Backup Export Tool

• Passphrases must be no less than eight logical characters. They may be created by the user or randomly generated by a separate application.
• If created by the user, the passphrase should be difficult to guess and should contain a mix of lowercase/uppercase letters, digits and special characters.
• The passphrase is one of the components the Backup Export Tool uses to generate the encryption key. A longer or random passphrase will increase the strength of the encryption key even more.
• To aid the user in remembering the passphrase, the user may enter a hint message. The use of this field is optional and provided to the user as prompt for remembering the passphrase.
• If a backup job spans multiple media, the same passphrase will be used for all media in the set.

• When importing the media to another machine or another instance of the Backup Export Tool
• During disaster recovery

Encryption Options

Encryption is enabled on the job’s Encryption page.

Table 5. Encryption Options.

Key Management

The Backup Export Tool has adopted a very simple key management strategy. A media is encrypted originally by configuring the job that creates it according to the parameters described above. From that point on, the media is known to the catalog. As long as the media is known, restore jobs may use the media without entering the passphrase again. If a media is unknown—because it was deleted from the catalog or because it came from a different catalog—you must import the media to make it known to the catalog again. The import process required you to supply the passphrase to complete the import. If the passphrase supplied does not match that used to encrypt the media, then the hint supplied at encryption time is shown in the job log so you can try the import again.

When media is encrypted the media is depicted on the Jobs and Media view with a lock on it. The Platinum colored lock indicates hardware, and the gold lock indicates software encryption. The Media details window shows the type of encryption used.

Compression

Software encryption disables hardware compression, although you will still be able to select Software compression.

If the backup device has hardware compression then performance is better if only hardware compression is used, and that there is little to no benefit of having both enabled. Enabling software compression in this circumstance reduces performance.

If you select Hardware encryption, Barracuda Networks recommends that Enable hardware compression is also selected. Hardware encryption and hardware compression can be used on devices, such as the HP LTO-4 tape drive, without any loss of backup speed.

Backup Schedule Settings

You can define retention policies which allow you to balance your data protection and historical retention needs with the economic realities of media and management costs. To determine the type of backup job to create, answer the following questions:

• How many days of data can you afford to lose?
• How large will a full backup job be?
• How much does your data change on a day-to-day basis?
• How many media does your budget allow?
• How much data can the backup media hold?
• If you have a library, how many tapes does it hold?
• Are there times when your tape drive will be unavailable?
• Will the amount of traffic on your network require backup jobs to be scheduled to run during non-peak periods?
• Are there certain days of the week when running lengthy jobs will interfere with other uses of your network?

Scheduling Concepts

Typically it is not practical from either a time or a media perspective to create a full backup every day. The solution involves running different types of jobs (full, incremental, differential, or copy) on predefined schedule intervals using predefined numbers of media sets that are reused over time. The process of reusing media is referred to as media rotation. The media rotation type determines how and when each media set is used, how long it is retained once it contains data, and the granularity of your backup history.

Table 6. Scheduling Concepts.

Media Rotation Types

The Backup Export Tool provides several default media rotation types. These types can be used as is or as examples for creating custom rotations.

Table 7. Media Rotation Types.

The Backup Export Tool provides a variety of media rotation types to select from, or you can define your own media rotation.

The following table compares the historical backups and full data recovery capabilities of each of the rotation types provided in the Backup Export Tool.

Table 8. Rotation Types Compared.

Schedule Settings

The Schedule Settings box contains several settings that control when jobs are run and how the jobs use media.

Schedule Type

The Schedule Type setting is the first step in choosing when the job is to run. Once scheduled, the Backup Export Tool service ensures the job is started. If one or more job runs are missed because the service is not running at the scheduled time, the service determines the backup mode with the largest interval setting (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly) that was missed, and runs it.

Table 9. Schedule Type.

Start Time

This setting is only visible for jobs that are to run on a schedule. It specifies the time of day that the job should start. For jobs that are scheduled to run more than once, all runs happen at the same time of day.

Rotation Type and Sets

This setting is only available when the job is scheduled to run repeatedly. The Rotation type and Sets controls allow you to specify a set of preconfigured rotations. The Custom Rotation type is a special case. It unlocks the user interface to allow the user to configure his own rotation.

Type of Fixed Rotation

This setting is only available when creating a custom rotation.

Scheduled Dates

This setting is only visible when the schedule type is set to run on selected days. It consists of a list of selected days to run the job. To add days to or remove days from the schedule, click Calendar to open the schedule calendar. To schedule the job to run on a day, right-click on the day in the calendar, and then click Daily. To unschedule a day, right-click on it, and then click None.

Interval Settings

This setting is only visible when the job is scheduled to be run repeatedly. It contains controls for specifying which types of jobs (full, incremental, or differential) are to be run on which intervals and the number of media sets that are to be used. Click Calendar to view of the schedule. The calendar displays when daily, weekly, monthly and yearly backups are to run. Clicking a day displays a message along the bottom of the dialog explaining the type of job that is to be run, the name of the media that is to be created, and whether the media is to be appended to or overwritten. To override the schedule on an individual day, right-click on the day, and then select the new backup type or deselect the day to stop the backup on that day.

Mode Settings

The Mode box contains several settings that control:

• Type of backup
• How automatic verify is performed
• How to treat used media
• What to do when a file does not fit on the current media.

Many of these settings are set automatically when a schedule rotation is in effect. When a rotation controls these settings, they are disabled in the Administrator.

Backup Mode

The Backup Export Tool supports the backup modes listed in the following table. For scheduled automatic rotation jobs, the Backup Export Tool uses the backup mode for each backup set as indicated on the Schedule page; for unscheduled or manual jobs, the Backup Export Tool uses the settings set by the user.

Table 10. Backup Mode.

Auto Verify Mode

After the Backup Export Tool backs up a set of data, it can verify that the data was backed up correctly. The Backup Export Tool reads the files from the media and performs the selected verification type. If any discrepancies between the two files are found, the file is reported in the job log.

Table 11. Auto Verify Mode.

Write Mode

For automatic rotation jobs, the Backup Export Tool overwrites all media. For other jobs, the Backup Export Tool uses the write mode settings set by the user. This mode determines whether the old data on the media is overwritten with new data or whether the new data is appended to the end of the old data. When media is overwritten, all of the data previously stored on it is lost. Appending data preserves the old data.

Table 12. Write Mode.

Split File

The Split File mode determines how the Backup Export Tool handles a file if the file is too large to fit on the current media. Select this option to instruct the Backup Export Tool to split a file across two media if it will not fit on the current backup media. If this option is not selected then files that do not fit on the media are restarted on the next media.

Media Settings

Select the folder where a job can look for existing media to reuse. Note that the default folder is the current Job folder. To use media from another folder, click Add to open a catalog browser and navigate to the desired folder.

Auto Format Mode

Before data can be written to media, the media must be formatted. When media is formatted, any data on it is lost and all record of the media is removed from the catalog.

Table 13. Auto Format Modes.

New Media Location

Specifies the folder in which the Backup Export Tool stores any new media created while the job is run. By default, the Backup Export Tool stores media under the backup job to ensure the media is not used by another backup job. To change the default, click Browse and select the folder from the Browse dialog box.

When the Backup Export Tool runs any scheduled automatic rotation job, it automatically creates media folders for the job. The folders are organized by the name of the job and the various rotation sets in that job.

Move Media to New Media Location on Overwrite

Setting this check box moves media from the Media to be used folder to the New media location folder when it is used.

Rename Media to New Media

Selecting this check box renames any existing media that is overwritten to the name that would have been used had the media been freshly formatted. When this check box is cleared, already formatted media retains the name that it was given when it was previously used by this job.

New Media Name

Enter the name that the Backup Export Tool gives to any new media it creates while running a job. For scheduled automatic rotation jobs, the Backup Export Tool automatically updates this setting to match the media’s place in the rotation schedule and this setting has no effect.

For manual rotation and unscheduled jobs, the Backup Export Tool assigns the name in this field to any new media that it creates. It also assigns this name for automatic rotation jobs that are "forced" to run. If the job creates more than one media, the job uses this setting as a template to create a unique media name from this setting.

Running Jobs in Rotation

The info bar displays the Current rotation set and the Next rotation set in the Rotation Details section of the info bar. Before the job is run the first time, both fields have the same value. Once the job runs successfully, the Current rotation set field displays the media that has just been used and the Next rotation set field displays the media that is to be used next.

Initial Run

The initial run of a rotation job uses the largest schedule interval in the rotation. For example, suppose a job is configured to begin a GFS 20 rotation on Thursday, October 28th, 2010. Even though a Thursday in the middle of a month would normally be classified as a Daily backup, the first time the job is run, the Backup Export Tool performs a Yearly backup.

Missed Jobs

If, for some reason, a run of the job is missed, for example, because the domain server was offline at the scheduled run time, the scheduler determines the largest interval missed and runs it automatically a few minutes after the Backup Export Tool starts up again.

Failed Jobs

If a job fails, the Backup Export Tool does not automatically run it again. However, you can manually rerun the job by clicking Run in the command bar.

Pausing and Continuing a Schedule

You can stop a scheduled job from running for a period of time by clicking Pause Schedule in the command bar. To turn the scheduled job back on, click Continue Schedule in the command bar. As with initial and missed jobs, the scheduler starts again with the largest schedule interval that was skipped.

Forcing a Run

At times it may be desirable to start a job before its regularly scheduled time. To run the next scheduled interval immediately, click Run next schedule in the command bar. When its originally scheduled time arrives, the job is not run again. Forcing a job to run ahead of its next scheduled time does not affect the schedule of subsequent runs, which resume their normal schedule.

Managing Devices

The Backup Export Tool recognizes any installed device that is part of the Backup Export Tool management domain and displays them on the Devices view. You can use the Devices view to perform operations on any physical or virtual device.

There are several physical operations that can be performed on a selected device. Some of these operations affect the device itself, while others affect the current media in the device.

Identify

Use this command to get the name of the media currently loaded in the device. The Backup Export Tool attempts to identify the tape or other media that is currently loaded in the device. If the Backup Export Tool cannot identify the media, it reads the media header, a process that may take up to several minutes. The name of the media appears on the log file for the media job and in the Media column of the device list.

Import

This command allows you to use data on media that was created in another Backup Export Tool management domain. To use media that was not created in the current catalog, you must import that media into the current catalog.

You might import media in one the following situations:

• To use media created by an earlier version of the Backup Export Tool.
• To use media created in a different the Backup Export Tool management domain.
• To use media accidentally deleted from the catalog.

When you select the Import command a property page opens and prompts you for the media password and the encryption passphrase. The media password is only applicable to media created with older version of the Backup Export Tool and can usually be left empty.

An encryption passphrase is only required for encrypted media. If the supplied passphrase is not correct, the job log presents you with the hint supplied at the time of the media's creation.

Format

Use this command to format media currently loaded in the selected device.

When you format new media, the Backup Export Tool opens the Format Media dialog box. Use this dialog box to name the media and select a media folder in which to store the media. The Backup Export Tool formats the media currently loaded in the device you select. If you select a library, select the storage slot that holds the media you want to use. When you format media, you can also set your choice of encryption levels. Any backup job that uses media pre formatted with encryption must specify the same encryption parameters.

Erase

This command erases the media currently loaded in the selected device.

Table 14. Erase Commands.

Some devices support both options; some support only one of the two erase options. Only options supported by the selected device will be available.

Retension Media

Occasionally when a tape is repeatedly fast-forwarded and rewound for only short distances, tension differences develop in the tape that cause the tape drive to falsely believe it has reached the end or beginning of the tape. You can use this command to fast-forward the tape to the end of the tape and then rewinds it to the beginning. This command can be useful in some circumstances. By retensioning the tape, you can sometimes make an otherwise unusable tape operational again.

Eject

You can use this command to eject media from the selected device or eject the media magazines from the selected library. Some libraries do not support ejecting media magazines using this command.

Restore Catalog

The Restore Catalog command provides a quick method of restoring your current catalog–for example in case it has been corrupted. For example, you might use this command if the Backup Export Tool Domain Server has crashed. Use this command only when your current set of media is intact.

The Restore Catalog command differs significantly from the Import Media command in that it replaces the current catalog with the last known good catalog on that media. The Import Media command, on the other hand, does not replace the current catalog; it only adds additional data to it.

The advantage of the Restore Catalog command is that it provides a quick and easy way to replace a lost or corrupted the Backup Export Tool catalog. You could use the Import Media command to restore a corrupted catalog, but this process requires importing all of your media rather than simply reading the media containing the catalog.

Clean Device

The Clean Device command will run the backup device through a cleaning cycle.

This command is supported only by libraries. If a device in a library provides notification that it needs cleaning and the library has a cleaning cartridge available, a cleaning cycle will be performed automatically at the start of a backup job. If you are using a device that is not a library, you must manually clean the device at the manufacturer’s suggested intervals.

To clean a device in a library, highlight the device and select Clean Device from the Command bar. The Backup Export Tool checks to see if one of the slots holds a cleaning cartridge. If it does, the cleaning cycle will be performed in the background; if not, an error message is shown.

If the Clean Device command is missing, it is not available for your backup device. In this case, a cleaning cycle can often be performed by manually inserting a cleaning cartridge into the backup device.

Start, Stop, and Rescan

Sometimes you will need to restart a device that has, for some reason, failed to initialize properly. A device may have stopped for any number of reasons, such as a power failure or a connecting cable malfunction. Virtual devices on a network appear disabled if the network connection has failed.

When a device is not initialized, it appears with a yellow warning icon. Some devices may take some time to initialize, during which the warning icon continues to display. If a device shows the warning icon after it is initialized, press F5 to refresh the device display.

If you do not see a device that you expect to see connected to a machine, select the Device folder under the machine and click the Rescan for New Devices command.

If there is some other problem with the device or the controller, the warning icon continues to display. You must identify and correct the problem yourself. Then you must restart both the Backup Export Tool and the Backup Export Tool service. When the Backup Export Tool restarts, it initializes the device driver again. Check the Devices view to see that the devices are now properly working and that they no longer display the warning icon. Any duplicate or old devices that are offline can be deleted from the Catalog view.

Device Properties

When you select a specific device in the Devices view and click Properties, you can view the device status, configure settings, and review diagnostic information.

Status

The Status page displays the current status information for the selected device. For example, it shows the current operation, if any, being performed on the device. It also shows the last time a write and read was done on the device.

Table 15. Status Information.

Configuration

You can set the size of the I/O buffer to be used for this device. Usually, you do not need to change the default. However, for some devices, you may be able to increase performance by adjusting the size of the I/O buffer.

Diagnostics

The Diagnostics page displays device diagnostic information including information about the driver, the inquiry information, device statistics, and buffer statistics. Often this information can assist in troubleshooting problems. The diagnostics can be saved to a file or emailed directly from the diagnostic screen.

Sharing Storage Devices on a SAN

Backup jobs automatically select devices to use based on their availability (whether or not they are in use). In a SAN environment, the Backup Export Tool automatically recognizes that a single backup device attached to a SAN may be accessible from two or more servers, and treats the device as a single device.

Working with Tape Libraries

Tape libraries automate tape media handling which, in conjunction with the Backup Export Tool backup schedules, allows hands-off backup operations. A tape library contains one or more tape drives, some number of storage slots for tape media, and, in some cases, import/export slots to add or remove media from the library.

The Backup Export Tool The Backup Export Tool Server Backup tape library support includes managing media using barcodes, using the on-board memory in some tape cartridges, such as Ultrium Memory in Cartridge (MIC), and user-configurable tape media load ports (mail slots).

Installation and Configuration

If the tape library is installed correctly, the Backup Export Tool automatically detects the tape library. When detected, the tape library is added as an available device to the Backup Export Tool catalog.

Once you have installed the Backup Export Tool, expand the Devices view to locate the tape library. Note how the components of the tape library are displayed so that you can see how many devices (tape drives), import-export Slots (mail slots), and storage slots are associated with the library.

• Devices – The tape drives in a tape library are viewed and managed in the same way as stand-alone tape drives.
• Storage Slots – The Storage Slots folder displays the number of available slots. Each slot may contain blank (new) media, media containing the Backup Export Tool data, or media containing unknown (non-Backup Export Tool) data. The Backup Export Tool inventories the media in the slots and displays the information about the media and its status in the view. This allows you to view all kinds of media, not just the media used by the Backup Export Tool, but you cannot select non-Backup Export Tool media for a backup or restore job.

Additional media slot configuration is accessed via the Element Status dialog for that slot, which is accessed by a right click on the desired slot. For example, you can use this to disable slots (using the 'Reserve' option) and identify a cleaning cartridge.

• Import/Export Slots – Some library devices provide special import/export mail slots an operator uses to enter or eject media to or from the device without removing the whole media repository or magazine. Depending on the device, more than one import/export slot can be provided. In case of a single mail slot, media are inserted one by one, while in case of multiple mail slots, a particular number of slots can be used in one enter/eject operation.

Barcodes and Memory in Cartridge

If the tape library supports barcode and/or MIC, the details are added to the Backup Export Tool catalog. The barcode information is hidden by default; to display this detail, right-click anywhere in the column title row to see available column headings and click on Media barcode to make the barcode information visible in the slots view.

Barcode and MIC technologies are used to reduce the time spent organizing and managing media in a library or an autoloader. In these devices, each medium is identified with a unique barcode or, where MIC is used, a chip is embedded in the tape cartridge which holds a unique identifier as well as other information.

Barcodes and MIC enable the Backup Export Tool to significantly reduce media recognition, labeling and cleaning tape detection times.

• Scanning the barcode or MIC of the media is faster than reading the medium header, because the Backup Export Tool does not need to actually load the media into a drive.

• A barcode or MIC is a unique identifier for media in the Backup Export Tool catalog. You should not have duplicate barcodes in your environment.

Barcode Filters

The barcode filter allows users to control access to media by barcode. The user can specify ranges, wildcards, or explicit barcodes that either include or exclude media for use by the product. This property only applies to libraries. Stand alone devices are not restricted in any way by it.

The filter rules may be set for the whole domain and will be applied automatically to all tasks. Or, they may be set and applied at job level. Any filter rules applied at job level overwrite the default domain settings.

For more information on setting barcode filters, see the Barcode Job Filters section.

Initialization Process

The traditional loader inventory mechanism is accomplished by running an identify job on all the slots in a library. This complete inventory can take a very long time, so the Backup Export Tool uses a "light inventory" process, which is known as an initialization process. This initialization process consists of:

Initialization occurs when the library driver starts (at service startup or when the driver is manually started), when the user selects the Initialize command on the loader object or when the Backup Export Tool detects that a user has changed the state of the loader (either by opening the front door or by using the front panel).

During initialization, the library attempts to perform barcode based identification of media. If a match is found, the loader sets that element’s status to Probably Valid. This means that if a user is using barcodes with their tape library, they rarely need to run an identification job.

When the job loads the tape it makes sure that the tape is really what the catalog says it is and, if necessary, updates the catalog to indicate what is really there. If the tape is, in fact, not usable because of the supplied media rules, the tape is re-stowed and another media is tried.

Tape Media Management

One benefit of using the Backup Export Tool with tape libraries is the ease with which you can schedule different backups for different days of the week/month/year. There are no specific media tasks that must be carried out before you run a backup job. As long as the library has valid media loaded in it, the Backup Export Tool automatically uses it.

Similarly, if you are restoring data from media that is already within the Backup Export Tool catalog, there are no media management tasks. However, if you are restoring media from a different domain, you must first import it so that the Backup Export Tool can add the media to the database and associate all data objects on the tape with that media.

For a detailed description of all media management jobs, see the Device Commands section.

Barcode Job Filters

Many tape libraries support the use of barcodes to identify media. Each piece of physical media has a unique barcode that the tape library can read.

The Barcode Filter page allows you to define barcode filters for a job. The filter rules may be set for the whole domain and will be applied automatically to all jobs. Or, they may be set and applied at job level, using this page. Any filter rules applied at job level overwrite the default domain settings. All options will be grayed out initially. Deselecting Inherit settings from domain enables the editing buttons and allows you to create job-specific filters.

There are three ways to assign barcode filters:

• Add an individual barcode – This option allows you to specify an individual barcode for inclusion or exclusion. Up to eight characters may be specified in this filter; the first six relate to the volume identifier and the last two relate to the media identifier. Wildcards may be used to increase the number of barcodes selected by the filter.
• Add a range of barcodes – This filter allows you to specify a range of volume identifiers and media identifiers to include. Any media without a barcode or outside of the specified range is excluded.
• Add barcodes from media present in the library – This filter displays a list of all libraries and their elements. Select the required barcodes from the list and click either Exclude or Include, as appropriate.

Schedule Restore and Verify Jobs

Restore Job Settings

To schedule a restore job to happen at a particular time, change the Schedule Type to Run on specific day and then set the start time and date. The service ensures that the restore happens at that time.

Verify Job Settings

Like the restore job, you can schedule a verify to happen at a particular time as well. Additionally, you can specify whether the job is a Full or a Quick verify. A full verify compares the contents of the backup media with the source files on disk. A quick verify only validates that the media can be read from end-to-end.

Advanced Restore Options

These options apply to all restore jobs regardless of the operating system.

Table 16. Advanced Restore Options.

Advanced Verify Options

Table 17 lists the advanced options available for Verify jobs.

Table 17. Advanced Verify Options.

Backup Export Tool Advanced Options

Table 18. Settings for All Platforms.

Table 19. Settings for Windows

Backup Export Tool Supported Devices

The Backup Export Tools is designed to support families of devices regardless of the specific device model deployed. The system supports removable USB disks up to 128 TB.