items configured.
Improved Webhook event selection on the Comet Management Console
When configuring a new webhook on the Comet Management Console, it is now much easier to select and control which Comet events should trigger the webhook.
The "Allow all event types" now includes all webhooks when selected, and unchecks all events when it is unselected.
Changes compared to 24.12.6
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where global random delay is not being used when checking for missed backups from client
- Fixed an issue with Tenant dialog settings saving when dialog is canceled
- Fixed an issue with the Comet Management Console sometimes displaying the incorrect User option for the Storage Vault Provisioning Mode
- Fixed an issue with creating a user via the Comet Management Console, where selecting the option "Provision storage vaults once, when this user is created" would also set the Storage Vault Provisioning Mode to the selected option
- Fixed a cosmetic issue with illegible colour contrast of navigation subheaders in the Management Console or Storage Gateway web interface
- Fixed a cosmetic issue causing extra vertical space to be added to the navigation in certain scenarios for Firefox users