1. General
1.1. Can you explain the concept briefly on how the BackupsAnywhere software works?

2. BackupsAnywhere Online Backup Manager (BackupsAnywhereOBM)
2.1. What is the recommended bandwidth?
2.2. How do I install BackupsAnywhereOBM on FreeBSD?
2.3. How do I install BackupsAnywhereOBM on SCO Unix?
2.4. How do I install BackupsAnywhereOBM on AIX?
2.5. The Installer doesn’t seem to work. How can I manually install BackupsAnywhereOBM on Windows?
2.6. Are there any command line tools for BackupsAnywhereOBM?
2.7. How can I backup a huge data set over the Internet?
2.8. What is the best way to restore a huge data set?
2.9. Can I change my encrypting key?
2.10. What kind of encryption method is employed by BackupsAnywhereOBM?
2.11. Can I backup an entire Operating System?
2.12. What are the pros and cons of backing up multiple computers using a single backup account?
2.13. Does the BackupsAnywhereOBM upgrade the installation of Java on a client machine, or does it install a separate copy for it own use?
2.14. How does the "Remove retention files for overlap policy" under Advanced Retention Policy work?
2.15. What is incremental backup and how does In-File Delta work?
2.16. Does BackupsAnywhereOBM have to stop the application when doing online backups?
2.17. What are Off-line backup, Logout backup reminder and Local backup features?
2.18. What do I have to do in order to backup open files?
2.19. How does Volume Shadow Copy works?
2.20. How do I remove OBM completely from my Windows machine?

3. BackupsAnywhere Offline Backup Server (BackupsAnywhereOBS)
3.1. What is the recommended hardware and OS (Windows or Linux) for BackupsAnywhereOBS?
3.2. What is the recommended bandwidth?
3.3. Is there a limit on the number of clients that a BackupsAnywhereOBS can support? How many clients would you recommend per BackupsAnywhereOBS? Also, what is the limit on file size that BackupsAnywhereOBS can backup?
3.4. How many users/licenses can I have on one server?
3.5. How is the data privacy being maintained on BackupsAnywhereOBS?
3.6. What is the purpose of the Retention area, can I disable it?
3.7. Is there an example on how the Retention area works?

1. General
1.1. Can you explain the concept briefly on how the BackupsAnywhere software works?
The BackupsAnywhere Online Backup Suite consists of 3 main modules:
  1. The client software — BackupsAnywhere Online Backup Manager (BackupsAnywhereOBM)
  2. The server software — BackupsAnywhere Offsite Backup Server (BackupsAnywhereOBS)
  3. The replication server — BackupsAnywhere Replication Server (BackupsAnywhereRS)

BackupsAnywhereOBM is the client side program which uploads the selected files to the Backup server and looks after scheduled backup jobs. It also provides a user-interface for configurations of the desired backup sets. BackupsAnywhereOBM supports a number of operating systems, e.g. Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Linux, Mac OS X, etc. Apart from files backups, BackupsAnywhereOBM can backup a range of applications such as MS Exchange, MS SQL, Oracle, MySQL, Lotus Domino, etc.
BackupsAnywhereOBS is the server side program which can serve and store backup data from multiple BackupsAnywhereOBMs/backup accounts. It has a web-based Management Console for system administrators to manage the Backup Server, such as configuring system parameters, administering the backup accounts, viewing backup statistics and reports, etc. Users can also logon to this Management Console to manage their own backup account or restore their own backup data. BackupsAnywhereOBS supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS platforms.
BackupsAnywhereRS is another piece of server software running on a separate machine which provides close to real-time backup for multiple BackupsAnywhereOBSs. Thus even if one of the BackupsAnywhereOBS fails, the BackupsAnywhereRS still has a copy of the backup data. The relationships of the BackupsAnywhere Online Backup Suite are depicted in the diagram Below.

2. BackupsAnywhere Online Backup Manager (BackupsAnywhereOBM)

2.1. What is the recommended bandwidth?
It really depends on the kind of data to be backed up, e.g. for personal file backups, the daily data transfer should be limited, while MS Exchange backup could be significant. You may want to use the following white paper as a reference:

2.2. How do I install BackupsAnywhereOBM on FreeBSD?
You can either run BackupsAnywhereOBM on a Linux version of Sun Java JDK (performance might not be optimized) or on a FreeBSD native Java SDK. For the Linux version of Sun Java JDK option you need to:

  1. Install Linux binary compatible port to the FreeBSD machine
  2. Install the Linux version of Sun Java 1.4.2 or above JDK onto the FreeBSD machine
  3. Create a symbolic link from $OBM_HOME/jvm to $JAVA_HOME (installed in previous step)
  4. Run $OBM_HOME/bin/RunBackupSet.sh [BACKUP_SET_NAME] to run your backup
  5. Run $OBM_HOME/bin/Scheduler.sh to start the backup scheduler
For the FreeBSD native Java SDK option you need to:
  1. Install Linux binary compatible port to the FreeBSD machine
  2. Install the Linux version of Sun Java 1.4.2 or above JDK onto the FreeBSD machine
  3. Compile the FreeBSD native Java 1.4.2 SDK using the JDK compiler installed in the previous step
  4. Install the FreeBSD native Java 1.4.2 SDK onto the FreeBSD machine
  5. Create a symbolic link from $OBM_HOME/jvm to $JAVA_HOME (installed in previous step)
  6. Run $OBM_HOME/bin/RunBackupSet.sh [BACKUP_SET_NAME] to run your backup
  7. Run $OBM_HOME/bin/Scheduler.sh to start the backup scheduler

2.3. How do I install BackupsAnywhereOBM on SCO Unix?
Please do the followings to install BackupsAnywhereOBM on SCO:

  1. Install Java 1.4.x or above onto your SCO Unix box
  2. Download obm-linux.tar.gz and expand it to $OBM_HOME (e.g. /usr/local/obm)
  3. Delete $OBM_HOME/jvm and create a symbolic link from $OBM_HOME/jvm to the SCO Unix Java VM
  4. Run $OBM_HOME/bin/BackupManager.sh to setup your backup set (or run $OBM_HOME/bin/Configurator.sh if you are under command line mode. Then use the BackupsAnywhereOBS Management Console to setup your backup sources and other settings)
  5. Run $OBM_HOME/bin/RunBackupSet.sh [BACKUP_SET_NAME] to run your backup
  6. Run $OBM_HOME/bin/Scheduler.sh to start the backup scheduler

2.4. How do I install BackupsAnywhereOBM on AIX?
Please do the followings to install BackupsAnywhereOBM on AIX:

  1. Install Java 1.3.x or above (Java 1.4.2 or above recommended) onto your AIX box
  2. Download obm-linux.tar.gz and expand it to $OBM_HOME (e.g. /usr/local/obm)
  3. Delete $OBM_HOME/jvm and create a symbolic link from $OBM_HOME/jvm to the AIX Java VM
  4. Run $OBM_HOME/bin/BackupManager.sh to setup your backup set (or run $OBM_HOME/bin/Configurator.sh if you are under command line mode. Then use the web interface to setup your backup sources and other settings)
  5. Run $OBM_HOME/bin/RunBackupSet.sh [BACKUP_SET_NAME] to run your backup
  6. Run $OBM_HOME/bin/Scheduler.sh to start the backup scheduler

2.5. The Installer doesn’t seem to work. How can I manually install BackupsAnywhereOBM on Windows?
Try manually installing BackupsAnywhereOBM by zipping the program directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\BackupsAnywhere) on another machine with BackupsAnywhere installed and do the followings on the target machine:

  1. Create the directory C:\Program Files\BackupsAnywhere
  2. Unzip the BackupsAnywhere program directory archive to C:\Program Files\BackupsAnywhere
  3. Run C:\Program Files\BackupsAnywhere\bin\install.bat
  4. Run C:\Program Files\BackupsAnywhere\bin\Install-Scheduler.bat

2.6. Are there any command line tools for BackupsAnywhereOBM?
Yes, there are a set of scripts in [BackupsAnywhereOBM Program Home]\bin and they are described below:

Windows:

  • Decrypt.bat: decrypts the specified backup files
  • install.bat: installs the BackupsAnywhereOBM icon to the System Tray and registers the Online

Backup Scheduler as a service

  • Install-Scheduler.bat: registers the Online Backup Scheduler as a service
  • RegisterVSS.bat: re-registers Microsoft�s Volume Shadow Copy service DLLs
  • Remove-Scheduler.bat: unregisters the Online Backup Scheduler service
  • Restore.bat: restores the specified snapshot of the backup set to the specified location
  • RunBackupSet.bat: runs the specified backup set
  • RunOBM.bat: launches the Online Backup Manager user interface
  • Run-Scheduler.bat: starts the Online Backup Scheduler service
  • SeedLoad.bat: runs seed load for the specified backup set to the specified location
  • Uninstall.bat: removes the BackupsAnywhereOBM icon from the System Tray and unregisters the Online Backup Scheduler service

Linux:

  • BackupManager.sh: launches the Online Backup Manager user interface
  • Configurator.sh: configures client parameters such as Backup Server address, username/password, encrypting key, etc.
  • Decrypt.sh: decrypts the specified backup files
  • Restore.sh: restores the specified snapshot of the backup set to the specified location
  • RunBackupSet.sh: runs the specified backup set
  • Scheduler.sh: starts the Online Backup Scheduler service
  • SeedLoad.sh: runs seed load for the specified backup set to the specified location
  • StopScheduler.sh: stops the Online Backup Scheduler service

* You may have to set some variables in these scripts and more instructions are provided.

2.7. How can I backup a huge data set over the Internet?
If you have a lot of data (e.g. 300GB) to backup to the backup server, it would take a considerable amount of time to perform the first full backup through the Internet. You can use the Seed Loading Utility to backup your backup set to local hard disk (instead of directly to the backup server) and then transport the backup data, using a removable hard disk, to your backup service provider. The administrator can then load all your backup files from your removable hard disk into your backup account. This could save you days (even weeks) of performing your first full backup. And since subsequent backups are incremental (only new or updated files will be uploaded to the server), the amount of data transfer should be relatively small. Please refer to the User’s Guide for details on the "Seed Loading Utility".

2.8. What is the best way to restore a huge data set?
BackupsAnywhere can copy the data of the particular backup set on BackupsAnywhereOBS to a removable media, e.g. external harddisk/DVD, and ship it to you. You can then use the "Decypt Files Tool" in BackupsAnywhereOBM to restore the backup data on removable media to its original format.

2.9. Can I change my encrypting key?
Once set for a Backup Set, the encrypting key cannot be changed. This is necessary for the integrity of the Backup Set, making sure that backup data is only encrypted by one key. Otherwise, you will have problems remember two encrypting keys when you want to restore your files in the future. You need to recreate your Backup Set if you really want to change your encrypting key.

2.10. What kind of encryption method is employed by BackupsAnywhereOBM?
There are two encryptions types being used by BackupsAnywhereOBM:

  1. Encryption of backup data - This is being done by 128-bit symmetric key encryption (AES, TripleDES, TwoFish). 256 bit is not available because it requires too much CPU and it is not really required (128-bit is what is being used by most banks currently)
  2. Encryption of backup traffic - This is being done by 1024 bit RSA public key encryption. The strength of the encryption depends on the key size you use when you generate your CSR before submitting to your CA. 1024 bit is what is being used by most CAs.

2.11. Can I backup an entire Operating System?
Currently, it is not possible to do hard disk image backup with BackupsAnywhereOBM. However you can still backup/restore the operating system by doing the followings:

    To backup all files including the operating system, please do this:
    1. Add all files to your backup source
    2. Add a SystemState backup type to your backup account (Windows only)

    To restore all files including the operating system, please do this:

    1. Re-install the operating system and applications
    2. Restore the SystemState backup to your machine (Windows only)
    3. Restore all files to your machine

2.12. What are the pros and cons of backing up multiple computers using a single backup account?
Pros:

  • You require less backup accounts (having one big backup account is typically cheaper that lots of small ones).
  • You can use one pair of username and password to configure the backup setting of all backup settings.

Cons:

  • You must use different backup sets for different computers
  • Whenever a new backup set is created under the backup account, you need to go back to all computers using the same backup account to uncheck the "Run scheduled backup on this computer" option for the new backup set (as backup setting is saved on server and new backup set is default to run on all computers, i.e. with the option checked)
  • Improper configuration could easily cause problems, which are difficult to debug.

2.13. Does the BackupsAnywhereOBM upgrade the installation of Java on a client machine, or does it install a separate copy for it own use?
BackupsAnywhereOBM uses its own copy of Java and leaves the system Java VM intact.

2.14. How does the "Remove retention files for overlap policy" under Advanced Retention Policy work?
In general, daily snapshots followed by a weekly snapshot or a monthly snapshot, etc. will be removed; weekly snapshots followed by a monthly snapshot or a quarterly snapshot, etc. will be removed; and so on. This is illustrated by the following example. Assume today is 17Jan06, and the Advanced Retention Policy is as follows:

  • Daily: retain for 7 days
  • Weekly: retain for 4 weeks (the job will be performed on Saturday)
  • Monthly: retain for 3 months (the job will be performed on 1st of each month)

If "Remove overlap policy" is NOT enabled:

    Then a total of 14 snapshots (7+4+3) will be kept on the server accordingly, i.e.:
    • (daily) 10Jan06, 11Jan06, 12Jan06, 13Jan06, 14Jan06, 15Jan06, 16Jan06
    • (weekly) 24Dec05, 31Dec05, 7Jan06, 14Jan06
    • (monthly) 1Nov05, 1Dec05, 1Jan06

If "Remove overlap policy" is enabled:

    Then only the following snapshots are kept:
      1Nov05, 1Dec05, 1Jan06, 14Jan06, 15Jan06, 16Jan06. Specifically, the weekly policy overrides the daily policy so 10Jan06, 11Jan06, 12Jan06 and 13Jan06 will be removed. The monthly policy overrides the weekly policy, and 24Dec05, 31Dec05 and 7Jan06 will be removed as well.

2.15. What is incremental backup and how does In-File Delta work?
In an incremental backup, only modified files will be uploaded to the Backup Server. In-File Delta is used against physical files to be uploaded to the Backup Server. It does not matter whether these are MS SQL database files, MS Exchange transaction log files or any normal files in a FileBackupSet. Specifically, only the changed blocks in comparison the original file on the Backup Server (delta file) will be uploaded. For each modified file, BackupsAnywhereOBM would determine whether the entire file or only delta file should be uploaded. If the entire file is to be uploaded, the old version of the file will be moved to the Retention area. Else if only the delta file is to be uploaded, the previous delta files will be moved to the Retention area and the Data area should contain the original full backup file, checksum file and the latest delta file of this file.

2.16. Does BackupsAnywhereOBM have to stop the application when doing online backups?
BackupsAnywhereOBM can backup application data while the application is still running. Particularly, we have special agents for MS Exchange Server, MS SQL Server, Oracle, Lotus Notes and MySQL, which allows these applications to be backed up while they are online. With the Volume Shadow Copy feature started from BackupsAnywhereOBM v5.0, we are able to backup other types of applications while they are online.

2.17. What are Off-line backup, Logout backup reminder and Local backup features?
Off-line backup is basically designed for notebook users who are off-line most of the time and cannot rely on backup schedule to backup regularly. The backup interval allows notebook users to specify the interval that they would like their data to backup. If this interval has elapsed, backup will run automatically once this machine is online. Logout backup reminder asks user if they would like to backup if they logout of the computer or shutdown their computer. Local backup allows an extra copy of backup file to be kept on local hard disk when running backup.

2.18. What do I have to do in order to backup open files?
Volume Shadow Copy, which allows backup of open file, comes with Windows XP and 2003 by default. For older platforms, e.g. Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000 or NetWare, we would recommend adding a third party open file manager option (e.g. St. Bernard Open File Manager - http://www.stbernard.com/products/ofm/products_ofm.asp ) which costs US$345 for a 5 workstation license and US$798 for each server if open file backup is required. They also have a free trial download. NOTE: Open file option is not required on Linux/Unix/Mac OS X because no files are held exclusively open by applications.

2.19. How does Volume Shadow Copy works?
Please refer to http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/2b0d2457 -b7d8-42c3-b6c9-59c145b7765f1033.mspx

The Volume Shadow Copy Service provides the backup infrastructure for the Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating systems, as well as a mechanism for creating consistent point-in-time copies of data known as shadow copies.

The Volume Shadow Copy Service can produce consistent shadow copies by coordinating with business applications, file-system services, backup applications, fast-recovery solutions, and storage hardware. Several features in the Windows Server 2003 operating systems use the Volume Shadow Copy Service, including Shadow Copies for Shared Folders and Backup.

2.20. How do I remove OBM completely from my Windows machine?
If you want to completely remove OBM from Windows, you need to:

  • ensure that the OBM installation directory is deleted (sometimes not removed when Windows somehow holds some of the files)
  • remove the C:\Documents and Settings\administrator\.obm\ folder (intentionally left undeleted, as crucial information of the user and backup sets, such as the encryption keys, is stored here)

3. BackupsAnywhere Offline Backup Server (BackupsAnywhereOBS)

3.1. What is the recommended hardware and OS (Windows or Linux) for BackupsAnywhereOBS?
As a rule of thumb, an active backup connection takes roughly 256KB of memory. Thus, a 512MB heap size can easily support over 2000 active backup connections. The required storage space depends on the expected amount of backup data from your users, and it is possible to make use of external storage server. Most processing is done on the client side, thus CPU utilization on the BackupsAnywhereOBS machine shouldn’t be intensive. For your reference, in most circumstances, a P4 2.8GHz CPU with 1GB of RAM and lots of disk space (2-4TB of disk space) can support up to 500 user. BackupsAnywhereOBS runs equally well on Windows and Linux platforms. You may want to go for a platform that your system administrators are comfortable with. From the operating system point of view, Linux might be more stable and require less maintenance.

3.2. What is the recommended bandwidth?
It really depends on the expected amount of data transfer from your users and the performance criteria if any, of course, as well as your budget. For example, if your users expect a transfer rate of up to 200MB per hour, and you project that 10 of such backups will be running in parallel, then your BackupsAnywhereOBS should have an uplink of around 5Mbps in order to support such requirements.

3.3. Is there a limit on the number of clients that a BackupsAnywhereOBS can support? How many clients would you recommend per BackupsAnywhereOBS? Also, what is the limit on file size that BackupsAnywhereOBS can backup?
At the application level, there isn’t really a limit on the number of clients that an BackupsAnywhereOBS can support. However, the number of active clients could be limited by the hardware. Specifically, each active backup client connection takes around 256KB of memory, so the number of active clients is limited by the RAM available. Also, the bandwidth available could also place a limit on the number of active clients, as a rule of thumb, you can assume a 3:1 compression ratio when backing up files and a throughput of 950MB per hour using an ADSL with 256kbps uplink. Anyhow, from system administration point of view, we would recommend having no more than 2000 users on a single server. There is no limitation on the file size at the application level. Instead this limitation is imposed by the underlying operating system. With modern operating system, you should have no problem backing up files at a few TB in size (e.g. NTFS has a file size limit of 16TB).

3.4. How many users/licenses can I have on one server?
There is no limit on the maximum number of users. But from system administration point of view, we would recommend having no more than 2000 users on a single server.

3.5. How is the data privacy being maintained on BackupsAnywhereOBS?
All data are encrypted with users defined encrypting key before they are sent to the online backup server. The encrypting key is not stored on BackupsAnywhereOBS. Without the encrypting key, the backup files are useless to anyone. The backup user is the only person who can decrypt the backup files to reveal the original content.

3.6. What is the purpose of the Retention area, can I disable it?
Deleted and modified files in the current backup are moved to the Retention area in BackupsAnywhereOBS and they will stay there as defined by the retention policy of the backup set. You can restore those files that are still in the Retention area. The main purpose of the Retention area is to facilitate retrieval of historical snapshots of a backup set. Note that the data in the Retention area still counts towards your client’s quota and it stay there as defined by your client�s retention policy. Unfortunately, the Retention area cannot be disabled, at its minimum, your client can choose to keep deleted files for 1 backup job.

3.7. Is there an example on how the Retention area works?
Suppose you have 10GB of initial data which grows by 200MB (0.2GB) per day, and on each day 100MB (0.1GB) of the data is modified or deleted from the client machine. Assume he takes the default retention policy setting, i.e. 7 days. Then,
Day 0: Data = 10G; Retention = 0; Total quota used = 10G;
Day 1: Data = 10.2G; Retention = 0.1G; Total quota used = 10.3G;
Day 2: Data = 10.4G; Retention = 0.2G; Total quota used = 10.6G;
...
Day 7: Data = 11.4G; Retention = 0.7G; Total quota used = 12.1G;
Day 8: Data = 11.6G; Retention = 0.7G; Total quota used = 12.3G;
(the 0.1G from Day 1 is removed from the Retention area)
Day 9: Data = 11.8G; Retention = 0.7G; Total quota used = 12.5G;
(the 0.1G from Day 2 is removed from the Retention area)
and so on
Thus if data is not being modified or deleted frequently, then the size of Retention area should be minimal.

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