Table of contents
- What’s new in Hystax Acura 4.4.1 — at a glance
- Double Storage: combining performance and cost efficiency
- Receiver Mesh: removing the controller bottleneck
- Secure connections to Cloud Agents via HTTPS
- MS Azure Blob Storage support
- Logging stack update: Grafana and Loki
- Security, stability, and Windows compatibility improvements
Reliable disaster recovery and backup today are no longer just about having a copy of data. They focus on performance at scale, secure data transfer, and architectural flexibility – especially in hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
With Hystax Acura 4.4.1, we focused on exactly these challenges. This release introduces several critical architectural improvements, most notably Double Storage, Receiver Mesh, and secure HTTPS connections for cloud agents, along with expanded platform support and security updates.
Below, we outline what’s new in Acura 4.4.1, how these features work at a high level, and the practical value they deliver to IT leaders, DevOps teams, and service providers.
What’s new in Hystax Acura 4.4.1 — at a glance
Key highlights of this release include:
- Double Storage: simultaneous replication to block and object storage
- Receiver Mesh: direct data transfer from replication agents to cloud agents
- Secure HTTPS connections to cloud agents
- Support for Azure Blob Storage
- Improved compatibility with modern Linux distributions and kernels
- Migration from ELK to Grafana + Loki for logging
- Better support for MBR-based Windows systems
- General security updates and fixes
Below, we take a closer look at each of these improvements.
Double Storage: combining performance and cost efficiency
Double Storage allows you to select both block and object storage simultaneously as replication targets.
In practice, this means you can:
- Use block storage for fast recovery and low RTO
- Use object storage for cost-efficient, long-term retention and ransomware resilience
This feature gives organizations the flexibility to align storage strategy with business priorities without building separate replication pipelines.
Receiver Mesh: removing the controller bottleneck
The challenge
Traditionally, all replication traffic in Hystax Acura passed through the Receiver service in the controller. While this model works well for many environments, it can become a bottleneck in scenarios with high replication throughput, multiple concurrent replication agents, or large-scale / geographically distributed deployments.
How Receiver Mesh works
With Receiver Mesh, replication agents can send data directly to Receivers running in cloud agents, rather than routing all replication traffic through the controller. At a high level, the replication agent requests replication setup via the REST API; Acura deploys cloud agents; and Receivers within those cloud agents prepare snapshots. Replication agents then transfer data directly to those Receivers, which write it to local disks (CNR) or to object and file storage, depending on the target configuration.
By moving data transfer closer to the target environment, this approach distributes replication load across cloud agents and reduces reliance on centralized components.
Why this matters
Receiver Mesh changes how replication scales in Hystax Acura. By removing the controller from the critical data path, replication performance becomes more predictable and resilient as environments grow. Infrastructure teams gain a more scalable architecture that remains stable under heavy load, while DevOps teams benefit from faster replication and fewer throughput constraints during parallel operations. For service providers and partners, this design simplifies scaling in multi-tenant environments and reduces the need to overprovision central infrastructure.
Secure connections to Cloud Agents via HTTPS
Why this was needed
Previously, communication between Acura components and cloud agents used HTTP. While this can be acceptable in isolated networks, it does not align with modern security expectations, particularly in public clouds or regulated environments where encrypted communication is required.
What’s changed in Acura 4.4.1
Hystax Acura 4.4.1 introduces support for HTTPS-secured cloud agent servers, enabling encrypted communication between Acura components and cloud agents. Cloud agents can now run their services over HTTPS on port 443, using certificates generated and signed by Acura. Both control traffic and data paths are protected in transit, while environments that continue using HTTP remain fully supported for backward compatibility.
How it works (high level)
When HTTPS is enabled, a cloud agent automatically generates a private key and requests a certificate from the Acura controller during startup. After the certificate is issued, the agent launches its services with TLS enabled. Acura components automatically detect whether a secure connection is required, switch to HTTPS when appropriate, and validate the agent’s certificate, establishing encrypted communication transparently and without manual configuration.
Business value
HTTPS-secured communication strengthens the overall security posture of Acura deployments while keeping operations simple. Encrypted connections help organizations align with internal security policies and audit requirements, particularly in security-sensitive or regulated environments. For partners and service providers, this reduces friction when deploying Acura for customers with strict compliance expectations. At the same time, DevOps teams can adopt secure communication without disrupting existing workflows, ensuring a smooth transition and operational continuity.
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MS Azure Blob Storage support
Hystax Acura 4.4.1 adds native support for Azure Blob Storage as a replication target, allowing backups and replicas to be stored in Azure’s cloud-native object storage. This enables tighter integration with Azure environments and can be combined with Double Storage to balance recovery performance, cost efficiency, and long-term retention.
Logging stack update: Grafana and Loki
The logging stack has been updated, replacing ELK with Grafana and Loki. This update reduces operational overhead, simplifies log management, and improves integration with modern observability tooling, making troubleshooting and monitoring more efficient for operations teams.
Security, stability, and Windows compatibility improvements
Handling of MBR-partitioned Windows systems has been enhanced, improving the reliability of replication and recovery workflows. In addition, Hystax Acura 4.4.1 includes security patches and stability enhancements to strengthen core replication and agent communication. Together, these updates improve overall platform robustness and help ensure consistent, reliable operation in long-running production deployments.
To review all version updates, visit the full Hystax Acura release notes or contact us.
