Trying To Find VMS-Aware Backup Software?

[Robert Atkinson]

I'm looking at options to possibly replace my current backup solution.

I've looked at HP Data Protector, Legato and a couple of others, but none of them have native VMS restore capability.

Does anyone know of a product that has 'modern' capabilities, but would still allow me to restore files (in a DR situation) without having to rely on an external server?

Cheers, Rob.

[Jim_McKinney]

TAPESYS

http://www.softwarepartners.com/products/tapesys_vms/main.php

[Ian Miller. · Accepted solution]

Have you read this?

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/journal/v9/index.html#backup

[Ian Miller.]

What about
http://www.storserver.com/ovms_vendor

[marsh_1]

how about this

http://www.i-s-e.com/Products/EnterpriseBACKUP/EnterpriseBACKUP_Overview/introduction.html

[Robert Atkinson]

Many thanks for everyones help here.

Jim - I'm afraid it's TapeSys were moving from.

Ian - those links were great. I'd spotted ABS last night, but can't understand why our main vendor only showed us Data Protector and not ABS. I'll definitely be chasing this one up. Storserver doesn't look manly enough, but it's certainly one I'll add to the list to look at, if we don't find anything better.

Mark - We looked at I-S-E (distributed through XuiS in the UK), but it looked rather clunky, and lacked Media Management if memory serves. It does tick the 'native BACKUP.EXE' box though, so again, not completely ruled out.

Rob.

[marsh_1]

rob,

i must admit it's been at least a decade since i used the ise offering but did find it worked without issue and the support offered by xuis was excellent. i thought they did have media management as part of the package ?

[Paul Coviello]

TSM/Storserver is quite a robust product we've used it for a number of years and I wouldn't recommend anything else at this point.

Paul

[Richard W Hunt]

I'm not sure what you mean by "native VMS restore" capability.

We used CA Arcserve BrightStor for a while, then switched to LEGATO, both with an external server that was dedicated to nothing else than backup for the enterprise. In both cases, they ran VMS-aware because we ran VMS agents in our ES40s that passed files over our in-house network. It helped that we had multi-channel Ethernet adapters and were able to connect the backup server to an in-house network more or less dedicated to backup.

Given that it is an agented backup, it creates files and isn't a "track oriented" backup.

[Art Wiens]

"I'm not sure what you mean by "native VMS restore" capability."

I think he means "bare metal" restore ... here's the VMS cd and here's the last backup of the system disk on a tape. Can the backup software make a bootable disk from it?

Products like Data Protector (sic) cannot handle this scenario, but then again, it seems to have a problem getting the information onto the tape as well ;-)

Cheers,
Art

[GuentherF]

Art,

"it seems to have a problem getting the information onto the tape as well ;-)" - no way! ...until proven guilty.

Did you see my reply to your DP entry which was moved to the DP forum?

/Guenther

[Art Wiens]

Yes I did see your response. I have a support ticket open with HP and I'm on to the second person who will try and help me. ie. No need to waste your time (right now ;-).

"Flaky" might be a bit harsh, but DP seems to be very inconsistent. One day the backup failed two minutes into it, the next day it ran to completion. Performance seems to be all over the map:
one disk gets:
Backup Speed ....... 4721.98 (KB/s)
another gets:
Backup Speed ....... 10299.85 (KB/s)
another gets:
Backup Speed ....... 2539.04 (KB/s)

I had one the other day that got 987.29 (KB/s)!

This is on the same system, backing up removed shadow set members on the same EVA8000 to the same ESL712 library. ES47, EVA and ESL are in the same site.

When the backup fails with an "unknown internal error", it leaves the OMNI processes behind with the shadow set member privately mounted and it's a manual cleanup effort.

Sorry Richard, don't mean to hijack your thread. You don't have to give me any points for my whining ;-)

Cheers,
Art

[Art Wiens]

Negative points for getting your name wrong! Sorry Robert!!

Art

[Andy Bustamante]

If native VMS is a key requirement you're going to limit the field. I'm aware of a group using Symantec Netbackup, http://www.symantec.com/business/netbackup for data and using regular tape image backups of system disks.

The downside of course is the requirement to restore an additional external server before your VMS restore can begin.

Andy

[William Webb_2]

ABS is an extremely capable and robust product.

I used it in two former jobs.

The learning curve on it is steep, though, and it's got more features than you can shake a stick at.

WWWebb

[Clark Powell]

We are using HP ABS/MDMS and we like it. We understand your complaint about non-OpenVMS native backup solutions and that's why we picked it over Legato. ABS uses the openVMS backup command and that's one reason why we picked it. OpenVMS BACKUP works better than any other OS's backup system. For example, at disaster recovery exercises, the VMS team is done about the time the Legato team has its server up and is just beginning to restore the actual production systems. And any OpenVMS system manager worth his or her salt can take our tapes and recreate our systems without instructions, (although it goes a lot faster with a document.)

One other feature of ABS is that it is SAN aware. If you have more than one unclustered, OpenVMS system, OpenVMS will not automatically know that a fibrechannel SAN jukebox tape drive is in use by the other system. ABS has handled this problem well.

I can't tell you if Tapesys is a better or worst product because I haven't used it.

All of these backup packages are difficult because they assume that your main object is to restore lost files for users. In our case, that's not true. We use ABS to make disaster recovery tapes so I had to write a little DCL command procedure to make it fit into our system. But, once I wrote it, it works and we are happy with it.

If you have specific ABS questions please email them to me an I will answer based on our experience.

good luck,
Clark Powell