Hyper-V Connector overview

This article describes system requirements and overview of the Hyper-V Connector.

Environment

  • Datto SIRIS

Overview

The Hyper-V Connector is the download-able agent for Hyper-V hosts that allow for an alternative hypervisor connection to be made. This connection type allows for a Universal VM Backup to take place on Hyper-V based virtual machines, without the need of agent software installed directly on the protected machine.

NOTE  Hypervisor connections are not available for Datto ALTO or Datto NAS appliances.

Benefits

  • Communication from VM targets to Datto appliances is quicker and easier.

  • No agent installation is required on the protected virtual machines.

  • Universal VM allows for backups of systems unsupported by the Datto Windows Agent or Datto Linux Agent.

  • You can run a backup even when a VM is powered off.

Limitations

  • Hypervisor connections using the Hyper-V Connector are required.

  • Universal VM backups do not offer Bare Metal Restores (BMR) as a restore option.

  • Hardware Independent Restore (HIR) process is not available for Universal VM backups. Restoring to the same or similar host environment ensures the best results.

  • Agentless Hyper-V backup uses full disk backup, as such volume restores are not available.

  • Due to the varied nature of the Virtual Machine systems, screenshots and Datto hosted virtualizations will have varied results.

System requirements

OS

  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Windows Server 2025

Network

Gigabit connections from the Datto appliance to all appropriate network infrastructure. For best results, the Datto appliance should be connected to a gigabit switch whenever possible.

  • Outbound connectivity on the protected machine:
    • Port 443 (for Datto Cloud communication)
    • Port 3260 (for iSCSI)
    • Port 3262 (for MercuryFTP)
    • TCP 25570 (Hyper-V Connector)
  • Inbound connectivity on the protected machine:
    • TCP 25570 (Hyper-V Connector)
  • Outbound from the Datto appliance to the Internet:
    • Ports 22, 80, 123, 443
  • Bypass any local proxy to 8.34.176.9 (webserver.dattobackup.com), on port 443 for correct certificate installation during install.
  • The protected machine must be able to reach http://cacerts.digicert.com and ocsp.digicert.com for certificate authentication.
  • All protected machines must be able to resolve dattolocal.net in the local DNS.
  • The Datto Agentless Hyper-V uses MercuryFTP as its primary transport method; however, if this method fails, backups are intended to fall back to iSCSI.

In addition, see Unified Backup Networking & Bandwidth Requirements article for general networking requirements.

Setup process

Before you can take the Universal VM backup, you need to install the Hyper-V Connector and connect the Datto appliance to your hypervisor. For hypervisor connection steps, see the article: Connecting a SIRIS to a Hyper-V Connector.

To pair a virtual machine for backup on the Datto appliance, see the Pairing a Target System for Agentless Backups article.

The host hypervisor and protected virtual machines must be in a healthy, stable state. For more information, see Agentless Backups: Best Practices.

Frequently asked questions

Hyper-V paired Universal VM backups will allow for the same restore options as VMware paired Universal VM backups. These are outlined here: Universal VM Backup.

Additional Resources