| Q.Our company has hundreds of Windows servers connected to a 2-terabyte SAN that is over 75% full. We seldom have enough time available for a full back-up during the week, which is making everyone nervous. How can you help? A.Utilizing Managed Server HSM, organizations are able to archive up to 90% of their files from their production file systems, leaving only residual small “stub” information in their places. This results in up to 90% reduction in the time to backup production files. Q.Once I archive files to a lower performance storage tier, will the files still appear to be in the same directories as when they were first created? Other than accessing our files, what other applications can trigger a recall? A. File’s directory entry is not removed as a result of archiving. Only the data portion of the file is relocated. Users continue to see archived files exactly where and how they were stored, including original file size attributes. Any application that opens a file will cause a recall. Q.We want to set up uniform data retention and deletion policies for our NetApp and Windows servers. Is there a way to facilitate regulatory compliance and control operation for the whole enterprise from one administrative console? A.Managed Server HSM is administered from a single graphical console, which controls all O/S platforms and all policies (e.g., archiving, deletion, retention) for any edition of the Managed Server HSM product line (e.g., NetApp Edition, Centera Edition, etc.). Q.Several of my production servers have storage volumes that are about to max out. Are there any tools available for analyzing storage usage on my critical servers. If so, how much server overhead is required to run the tool? A.CaminoSoft provides a tool called Storage Analyzer (available free-of-charge as a download from our website), which performs an analysis of server files and even provides “what-if” scenarios. Storage Analyzer runs from a workstation with no modules loaded on the server. Q.The last time that we had to recover a server following a catastrophic failure, the system was unavailable to users for several days because all the files had to be reconstructed from tape. How can we minimize our recovery time? A.In the case where Managed Server HSM has archived up to 90% of the production files to an alternate location, the time to recover a production server is also reduced by up to 90%. For each archived file, only the small “stub” information need be restored instead of the entire file. Q.My data storage needs are growing at more than 50% annually. We just spent over a million dollars on a SAN last year and are already looking at another $200K. What options are available for automatically keeping our most active files on the SAN? A.By establishing policies in Managed Server HSM, an administrator can control how long and how many files stay in expensive SAN storage. A combination of watermarks, file age, and size criteria determine the optimum mix of files that are to remain SAN-resident. Q.We have 15 schools in our district, each of which is responsible for backing up its own information. How can we reduce our administrative costs, improve on the timeliness of the backup process, and provide operational redundancy though the central office? A.OFFSite Archive for NetWare can consolidate and replicate each school’s critical data volumes into a central office. By doing so, it both provides an “offsite” copy of the data for disaster recovery and a centralized repository from which to make backups. Q.Our company has many NetWare servers running various O/S revisions from v4.x through v6.x. What automatic fail-over solutions are available for all of our main servers? How can we protect the data volumes in the event of just a disk storage failure? A.StandbyServer for NetWare supports all NetWare platforms from v4.0 to v6.5. Besides providing automatic failover protection, it also mirrors production data to the standby machine, which can be directly utilized by the primary server in the event of a failure in just its disk storage. Q.All of our NetWare resources are located under one roof. Is there a way to take real-time snapshots of the data on these servers and send them to a safe offsite facility? In the event of a central site disaster, how does the offsite system facilitate recovery? A.OFFSite Archive for NetWare periodically takes point-in-time snapshots, based on time or capacity, of files to be replicated to a remote target server. In a failure or disaster, files can be recovered from the target server or it can be reconfigured to stand in as the production server. Q.I understand concept of many central servers being protected by one remote standby machine. Is it possible to configure one central server so that it is protected by many remote standby machines? A.”CaminoSoft supports both “”Many-to-One”” (M/1) and “”One-to-Many”” (1/M) operation. In M/1 mode, a standby machine can take on the role of any of the multiple servers which it is set up to protect. In 1/M mode, any one of several designated remote standby machines can readily assume the role of a primary server in the event of an outage. Q.Is it possible to provide 24/7 system availability for our users and at the same time be assured that our files are protected? Is it possible to configure the backup process to run while files are open? What is required to make this work? A.SnapShotServer for NetWare allows point-in-time logical volume backups to take place at any time, even when files are open and processing is occurring. A component of StandbyServer and OFFSite Archive, it allows backups to be made from target or standby servers with no impact on production processing. Q.For NetWare v5.x and v6.x users utilizing NSS volumes, Novell offers Cluster Services as a solution for high availability. Why would I need StandbyServer or OFFSite Archive when I can just implement clustering? A.Novell’s Cluster Services require shareable storage resources, which can be costly, complicated to deploy, and a single point of failure. Both StandbyServer and OFFSite Archive utilize replication of server data as a critical component in achieving high availability, and they can utilize existing storage resources. CaminoSoft provides support for NetWare 4.x users and those using traditional volumes where clustering is unavailable. Q.What is Multi-tiered HSM? A.Multi-tiered HSM is a software solution that allows you to transparently cascade storage within your production environment, keeping your servers lean, and preventing storage related network management on your production servers. This extends the life of your existing servers while differentiating the current, production data, from the volumes of historical or reference data.Multi-tiered HSM allows you to cost-effectively implement shared storage, with or without a Storage Area Network, into your network. In addition, it allows you to implement near-line repositories for your long term data retention and archiving. Q.How does Multi-tiered HSM help organizational productivity?A.Information Technology is tasked with responsibility of enabling organizational productivity. Multi-tiered HSM protects the performance of your production servers; eliminates the preventable “headaches” common to storage management; and frees the information technology team to concentrate on the business of organizational productivity. Q.Why should I implement Multi-tiered HSM?. A.On almost every server, 90% or more of the data is no longer being actively used. That means the amount of space allocated for the server and its growth, network management, and backup and restore windows are used for non-productive purposes. Multi-tiered HSM allows you to differentiate productive from non-productive data. Q.How can Multi-tiered HSM improve my backup and restoration windows? A.Without differentiating the critical, or current data, from the volume of historical data congesting your servers, both backup and restoration processes must treat all data equally. But all data is not created equally, or better, it may have been created with equal importance, but over time its likelihood for recall and its relevance wane. By differentiating your data in a Multi-tiered HSM environment, the backup and restoration processes of your critical data are transparently segregated so that both backup and restoration processes are streamlined (as much as 10 to 1) with your critical data available for use prior to beginning a restoration process for the volumes of historical data currently housed on your production servers. In addition, the central shares storage repositories are static data sets, never changing on those servers. Finally, data archived to near-line storage is no longer part of backup processes at all reducing the total data on-line requiring backup today. Q.How many tiers may be used in a Multi-tiered HSM? A.You can place as many tiers before going to removable media. Practically speaking, you should automate the management of your many production servers to few central servers. When you are ready to implement shared near-line storage, you should manage your central servers to a single server to get data from your on-line central servers to be stored on a single near-line device like a tape library. Q.What are tiers in my storage environment? A.Production servers reside in every organization and are Tier 1. So in effect every organization has at least on tier. This can be servers with direct attached storage; servers utilizing a Storage Area Network; or a combination of the two. Multi-tiered HSM enables the “archiving” of historical data from your production servers to fewer central servers (as many as 25 to 1) that may be optimized for housing this “reference” data. Tier 3 is the addition of tape libraries or other archival devices for near-line archiving. Tier 4 is the hardware-less storage of data outside a jukebox or library. Multi-tiered HSM gives you an automated policy-based engine to manage the transport of data as it ages through your tiers of storage. Your servers will always house only that data that is critical for that tier (ie. production data for production servers). Q.What advantages does Multi-tiered HSM have over other storage solutions? A.First, Multi-tiered HSM works in many storage environments so it can augment many storage infrastructures. It provides significant advantages over unmanaged storage infrastructures including the efficient use of less expensive storage space, devices and media; it reduces the management costs associated your growing datasets; it allows you to implement new hardware sized specifically for the type of data it will house eliminating the need to “provision” servers for growth while giving you better, more cost-effective hardware choices; and it reduces system downtime for both planned and unplanned storage related system downtime, which according to a recent Intel study suggest is the cause for as much as 55% of all system downtime. Q.How does Managed Server HSM work with GroupWise? A.Managed Server fits right in with your existing environment. You simply install the Managed Server software agent on your GroupWise servers. The agent monitors data storage looking for e-mail attachments and documents that are seldom or never used. When data volumes on a GroupWise server reach a predetermined level, the agent moves the least-used files from the server to your centralized storage system and creates the necessary links from the GroupWise directories to the files on centralized storage. So users can access the files transparently, just as if they were still on the GroupWise server. Q.What are the business benefits of using HSM with GroupWise? A.  Lower costs. You eliminate the need for continual and expensive upgrade or replacement of your GroupWise server hardware.Simplified storage management. You simplify storage management, shrink backup windows and eliminate data overload issues with their associated staff time.High employee productivity. You keep all needed GroupWise data, including historical data, online and at your employees’ fingertips. So your employees have immediate access to all the information they need to do their jobs effectively and efficiently. Contact CaminoSoft For further information and assistance regarding your specific use case, application, or environment, please contact CaminoSoft. How To Reach Us International: +1-805-290-4977USA Toll-Free: 1-877-801-8345 Email: info@caminosoft.com,Web:www.caminosoft.com |
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