Virtualized DeltaV system Backup options.

We are working on scoping and pricing for upgrading our Virtualized DeltaV system to the HCI architecture with version 15 and are trying to reduce costs as much as we can.

I was wondering what methods are used for backup of critical control system data within the community. 

And, what if any benefits users are realizing from having a replication server within their virtualized system.

Thanks for the input.

KeithHarms

• 22 Apr 2026 12:21 AM
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3 Replies

• CPitsaer

  

  • 22 Apr 2026 6:49 AM

  For DeltaV, Emerson use ACRONIS.
  It as default template to backup the database, Alarms&Events, continuous historian data, full image backup (Harddrive), .....
  www.emerson.com/.../product-data-sheet-backup-recovery-deltav-en-56972.pdf
  
  I have seen Customer using Windows backup but this is at their own risks

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• Matthew Sweet

  

  • 22 Apr 2026 3:10 PM

  Just for frame of reference I work for a systems integrator rather than being an end user, but that does mean that we've seen a lot of HCI systems in place and have feedback from a lot of different sites.
  
  Emerson Backup and Recovery is, as far as I'm aware, the only supported backup option and is certainly widely deployed, at least in the UK. In a HCI solution you'll probably end up paying for a license per host and a license for your domain controller). While you can do backups of the relevant databases, in a failure you'd be far more likely to use the image backup for the VM. If you want a file off one of the VMs you can restore individual files from the image backup or you can restore the backup to a new VM (and not connect it to any networks), log into the restored VM and get hold of whatever you're after.
  
  It's a good, generally robust solution although it seems to be moving more and more towards a focus on cloud installations, so is corresponding becoming harder to install and monitor on systems without a WAN connection (which is pretty much every DCS). You can certainly do it on isolated systems, but just be aware that it's not as simple to license the software as it used to be as you'll need to generate a registration file in an online account in order to generate an activation file that can then be applied to the system. It's also worth mentioning that if you're looking at Windows Server 2025 then the version of Acronis used by Emerson Backup and recovery isn't currently supported; you can get Cyber Protect 17 direct from Acronis but that's not on the Emerson approved software list.
  
  In terms of replication, given that the HCI production cluster is also redundant we've not seen anyone actually need to fall back onto the replication cluster. More than anything else it's an insurance policy against failure in the primary cluster, but there are some other tangible benefits: being able to run VMs from the replication cluster during an upgrade can be helpful as it allows the production cluster to be replaced while retaining online VMs, if any cluster reconfiguration is required it gives you the ability to run up the replicated VMs temporarily, and in the event of a host failure it can also be useful to run VMs on the replication cluster to reduce the load on the production cluster (and increase resiliency).

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• Andre Dicaire

  

  • 22 Apr 2026 7:07 PM

  In reply to Matthew Sweet:

  HCI addresses availability, while backup and recovery is part of your disaster recovery plan. Backing up a daily export also gives you granularity to recover data or configuration without having to spin up a VM to find it.
  
  regardless of your server architecture, you should always have a backup plan that secures all your data and configuration just in case. And you have to test this plan so you know your backups are recoverable.
  
  HCI delivers highest Availability with automatic fail over in case of a server loss. All VM's affected become available immediately. In most cases though, replication can provide an adequate repair time (minutes) where the replicated VMserver is started manually, restoring operations without having to repair a physical server (that comes later).
  
  If a disaster takes out your HCI cluster, and or replication servers you need the backups to recover,

  Andre Dicaire

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