What can go wrong?

Anything can happen - disk crash, cooling fans fail, employee quits and takes backup tape with your data to next employer, water damage, theft are just a few things that dictate having reliable backups and possible encrypted backups.

Hopefully, you never have to use the backup tapes for recovery. That is, until you have an emergency! What I consider emergencies are anytime you have to restore files from a backup tape.

Here are some examples of what can go wrong during a restore procedure...

• Many times the data on the tape can not be read accurately.
• Often the files that should be on the tape aren't there. This usually happens when you have to restore the entire system.
• If one bad spot on the tape is found, all succeeding data can't be read.

Because the cost of the product is so low, one occurrence of problems with restoring data more than pays for this product. Consider what it costs your company to re-enter a days worth of data?

Standard Unix/Linux/Aix Backup Utilities

The standard backup tools, cpio and tar, don't perform a true verify. They only check that during the write process to the tape, no errors have occurred. A true verify, reads the files from the tape and the disk and compares them to make sure they are an exact match. During this same process, the ability to read the data on the tape is also verified. Also, especially on the RS/6000, not all files are backed up. Device drivers for terminal, modem and printer ports may not be backed up. There can also be problems with the linked or symbolic linked pointers not getting backed up correctly.

How to solve the problem

We recommend to all our Unix/Linux/AIX clients BackupEDGE from MicroLite Corporation. BackupEDGE is a software utility whose sole purpose is to perform backups and/or restores. It is easy to configure and use. If you have more than one type of Unix system, by using BackupEDGE, every system will use the same procedure.

Feature Summary

Backup and Verify

• Installation - Installation Wizard detects and configures tape drives, libraries, autochangers, CD and DVD drive automatically. A default backup schedule for full system backup is created.
• Enhanced Data Format - The data format is standards-based and extensible. It archives all Unix and Linux file types and has a 5,000 character pathname limit.
• Multiple Backup Types - Master backs up everything, Differential backups everything since last Master, Incremental backups everything since last Differential.
• Encryption - Uses 256bit AES data encryption to secure your data. You can choose to encrypt selected files or the entire archive.
• Compression - Uses powerful ZLIB based compression capable of storing far more data per archive than competing products.
• Verification - An un-verified backup is not a backup at all. Combines full file checksum verification with the ability to do a byte-by-byte comparision between archived files and original files.
• Advanced Reporting - Allows for a virtually unlimited number of receipts for printed and emailed messages on two levels: those who get notified of the status of all scheduled jobs, and those who get notified only in the event of failures.
• Easy to Use - Reliable and Inexpensive.
• Creates a Backup Summary that records number of files saved, data transfer rate, elapsed backup time, space left on current tape volume.
• Option to create catalog of files that are backed up.
• Option to write label to tape that identifies backup type, creation date and time. Allows for quick reference of tape contents.
• Backs up all files, including device nodes, empty directories, named pipes and symbolic links.
• Menu interface for using and configuring utilities, including the automatic backup procedure.

Recovery

• RecoverEdge - Bare-metal disaster recovery component allows a system to be recovered from a hard disk failure. Simply boot from the media into the RecoverEDGE disaster recovery menu system and automatically configure your hard drives and restore data from last backup.
• Boot Media Choices - Can create boot media on floppies, CD or DVD media.
• Bootable Backups - You can also create a nightly system backup which is fully bootable for disaster recovery on CD and DVD media.
• Remote Recovery - Boot media contain a full network stack and modem support. This means that if a local user can simply boot into the RecoverEDGE menu, an administrator can telnet or modem into the system from anywhere in the world to perform a recovery.
• Fast File Restore - Files and directories can be restored at maxmium possible speed.
• During restore, can read past bad spots and continue with next available file on tape. Vital data can be recovered, even from damaged media.
• Option to restore all files that were created/modified before or after a specified date.
• Option to only restore files that don't exist. Useful when you are not sure what files may have been lost.
• Option to restore only if tape file is newer than disk file.

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Finally an Alternative to Tape Backup

To purchase Iomega Rev Drives, click here
To purchase Iomega Rev Media, click here

I think we all can relate to occasional backup problems with tape drives and tape media. There is hardly a day that goes by when we don’t have to deal with a backup failure at some customer site. Iomega has finally come to the resecue with the REV drive.

The Iomega REV drive provides 35GB uncompressed and 90GB compresses of high performance, removable storage in a disk smaller than a deck of cards. The Iomega REV drive offers the removeability of tape with the speed and ease of a hard drive.

The Iomega REV drive outperforms all but the most expensive tape drives, at a fraction of the price, using media that will fit in your pocket or the palm of your hand. The new Iomega REV drive is a versatile product that changes the rules of data back up for small businesses.

The REV drive ships with backup software for Windows. Fortunately for Linux users, Microlite BackupEDGE detects and supports the Iomega REV drive on all current Linux distributions with no special device drivers required.

BackupEDGE enables the use of the REV drive today for what it does best, which is reliable backup and disaster recovery at a breakthrough price.

“Iomega has hit a home run with REV drive”, said Tom Podnar, President of Microlite Corporation. “With backup speeds that can exceed one gigabyte per minute, Linux users now have a clear alternative to tape for protecting mid-size installations, and our products make maximum use of REV media for data protection.”

The REV drive makes backup and system or file recovery tasks faster, easier and less costly for the user. Small business owners and IT managers will protect their important data even as they save in terms of system downtime.

BackupEDGE 2.0 has features that allow Linux users to take advantage of Iomegas REV drive as a reliable storage medium...

• Compression. Improved, standards-based compression can double or in some cases even triple the net capacity of the media, extending device usefulness to even larger systems.
• Verification. Both bit-level verify and full-file checksum verification ensures that archive integrity is intact, both at backup time and months or even years later.
• Strong Encryption (optional). Provides maximum protection for those planning strategies for HIPAA, PIPEDA or SB 1386 compliance, or just wanting to better secure their data.
• Instant File Restore. Average seek time to any file on a REV disk is under a second.
• Disaster Recovery. Every REV disk backup can be set to boot directly into RecoverEDGE smart disaster recovery for safe, automated restore from catastrophic system failure or other data loss, without requiring operating system re-installation.

To purchase Iomega Rev Drives, click here
To purchase Iomega Rev Media, click here

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