HP Data Protector

HP Data Protector software is automated backup and recovery software for single-server to enterprise environments, supporting disk storage or tape storage targets. It provides cross-platform, online backup of data for Microsoft Windows, Unix, and Linux operating systems.

For business- and mission-critical applications, HP Data Protector Zero Downtime Backup leverages array-based solutions to offload processing from the server and perform backup operations on a copy of the production data. HP Data Protector Instant Recovery retrieves data from the replicated images on disk for recovery to specific points in time.^[1]

HP Data Protector originated as OmniBack. The last version to use the OmniBack name was version 4.1, which was retired in 2004.^[2]

History

When Hewlett-Packard acquired Apollo Computer in 1989, the latter had already developed a backup system entitled the "OmniBack Network Backup System," which was available on the market at the time.^[3] HP continued^[4] to develop this product under the "OmniBack" name for the purpose of backing up individual files and raw disk partitions. A related but distinct product "OmniBack/Turbo" was developed for backing up databases.^[5]

In 1996 HP released OmniBack II 2.0 and merged OmniBack II and OmniBack/Turbo into a single product, although it was still impossible to create a single job which would contain a database and a file system backup. A Windows NT port was released with version 2.3.^[6] Version 2.55 was released in 1997 and included support for HP-UX and IBM AIX.^[7]

With version 5.0, the OmniBack name was dropped. Since then, the product has been called HP Openview Storage Data Protector and HP StorageWorks Data Protector.^[8] The product is now called HP Data Protector software.

HP announced the release of HP Data Protector 9.0 (as a part of its Adaptive Backup & Recovery initiative) in May 2014, and released it in July 2014. It was released in July 2014 along with two companion products: HP Data Protector Management Pack and HP Backup Navigator.^[9]

Architecture

The HP Data Protector architecture is based on the concept of a cell: a network environment that contains a Cell Manager, clients, and backup devices. The Cell Manager is the main system that centrally controls and manages the cell. It contains a database, runs the core software, and runs the backup and restore sessions, writing session information to the database.

A client can be any system within the cell. Clients that are to be backed up require the installation of a Disk Agent. Clients that control the backup and restore data require the installation of a Media Agent.^[10]

For multi-site operations, the Data Protector Manager of Managers (MoM) allows local administrators to control data backup and restore, but providing centralized enterprise monitoring and media management. In this configuration, multiple Data Protector cells are grouped, configured and managed from the MoM.^[11]

Data Deduplication

HP Data Protector offers Data deduplication capabilities with the ability to compare blocks of data being written to a backup device with data blocks previously stored on the device. For data deduplication, HP Data Protector allows any disk-based data storage to be the target storage. Tape drives cannot be used as deduplication targets because of their sequential nature opposed to the block-oriented nature of disk-devices.^[12]

Virtual Server Protection

HP Data Protector supports Backup and restore of virtual servers, including protection for the whole Virtual machine and its application data.^[13] Supported virtual environments include VMware, Windows 2008 Hyper-V (Limited), Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and HP Integrity Virtual Machines.^[14] Citrix XenServer support is no longer officially provided.

Centralization Encryption

HP Data Protector includes automated key management for software and Linear Tape-Open LTO-4 Encryption. Users have the choice of client-based encryption for data security, or they can use the encryption functionality in LTO-4 (and later generation) tape drives.^[15]

Data Protector Notebook Extension

In November 2009, HP began offering HP Data Protector Notebook Extension.^[16] HP Data Protector Notebook Extension enables users to back up and recover data while working remotely and offline. With HP Data Protector Notebook Extension, data is captured and backed up automatically each time a user changes, creates or receives a file. These processes are transparent to the user and do no impact laptop or desktop performance. The data is then stored temporarily in a local repository pending transfer to the network data vault for full backup and restore capabilities. Key features include end-user single-click recovery, encryption and compression techniques.^[17]

Granular Recovery Extensions

Granular Recovery Extensions are components that sit inside other applications and provide the operator of that application with a way of triggering a large restore and then selecting the individual items that need to be restored without requiring assistance from the backup administrator. For example, the VMware granular recovery extension appears as an extra item in the vSphere console of Vcenter, lets a VMware administrator restore a vmdk file and finally provides an interface for selecting files out of that vmdk file. The SharePoint GRE allows Microsoft SharePoint administrators to recover a single document, collection or folder directly via the SharePoint GUI. (Granular Recovery for SharePoint 2010 was introduced in version 7.0.)

References

External links

• HP Data Protector web page