Backup Express
Syncsort BEX (formerly Backup Express) is an enterprise-level data protection solution that backs up and restores data and applications for a variety of operating systems. It has data protection, disaster recovery and business continuity planning capabilities.[1] BEX supports many database applications, including Oracle, SQL, and Exchange. Users can map to and use a backed up version of the database if something goes wrong with the primary version. BEX is managed from a single console and catalog. This allows for centralized control of both tape-based and disk-based data protection jobs across heterogeneous operating systems.
Supported platforms
Data can be backed up from any of the following platforms: Windows, UNIX, Linux, NetWare, OES, OES2, Mac, plus VMware and mixed networks. .
Supported applications
According to the BEX Interface Guide, BEX contains interfaces to the following application software and database management systems (DBMS): DB2, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, Novell Groupwise, Oracle, SAP, SharePoint, SQL-BackTrack, SQL Server, and Sybase. For Oracle, BEX provides cloning capabilities. For Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and Oracle, BEX provides read/write access to recovery points.
Storage media
BEX uses the following data storage devices: tape, tape library (jukebox), virtual tape library (VTL), disk (local, Compellent, NetApp, EMC, HP, Data Domain, others), disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T).
Structure
BEX infrastructure has 3 types of components:
- Master Server
- Controls all backup management tasks, catalog, scheduling, job execution, and distributed processing.
- Device Server/Advanced Server
- Handles backup media – either tape or disk.
- Client Node
- Any computer in a BEX enterprise from which data is backed up is considered a BEX client node.
Product Capabilities
The following are among the capabilities of BEX 3.4:
- Fast-image backup for large volumes of small files.
- Focused solutions for NetApp, Novell and remote offices.
- Block-level, incremental backup to disk over the LAN/WAN, which provides source-side data reduction.
- Virtual full backup, which, combined with block-level incrementals, reduces the amount of data that needs to be transferred.
- A single-backup image repurposed to protect/recover files, servers and applications, including VMware environments.
- Read/write mapping to SQL, Exchange, SharePoint and Oracle recovery points.
- Bare Metal Recovery (BMR), which restores operating system, settings, patches and applications software in the event of server failure or corruption.
- Fast data recovery and application access from virtual-volume images on disk storage.
- Instant Availability (IA), which presents a full snapshot of a volume as a Windows drive letter or a Linux/UNIX mount point
- Instant Virtualization (IV), which presents a full snapshot of a host as a VMWare virtual machine (utilizing iSCSI as the back-end stroage protocol) without the need to copy data into the ESX datastore
- Full Virtualization (FV), which recovers a host as a virtual machine, and copies the data into the hypervisor datastore
- Rapid Return to Production (RRP), which seamlessly migrates a host from Instant Virtualization to Full Virtualization status in the background, without service interruption
- Storage alignment, which aligns virtual filesystem blocks with hypervisor storage blocks and physical disk blocks for improved read and write performance in virtual environments
Syncsort
Syncsort is the company that produces BEX. The company has been around for over 40 years, and counts most of the Fortune 500 companies among its customers.[1] Syncsort provides telephone, Internet-based and on-site customer support for BEX.
See also
References
External links