EVault InfoStage Technical Primer. A Guide to EVault Technology, Data Protection and Recovery Terminology

Transcription

1 EVault InfoStage Technical Primer A Guide to EVault Technology, Data Protection and Recovery Terminology

2 Introduction More than ever, organizations of all sizes must strategically leverage their brand as well as manage costs to foster growth and innovation. A company s information, whether it be intellectual property or in the form of historical records and files, are their competitive assets. Access, or conversely, a lack of access to that information, can render its networkand PC-tethered workforce completely ineffective. Those employees responsible for managing information access and protecting its integrity, from the server room to the board room, face increasing pressure focused around the following issues: Heightened awareness of business continuity and risk assessment Exploding data growth and the ability to manage it Dispersed environment fueled by an increase in mergers and acquisitions Constant OS and application changes Increased regulatory requirements Enterprise-level companies, with tens of terabytes under management, combat these issues with a cadre of experienced, well-compensated IT professionals armed with comparatively larger budgets than their small- and mid-sized brethren. Small and medium businesses also deal with the same competitive pressures, but must alleviate them despite having small or no dedicated IT staff and tight budgets. Because of these factors, mid-sized companies requiring data protection and rapid recovery want simplified management through one vendor, costeffectiveness, more operational control, reliability and secure and fast recovery. Where mid-tier organizations dramatically differ and where EVault has a technology advantage is by helping them overcome their smaller budgets and IT staff. This technical primer includes an EVault InfoStage technology overview as well as a glossary of terms associated with this efficient and cost-effective software. EVault InfoStage is a patent-pending data protection and recovery software technology that enables a server or a group of heterogeneous servers to backup their data to a remote storage device over common communication lines. The software is offered as a licensed product and is the core for the data protection and recovery service, EVault Protect SM. The technology allows for online restores of backup data transmitted over the same or alternate communication lines, as well as facilitates the migration of data to archival media for long-term storage. How EVault InfoStage Works EVault InfoStage relies on three components: the Director, Agent and CentralControl. The EVault InfoStage Director program controls a Vault for data storage. The Director program maintains the integrity of the Vault(s) and control access to the Vault(s). The Director must first be used to set up access to the Vault for the customer/organization and, from within that organization s name, assign specific locations, accounts and users for the customer. Each computer and server to be protected will have EVault InfoStage Agent software installed on it for communications with the customer s EVault InfoStage CentralControl computer and the Director. Once this is done, an organization can use the CentralControl program to configure and schedule backup tasks on all of their protected systems. The Agent software on each individual computer or server will respond to its backup task (configured by CentralControl) and send that system s data directly to the remote Director for secure storage. Should a restore be required, the user, or the CentralControl, can quickly access the online data and restore a file or an entire system. page 1

3 Core EVault InfoStage Technology Components Architecture NOVELL NETWARE WINDOWS ROAD WARRIOR WINDOWS NT/2000 CUSTOMER BACKUP EVault InfoStage TM CENTRALCONTROL Centralized Administrator for Local and Remote Branches HP-UX LAN / WAN DATA RECOVERY Electronic Vault running EVault InfoStage TM DIRECTO R IBM AIX SUN SOLARIS running EVault InfoStage TM AGENT REDHAT LINUX All data passed via backup or restores through EVault InfoStage is placed in the System Independent Data Format (SIDF), which enables a single copy of the EVault InfoStage Director to manage data protection and migration across multiple operating systems. EVault InfoStage CentralControl EVault InfoStage CentralControl is a program residing on a Windows workstation, which configures and then manages local and/or remote EVault InfoStage Agents. With CentralControl, users can manage hundreds of backups from computers across local and wide area networks from a single system. CentralControl empowers the user to define the how, what, when and where for their backups. CentralControl uses remote procedure calls (RPCs) to communicate control and status information with Agents. More than one CentralControl may exist on a network and control multiple Agents. CentralControl has a Windows Explorer design structure. The Agents that have been defined show up in the left panel. Double-clicking on an Agent will bring up an index in the right panel of backup tasks and other control entities that may be modified or viewed remotely. EVault InfoStage Agent The EVault InfoStage Agent is an application that runs native on the host system. The Agent executes backups on that system based on a set of parameters related to each backup task. The Agent monitors a defined schedule using a graphical scheduling system and when a backup task is due for execution, the Agent opens up the backup task definition file, reads in the parameters and executes the backup accordingly. page 2

4 The Agent takes different forms depending on the host operating system. On a Novell system, the Agent is a Netware Loadable Module (NLM); on a Windows NT Server or Workstation, the Agent is a system service. The Agent interfaces with the system console of the host system as well as with a remote CentralControl to pass status and control information regarding backups. The Agent performs a remote backup by making a connection with the EVault InfoStage Director running on a local Vault over a Local Area Network (LAN) or on a remote Vault connected via a Wide Area Network (WAN) or Virtual Private Network (VPN). Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is the base protocol used to make the connection. A proprietary protocol developed by EVault called Backup/Restore Transfer Protocol (BRTP) utilizes RPCs to pass control information and the actual data back and forth with the Director. The parameters that define a backup are referred to as a Task. One or more backup Tasks may be created to implement the backup necessary to protect a single system. Each time a backup is executed a Log file is created and a Catalog is created. The Log file is an audit trail for the backup and displays the start time, connection information, statistics and summary information regarding the backup. The Catalog is an index for all the files that are contained in the backup. The Catalog contains file attribute information, dates, full directory information, and sizes. The Catalog information is used to search for files, summarize statistics regarding a series of backups via the analyze function, as well as browse, and initiate restores. At the remote Server, a Safeset that actually contains all the data represents each backup. All data passed back and forth between the Agent and the Director is in a System Independent Data Format (SIDF). SIDF provides an independent format for representing data from many different operating systems. As such, it provides better longevity characteristics and portability than the native OS formats. The Agent executes restores in a similar manner to backups. A restore definition file is created containing the parameters necessary to complete a restore of all or a subset of files in a specific backup. The Agent makes a connection to the Director. The Director locates the Safeset (based on the Catalog), finds the requested file(s), and the Agent receives the file data from the Server. EVault InfoStage Director The EVault InfoStage Director application provides backup and restore functionality to any number of remote Agents (or clients). In addition to online transaction processing with clients, the Director s key function is to manage the storage and migration of backup data. Based on the parameters defined by the Agent (via the CentralControl) each backup has a life span and may be migrated from online storage to archive or deleted depending on policy. The Director application operates on a dedicated Windows 2000 Server-based hardware configuration consisting of one or more Central Processing Units (CPU) and Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) arrays. The Director acts like an Internet application similar to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) standard and utilizes the BRTP to connect and communicate with clients (i.e. Agents) on TCP Port The Director s user interface allows for the following functions: Manage user accounts Manage server processes Delete individual backups Copy individual backups to tape for restores Initiate a backup from a seed tape Manage disk space and mass storage devices Migration of backup data across storage devices Backup daily changes page 3

5 The Director resides on a LAN with one or several network connections. The network interfaces will support the variety of communication types requested by the clients connecting to the Director. There could be a mix of: Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) routers - supporting one to many simultaneous ISDN connections Frame Relay routers - supporting links to Frame Relay clouds High-speed routers - to support fast (DSL on up) Internet connections or directly to client networks Some Director sites may have a separate LAN configuration to support Internet connections and a separate LAN configuration to support private network connections. Usually, each Director site has a Web page accessible on a HTTP server for downloading the latest version of the EVault InfoStage client software and to support automatic registration of demonstration accounts. The EVault DeltaPro algorithm is an industryleading example of block-level delta processing. In most cases, customers and testing at EVault labs has reported that the EVault DeltaPro algorithm, in conjunction with the compression algorithms, has yielded in excess of 100:1 (effective) compression ratios. The block size can vary from 1K to 32K in size based on software settings. Block-level delta processing (for 1K blocks) determines changes on the 1024-byte sector level of a file. The blocks in the file are created by treating the file as a stream of 1 to N bytes. Changes are detected in the blocks by comparing the current block with the previous block in the same position as the image representation from the previous backup. Changed blocks are addressed, compressed, optionally encrypted, and transmitted in order from the first through to the last block in the file. EVault DeltaPro is particularly CLIENT SYSTEMS ELECTRONIC VAULTING SERVER INTERNET Changed Files Changed Blocks are identified from file Compression Encryption SIDF Packet Backup/Restore Protocol (BRTP) The EVault DeltaPro algorithm provides the equivalent of traditional full backups, despite the fact that only changed blocks are sent. EVault DeltaPro - Delta Processing Within EVault InfoStage, a combination of data compression and delta processing technologies reduce the amount of data required to reconstruct a file being transmitted from an Agent to the Director for backup purposes. In the case of compression, standard high compression techniques are utilized on a per-packet basis as the data is being transmitted to the server. beneficial for binary files, databases that are updated in a random manner, and file systems whose basic input-output units tend to be sector based. Data Format and Representation One of the primary goals of the EVault InfoStage technology is its ability to backup a variety of system architectures. To achieve this, the technology adheres to a standard method developed to store and represent data in a format that could be restored on another system with all security, alternate data page 4

6 EVault DeltaPro vs. Tape ASSUMPTIONS 10GB original data 50% compression 2% daily change rate Retention Schedule Daily: 7 copies for 7 days Weekly: 5 copies for 31 days Monthly: 12 copies for 365 days Legacy Tape Based Software 10GB x 24 = 240GB EVault Seed: 10GB compressed = 5 GB Delta: 2% of 10GB = 200MB Compressed = 100MB 23 x 100MB = 2.3GB 2.3GB + 5GB = 7.3GB 240GB vs 7.3GB Excellent compression rates can be acheived through EVault DeltaPro, which backs up only block-level changes. streams, and file system attributes intact. EVault adopted the SIDF standard and serves as the primary method to store data from a variety of operating systems utilizing a single EVault InfoStage Director. For more information on the SIDF standard, consult: sidf. Target Backup Destinations Local Disk - The backup Safeset is created on a local disk previously selected in the setup of the backup task. In this situation, there is no EVault InfoStage Director to manage the security, billing and migration of this backup data. The EVault InfoStage Agent will purge and/or migrate the Safeset from this directory based on the retention schedule defined for the backup task. Thus, the user must have the appropriate access to this disk directory. Backup Source Types There are multiple source types that can be selected for backup. The options are: Local Drive - Data from any locally connected disk. Mapped Network Drive - Data from Network Attach Storage (NAS) devices where there is no possibility of installing the EVault InfoStage Agent. MS Exchange Server (Database) - This allows you to backup the entire Exchange database for disaster recovery purposes. MS Exchange Server (Mailboxes and Public Folders) - This allows you to backup and combination of mailboxes and folders. Local Tape Device - It may be necessary to use a local tape device to make an initial tape backup (seed tape) or to perform a large restore. The EVault InfoStage Agent may read or write backup data from or to a local tape device. Remote Storage Device Running The Director - The final destination option is the remote EVault Server application. This is the true e-vaulting scenario in which the Agent is sending the backup data to the Server typically over a wide area network connection. page 5

7 EVault InfoStage Technology Glossary The following terms are associated with installing, confi guring and managing EVault InfoStage. They are listed based on how the software is utilized. Seeding - The EVault DeltaPro algorithm provides highly effective compression ratios that enable large data volumes to be backed up over relatively low speed lines such as ISDN dial-up lines. However, the initial backup needs to be a full backup that serves as a baseline from which to conduct DeltaProbased backups. To satisfy this situation, especially if bandwidth is limited, the customer may send the first backup data to tape or a NAS device. This tape(s) or NAS device may be loaded at the EVault Server and the data becomes the initial seed backup. Subsequent backups may be performed over the communication line. If a server or system needs re-seeding due to human error or disaster, customers can also take advantage of EVault Protect QuickShip service where a NAS device seeded with data stored at one of EVault s secure data centers can be shipped within hours of a declaration. Deferred Backup - If using seed tapes or a NAS device is not practical, an additional seeding option is a deferred backup. In these cases, the backup task can be set up to have a maximum elapsed time. If the backup window available is six hours for example, then setting the defer backup after six hours will cause the Agent to backup as much data as possible in the six-hour period of each backup. The variable length of time is based how often and how much the data changes and the effective compression ratio achieved by the DeltaPro algorithm. Retention Scheduling - The EVault Director always keeps the first generation of any backup on a RAID array. Second and subsequent online generations are maintained online or archived offline for long term storage (>1 yr). Archive generations are copied from online storage to offline storage based on customer-specified parameters. The Server will always maintain at least one generation of a backup online regardless of the retention settings of the Agent. A customer must call the operator of the EVault Server system to request purging of out-dated or un-used backup Safesets. Filters - It is important that the user has the option to include or exclude files in a backup task definition based on a number of different methods. The first and most obvious is to physically select files via the graphical interface. The second method, which complements the first method, is to narrow the files included in a backup task by specifying include or exclude filters. The filters allow you to exclude files based on a file specification mask, or only include files in certain directories, or exclude specific file types. Encryption - There are five primary encryption algorithms with differing key strengths to choose from: 56 bit Blowfi sh 56 bit DES 112 bit Triple DES 128 bit AES 128 bit Blowfi sh As with any encryption method, a modest performance penalty is paid for all forms of encryption. On a Pentium III- or IV-class machine you may expect a three- to five-percent increase in processing time. It is also very important to note that the sole owner of the key is the client. If they lose the password for whatever reason, the entirety of their encrypted backup data is no longer readable. Maintaining System Attributes - Operating systems and their associated filing systems maintain various attributes including, but not limited to, defining security access and alternate data streams. EVault s storage management protocols accommodate these various attributes. Restoration - File restoration may be done on an entire Safeset level or on a file-by-file basis. The graphical user interface of the EVault InfoStage CentralControl lets users select individual files or directories for restore. There is also a search utility that allows users to scan an entire catalog using a page 6

8 file specification mask that may include wild cards. The catalog is the index that allows users to browse the contents of an instance of a backup task (i.e. Safeset). In the situation where all of the data is lost, customers need to re-install the EVault InfoStage Agent and EVault InfoStage CentralControl. Once installed, customers can connect to the remote EVault InfoStage Director that can recreate the local catalogs. Once the catalogs are recreated from the Director, administrators can proceed to initiate restores. Restores can be performed online or customers can request that the backup Safeset is placed on tape media or a NAS device and physically sent to the customers location (or alternate location if recovering from a major disaster). Communications Options - Since the EVault technology operates using the BRTP protocol that resides on top of the TCP/IP protocol, EVault may utilize any network connection that supports TCP/ IP. Thus, multiple users at a site may share a single communication line that is routed to the EVault InfoStage Director site. Open File Handling - There are a number of techniques available to handle open files depending on the applications involved and the operational constraints (i.e. uptime, maintenance window) Databases (i.e. MS SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, Lotus Notes, etc.) Shut down application and then backup Readlock, checkpoint, backup, enable Backup online dump Application Program Interface (API) - MS Exchange (MS SQL Server and Oracle in Q1/03) General File Server (i.e. MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access, FoxPro etc.) Enable Backup Open Files option during task defi nition Open File Manager (OFM) or Open Transaction Manager (OTM) MS Exchange Plug-In - An add-on option that uses the standard Microsoft API (MAPI) to perform backups and restores while Exchange is running. There are two components to the plug-in: DR: Disaster Recovery Backs up and restores the entire Information store MAPI: Brick Level Backs up individual mailboxes and folders and can restore down to the individual message while online MS SQL Plug-in MS Exchange Plug-in Miscellaneous Features Audit Logs: Extensive logging is included with selectable levels of detail and automatic version management. Backup Resumption: Network backup reliability is enhanced with automatic task retry and resumption in the event of a connectivity failure. Catalog: Index of a safeset. running EVault InfoStage TM AGENT Log: A file created with statistics for each backup and restore. Notifications: notification on task success or failure or both can be sent to any number of addresses. Online Reporting: Complete customer backup history is available via the EVault Web Reporting System. Retentions: Any number of user definable retention policies can be set to meet the most complex corporate requirements for online storage and long term, offline archival. Safeset: A set of backup data in SIDF format. Scheduler: A flexible general-purpose scheduler is included for complete, automated operation. Task: Parameters that makeup a backup. Oracle Plug-in page 7

9 Notes... page 8

10 EVault, Inc. makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents hereof and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fi tness for any particular purpose. Furthermore, EVault reserves the right to revise this publication and to make changes from time to time in the content hereof without obligation of EVault to notify any person of such revision of changes. All companies, names and data used in examples herein are fi ctitious unless otherwise noted. No part of this document may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or translated into any language including computer language, in any form or by any means electronic, mechanic, magnetic, optical, chemical or otherwise without prior written permission of: EVault, Inc. c/o Corporation Trust Center 1209 Orange Street Wilmington, New Castle Delaware Copyright 2003, EVault, Inc. All rights reserved. EVault, EVault InfoStage, EVault Protect, EVault DeltaPro and the EVault logo are trademarks of EVault, Inc. All other products or company names mentioned in this document are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners South Main Street Suite 295 Walnut Creek, California USA Phone Fax 115 Trafalgar Road Lower Level Oakville, Ontario Canada L6J 3G Phone Fax info@evault.com