Install the R1Soft Server Backup agent on AlmaLinux

R1Soft Server Backup runs a small agent on every protected machine and a central Server Backup Manager (SBM) that pulls block-level snapshots over TCP/1167. The install on AlmaLinux 8 or 9 takes about 10 minutes end-to-end — most of which is the kernel module build. This guide walks the repo setup, the agent install, the SBM-side enrollment, and the first disk safe.

The same procedure works on Rocky, CentOS Stream, and CloudLinux with no changes.

Prerequisites

• AlmaLinux 8 or 9 (RHEL-compatible), fully patched
• Root or sudo
• Outbound TCP/443 to repo.r1soft.com and krnlbld.r1soft.com
• Inbound TCP/1167 from your SBM
• A working SBM with a valid R1Soft license

Add the R1Soft yum repo

curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/r1soft.repo https://repo.r1soft.com/r1soft.repo
yum clean all

The repo is unsigned by default. R1Soft publishes a GPG key but the repo file does not enable it — that is upstream behaviour. If your policy requires signed packages, import the key from repo.r1soft.com/r1soft.asc and flip gpgcheck=1.

Install the agent and toolchain

yum -y install serverbackup-enterprise-agent \
  kernel-devel-$(uname -r) perl

The kernel-devel package must match the booted kernel exactly. If it does not, you will hit the no suitable hcpdriver module error — see the hcpdriver kernel module troubleshoot for the recovery path.

perl is a real runtime dependency, not a stray pull. The agent's setup scripts use it.

Build the kernel module

serverbackup-setup --get-module

The agent first tries to fetch a prebuilt hcpdriver from krnlbld.r1soft.com. If your kernel is in the index (almost always within a day of release), this completes in seconds. If not, it falls back to a local build using kernel-devel and gcc. Either way, verify:

lsmod | grep hcp

You should see hcpdriver loaded. If not, do not proceed — fix the module first.

Set the agent password

The agent and SBM authenticate by shared secret over TLS:

serverbackup-setup --user-password

Pick a strong password and store it in your secrets manager. The same password goes into the SBM when you add the protected machine.

Open the firewall

The SBM connects to the agent on TCP/1167. With firewalld:

firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule family="ipv4" \
  source address="10.20.30.40" port port="1167" protocol="tcp" accept'
firewall-cmd --reload

Replace 10.20.30.40 with your SBM's IP. Do not open 1167 to the world — the agent has no rate limiting, and the protocol is sensitive to brute force.

Start and enable the agent

systemctl enable --now cdp-agent
systemctl status cdp-agent

Confirm it is listening:

ss -tlnp | grep 1167

Register the host on SBM

In Server Backup Manager:

1. Protected Machines → Add
2. Hostname or IP of the new agent
3. Port 1167
4. The password you set with serverbackup-setup --user-password
5. Click Test Connection — it should report Online

If the test fails, the four usual causes in order: firewall blocks 1167, agent not running, password mismatch, or hcpdriver failed to load (the agent answers but cannot snapshot).

Create the first disk safe

A disk safe is the on-SBM container for a machine's recovery points. From SBM:

1. Disk Safes → New Disk Safe
2. Pick the registered Protected Machine
3. Select the devices to protect (usually /dev/sda, plus any data disks)
4. Storage location on the SBM volume
5. Compression: QuickLZ — fast and good enough for most workloads
6. Encryption: AES-256 if the SBM volume is shared or off-site

Run a manual recovery point. The first one is a full block-level read of every selected disk and is the slowest — expect 30-60 MB/s sustained on commodity hardware. Subsequent points are deltas and complete in minutes.

Verify end-to-end

service cdp-agent status
lsmod | grep hcp
ss -tlnp | grep 1167

From SBM: open the disk safe, mount the recovery point read-only, and ls a customer directory. If you can browse the filesystem, your install is done.

What to set up next

Most production R1Soft deployments do not stop at one SBM. Backups that live on the same site as the source survive a disk failure but not a datacenter event. Configure Disk Safe replication to push recovery points to a second SBM in another region before you call this server done.

For greenfield hosting builds choosing a backup stack, the R1Soft vs JetBackup comparison covers when one beats the other — many hosts run both.

Next steps

• Fix module errors: hcpdriver kernel module troubleshoot.
• Replicate off-site: Disk Safe replication setup.
• Buy or renew: R1Soft license.