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Server Backup FAQs

 

What operating systems and applications does ServerSafe support?

Answer: Just about anything a business would run: all varieties of Windows including desktop and server platforms, Linux (Red Hat, Novell SuSE), Unix, HP-UX, HP-Tru64, Mac OS X, AS-400 (iSeries), Solaris, and applications such as Exchange/Outlook, Lotus Notes/Domino, Groupwise, SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, IBM DB2, SharePoint and more.

Question: I have several machines that need to be backed up, possibly the whole office. Do I need to install ServerSafe on each machine?

Answer: No. A key advantage to ServerSafe is that it requires only one installation to back up all the servers, desktops, workstations and laptops across your company. Just install ServerSafe on a host machine and the application will allow you to see all machines on your network. It's up to you to decide which machines you want to back up – a single server, a dozen, or any combination of machines. You manage the entire process from the host machine for efficient, single-pane-of-glass management.

How frequently can I back up?

Answer: With Windows and Linux file systems, data can be backed up continuously. All other backup sets can be configured to back up as often as every fifteen minutes or as infrequently as once a year (or any schedule in between). You can customize backup frequency, for example, by scheduling nightly backups, end-of-month backups, one-off backups on a certain date such as the end of a fiscal year, or any other schedule.

Question: What level of granularity is possible in setting up the backup?

Answer: Backup sets can include an entire server, a share or volume, a directory or even a single file. Your backup set could even include just a registry, should you desire.

Question: Can multiple machines be backed up at the same time?

Answer: Yes. Any number of machines can be backed up simultaneously. ServerSafe is a true multi-threaded backup application which can process several orders of magnitude more data and allows larger data block reduction for near real-time distributed data protection. ServerSafe can support tens of thousands of concurrent backup/restore activities. The 64-bit ServerSafe edition can process block-level incremental backup and deduplication for files up to 4TB. The limiting factor would be your network bandwidth.

Question: Can ServerSafe be set to stop backup after a certain time has elapsed?

Answer: Yes. ServerSafe was developed to fit specific backup windows so backup sets can be configured to stop at, for example, 8:00 am when employees are starting to arrive to work, or maybe by 5:00 am if there is an important batch process to run.

Question: How do you compress the data? How efficient is it?

Answer: ServerSafe uses some of the most efficient lossless compression algorithms around to reduce the raw data from your servers to a size that can be transmitted over the internet. Common file elimination further ensures that the same data is never transmitted offsite more than twice, thereby saving the bandwidth to transmit only new, unique data. Due to the way this technique is applied, it does not matter if the files are on different servers, or even have different filenames - ServerSafe will still only transmit two copies. Global and single instance storage are also used.

Question: Does the ServerSafe backup application keep a connection open to the offsite servers all the time?

Answer: No. ServerSafe only connects to our data center servers during the specified backup schedule.

Question: How many versions or generations of backed up files are held offsite?

Answer: The number of versions kept is a parameter that can be modified by the backup administrator at any time as needed. Different sets of data can have a different number of versions kept – it is up to you and can range from one version to unlimited versions. Unlike backing up to tape where the routine is to rotate tapes in a cycle, ServerSafe will only back up a new version of a file when it has changed, guaranteeing that you are not wasting space and bandwidth backing up the same exact version more than once. For example, if a file only changes once a month, there will be 7 versions of that file stored offsite (assuming you decide to keep 7 versions).

Question: Does keeping multiple versions add significantly to my storage costs?

Answer: Fortunately, no. The ServerSafe software uses sophisticated delta block technology which means that after the intial backup version is stored, all additional versions are only the changed delta. Most data files, and particularly databases, change relatively little during day-to-day operation and so lend themselves nicely to the delta technology which backs up only the blocks that have changed since the last backup. So storing additional versions typically adds very little to your storage costs.

Question: How does retention work?

Answer: Retention policies are essential to any backup system due to compliance and other mandates (internal and external). ServerSafe gives you full control over these parameters. ServerSafe allows you to create data retention policies that include the number of revisions that are kept offsite as well as the length of time they are kept offsite. You can create as many data retention policies as you want and simply attach them to a backup set. Multi-year data retention is not a problem.

Question: To what extent is my data encrypted?

Answer: Your data can be encrypted using the newer, safer AES 256 standard which has never been broken. The government-grade AES encryption is certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to deliver the strongest commercially available data security available for external storage. All your data is compressed and then encrypted using the encryption key known only to you (set by the customer during the installation of the software). Data remains encrypted in-flight and at-rest. The backup data is only unencrypted when it safely returns to your site via restore.

Question: What is data de-duplication?

Answer: De-duplication is one of the advanced features ServerSafe offers. The value of deduplication comes from the elimination of duplicate stored data. The value of deduplication can be huge, but it varies by application. For example, if an application creates a lot of duplicate data, such as full backups or full volume snapshots, then the value of de-duplication can be as great as a 90% reduction (20-times compression) in the amount of your stored data. This is a very significant reduction which has a direct impact on storage costs, bandwidth, etc. Now, if an application produces primarily unique data, such as incremental backups or snapshots, the value of deduplication might be reduced to approximately 50% to 70% (three-to-four times compression.)

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