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you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions about Backup Professional.
If you dont see an answer, please
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Q:
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Can
Backup Professional backup my Oracle 8 database using hot
archive mode?
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A:
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The
Backup Professional Oracle module effectively backs up Oracle
7, 8 and 9. There are many ways to configure this module.
It can be used in conjunction with hot archive mode, cold
archive mode and replica mode. Additionally, this module
will capture the Oracle redo log file when it is completed
and immediately append it to tape or put it on a virtual
disk archive for safe keeping. The database is backed up
in a very coherent state suitable for restoring. Backup
Professional understands the virtual space inside of the
Oracle database files and removes this so the archive media
does not contain this. This greatly improves restore time
and saves space on tapes and disks.
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Q:
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Can
Backup Professional backup my Oracle log files every 15
minutes as they are created by the Oracle system?
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A:
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This
capability is included within the Oracle Module. This capability
is also available with Backup Professional DataSweep™
technology. It looks for the creation of a log file by Oracle
which has all transactions that have transpired in the last
15 minutes. This log file is backed up and appended to the
tape every 15 minutes as each one is created.
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Q:
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Can
Backup Professional backup my Informix, Progress or Sybase
databases?
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A:
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The
before command of Backup Professional is used to put the
database into hot archive mode. Following this a backup
is done of the database itself, then the after command is
run which takes the database out of hot archive mode and
puts it into regular mode. Because Backup Professional can
so easily append backups to a tape, it is preferable to
set up a database backup as a special profile. Then this
can be scheduled at any time. Keep in mind that when you
do this it is advisable to exclude the database directory
from the system backup since it is usually done as a separate
task.
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Q:
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Can
Backup Professional be used to backup a network consisting
of only three Windows 98 machines?
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A:
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No,
Backup Professional requires a server. At the time of this
writing we support nine server platforms. NT will be coming
in the near future. Windows 95/98 is not one of the servers.
The backup model used by Backup Professional is that of
a client server and there are no current plans to support
Win95 or Win98 being used as a server. However, there are
plans underway to support Windows 2000 as a server, so please
check our server list frequently.
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Q:
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Will
Backup Professional support my IDE tape drive?
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A:
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Backup
Professional will support the IDE tape drive if you can
read and write both rewind and no rewind device using the
tar utility shipped with your platform. In this case, you
will be unable to use advanced positioning and fast seek.
The advanced positioning is used for positioning two different
file sets on a tape for either backup or restore. Quick
seek is used when restoring a file to quickly seek to this
file.
With
an IDE tape drive the restore process will be slower because
there is no quick seek capability. Therefore, if you have
not already purchased a tape drive, we suggest you purchase
one that is fully SCSI compatible.
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Q:
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Will
Backup Professional support my Onstream tape drive?
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A:
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This
tape drive will run under Windows NT and will require special
drivers. In addition, there is a version that runs under
Linux. Even though the tape is said to be SCSI, to the best
of our knowledge it is not a fully compliant SCSI 2 compatible
tape drive. It requires special drivers to handle rewriting
data and the like. Therefore, this tape drive can only be
supported in low level mode. In low level mode we do not
support advanced tape positioning or a fast seek restore.
This tape drive will require a call to our technical support
staff to set up some special tape command adjustments in
your master initialization file.
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Q:
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Do
you support my particular tape library?
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A:
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Backup
Professional will support all SCSI 2 and/or SCSI 3 compliant
tape libraries. This includes jukeboxes which have separate
SCSI ID for the changer arm as well as autoloaders whose
changer arm is addressed using LUN 1. (logical unit number
1)
We
have certified and tested Backup Professional with auto
changers from all the major manufacturers including ADIC,
Overland Data, Quantum, Sony, Seagate, Hewlett-Packard,
and Qualstar.
Backup
Professional has over seventeen different auto changer
drivers that it can interface with. In addition, the Backup
Professional can be customized to interface with just
about any set of auto changer drivers. Therefore, it is
very easy to configure Backup Professional for auto changer
drivers that do not ship as part of the product.
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Q:
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Does
Backup Professional support SMTP alerts?
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A:
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Backup
Professional can be customized to include SMTP alerts by
modifying the reporting command which is invoked after a
scheduled backup has completed. This could be completed
in a fairly short period of time by a knowledgeable shell
programmer.
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Q:
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Does
Backup Professional backup open files under Windows NT/2000
or Win 98/95?
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A:
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Backup
Professional Agents now have a built-in enhanced open file
manager. This enhanced open file manager allows Backup Professional
to backup up open files as if they were in a frozen state.
Additionally, Backup Professional Agents will lock the files
before they are backed up, so that no other software can
change them until the backup of that file is complete. Several
levels of locking are provided. Registry files which are
in constantly in use by the system are backed up using a
different method, that allow individual hive, branch and
key restore. You can create a list of files which are considered
okay to skip and will not generate an error message.
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Q:
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Does
Backup Professional have a module to backup Microsoft Exchange
Server under Windows NT?
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A:
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Backup
Professional Microsoft Exchange Module is now available
and can properly backup Microsoft Exchange Server. This
can be done with a minimum of down time to the Exchange
Server (5-10 minutes on most systems).
This
is done by creating a custom backup profile. The before
command of the backup profile temporarily shuts down the
exchange server database engine. Then the exchange server
data directory is backed up. Following this, the after
command restarts the exchange server. This provides for
a complete backup of the exchange server with a minimum
of down time.
A
restore profile can be custom created to restore the entire
exchange server should the need arise. Like the backup
profile, the before and after commands stop and then start
the exchange server database engine.
Also,
please note that Backup Professional will soon be available
with hot file backup. This is described in the previous
FAQ. This allows Backup Professional to get a backup snapshot
of the Microsoft Exchange Server product as well as the
other files on the hard disk without ever having to shutdown
the exchange server database engine. This allows 24x7
use of the Microsoft Exchange Server.
If
you want to be able to restore an individual mailbox at
any given date and time using Backup Professional there
are techniques available to accomplish this by restoring
to a separate location.
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Q:
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Does
Backup Professional backup Novell NDS under Novell 4.0 or
4.x and 5.x?
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A:
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Backup
Professional does not specifically backup the NDS subsystem.
However, you can run a utility using the before command
of a Backup Professional profile and unload the NDS database
into a frozen state. This frozen state can be backed up
and then when it is restored a likewise utility can be used
to reload this.
As
a rule of thumb, the NDS takes care of itself with other
servers on the network.
It
is our current plan for Backup Professional to work with
the open file manager module for Novell 4.0, 5.0 and this
will allow a backup of the NDS system.
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Q:
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Does
Backup Professional backup Novell binary under Novell 3.x?
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A:
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Yes,
Backup Professional does backup this binary. During the
backup when backing up the binary files, it goes through
the binary on a record-by-record basis and backs each record
up even though the binary could be changing while the backup
is occurring.
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Q:
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Can
I administer Backup Professional from my PC
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A:
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Backup
Professional can be administered from anywhere in the network.
The administration can be done using the character interface
from a telnet session. If you desire to use the X interface
to administer the product you will need to install an X
server on your PC such as the Humming Bird product or Vision
FS. These have been tested and run fine under Win95, Win98
and Windows NT.
Backup
Professional also runs through SCO Tarantella. This allows
any browser on any PC or other machine access to the full
server X Window interface.
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Q:
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Does
Backup Professional support multiple streaming tape drives
simultaneously?
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A:
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Yes,
in fact Backup Professional can be backing up multiple clients
at one time to multiple tape drives. Each backup is an independent
session. This allows for maximum throughput. The limitations
of Backup Professional in this regard is only limited by
the number of tape drives that you can install on your server.
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Q:
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I
have three Backup Professionals installed each on its own
machine with its own tape drive. Can I administer all three
from a single site?
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A:
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In
the current release of Backup Professional, each server
is an independent entity. It has its own database and task
scheduler. However, all three can be administered from a
single site using X windows by displaying the output from
the session on each of the three servers to a single site.
Additionally, all the reporting and printing of all the
servers can be consolidated so that they go to a simple
source.
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Q:
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I have used some other backup products and they did not
restore to DLLs that are in use by Windows NT. I must then
manually copy these in from a DOS floppy.
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A:
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Backup
Professional will restore DLLs to running system of NT.
If the DLL is in use Backup Professional will note this
and on the next reboot install it before Windows NT is even
up and running.
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Q:
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Does
Backup Professional support a Solaris Intel Client?
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A:
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Backup
Professional does support Solaris Intel 2.5, 2,6, 7.0 and
8.0. This distribution is the same as the generic System
V Release 4 (SVR4) release and the ftp download file is
called "svr4_cnt".
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Q:
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Does
Backup Professional support Free BSD client?
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A:
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Yes,
there is a Backup Professional client support for Free BSD
3.3 or higher.
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Q:
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Does
Backup Professional support Open BSD?
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A:
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Backup
Professional supports a client for BSDI. However, you can
install the Linux compatibility package under Open BSD and
use the Linux client of Backup Professional. You must have
the "linux_base" package installed and you must
put the keyword linux_enable=YES in the rc.conf file.
Additionally,
you must run the following command:
brandelf
-f Linux /usr/bp/bin/bkup
This
works for Free BSD 3.3 or higher.
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Q:
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How
does Backup Professional behave when it restores its own
database on top of itself while it is running?
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A:
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This
has been tested and works fine with a few exceptions. Since
the task table is restored obviously the old tasks are no
longer valid and they are detected and canceled. Therefore,
if you are running a backup and restore the entire Backup
Professional directory you will notice that your tasks will
disappear in the task table. Backup Professional will behave
the same as it did at the point when the backup was taken.
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Q:
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Does
Backup Professional backup Banyon Vines?
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A:
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No,
not at this time. It is our understanding that Banyon Vine
runs under a BSD version of Unix. We do support the BSDI
version of Unix but at this time we do not support the Free
BSD version of Unix. At some point in the future we do plan
to have a Free BSD client and at that time we do expect
this will backup a Banyon Vines server.
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Q:
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My
Demo has expired, can I get a Demo Extension?
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A:
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In
most cases the demo evaluation period is adequate time to
evaluate the product. However, in extenuating circumstances
it is possible to extend your evaluation period. You will
need to go in theHelp->License Management and generate
a demo extension request.
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Q:
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Do
you handle files over 2 Gigabytes?
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A:
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On
operating systems that support files over 2 Gigabytes, we
support this. This includes but is not limited to Solaris
Intel X86, UnixWare 7, Sun Solari , Linux, HP UX 11 and
higher, AIX 4.2 and higher, DEC Alpha and SGI 6.x with 64
bit CPU's.
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Q:
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Do
you support Macintosh or OS/2?
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A:
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No,
these clients are not supported. Currently there are no
plans to support these clients. We suggest the Dantz Backup
Solution for the Macintosh and the IBM solutions which are
based on Sytos for the OS/2 machines.
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Q:
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I
have a Unix Client I do not see on the list of supported
clients. Can Backup Professional be ported to this client?
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A:
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Upon
special request and for a porting fee, the Backup Professional
client component can be ported to other Unix platforms.
This would be done for an order involving a large number
of clients for which no existing client port has been done.
Call our sales staff for details on the process and costs
involved.
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Q:
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Does
Backup Professional support data encryption?
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A:
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This
feature is on the road map for the 2.1 release of Backup
Professional. It is possible to integrate Backup Professional
with secure shell during data transport so that all data
is fully encrypted during transport. This is especially
useful for a WAN or backups via the internet.
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Q:
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Does
Backup Professional support by SAN or switched fabric SAN
environment?
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A:
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Backup
Professional can backup SANS using one of two techniques.
First and fastest is to backup a SAN logical unit using
its built-in and fast raw device partition backup features.
A
special profile is created to backup each SAN logical
unit or set of units. This SAN backup profile turns on
the double buffering feature of the backup engine. This
forces a multi-process, multi-threaded backup using shared
memory and double buffers for the maximum possible speed.
Finally, this profile is then scheduled so that it occurs
at regular intervals.
This
method allows bare metal recovery of the SAN disk sub-system
and is the fastest possible backup and restore.
Backup
Professional can backup a SAN system if the SAN driver
is running under one of the nine server platforms that
we support. Many such systems run a Solaris, BSD or Linux
version of Unix under the hood. If the SAN system is running
Linux as its primary operating system, you can install
the Backup Professional server and get a native backup
of the SAN disk system.
The
second method is to backup the SAN using a file-by-file
method. This can be done from either Unix or Windows NT/2000.
Though this is not as efficient as a native SAN backup,
it does give you file-by-file backup and restore capability
as well as the ability to archive versions as they change
over time. This is a critical and necessary piece to your
backup strategy.
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