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Frequently Asked Questions
1. What platforms are supported? 2. What are the startup steps for Disaster Recovery Group services? 3. Will Disaster Recovery Group backup your Windows 9x and NT Registry? 4. Does Disaster Recovery Group provide support for Binderies and NDS? 5. What are the options for the retention of backups? 6. How are open files handled during backups? 7. How are databases, such as Oracle, Sybase and others, handled? 8. What file types does the Delta algorithm work on? 9. How do the automatic backup schedules work? 10. How can you administer multiple backups with Disaster Recovery Group? 11. Can you run more than one backup at once? 12. What security is available for your backups? 13. What is SIDF? 14. If you add more disks do you have to re-seed your backup? 15. What communication lines does Disaster Recovery Group support? 16. Are there any average backup times for remote backups over specific communications lines? 17. How long will it take to transmit a file? 18. Is your data encrypted as it travels over the network? 19. What do you do if you lose your encryption password? 20. What if there is corruption in the Agent software? 21. What do you do if your system crashes and you need to restore a backup from a VSS? 22. What is meant by online versus offline restores? 23. Can I use the Central Control and manage my clients remotely from anywhere? 24. What ports does the Central Control use to talk to the agent? 25. Is the communication between the Agent and the Central Control encrypted? 26. Can I have more than one Central Control? 27. Can I make sure one Central Control cannot see the what the other Central Control can? 28. Does the Central Control use TCP or UDP ports to talk to the agent and to the vault? 29. Can Disaster Recovery Group see my client’s data?
1. What platforms are supported?
Server 2008, Server 2003, Server 2000, SQL 2005, SBS, Exchange 2007, Exchange 2003, Exchange 2000, SQL 2000, SharePoint , Red Hat Linux 6.2/7.1, IBM AIX, and IBM OS/400 are currently supported. Top
2. What are the startup steps for Disaster Recovery Group service?
Once you are setup as an Disaster Recovery Group customer, you can start to seed your backups. In order to take the initial “full” backup required by Disaster Recovery Group, it is simple to use the defer option which will help to build your full backup over a short period of time. However, this can take several days depending on the size of the data being backed up. Alternatively, a mobile storage can be sent to your location to capture the base file, shipped back to our DataCentre to import the base file, and subsequent backups captures changes only “Delta” to ensure the quantity of data backed up is minimal. Top
3. Will Disaster Recovery Group backup your Windows NT and 2000, and Windows 2003 Registry?
Yes it is selected by default. When restoring, you will have the option of restoring your system Registry. Top
5. What are the options for the retention of backups?
Disaster Recovery Group allows you to define retentions by number of days and number of copies for two different storage types. - Online storage Your data will reside on RAID disk at the Disaster Recovery Group Mass Storage Vault site. - Archive storage Your data will be archived to some media, typically USB drives. Top
6. How are open files handled during backups?
Most applications, especially in a network environment, open files in a “shared” mode, which allows any application to read the files even though they were already opened. Disaster Recovery Group provides the option to backup any files opened in “shared” mode since the results of an open file read are not guaranteed to provide consistent results. If another application has a file opened in an “exclusive” mode (i.e. other software cannot access the file), then Disaster Recovery Group will not be able to open the file for backup. This file will be skipped, and the fact that it was skipped will be noted in the log file. Optionally, Disaster Recovery Group supports two applications to handle open files: Open File Manager (OFM) from St. Bernard Software and Open Transaction Manager (OTM) from Columbia Data Products. Both of these options permit all files to be backed up regardless of how they have been locked. This allows Disaster Recovery Group to synchronize and backup email, databases, Intranet applications and all other open files, even if the files are changing during the backup. All critical server data is protected, as open files are neither skipped nor corrupted during backups. This puts an end to corrupted data and logs of skipped open files. Top
7. How are databases, such as Oracle, Sybase and others, handled?
Databases have special backup requirements. To properly backup a database, you must be able to take a “snapshot in time” of the database. Traditional database backups are done in one of two ways, online backups via special API functions provided by the database vendor and full database exports to tape/disk. A third alternative is to use special device driver software that allows you to bypass locking issues. Database APIs (Online Backup) Some database vendors provide special APIs that support the backup of their databases. For example, the Oracle and Sybase database products can do an online backup if the backup software properly interfaces with their backup APIs. Any update transactions that are applied during the backup process are handled specially to avoid inconsistencies in the backup. The database vendors often supply backup software that will backup their databases to temporary files on disk. For 7-day/24-hour operations, it is common to do an online backup to disk and then use a secondary backup program to backup this data to tape. Database Export (Offline Backup) For those database vendors that do not provide online backup capabilities, the database must be shut down. Once the database is offline, the data is copied or exported to a temporary file(s). For databases that are not active all the time, it is common for the database to be shut down and exported to disk and then use a secondary backup program to backup the dump file to tape. NOTE that the dump file is normally significantly smaller than the database because all the empty space is removed and the work areas / temp areas / rollback areas are not backed up. For instance, a 20-30GB database often produces just a 6GB-dump file. Even though a dump to tape is feasible (using the internal backup of the database vendor), it is not normally done because it holds “locks” on the database too long which can interfere with performance. Driver Software (Online Backup) Optionally, Disaster Recovery Group supports Open File Manager (OFM) from St. Bernard Software and Open Transaction Manager (OTM) by Columbia Data Products, both of which permits all database systems to be backed up. It also allows Disaster Recovery Group to backup email, Intranet applications and all other open files, even if the files are changing during the backup. All database products are protected by becoming synchronized at the start of the backup and allowing active changes to occur while the backup is going on. As a result, open databases are neither skipped nor corrupted during backups. This puts an end to corrupted database backups. Top
8. What file types does the Delta algorithm work on?
The Delta algorithm works well on a variety of file types. NOTE that the first backup is always a “master” or “full” backup. Subsequent backups take advantage of the Delta Processing scheme. Files that change very little, such as executable files, require virtually no backup activity. Most data files, especially databases, change relatively little during day-to-day operations and therefore lend themselves nicely to the Delta scheme which analyzes for blocks of the file that have changed since the last backup. Top
9. How do the automatic backup schedules work?
You can schedule backups to run at any time of the day or night, as frequently as you like. Top
10. How can you administer multiple backups with Disaster Recovery Group?
Using the Disaster Recovery Group Administrator, a single LAN administrator can setup backups on behalf of other users. The managed system has to be running the Disaster Recovery Group Agent in the background, and the manager station running the Disaster Recovery Group Administrator connects to the managed system to configure the backup tasks and schedule them remotely. Top
11. Can you run more than one backup at once?
You may run more than one backup at once on the platforms that support separate instances of an executable program. Operating systems such as Windows NT/2000 support multiple backups at the same time. NOTE that NetWare can not run multiple backup instances. Top
12. What security is available for your backups?
There are two major security features for Disaster Recovery Group. The first is an encrypted authorization feature for every user that connects to the Mass Storage Vault. This protects your data from unauthorized access. An additional option is to encrypt the data before transmission to the MSV. This protects your data both during transmission over the network and while the data is stored on the remote storage server. Top
13. What is SIDF?
System Independent Data Format (SIDF) is a standard developed by the major players in the LAN and mini backup world to attempt to achieve some data portability across different tape media and systems. Up until the introduction of this standard, it was impossible to share data across different vendors’ backup software. It was even difficult within the same vendors’ software across different software versions. Disaster Recovery Group uses a format very close to the actual SIDF standard that provides all the portability benefits in a proprietary product. Top
14. If you add more disks do you have to re-seed your backup?
Since the delta mapping is done at the file level and not at the physical disk level, adding more disks will present a problem. It should be noted that the Disaster Recovery Group software would not automatically backup this new disk. The user must select the new disk files as part of an existing backup or create a new backup task. The files that are on this new disk would require seeding (full backup), but this would not apply to the existing backup tasks and the previously backed up files. As long as the drive designation and directory structure remained the same, there would be no impact on the next backup. Top
15. What communication lines does Disaster Recovery Group support?
Because Disaster Recovery Group is based on TCP/IP, the underlying physical communication method is immaterial. Thus, local LAN connection, T1, ISDN and Frame Relay, to name a few, are all valid methods for connection between an Disaster Recovery Group Agent and a MSV. The other advantage of using TCP/IP as the network connection protocol is that newer technology will fit transparently into the Disaster Recovery Group architecture. Top
16. Are there any average backup times for remote backups over specific communications lines?
No, there are no “typical” times for communication since there are so many variables involved. The best solution is to run the Disaster Recovery Group software in simulated mode, which will determine exactly what data needs to be backed up with the Delta scheme and then estimate the transmission time for that data. Top
How long will it take to transmit a file?
The time depends upon the type of data you are backing up, the amount of available bandwidth and the amount of change to that data. With the Disaster Recovery Group Agent, you should run the program in simulation mode and use the Analyze option to get a breakdown of transmit time needed for various bandwiths. Top
18. Is your data encrypted as it travels over the network?
You can optionally select to encrypt your data on the fly before it is transmitted to the MSV. We support multiple levels up to AES. Top
19. What do you do if you lose your encryption password?
For your protection, lost passwords can not be recovered. Top
20. What if there is corruption in the Agent software?
If the local catalog data were corrupted, it would most likely be detected. Regardless, this would not be a serious problem because it would be corrected during the “auto-resynch” phase of the next backup. NOTE that the precaution of maintaining a mirror of the local catalog data locally is also taken. The local delta image files that represent each block of data in each backup have standard checksums and sanity checks built in to avoid corruption. However, if a random bit or two were flipped, it almost certainly would not be serious. An extra data block would just be unnecessarily transmitted during the backup. If for some reason one or more of the delta files were totally unreadable, it would necessitate a re-seeding of the backup (i.e. a new full backup). This would, however, not affect any of the data already on the MSV. Top
21. What do you do if your system crashes and you need to restore a backup from the Mass Storage Vault?
There are two possible scenarios that would follow to restore your backups from Disaster Recovery Group . The first would be used to restore everything using network lines. You would restore your operating system and then the Disaster Recovery Group Agent. With the Administrator, you would then restore your data by using the Resync feature to restore your catalogs from the MSV. Then, you would use the Restore command. The second option would be to request that your backup copied to a mobile vault and have it delivered along with a copy of the Disaster Recovery Group software. Then, after restoring your operating system and Disaster Recovery Group software, you would then recreate the catalogs and restore directly from the mobile vault disk device. Top
22. What is meant by online versus offline restores?
Data restored over the network link is an online restore. Data restored using a delivery service and some form of media is offline. Any restore may be initiated online, but if the quantity of the data is such that the total restore time could be multiple hours, then, you will probably want the data placed on physical media and returned via bonded courier to your site. Top
23. Can I use the Central Control and manage my clients remotely from anywhere?
This is definitely possible. The Central Control is just a management tool that can sit anywhere on a LAN or a WAN connection and manage backup agents.. It utilizes port 808 for this communication between any Agent and a Central Control so depending on your configuration you might need to configure that port on the firewall to pass traffic through. All communication between the Agent and the Central Control is encrypted by default to ensure security. Top
24. What ports does the Central Control use to talk to the agent?
The Central Control uses port 808 to communicate between the Central Control and the backup agent. You can be anywhere on the LAN or WAN and configure backups with a Central Control. You could even create a VPN tunnel for the Central Control to use for remote operations. Top
25. Is the communication between the Agent and the Central Control encrypted?
All communication between the Agent and the Central Control is encrypted at the 128 bit AES level by default. Top
26. Can I have more than one Central Control?
You can have as many Central Controls as you need. All files and configuration that a Central Control creates or edits, reside locally on the server with the backup Agent. Hence all Central Controls can view exactly the same thing with no synchronization needed. Top
27. Can I make sure one Central Control cannot see the what the other Central Control can?
A Central Control has the ability to create workspaces. Each workspace can be comprised of multiple agents. You can password protect the workspaces so as to only allow the privileged users to open up a workspace and manage a specific backup agent. A Central Control also requires the use of correct user rights either on the domain or local to the server being backed up in order to add a backup agent to its workspace. Hence you can lock specific domain users out of certain servers on your domain and hence if they add an agent to their current workspace, it will fail to authenticate them to the agent itself and in turn fail to add that agent to their workspace. Top
28. Does the Central Control use TCP or UDP ports to talk to the agent and to the Disaster Recovery Group’s storage facility?
All communication from the Central Control to the backup Agent and from the backup Agent to the vault always use TCP ports. Top
29. Can Disaster Recovery Group see my client’s data?
Disaster Recovery Group provides data security for your business critical data via the means of encryption. A Backup agent will first look for delta changes on a nightly basis. These changes are at the block level. So for example if you changed a sentence in a word document, then only that one sentence is picked up by the backup Agent as the change in the file. Once it has collected all the changes, the backup Agent will then encrypt that information, compress it and send it over the wire to the Vault. So it is just pieces of the puzzle that are being sent over the wire on a nightly basis so to speak. All the processing is done on the backup Agent and the data is already encrypted when it gets to the vault. The Vault will not restore anything to the Backup Agent without verifying the correct encryption key. There is no way Disaster Recovery Group will be able to look up an encryption key or be able to break it in any way once a backup agent is set to use encryption. Various encryption types are available all the way up to AES 128 bit. Top
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