I was experiencing some issues whilst restoring some backups made with Vizioncore vRanger Pro. I’m currently using version 3.2.5.6, which is well over a year old. The obvious first step is to update the software to the latest version. At the time of writing, vRanger Pro is at version 3.2.9.7, but version 4 is on the horizon. Upgrading something as crucial as backup software makes me a little twitchy. Its important to know that you’ll still be able to take backups successfully once the upgrade is complete, and that you’ll be able to restore backups you’ve previously made. I had a good look around Vizioncore’s website for some information on the recommended upgrade procedure. Aside from a vague posting on their support forum, there was no official procedure that I could find. Should you really have to place a support call for something like this? Anyway, I managed to get the answers I was looking for, so thought I’d post them here:

Firstly, and it’s a biggie: You cannot ‘upgrade’ using the installation executable. You must first uninstall the old product.
What about configuration settings? – I was assured by Vizioncore support that after the uninstall, all configuration settings, license files, logs, etc, are all left behind. Once you install the new version, it will pick up all of your previous configuration settings from these files.

If, like me, you want to be extra sure that you wont lose your configuration, make a copy of *.dat, *.mdb and *.lic files from your vRanger installation folder before the uninstall. You may also wish to backup your log files, etc.

Then  just execute the .msi that you downloaded from the Vizioncore website, and follow the prompts.

Your scheduled tasks should also be unaffected, and will run as before using the newly installed vRanger executable.

4 Responses to “Upgrading Vizioncore vRanger Pro”

1. John says:

   May 9, 2009 at 5:36 AM

   Hey mate,

   You should look at Veeam backup. We switched from Vizioncore for many painful reasons. I saw somewhere they will even give you a discount for switching. Outstanding product and support so far for us. We are a small shop and they supported ESXi now too.

   Cheers.
2. Rob says:

   May 12, 2009 at 7:34 PM

   Thanks for your suggestion John. I like Veeam’s products. Unfortunately, switching to Veeam Backup isn’t an option at the moment. Hopefully the upgraded version of vRanger will bear better fruit than the last. It’s looking promising so far.
3. William says:

   October 7, 2009 at 11:26 AM

   Where you able to restore old backups. The format is very different and I have not had much luck.

   William
4. Rob says:

   October 7, 2009 at 3:33 PM

   Hi william,

   I’ve not actually tried restoring older backups, as the only backups I’ve needed to restore were ones taken after the upgrade.

   I didnt realise that the backup formats had changed. I assumed that a newer version would be backwards compatible, as there was no mention on the vizioncore site that it wasnt.