• Capacity detection is automatic. Quota or capacity is set to the size of each medium automatically.
• Multiple archives per medium utilize archive expiration times and lazy reclamation to
maximize the number of archives stored for maximum safety. This may be disabled if only on archive per medium is desired (legacy behaviour).
• Compression and optional encryption are supported.
• Direct booting for RecoverEDGE disaster recovery is supported. • Full file checksumming, for maximum data integrity, is supported.
• Instant File Restore is available from any archive. It is not necessary to read through an entire archive to restore individual files and directories.
• MySQL™ hot backups are supported as a separate Scheduled Job when multiple archives per medium is disabled. When enabled, the MySQL backup will be appended after the full system backup.
6.6 - Initializing
All re-writable media is blanked automatically before initial use and as required. Running
EDGEMENU -> Admin -> Initialize Medium while optical media is selected as the Primary Resource will blank BD-RE, DVD-RAM, DVD+RW and DVD-RW media and FAIL on all other
media types.
6.7 - Resource Information
Sample Optical Drive Resource
Data Node
This is the Device Node used when reading data from the CD-ROM. Mount Device Node
This is the Device Node used when mounting a CD-ROM as a filesystem. Record Buffer
The amount of space BackupEDGE will buffer before beginning a CD-Record or CD-ReWrite session. Increase this amount if you have problems with data under-runs running Optical backups.
+ BackupEDGE Resource Information ---+ |- General Resource Information ---| |Resource Type Optical Drive | |Resource Name [optical0 ] Change as appropriate | |Description [HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H20L YL05] | |Changer Assoc | |Interface [IDE / ATAPI] | | | |- CD / DVD / Optical Information ---| |Data Node [/dev/hdc ] [ ] Buffer Whole Disc? | |Mount Device Node [/dev/hdc ] [X] BurnProof(tm)? | |Record Buffer (K) [2048 ] [X] Multiple Archives? | |Needs Eject? [ ] | |Writable Media: CD-R[W], DVD-RAM, DVD+/-R[W], BD-RE | ¦ ¦ ¦- Default Backup Properties ---¦ |Volume Size [0 ] [S] Compression Level [5] | |Edge Block Size [64 ] [Y] Double Buffering | ¦[Next] [Prev] [Cancel]¦ +---+
Needs Eject?
In some instances, the capacity of a Device is checked by the operating system only when media is inserted. After writing to blank optical media, no data can be read because the driver is
convinced it is still blank. Or, let’s say you had a CD-RW with 100MB previously written to it. You do a 400MB backup, and during the verify you get a read error at the 100MB point. Your OS has cached the size.
In this instance, set the Needs Eject? flag to [Y]es. After each write, BackupEDGE will eject and re-insert the media to get the OS to detect the new media size.
Writable Media
This is not editable, but instead indicates what BackupEDGE believes are the recordable media options for this Device. Read-only devices or Virtual devices will say Device Cannot Write
here.
Buffer Whole Disc?
If this flag is set to [Y]es, BackupEDGE will buffer the entire CD-R/RW image before beginning to write it. This requires at least as much free disk space as the size of the optical drive.
Buffer Whole Disc overrides any Record Buffer settings and is generally not necessary on any modern optical drive.
BurnProof™?
All modern optical drives incorporate technologies that prevent them from ruining media in the event of a data under-run. This flag should always be set to [Y]es.
Multiple Archives?
If checked, allows multiple archives to be stored per medium. If unchecked, only a single archive per medium will be written (this was the behavior in all previous BackupEDGE releases.
Volume Size
0 means “ask the media”. BackupEDGE can normally autodetect the appropriate volume size for the type of media loaded into an optical drive at the time when a backup is made. For this to occur, the Volume Size must be set to 0 in the Resource. Autodetection will fill in the Volume Size field with 0. It should almost never be changed.
Compression
The only compression available is [S]oftware. This will cause the data stream to stop and start. Make sure you have a buffer under-run proof Device, or have set a large Record Buffer size or the Buffer Whole Disc flag if you use software compression. Otherwise, use [N]one.
When compression is set to [S]oftware, a “Level” field appears to the right. The default
compression level is 5. Available options are 1 through 9. 1 provides the highest performance and the least compression, 9 the most compression and the slowest performance. 1 is usually
sufficient. See “Software Compression and Performance” on page 248 for a discussion of compression values.
6.8 - RecoverEDGE Reminder
After adding a new Resource to BackupEDGE and creating at least one successful backup, always remember to re-create your RecoverEDGE media and / or images so that they will understand how to use the Resource. Test them to make sure you can read from the Resource if necessary.
NOTE: This typically happens when an automount daemon is monitoring the Device you are using form backups. We highly recommend shutting down automount daemons on optical
s
7 - Configuring SharpDrive Backups
7.1 - General Concepts
The proliferation, performance, and pricing of hot pluggable USB and SATA hard drives, cartridge drives and flash drives has quickly made them a force in the backup and disaster recovery storage space as a direct replacement to tape storage.
BackupEDGE 3.0 (beginning with 03.00.03) recognizes this and defines a new storage Resource type to handle them all called “SharpDrive™ Media”.
BackupEDGE 3.1 (beginning with 03.01.02) supports both FDISK partitioning (under 2TB) and
GPT Partitioning (any Size Media) under Linux systems that support GPT.
7.2 - Compatibility Matrix
(1) OpenServer 6 and UnixWare SATA is ONLY supported under the AHCI driver.
OpenServer 5 users should consult “Configuring Legacy Disk-to-Disk Backups” on page 151, as
SharpDrive media is not supported. Users of other operating systems may also choose our legacy
disk preparation system, but SharpDrive tends to be faster and easier to set up and use.
7.3 - Multiple Archives Per Medium
BackupEDGE supports performing multiple backups onto SharpDrive Media. By default, the
quota for a SharpDrive is the entire free space of its filesystem. This is the general behaviour:
7.4 - Pre-requisites
• All programs / daemons that automatically recognize and mount a hard / flash drive should be disabled before attempting to use this class of device for storage. BackupEDGE will handle all mounting as needed.
• All media to be used, i.e. removable disks, cartridges, and flash drives, must be initialized one time. This is performed in an automated, wizard-style fashion either by the BackupEDGE installer or from within EDGEMENU. This is much easier than the media preparation required in our legacy D2D feature.
Operating System
Linux UW7 OSR 6 OSR 5.0.7 SharpDrive Medium
SATA Quantum GoVault YES YES1 YES1 NO
SATA RDX/RD1000 YES YES1 YES1 NO
USB Quantum GoVault YES YES YES NO
USB RDX/RD1000 YES YES YES NO
USB Standard Hard Drives YES YES YES NO
USB Standard Flash Drives. Pen Drives, etc. YES YES YES NO
Medium Archive Behaviour
SharpDrive
The process will attempt to create a new archive. If starting a new segment would cause the quota to be reached, the oldest expired archive will be erased in its entirety (all segments). If starting a new segment would exceed the quota and no more expired archives exist, the Scheduler will prompt for a new volume.