Though it is much simpler if you have paid for vmware and can run their installer to setup everything, it is not too terribly much more difficult to get a Unitrends Free Backup running on a free esxi version. Let's begin.
First, we must navigate to unitrends.com/support/resources/downloads and download the free unitrends linux agent. There are two options for doing this:
To do this, SSH into the server you want to backup, and cd into your user folder (if you aren't there automatically). Once you are in your user folder, we are able to download the backup agent.
Using wget, we are able to go to the downloads page and copy the link address for our particular operating system and architecture. For example, on Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit, you would scroll down until you find ubuntu, look in the far right column, right click '64-bit' and select 'copy link address.'
Now that we have our link address, we paste it and see something like this (In my case anyway):
http://ftp.unitrends.com/bp/latest_build/Linux/unitrends-linux-agent-9.0.0-13.201605161900.amd64.deb?_ga=1.156709817.36745520.1476729508
This will not cause an error, but it will make it more difficult to install it. To make it easier to install, we remove everything after the .deb extension, and have a url that looks like this:
http://ftp.unitrends.com/bp/latest_build/Linux/unitrends-linux-agent-9.0.0-13.201605161900.amd64.deb
Now that we have the url we need, simply write the following command, replacing our example url with the one you got from the steps above:
wget http://ftp.unitrends.com/bp/latest_build/Linux/unitrends-linux-agent-9.0.0-13.201605161900.amd64.de
b
This method is least preferred (to me), but many might do this way as it takes a few steps away from the terminal. Similar to what we did before, we need to navigate to the downloads page and download the agent for our particular operating system and architecture. Once the agent downloads, we will have a file that is named something like this in our downloads folder:
unitrends-linux-agent-9.0.0-13.201605161900.amd64.deb
Now that we have the file, we must FTP into our server (the server we want to backup), navigate to the user folder, then upload this file to the user folder.
Now that we have the linux backup agent downloaded and installed on the server we want to backup using our Unitrends Free Backup, we can install the linux agent. There are two methods for installing the linux agent onto the server; we can use the core utitilies or gdebi.
To use core utilities, we must navigate to our user directory, or another location if you decided to place the file we downloaded elsewhere. Once we are in the correct location, we can begin. In some cases, we can simply run
dpkg -i unitrends-linux-agent-9.0.0-13.201605161900.amd64.deb
where the filename is the one you downloaded. This will attempt to install the file, but if any dependencies are missing, it will fail and we must now run
sudo apt-get install -f
Your agent should now be installed.
First, we must install the GDebi utility if we do not already have it. We can accomplish this by running
sudo apt install gdebi
which will install the necessary utility. It is very likely you already have this utility installed, and if you do this method will actually prove to be simpler over time.
We can now install the agent by running
gdebi unitrends-linux-agent-9.0.0-13.201605161900.amd64.deb
which will install the .deb file and auto-install all dependancies as well, eliminating the need for another command in the case of a failure because of missing dependancies.
Your agent should now be installed.
Now that we have downloaded and installed our agent on the server we would like to backup, we can activate the server and begin backing it up. To do so, navigate to the web dashboard for your Unitrends Free install. This dashboard by default is located at the IP Address of the server you installed it on. Once you are there, proceed through the certificate error and login using the credentials you used during initial setup.
Once on the dashboard, navigate to
Configure > Protected Assets > Add > Asset
A pane will popup with three blanks. Enter a hostname (a name easily recognized so you know which server it refers to), and the IP address of the server that needs to be backed up. Deselect 'Install Agent (Windows Only)' and select Save.
Your asset is now setup and ready to be backed up! You can now navigate to the 'Protect' page and add a new backup schedule for this asset!