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ON THE EXPRESS ROUTE TO BACKUP
From STORAGE Magazine
Vol 4 No 06 - November/December 2004
Syncsort has released its newest version of Backup Express, the enterprise
data protection solution, with a significantly enhanced version of the backup
and restore features already built in to the solution.
Some highlights of the new features include advances in the Graphical User
Interface (GUI), catalogue operation, NDMP support, device management, log
collection, auto-configuration and snapshot support, as well as the addition of
the Backup Express Advanced Protection Manager.
Paul Terrell, UK Country Manager for Syncsort, comments: “Backup Express 2.2
introduces the next generation of data protection technology to provide
customers with the most flexible, easiest to manage and highest performing
enterprise backup-restore solution.
“With the development of the two components of our Advance Protection Manager -
Express Image feature and Network Appliance Snapvault management - significant
functionality improvements are offered.”
Among the features in Backup Express 2.2 are the following:
Advanced Browser-based GUI
Backup Express’s browser-based GUI is said to provide flexible control of all
functions. Multiple function windows can be opened simultaneously, making it
possible to run, manage and monitor functions in parallel, including multiple
device functions, library operations and backup jobs. The GUI’s appearance can
be modified to suit individual needs and is web-deployed, simplifying client
upgrades.
Backup Express Advanced Protection Manager
Express Image for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 provides high-performance image-based
volume-level snapshot backup, with full or file-level restore for base,
incremental and differential backups. Online applications continue to use the
file system, unaffected by the backup. Only allocated blocks are backed up,
dramatically reducing backup and restore time. Backup performs at raw-disk
speeds, even for volumes containing many small files. Express Image is also
supported for base backup on Solaris 2.8+ with UFS.
Network Appliance (NetApp) SnapVault management provides seamless file backup
from filers and other primary systems to NetApp NearStore through the Backup
Express GUI. Support for NetApp Open Systems SnapVault® (OSSV) provides backup
of Windows NT/2000/2003, AIX, HP-UX, SGI-IRIX, Solaris, and Redhat Linux.
Enhanced Snapshot Support
The enhanced snapshot feature provides logical open file backup for both
clustered and non-clustered nodes. Snapshot functionality is controlled through
the Backup Express GUI, which provides job-level options. Snapshot is supported
for NetWare 6.5 and Windows NT/2000/2003 through the Backup Express open file
facility.
Backup Express Catalogue and Device Management
High-performance catalogue condense dramatically speeds condense operations and
reduces space required for the catalogue. The Early Drive Release option
immediately releases, for other jobs, any unused drives and drives allocated to
suspended jobs. Optimised device selection, in conjunction with the Early Drive
Release option, prioritises drives, based on local SAN path and media
availability. Device paths unreachable during a job run will not be reused for
the duration of the job, while devices brought online or newly added are
immediately available to a backup job. Centralised device monitoring displays
device status in real time. Devices on a SAN can be automatically SCSI
reserve/released. This feature is supported for Windows, NetWare, Solaris,
HP-UX, OSF, and Linux.
Auto-Configuration
Auto-configuration, which creates a working Backup Express enterprise by
configuring nodes, devices and media, is now run optionally from the Backup
Express programme group on Windows or from the UNIX command line. All nodes that
are not device servers are automatically added to a single node group. Any empty
node groups, device clusters and unassigned media are removed.
NDMP Backup and Restore
NDMP Performance is enhanced through concurrent processing; multiple volumes can
be backed up simultaneously to multiple drives. Node groups level simplify job
definitions and volumes added to a filer can be automatically backed up, without
modifying job definitions. NDMP jobs, options and nodes are displayed separately
from non-NDMP jobs in the GUI, and restore display is now volume-centric.
About Backup Express
Backup Express is a high-performance enterprise data protection solution with
innovative technology and manageability for UNIX, Windows, Linux and NetWare
environments. For more information, please visit
http://www.syncsort.com/PDF/bex22techspec.pdf
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