Setup of Initial Backup Sets and Schedules | Processing the Backup Data | Compression, Encryption and Security | Transmission and Offsite Storage | Restoring Data | Disaster Recovery | Management and Reporting
Setup of Initial Backup Sets and Schedules
• What data does Asigra Televaulting protect?
• To what level does Asigra support SharePoint?
• How can I estimate how much data I have to backup and vault?
• How is the first backup done, given that there will be a lot of data?
• What level of granularity is possible in setting up the backup, i.e. file level/individual database?
• Can one machine be prioritized over another?
• Can the software be set to stop backing up after a certain time has elapsed?
Processing the Backup Data
• How does Asigra Televaulting access data without agents?
• What is de-duplication?
• What is delta blocking? How does it work?
• What happens if a server stops or crashes during backup or if the backup is interrupted for some other reason?
• How many versions of my backed up files are held offsite?
• How does Autonomic Healing ensure successful backups and restores?
• What backup benefits does 64-bit native processing deliver?
• I have a virtual server environment, what are the advantages to using Asigra for backup?
Compression, Encryption and Security
• How and to what standard is the data encrypted?
• What do you mean by compression? What happens?
Transmission and Offsite Storage
• Does all of the remote office/branch office data get transferred every day?
• What format is the data held in, i.e. on disk or tape?
Restoring Data
• At what point is the data available for restore?
• Can an individual file or registry be restored?
• Can Asigra Televaulting perform bare-metal restores?
• Can data be restored to a different machine on our network?
• How does Asigra handle message level restores for emails?
Disaster Recovery
• Can we prioritize which data is restored in the event of a disaster?
• How do I recover an entire ROBO site if all data is lost during a disaster?
Management and Reporting
• How does the Web Portal module help me monitor my backup sets remotely?
What data does Asigra Televaulting protect?
Televaulting protects data on all selected servers, desktops and laptops.
Televaulting has extensive OS support for Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003; Novell NetWare, VMware, Mac OS X, IBM AIX, SUN Solaris, HP-UX, HP-Tru64 UNIX, IBM iSeries OS-400, Red Hat Linux, and Novell Suse Linux.
Televaulting provides extensive database support for Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server & Outlook 2000/2003, Oracle 8 and above, IBM DB2, and MySQL, PostgreSQL.
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To what level does Asigra support SharePoint?
Asigra SharePoint support enables enterprises to protect servers across distributed sites and gives MSPs a more comprehensive backup and storage solution. Asigra extends object-level restore capabilities of whole sites, databases, individual documents, calendars and more across distributed computing environments.
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How can I estimate how much data I have to backup and vault?
The LAN Storage Discovery Tool helps administrators collect and evaluate file data according to a number of pre-selected parameters and display each ROBO site in an Excel graphical format. This tool helps administrators define different tiers of data and how many versions of that data should be kept online in the DS-System. Some of the report templates include: Share Usage, Largest Files, Largest Duplicates, Ownership, File Type Distribution, Partition Size, Access Report, Dormant Files, Growth and Modified Files, SQL Server Size, and Exchange Server Size.
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How is the first backup done, given that there will be a lot of data?
For large data volumes, the initial backup may be done to a portable unit, backing up at LAN speeds to a large array of disks. When the full backup of your data is complete, the disks are transported back to the Data Center. Future backups, which are purely incremental, will be transmitted online and synchronized with your initial backup data at the Data Center.
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What level of granularity is possible in setting up the backup, i.e. file level/individual database?
A backup set can include a whole server, share/volume, directory or even a single file. The backup set could even include just a registry, should you desire.
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Can one machine be prioritized over another?
There are literally hundreds of different priority levels that can be assigned, ensuring maximum flexibility when organizing your backup schedules.
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Can the software be set to stop backing up after a certain time has elapsed?
Yes, the software is designed to fit specific backup windows. Policies can be set to designate what time to stop at, for example at 8:00am when employees are starting to arrive, or maybe by 5:00am if there is an important batch process to run.
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How does Asigra Televaulting access data without agents?
The Asigra Televaulting software eliminates the requirement for locally installed agents because it leverages the protocols, APIs, methods and functionality that platform, operating system, database, and other application vendors utilize for remotely accessing and managing their own systems. While other backup/restore solutions require a unique backup agent (installed on every target server, workstation, and laptop) for each type of system and application, the Televaulting architecture integrates support for all major platforms and applications into a single, optimized software system comprised of just two major components: the DS-Client (just one installed at each remote site) and the DS-System (installed at the vaulting location).
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What is de-duplication?
De-duplication is one of the sophisticated ways that the Asigra Televaulting reduces the raw data from your network servers across all remote offices to a size that can be transmitted over the WAN. It ensures that the same data is never transmitted offsite more than twice, thereby saving the bandwidth to transmit only new, unique data. It achieves this simple elimination by generating a digital signature of each file as it is backed up and comparing it against the known details of all previous files. If the digital signature matches a previously backed up file, it must be a duplicate and only a shortcut need be transmitted up the line. Due to the way this technique is applied, it does not matter if the files are on different servers, at different offices or even have different filenames.
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What is delta blocking? How does it work?
Delta blocking is an advanced logic that divides all files into blocks. When the file is detected to have changed, the digital signature of each block is compared against the last known digital signature for the same block of the same file (stored in the database on the DS-Client. Any blocks that are different are pulled out to be re-transmitted. These delta blocks will also be compressed and encrypted before transmission.
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What happens if a server stops or crashes during backup or if the backup is interrupted for some other reason?
If the backup is stopped, for whatever reason, it will simply continue onto the next backup in its schedule. It will not revisit the failed backup set until the next time it is set to run, e.g. the following night, at which point it will pick up where it left off. If however the problem has been rectified, and backup window allows, the backup can be restarted manually, immediately.
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How many versions of my backed up files are held offsite?
The number of versions is a parameter that the sytems administrator sets during installation. Unlike a tape backup, where the routine is to rotate tapes in a cycle, Asigra Televaulting will only back up a new version of a file when it has changed, guaranteeing that the customer is not wasting space backing up exactly the same version more than once. For example, if a file only changes once a month, there will be 7 months worth of that file. The number of versions stored can be configured on an individual backup set basis. Each backup set can be configured down to include just one file if desired, giving you the ability to maximize the efficiency of the storage.
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How does Autonomic Healing ensure successful backups and restores?
Autonomic Healing serves as a network immune system, constantly scanning all backup data for corrupted or otherwise problematic files. This can include files with data corruption or logical inconsistencies caused by third-party technologies (such as faulty RAID controllers, file systems, operating systems, disk subsystems, network packet loss, etc.). As Autonomic Healing checks backup files, it automatically corrects file and directory ID duplications, without the need of human intervention. When Autonomic Healing finds a problematic file that it can’t fix at the offsite location, it automatically triggers the system’s software at the primary site to re-synchronize and resend any corrupted files during the next scheduled backup. Autonomic Healing runs in the background, analyzing, repairing and replacing files as required – if there are any additional needs that it can’t handle, the software quickly notifies the IT backup administrators to take manual action.
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What backup benefits does 64-bit native processing deliver?
Asigra supports single or multi-core x64 processors for maximum performance and scalability. Televaulting multi-threaded backup software processes several orders of magnitude more data and allows larger data block reduction for near real-time distributed data protection. A single DS-System vault central site can support tens of thousands of concurrent backup/restore activities. 64-bit Televaulting can process block-level incremental backup and deduplication for files up to 4TB in size.
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I have a virtual server environment, what are the advantages to using Asigra for backup?
Asigra's agentless architecture enables users to restore individual VMs in a virtualized server set without having to restore the entire set of servers in the event of single-server data loss or corruption. The agentless design saves time in implementing the backup and recovery process, and provides much faster and more granular recovery in the event of a failure. File-level recovery at the VM and guest OS level extends mainstream backup abilities to virtual server environments. Live VM backup allows administrators to back up VMs in the midst of production operations without disruption to production windows. Asigra’s pre/post processors allow a smooth backup of a quiescent VM environment.
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How and to what standard is the data encrypted?
The small files and delta blocks of data are first compressed and then encrypted up to AES 256, which is set by the customer during the installation of the DS-Client. Data remains encrypted in-flight and at-rest. The backup data is only unencrypted by the DS-Client at your site when it has retrieved the encrypted data from your Data Center for a restore.
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What do you mean by compression? What happens?
Compression can be likened to letting the air out of a balloon. Although the air has gone, the structure still exists and it can be re-inflated easily. The advantage is that it takes less room. Files, especially databases, are often full of empty space, which can be removed to make the file smaller for transit, whilst making it very easy to recreate. A conservative compression to expect with Asigra Televaulting is 4:1.
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Does all of the remote office/branch office data get transferred every day?
Only new and unique data will get backed up. Duplicate or unchanged files will not be transmitted.
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What format is the data held in, i.e. on disk or tape?
The data is held on disk for rapid access times.
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At what point is the data available for restore?
The data is available for restore immediately after it has been backed up and is held offsite.
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Can an individual file or registry be restored?
Yes, you can restore an individual file or registry and also specify which version you want to restore.
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Can Asigra Televaulting perform bare-metal restores?
Assuming that the machine in question has had a full backup of all files and registry, then a full disaster recovery of that machine is very simple.
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Can data be restored to a different machine on our network?
Yes, the restore data can be redirected as desired. You are able to browse the network and provide connection credentials for the redirected restore, just as you do for creating the initial backup set.
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How does Asigra handle message level restores for emails?
The agentless Message Level Restore (MLR) module allows users to selectively back up and restore individual mailboxes and email messages for one user or for an entire network, depending on needs. Using selective filtering, administrators can save time, money and resources by restoring only selected mailboxes or emails, instead of having to restore the entire Exchange, Domino or GroupWise databases.
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Can we prioritize which data is restored in the event of a disaster?
Yes, you can select easily which files/directories/servers you wish to restore. There is no need to restore non-essential data until a later time if desired.
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How do I recover an entire ROBO site if all data is lost during a disaster?
The restore method depends upon the recovery time objectives (RTO), the amount of data to transmit and the bandwidth of line installed. Often there is too much data to restore via the WAN if the latest backup copy on local storage has been destroyed. If the actual ROBO has been destroyed then the data will be restored to an alternate DR location.
There are three methods in which data can be restored.
- Data is restored across the WAN link
- Restore data is delivered via a portable disk
- A portable DS-System can be delivered to the customer's site or alternative disaster recovery location or hot-site in the event of a major DR effort.
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How does the Web Portal module help me monitor my backup sets remotely?
The Web Portal module of Televaulting provides a web point of entry for monitoring client backups. It stores customer account and configuration information as well as Web Portal logs in a PostgreSQL database. For Service Providers, it can be set up so each VAR/referral is associated with a different DS-System IP address or DNS name and different branding.
Web Portal shows the last backup time and the completion (successful, with errors, premature) for each backup set through its reports. If the backup set completed with errors, the number of errors is shown.
A variety of summary reports summary or specific to a DS-Client can be generated to statistically review backup (the number and duration of their connections, number of activities, number of files, protected size in MB) and restore activities statistics (number of activities, number of files, over a specified period). Backup/Restore Shows a summary of the backup and restore activities for a specified period. The Web Portal module also supports mass deployment (Web API, installation templates).
Web Portal modules enable monitoring of archived data and registering restorable images online.
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