Several backup products still need updates to be compatible with latest VMware vSphere 6.5. This is not the case of HPE VM Explorer 6.3 (Previously Trilead). There is a new release available (v. 6.3.1) for download which adds vSphere 6.5 compatibilities and more. We'll discuss it in this post.
HPE VM Explorer Backup and Replication software was previously known under Trilead VM Explorer. Last year, however, Trilead was acquired by HPE, but the product keeps rather fast releasing cycles with a lot of features added in every release and stripping legacy UI. Since 6.2 release the product uses Web Based Interface Only for HPE VM Explorer 6.2 which is fast and responsive.
VM Explorer can be used in a multi-hypervisor environment where it is compatible with VMware and Hyper-V hypervisors. We can see a lot of environments where Hyper-V is present along with VMware. This can be test and dev or second production site. So multi-hypervisor backup products are becoming a necessity.
HPE VM Explorer 6.3 – What's new?
- vSphere 6.5 support – Added support for ESXi 6.5 which allows adding vCenter server v 6.5 and the underlying hosts/clusters, into the management UI.
- Exchange 2013/2016 recovery – Added Exchange 2013 and Exchange 2016 e-mail recover
y. Email exchange stays crucial at the enterprise. The necessity to recover individual emails instead the whole mailbox is usually the decision point when seeking for backup/recovery solution for MS Exchange.
- Linux EXT4 – Added support for EXT4 64bit file system in file level restore. Linux systems which are more and more popular, because stable without problems are using EXT4 file system usually. The fact that x64 systems allow you to go beyond the 4Gb RAM barrier (and it's a necessity) we see less and fewer x32 systems in production. Hence the need to restore individual files from those systems.
- Scheduling improvements – Added possibility to schedule backups every 15 minutes and 30 minutes. This enhances the
- Added possibility to add S3 compatible server.
- Sweet32 vulnerability checks – attack released by a pair of researchers at the French National Research Institute for Computer Science (INRIA).
- x64 Platform only – VM Explorer is now only available with .Net Framework 4.6.2 (hard requirement) and 64bit platform only.
- VD Services are now enabled by default if VDDK are installed
- Incremental Backup/Replication are selected by default if VDDK service is enabled
- Minor bugfixes
View on the Welcome screen shows the mixed environment I have in the lab, Hyper-V, and VMware.
The product's console is fast. It is one of the faster ones I've been testing in my lab since few years. Even faster than some products not using web-based console. You can see the whole mixed environment which consists of single Hyper-V host and multiple ESXi Hosts managed by vCenter server (1st image in this post). There you can also search for a VM in the search window.
Right click is quite powerful too allowing you to initiate actions not only for backup/replication, but also for creating new schedule or browse replication points or show snapshot manager allowing you to take new snapshot or delete older snapshot (if VM has some snapshots).
You can test VM Explorer during 15 days when asking for a trial. Check it out, use this link for a trial.
Other posts from ESX Virtualization covering HPE VM Explorer:
- Web-Based Interface Only for HPE VM Explorer 6.2
- Trilead 6.1 With New Web UI
- HPE/Trilead VM Explorer – Backup your first VM
- VM Explorer 6.1 Released
- HPE VM Explorer with StoreOnce – Get 1TB of Deduplicated Storage for Free
- HPE VM Explorer 6.3 now compatible with vSphere 6.5 – [This Post]
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Hello and hope you are doing well.
Would happen to know if HPE has killed this product? None of the links work, and I am having trouble locating it on the HP website,, keeps popping up with OOOPS page….
Thank you
Hi Paul,
In fact, the VM Explorer product is distributed and developped at Microfocus. It continues to be developped further. I’ll have a post on the upcoming release in a couple of days. It must have been a temporary issue, because I just checked and the link to the trial works fine.
Best,
Vladan
Thank you for your quick reply