| articles
about Backup and Archiving on STORAGEsearch.com |
Squeak! - the Top 10 Storage
Software Companies - 2005 / 2006
This is the 5th
annual edition of this popular report (published January 18, 2006). The ranking
- based on analyzing millions of pageviews from over 640,000 readers during 2005
- shows what readers are actually interested in. See also:- earlier editions
of this article:-
2001,
2002,
2003,
2004.
article:-
the Impact of Compliance on Archival Storage Strategies - by Plasmon
It's difficult enough protecting and archiving your data so
that it's available to the right people at the right time (and cost). But now
that's only part of the problem. With so many new rules and regulations which
prescribe how you should destroy data records at the appropriate time - how do
you guarantee that they stay deleted? Archiving data on the wrong kind of media
could mean you run the risk of breaking the law. Advances in the
data recovery
industry, and the future cohabitation of storage search-engines both mean that
Compliance Officers have to pay much more attention to the ways in which data is
dispersed and disposed of in different types of media. This article summarizes
the strengths and weaknesses of currently available market technologies. ...Plasmon profile
article:-
Virtual Tape: Can You Afford to Ignore It? - by MaXXan Systems
Network connected disk to disk backup systems for the
enterprise have come a long way since the first pioneering products started to
appear in the pages of STORAGEsearch.com in the late 1990s. Some of the
growing sophistication in the market can be seen by the way that the marketing
terminology has morphed from the early D2d (let's kill tape backup) to the
current VTL (Virtual Tape Library - let's just see if they notice that it's
more reliable and works faster - and don't tell them that there isn't a tape in
the box) type of approaches. But if you think that speed, reliability and cost
are the only things you need to know about the "virtual" versus "real"
tape library argument - take a look at this comprehensive article which shows
there are a lot more benefits than that. ...MaXXan profile
article:-
What are Digital Vaults? - by Cyber-Ark Software
Digital
Vaults enable users across the internet to share access to sensitive information
in a simple secure way. This article by Cyber-Ark gives a brief overview on
digital vaults and looks at why they are growing in popularity. ...Cyber-Ark Software profile
article:-
Disk to Disk Backup versus Tape - War or Truce? - by Engenio
Will
disk to disk backup make tape backup obsolete? That's a question that's been
debated hotly here on STORAGEsearch for many years. At the extreme polarized
ends of the argument are tape media makers like Sony, who in
an article here made a
case for the long term survival of tape, and at the other end of the argument
are disk to disk supporters like STORAGEsearch whose
editorial view has been
that tape doesn't have a viable role the midsize market any more. In the
middle of this argument are the moderates who say that maybe tape and D2d can
co-exist. This article by Steve Gardner at Engenio takes the middle course line
- and says why he thinks there's still a place for both. See if you agree. ...Engenio profile
article:-
Privacy and Security Regulations, and How they Impact Storage Systems - by ASNP
What are the legal regulations covering the type of storage
system, backup and disaster recovery and encryption mandated for companies
operating in the US? This article answers those questions and is a sound
starting point for anyone having the duty of care and responsibility for their
corporate data. Because regulations change so quickly it's worth considering the
impact of these best practises on your own organisation even if you think you
are currently outside the scope of these laws. That will reduce the level of
panic when they creep up on you. ...ASNP profile
article:-
Solving the Problem of Backing Up Outlook for SMBs (pdf) - by Uniblue Systems
"Studies show that 80% of employees keep emails after
reading them while 78% store attachments within the email system. Analysts
estimate that each user will send/receive an average of 4.6Mb daily this year.
Since the more popular email applications (e.g., Outlook) store emails in a
single mailbox database file (e.g., the PST file), employees keep their emails
within this single file rather than in separate directories on their computers.
This causes severe problems for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB): Most
of the backup and recovery management software available today are file-centric
solutions that will backup single mailbox database files rather than individual
emails. Restores equate to replacement of single mailbox database files
resulting in losses of any incremental changes made since the last backup."
...Uniblue Systems
profile
article:-
Email Archiving and Information Lifecycle Management - by StorageTek
"In the case of contract negotiations, for example,
numerous people will contribute information to a document, which in turn needs
to be accessible to multiple users. Without an email management system in place,
confusion can arise over the content of the document and subsequently result in
a flawed contract. Or to take another example - an email detailing agreement on
activity or budget between client and vendor might make the difference between a
harmonious working relationship and a litigious one. Keeping sound records of
business communications, especially email, is vital both for the smooth running
of a company and to satisfy ever increasing legal requirements."
...StorageTek
profile
article:-
Surviving Non-traditional Data Disasters - by Sunbelt System Software
"Many companies associate disaster recovery with
catastrophic events - earthquakes, floods, fires and other natural or man-made
disasters that make data recovery from production machines nearly or totally
impossible. While organisations must plan for such events, it's just as
important to prepare for less cataclysmic possibilities, which can just as
easily bring business to a halt. Many "non-traditional" disasters
can impact the operations of your organisation. For example, gas leaks and other
facilities issues typically don't cause permanent damage but they can easily
make the entire building unusable for days or even weeks. Police investigations,
fumigations and other unavoidable problems can arise without warning,
prohibiting users from accessing data systems and possibly your entire office
space." ...Sunbelt
System Software profile
article:- Does Tape
Backup Have a Future? - by Sony
"Although
disk densities are continuing to rise, the rate of growth is expected to slow as
disk recording nears a super-paramagnetic limitation. Due to a much lower areal
recording density and much greater recording area, tape technology has the
potential to grow at a faster rate and as a result improve its cost per gigabyte
trends compared to disk. Therefore, when combined with disk in the enterprise
storage environment, the tape industry roadmap currently maintains that tape
capacity on a single cartridge must achieve 10 terabytes (uncompressed) per
cartridge by 2011, and must reach 1TB (uncompressed) on a single cartridge by
2006 on its way to reaching the 10 year goal." ...Sony profile
article:-
Developing a Disaster Recovery Procedure - by BakBone Software
"A Disaster Recovery Plan usually cannot be written by
the IT Deparment alone and should not be created for a given computer or data
center. Typically, effective Disaster Recovery plans are a long-term project
that cannot be attempted without standard operating procedures, logbooks, data
flow diagra m s, problem isolation procedures and a reliable tape backup
rotation schedule. Formulation of a corporate-wide standardized Disaster
Recovery plan will result in faster isolation of application bugs, fewer
operational mistakes, fewer support personnel and requirements, and overall
easier system and application maintenance." ...BakBone Software profile
article:- Email
Recovery? - Don't rely on your backup! - by KVS
"Can
You Find The Emails? Your purchasing department has been negotiating a vital
contract and to speed things up a lot of the negotiation takes place via email.
The negotiation is concluded over a period of one month. Two years later the
contract is in dispute and a court of law asks for all evidence supporting your
claims about the contract. Email is a critical part of your case and you need to
find all relevant email." ...KVS profile
article:-
Dispelling the Myths of Online Server Backup & Recovery - by AmeriVault
"Myth #3: Online Backup can't handle a fortune 500
company's data. Handling large amounts of data over relatively small bandwidth
is a popular feature of online backup. An initial backup or "seed" of
the server's data is extracted. The Delta Processing technology then seeks out
updated portions of changed files. Only the fragmented change of data is sent to
the vault. Large-volume and highly redundant disk storage systems store the data
online. Online backup providers service businesses with a responsibility to
ensure that storage space is always available, no matter what the size. To
further data integrity, reliability and recovery, the massive amounts of data
online are backed up to tape on a daily basis, and shipped to an underground
vault for safekeeping." ...AmeriVault profile
article:- Do CDs
and DVDs Have a Long Term Future as Digital Storage?
"CDs
have already been around for 20 years - so that may seem like forever and you
may think that DVDs too will still be around just as long. But my own view is
that these are merely short term stepping stones to something else in the same
way that scrolls and loose collections of paper were a transient phase which
gave way to the bound book."
article:-
Predicting the Long Term Future of Hard Disks, Tape and Optical Storage
"Being a good guesser is important for you too,
whether you're a buyer, vendor or developer of storage systems and products.
Investing time and effort into dead end technologies is wasteful of your time
and money because if you choose a loser you may have to scrap your current
strategy and start all over again instead of reaping the rewards of incremental
improvements which you get by backing the winners."
article:-
Facilitating New Workstation Deployment with a Disk-to-Disk Backup System
- by Data Storage Depot
"A NAS Data Protection Unit with bare metal
restore capability can be redeployed as a system cloning tool to simplify the
standardization and distribution of new applications, desktops and servers in
heterogeneous network environments. ...Data Storage Depot
profile
article:-
Protecting Enterprise Data in Real Time - by Storactive
"When backup was initially designed, technology and
cost limitations hindered the achievement of a zero data loss solution. Now, new
technology developments have enabled software developers to rediscover backup
software's original promise."
...Storactive
profile
article:- What
Makes A Great External Hard Drive? - by Olixir Technologies (pdf)
"Sisk drives have long been a preferred media from an
ease-of-use standpoint because of their random access file structure. For
example, backup is made much easier with hard drives compared to tape by
reducing both the cataloging process from hours to minutes, as well as
dramatically reducing restoration time from hours to minutes (no more cartridge
shuffle when disk drives are used)... While other external disk-based data
storage solutions typically cannot withstand a drop of even 3 inches, the
Olixir Mobile DataVault withstands up to 7-foot drops on concrete." ...Olixir Technologies profile
article:-
Archive Storage: Evolving into Mainstream Storage Solutions - by
Pegasus Disk Technologies
"The need for these
fault tolerant near-line storage solutions is because digital records are prone
to becoming lost or damaged just like paper. It is all too easy to misplace a
single bit, even erase or damage it unknowingly during the life of the stored
data. If this happens there is the chance that the software's ability to
retrieve and read that data accurately is lost, and thus the record could be
lost… Forever! Archiving is not solely about saving space on your RAID
system. Hard disk storage is becoming very affordable. The point of archiving is
to retain your data for future use. It is pointless to archive if you cannot
retrieve any piece of your data quickly and efficiently." ...Pegasus Disk Technologies
profile
article:-
the Data Emergency Guide - consumer version - by ActionFront Data Recovery (pdf)
"This section outlines the major symptoms of data
loss. What to do and what NOT to do when experiencing data loss is covered under
the heading - Data Recovery Process: What to do first." ...ActionFront Data Recovery
profile
article:-
Backup Technologies Proliferate
"Today, a
number of storage and communications technologies have converged into the backup
applications area. The result is that data users have a wider choice of backup
options than ever before."
article:- Using
Remote Disk and Tape for Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery - by CNT
"Historically there have been inherent performance
problems with tape backup over distance that limited its role in Business
Continuity/Disaster Recovery planning. The primary reason for this limited
role is the sequential nature of tape I/O operations, which makes tape backup
highly sensitive to the latency that accompanies distance. Unlike disk-based
operations in which blocks can be written in parallel, tape I/O for a single
block must complete before the next block can be written.."
...CNT profile
article:-
Storage Virtualization Means More Than One Media - by Pegasus Disk Technologies
"It is a fallacy that hard drives do not fail in array
products. In fact, RAID exists because hard drives do fail. Simple statistics
show that a 50-device array will loose on average three drives per year. If the
system is a RAID device, chances are the data can be reconstructed or is
mirrored on another drive, but if the device is a JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks)
the data will be lost." ...Pegasus Disk Technologies
profile
article:-
Storage Administrators: A Changing of the Guard in IT - by MTI Technology
"Until recently, it was rare to find someone with the
title of storage administrator within enterprises. But the rapid implementation
of storage systems and their complex nature has presented the need for IT
personnel with specialized skill sets. Unfortunately, some businesses are
approaching this challenge the wrong way. In today's competitive economic
climate, there has been a focus on cost-cutting, and IT is no exception. As a
result, many network or system administrators are increasingly being charged to
take on the role of storage administrator as well." ...MTI Technology profile
article:-
Data Recovery for Sun Servers - by ActionFront Data Recovery
"On
March 8th - a quiet Saturday, the systems administrator wrote a script to
perform the migration and then decided to test the script with the actual copy
commands "commented-out". He made a typo error in the copy command, in
effect instructing the main data storage to copy onto itself, and then
compounded his mistake by commenting-out the wrong line. He initiated the test
run which then attempted to copy each file over itself. Under the Solaris/UNIX
file system this over-wrote the file inodes – erasing all file allocation
information and truncating each file to zero length. Overwriting directory
information, unlike the actual copying of data, is a very quick process and the
damage was done almost instantly." ...ActionFront Data Recovery
profile
article:- A
Day in the Life of a CIO - by VERITAS Software
"The
Futurologist: The CIO has to be up on all new technology trends, understanding
the credibility of emerging technologies for their IT landscape."
...VERITAS profile
article:-
Data Backup: Tape vs. Disk - by DataZone
"Times
have changed and today's system/drive designers have significantly reduced the
cost of disk drives making them more competitive with tape systems. Even more
important is the fact that tape is slow and sequential making it difficult to
find files quickly. Disk drives on the other hand, offer direct random access,
significant time saving (time = money), and read/write efficiency that
translates into increased productivity and lower operating costs." ...DataZone profile
article:- Data
Storage Protection Risks and Rewards - by NeoScale Systems (pdf)
"Enterprise storage used to exist in a
relatively fixed, centralized, controlled environment where physical security,
access controls and known administrative entities satisfied requirements for
management due diligence. In the wake of greater demand for storage capacity,
application availability and business continuity, most enterprises will migrate
to networked storage. Storage implementers must address known SAN security
challenges in order to realize the benefits of greater resource utilization and
data accessibility. The most costly information technology security losses occur
through theft of proprietary data, and backend storage resources represent prime
targets. In addition, regulations governing finance, commerce, healthcare and
government data use have created obligations to ensure data privacy at all
storage levels.
No security system is a "silver bullet." A tiered defense
strategy incorporates system and device configuration, testing, auditing and
monitoring, access authentication, LUN masking and port zoning, physical access
controls, and data storage protection during transport, on the storage subsystem
and on the media. To protect backend stored data, block-level data encryption
can be employed to eliminate the risk of unauthorized access stored data "in
flight" and "at rest." Storage security appliances can be a key
part of a storage protection strategy." ...NeoScale Systems profile
article:-
South Nassau Communities Hospital Nurses its Data - by FilesX
"The
art of anticipating disaster is often built in response to close calls, and the
hospital was recently struck by power failures of different scales. As Connor
recalls, "During the Northeast Blackout the hospital was affected, though
our systems were not compromised. We get our power comes from Rockville Centre,
which has its own generators. The hospital was down for about four hours, but we
were running off our own backup generators. The hospital is a high priority for
restoring electricity, so compared to other businesses the impact was minimal."
...FilesX profile
article:-
Introducing WORM Hard Disk Drives
"WORM Hard
Disk Drives will be coming to the market in a year or so. Remember where you
heard it first. The same place which predicted the convergence of services,
online content and storage which became embodied as Apple's iPod and iTunes."
article:-
New Year Resolutions - Storage Security and Compliance - by Cyber-Ark Software
Surviving your own storage security disaster can be a
harrowing experience. Not all disasters are avoidable. But you can learn from
the mistakes of others. This article, which lists many bloopers, will make you
think about new year resolutions connected with storage data security and
compliance. But whatever the time of year this subject is worthy of your serious
attention. ...Cyber-Ark
Software profile |
| articles
about Backup on other sites |
article:- Ten
Tips to Faster Backups - by Overland Storage.
"There
isn't a wizard behind a curtain that will help speed your backups, but there is
a formula for successfully cutting backup and recovery time. By following 10
simple tips, backup managers can heal many of their storage headaches."
...Overland Storage
profile
article:-
Remote Backup Service Providers - Clarifying the Value Proposition - by Remote
Backup Systems
"Many low-cost data service
companies actually derive substantial revenue from selling advertising space on
their service's website or product user interface, or by making their clients'
email addresses and contact information available to advertisers and 'business
partners'. Ads + Spam = Revenue!"
Article related vendor:-
Remote Backup
Systems
article:- Raise Storage
Capacity without Wrecking the Budget - by QStar (pdf)
How
a major telco saved $70,000 in the first year alone, using an optical library
and QStar's HSM software to reduce runaway storage costs on EMC RAID systems.
Article related vendor:-
QStar
article:-
Archive Life After the Hard Drive- by Pegasus (pdf)
"Most
of the fixed disk compliance solutions use low cost ATA disks. The manufacturer
usable life of these disks are in the range of 3-5 years. All of these solutions
use RAID technology to protect the data from failing disks, however, this is a
cost that can be mitigated with longer-term removable media. The use of
long-term media limits the number of time data must be migrated within the same
media type throughout their life cycle. Limiting the number of times data must
be migrated, reduces the chance of data loss or corruption as well as reducing
the cost of managing the data over time."
Article related vendor:-
Pegasus Disk Technologies
case
study:- Sony Manufacturing (LiveArchive for Oracle) - by OuterBay
"Sony's key transaction tables were growing by two
million rows per week. Accumulated data made it impossible to reliably predict
response times. Data integrity concerns required verification of data retention
during archiving. Sony was faced with a dilemma. With this massive build up of
data the performance of their Oracle Applications was beginning to degrade. But
there was a real fear that removing the historic data could cause it to
disappear. Sony needed a robust archiving solution for Oracle Applications."
Article
related vendor:- OuterBay
case
study:- Conseco Finance Corporation's SANs - by DataCore Software
"Over the past five years Conseco Finance's storage
demands have risen rapidly as they expanded and consolidated data center
capacity. Over the same period Conseco Finance acquired seven enterprise EMC
Symmetrix arrays - for a total of 70TBs of capacity. Conseco Finance was in
the process of completing two initiatives: (1) consolidating Novell print and
file servers for regional offices and (2) deploying a large-scale Citrix
Metaframe/XP environment for various loan processing and financial applications.
Conseco Finance needed to protect the consolidated data and applications with
remote replication, as well as to meet the challenge of configuring and managing
storage for more than 135 new servers."
Article related vendor:-
DataCore Software
article:-
Microsoft's Volume Shadow- Copy Service and Its Role in an Organization's Total
Backup Strategy - by NovaStor (pdf)
"Volume
Shadow-Copy Service (VSS) is an open file backup framework included in Microsoft
Windows XP and Server 2003. It supplies an in-box snapshot provider and a shadow
volume service that coordinates and performs an open file backup at a defined
point in time. As with any new technology, there are reported pros and cons to
VSS. Companies that want to use Windows-based NAS and SAN products will
undoubtedly be interested in this Windows 2003 innovation. Likewise, companies
with open file backup solutions already in place will want to know how VSS
differs from the product they are already using. This paper provides an overview
of the strengths and weaknesses of Microsoft's VSS. It also reviews the problem
of backing up data while files and applications are open --known as the open
file problem-- and describes the pros and cons of current industry solutions to
this dilemma."
Article related vendor:-
NovaStor
article:-
My Laptop Was Stolen - by Safe Harbor Data
"One
of the worst feelings I have ever had was the day my laptop was stolen. There is
nothing that can prepare you for the feeling of loss and the dread that comes
with knowing that your personal data is gone forever."
article:-
Disaster Recovery Testing Doesn't Have to be a Disaster - by VERITAS
"There has been no way to avoid at least some level
of disruption to the production environment - you don't want to create an IT
disaster while you're trying to avoid another one. If the only way to overcome
the obstacles is to schedule the tests between midnight and 6 a.m. on a holiday
weekend, it's no surprise that 70% of data center managers haven't rushed to
test their disaster recovery plans - even if it is the right thing to do."
case
study:- Extreme Internet Leaves No Data to Chance - by Backup for Workgroups
"Realizing they would have to replace the file server
hard drive, Burton discovered that restoration would not be a simple task. To
get the file server back up as quickly as possible, he had to copy the customer
content from the file copy backup to a third server, then configure the new
server hard drive to access the content, a process that took much longer than he
would have liked to complete. After this time-consuming event, Burton realized
that "we had a backup and restore process in place, but I would like toget
away from the usual 'install Windows, install all the applications then
reconfigure everything' model. That just doesn't cut it in a zero-downtime
environment.""
case
study:- St. Agnes HealthCare Finds Cure for Data Backup Ailments with HyperTape
- by BridgeHead Software (pdf)
"St. Agnes
HealthCare is a full service teaching hospital serving the mid-Atlantic area..
St. Agnes needed a reliable backup solution for their MEDITECH databases. Key to
the solution was the efficient backup and restore of the MEDITECH EMR database,
providing complete integrity of their data. In addition, the system would need
to be capable of expanding with St. Agnes as it realizes its future growth
objectives and implements additional hardware and software to support that
growth."
free
ebook:- The Backup Book: Disaster Recovery from Desktop to Data Center - from
VERITAS
"Your main goal is to backup all the
data you can as often as possible, and you'll learn the what, when, where, and
how of backing up your data—while maximizing your resources. "
FAQS - How to back
up, edit, and restore the registry in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 - by
Microsoft
case
study:- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council - by Atempo
"Environment:- 120 Windows servers, 100 Unix servers
(Solaris, Tru64), 10 Quantum ATL P4000 series Gigabit Ethernet libraries, 4 ATL
P1000 SCSI libraries & Network Appliance filers. Current active research
data uses 45 TB of online storage that requires regular backup." |
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Sanitization
Methods for Cleaning Up Hard Disk Drives - article by Intelligent Computer
Solutions
Removing the data on old unwanted disk drives has
become a concern for all users.
In 2005
Pointsec found that
they were able to read 7 out of 10 hard-drives bought over the Internet
at auctions such as eBay, for less than the cost of a McDonald's meal, all of
which had "supposedly" been "wiped-clean" or "re-formatted".
This article reviews the various methods available to sanitize hard disks along
with the advantages and disadvantages in each case....read the article,
...Intelligent Computer
Solutions profile,
disk sanitizers | |
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Xytron specializes in
the restoration of data
from failed media, software and associated
peripherals, and has its own clean room
and data recovery lab in the UK.
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Squeak! -
Why are Most Analysts Wrong About Solid State Disks?
Most
analysts and editors of other computer publications don't really understand the
solid state disk market. They show their ignorance and naivete by prefacing
every discussion of SSDs with a superficial analysis which compares the cost per
byte of storage between flash and hard disk drives. That's the wrong answer to
the wrong question. And it's far removed from why the SSD market is racing to
become a multi billion dollar market seemingly in blithe ignorance of the cost
per byte proposition.
This article tells you what's important to
users and the main applications in which SSDs are already being used and new
applications where they will be used in the next 3 years. ...read the
article, Solid State Disks |
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Nibble:- Sometimes it's the Backup Media which Fails
If
you haven't encountered an unrecoverable error in your backup system then you
probably aren't doing enough backups.
I've lost count of the number of
times this had happened to me over the last 30 years with media as diverse as
hard disk, tape, optical, floppy, EPROM, punched cards and paper tape. Yes I
did say 30 years - and in the early days of the microprocessor when the 8080 was
still a hot product - then many of us used paper tape.
But it doesn't
matter how long you've been doing backups it still comes as a surprise when it's
the backup system itself which develops a fault. I was reminded of this last
week when it happened to me. The strange thing is it took me hours and several
iterations to figure out what was going on, even though I had had an almost
identical problem about 3 years before.
It was late - so when I set off
a new complete system backup on a rotated hard drive I didn't bother to hang
around to see how it would end. (That's unusual. Mostly I never leave the office
without a backup.)
Next morning it looked like it had completed - but
the report message was different. Looking at the directory on the backup drive -
there certainly was a new file there and it was pretty big - although maybe
smaller than I had expected. I concluded that when I set off the backup the
previous night - I had been tired and might have accidentally set up a parameter
differently. So I set it off again and got back to work.
This time the
report was the same, but when I looked at the backup drive directly the backup
size was zero bytes. Had I accidentally set up an incremental backup? It looked
weird - but still like an operator error (mea culpa). So I decided to just back
up a small subdirectory which would only take a few minutes and this time watch
the screen to see what was going on.
That was worth it - because I got
a transient message saying "disk full" - even though this wasn't
mentioned in the saved report.
That explains it - I thought. So I went
to have a closer look. Maybe the backup disk was full - and that was the
original problem. So I deleted a couple of older backup rotations from the disk
from about 13 months ago and restarted yet another backup - this time smaller.
But that failed too.
It took me a few more minutes to realize
that whereas I could read quite clearly from the backup disk - I got problems
whenever I tried to write to it. Swapping out for another drive isolated the
fault. It wasn't in my PC - but in the media. Then I remembered about the flaky
disk, one of a batch of 4 which had caused me so many problems about 3 years
before. It was definitely a media error. Why hadn't I spotted it quicker? This
was just the same thing at the other end of the bathtub curve. Silly me!
Anyway
- I stuck a label on the offending drive and put it in a cupboard for future
destruction (with a sledgehammer or log splitter in case you're interested in
the messy details) and went back to doing another complete (this time
successful) backup on another disk.
Which brings me to another point.
You actually need at least 3 sets of easily retrievable media which you
rotate between for your backups. That's in addition to anything you have as your
off site backup. Most people think you just need 2 - but that's a recipe for
disaster.
I was lucky this time because I already had a good backup on
another disk from the day before, and a backup on the web. But what if the fault
had been in my PC and not in the backup drive? You can easily trash one set of
media (be it tape or disk) by an electrical or other system fault. Then when you
try to isolate the problem by switching to another set of media you will trash a
second set - before you realize that the common element is the base system. If
you've only got 2 sets of backup media which are conveniently locatable (but not
in the same building) then you're going to have a nervous phase you go through
before you get back into a safe situation again.
Oh yes and make sure
that in your spare sets of backups you've also got all the cables you need, and
the installation disks for the media and the software just in case the backup
software goes bust just when you need to do a restore. And if you use hardware
encryption make sure you've got spares of those systems too.
My own
backup strategy has two parts:- the convenient and the disaster recovery.
In convenient mode - if the worst happens I can just get a new working notebook
which has already been set up with all my applications from a fireproof safe in
a different building and then restore from whichever backup is most easily
accessible. The convenient strategy hit a snag last summer due to wasps nests
appearing right on top of one of the backups. But this year I've been wacking
the new nests while they're still small enough not to retaliate in force.
In
disaster mode - I have what I call my credit card recovery situation. In which I
use my credit card to buy a new system from the nearest store - and have to be
sure that my stash of backups can reinstall critical applications and data in
less than 8 hours. It's good to test your own backup regime from time to time -
but real life is always more perplexing and takes you longer to deal with than
the planned tests. | |
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5 Easy Tips to Properly Store Tape Media
Cartridges by Sony
The portability of tape data storage
media has made tape-based storage systems a perennial favorite for disaster
recovery applications. Tapes can easily and, more importantly, inexpensively be
duplicated and stored offsite in case a disaster causes data outages on the
primary storage system. Improper storage of the offsite tape cartridges,
however, often furthers the disaster by corrupting the stored data or causing
the backup tapes to fail altogether. Here are five easy, but often overlooked,
tips to ensure that your backup tapes are stored properly and are fully
functional when you truly need them.
- Stay away from all stray magnetic fields
Tape storage has a tempestuous love/hate relationship with magnetic fields. The
recording process for tape storage media is dependent on the active magnetic
material. Unfortunately, magnetic materials are also used to erase and write
over previously recorded information. As a precaution, always keep tape
cartridges away from stray magnetic fields because even small magnetic sources
can compromise the data stored on tape. If you're storing backup tapes
offsite for disaster recovery purposes, make sure you thoroughly test your tape
storage locations for magnetic fields. A tape's magnetic fields, and thus its
content, can be corrupted by something as innocent as an industrial floor
cleaner. When in doubt, test first.
.
- Store tapes at recommended temperatures and humidity
Most manufacturers recommend storing tape cartridges at a temperature
between 59F and 77F, and between 40% and 60% humidity. A good rule of thumb is
to check your own comfort level. If you're comfortable, chances are your tapes
are comfortable too. Also make sure to avoid sudden temperature changes, even
within the recommended range, because tape can expand or contract. If a sudden
temperature change is expected, try to give the tape 24 hours to adjust to the
new climate before use. If condensation occurs, wipe off any dew from the shell
or reel and allow the tape to dry naturally. Make a working copy when the tape
is dry.
.
- Rewind or forward tape every three years
Over time, long periods of inactivity can cause the tape layers within
stored cartridges to stick together. To prevent this from happening, "exercise"
tapes every three years by fully rewinding or forwarding the tape. Rewind or
forward the tapes at slower speeds whenever possible to maintain high
performance.
.
- Store tapes upright and in the case
Stacking tape cartridges on top of each other can warp their shells,
so always store tapes upright on either their sides or ends. Whenever possible,
make sure to keep the cartridges in their original cases.
.
- Put the labels on correctly
Only apply labels where they belong on the tape. This may seem
obvious, but it often causes unnecessary tape failures. Improperly placed
labels can interfere with cassette loading, degrade the tape alignment or even
peel off inside the recording mechanism.
...Sony profile
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How Asigra
Helped DS3 DataVaulting Automatically Heal 100+ Terabytes of Online Backup
Storage - (Case study)
As Stacy Hayes walked past
the 100-plus terabytes of backup data in DS3 DataVaulting's facility,
Asigra's Autonomic Healing was working efficiently to guarantee that
client data was fully protected and available for immediate online restoration.
Hayes, one of the core executives of DS3, had searched for technology
that would solve the hidden corruption and data integrity issues that plague
tape backup. What he found brought the company a world-class solution for
enhanced data protection.
Backup service provider DS3 Datavaulting selected Asigra's Autonomic
Healing functionality to deliver what no tape backup can provide:
guaranteed data integrity with zero corruption.
Choosing Asigra, the
technology leader in agentless multi-site backup and recovery software for
network computing, DS3 gained an automated method to verify the validity of all
backup data, correct any problems encountered with data corruption or logical
inconsistencies caused by third-party products and ensure readiness for data
recovery.
"The Asigra Televaulting software's Autonomic Healing allows us
to fully guarantee the integrity of our client data, and that's something that
simply cannot be said of tape," said Hayes, vice president of operations
and business development of DS3 DataVaulting. "With tape, you never know if
your backup is corrupted, and you won't know until you try to restore data. At
that point, you have a real problem on your hands. Asigra's Autonomic Healing
provides us with an automated way to identify and correct problematic files in
our backups, bringing enhanced capabilities that are a quantum leap forward over
what tape can deliver."
Running transparently in the background, DS3 uses Autonomic Healing
to serve 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 off-site 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 – again, without human intervention.
"Autonomic Healing looks at data headers and tags to continually
verify that everything is in place, and if not, there are many options to repair
the files," continued Hayes. "As an automated process, Autonomic
Healing can easily acquire a new copy of an affected file by going back to the
source data and simply grabbing a newer version. Autonomic Healing runs in the
background, analyzing, repairing and replacing files as required – and if
there are any additional needs that it can't handle, the software quickly
notifies our administrators to take manual action."
"Autonomic Healing provides backup administrators and backup
service providers with an automated method to constantly monitor and repair
backup files before data corruption becomes a serious issue," said Eran
Farajun, executive vice president of Asigra. "With Asigra's Televaulting,
and its Autonomic Healing capabilities, companies protect critical information
on a 24x7 basis, automatically keeping data in a valid state and ensuring top
readiness for any restore operation. When you are delivering backup as a utility
service, whether internally or externally, it's all about the recovery SLA.
Asigra's known that for more than 19 years."
According to Brad O'Neill, senior analyst at
Taneja Group, "Pre-empting
third party data corruption in the backup process is a great differentiator for
Asigra and its multi-site service provider partners. For IT teams using Asigra,
they should realize that this capability means the elimination of manual
interventions for integrity checks. That's a big win."
A Comprehensive Approach for Protection of Distributed Data
Asigra Televaulting for Service Providers is a WAN platform
solution that delivers backup/restore service as a utility. Using Asigra, DS3
DataVaulting installs agentless client software on only one node at each remote
customer site, regardless of whether they have one or hundreds of servers within
a heterogeneous LAN environment. This approach enables DS3 to provide
centralized and automated backups of PCs, file servers and application/database
servers to secure off-site storage with the ability for immediate recovery, if
needed.
Asigra Televaulting for Service Providers incorporates everything
needed to deploy, provision and start selling storage services, including
business features not typically available from off-the-shelf backup software
packages. Its built-in multi-tiered storage billing system saves the time and
expense of developing or modifying an existing billing system. Televaulting's
agentless architecture ensures that installation and maintenance is fast and
easy. Advanced security features, including authentication, strong encryption of
data "in-flight" and "at-rest" and non-escrowed keys,
provide the peace of mind customers expect. Televaulting's self-healing and
autonomous architecture ensures that managed backup/restore service is always
available.
...Asigra profile,
...DS3 Datavaulting profile,
online backup,
Backup Software,
Tape backup,
Disk to disk backup
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