What Is Backup?

It is important to back up computer systems to protect them from the loss of valuable data. In a networked environment, where users depend on shared data and the amount of data grows rapidly as systems are added to the network, the need to manage data becomes crucial.

Solstice Backup is a network storage management solution that protects and helps manage data across an entire network of computers. Backup saves valuable administrator time by speeding up and simplifying daily storage management operations. A graphical user interface (GUI) guides you through administering and configuring your network for storage management. As Backup manages your data, it creates a database of saved data, making it easy to locate data for recovery. Furthermore, as the network and amount of data grow, Backup provides the capacity and performance to handle the load.

Backup features include a storage management application that directs high performance to a wide range of storage devices. The Backup software product is made up of the following components:

• Backup client software, which is a collection of processes and programs installed on the machines that contain data to be managed

• Backup server software, which is a collection of processes and programs installed on the machine that performs the Backup services, including data backup, recovery, archive, and Backup HSM^TM (Hierarchical Storage Management)

• Backup storage node software, which is a collection of processes and programs installed on machines that control their attached storage devices during Backup operations, including backup, recovery, archive, and HSM

You can configure your Backup software to back up data to storage devices that are directly connected to the Backup server, or you can create a Backup storage node, which is a separate machine with one or more storage devices connected. The Backup server maintains the resources and files that keep track of Backup data. The storage node machine controls the storage devices and media.

You can direct backup, archive, and HSM data to specific collections of volumes, according to particular data characteristics.

You must perform a full backup before you can archive the data.

As data are written to storage media, Backup creates a database to track the location of all managed data. Backup monitors data status and automatically rotates data through the tracking system as it reaches different levels of obsolescence, as defined by you.

You and your users can browse an index of recoverable files, create reports that describe the status of data or media, and recover data to a point in time specified by the user. In response to a data recovery request, the Backup storage management system locates the volume that contains the requested data and either directs a device to mount the appropriate volume for retrieval, or sends a message to the operator to request the volume by name. In this way, Backup manages all storage volume operations.

Cross-Platform Management

Backup is a cross-platform storage management product. You can administer a Backup server from a workstation running UNIX, Windows NT, Windows 95, MacOS, or NetWare, if the workstation has Backup installed and is connected by a network. Additionally, a Backup client on one platform can back up its data to a Backup server of a different platform.

Backup can direct and conduct administration services for any client or server on the network that has the Backup software installed and is recognized by the Backup server. The Backup interface offers you only the options that are relevant to a particular Backup client, so you do not need to know the configuration of individual machines before you start a monitoring session.

Performance

Backup has many standard and optional performance features:

• Parallelism, which allows several savestreams to flow to the server or storage node at the same time

• Multiplexing, which lets more than one savestream write to the same device at the same time

• Client parallelism, which lets the client send more than one savestream at a time

• Session management, which enables you to control the number of savestreams per device to maximize the performance of each device

• Backup to file devices and optional subsequent staging to nearline or offline volumes

• Optional supported modules:

  • Autochanger Software Module

  • Silo Software Module

  • Archive Module

  • Solstice Database Modules for backing up several types of databases

  • Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

  • HSM

Ease of Use

Backup provides tools to make protection of critical data easy to manage. With Backup, you can:

• Use either the Backup GUI or the command line to manage Backup.

• Administer and configure Backup functions from any machine on the network.

• Grant permission to provide the capability for recovery of one client's data to another client machine of the same operating system.

• Obtain immediate answers to questions by accessing online help and man pages.

• Take advantage of the automatic media management feature to allow Backup to label and mount volumes as needed for backups.

Scalability

You can add to your current Backup software purchase as your storage management needs grow. For example, you can:

• Upgrade the basic level of server functionality, add support for additional (or larger) autochangers, add support for more clients, or add optional software modules without the need to reinstall the server software

• Add special Solstice Database Modules client software to back up databases and other non-filesystem data

• Add support for remote storage nodes to control backup devices, while the data management tasks remain centralized on a controlling Backup server