Blaze Vault Online Backup Manager & Blaze Vault 1-Click Backup v5.5
User’s Guide

Copyright Notice

The use and copying of this product is subject to a license agreement. Any other use is prohibited. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or translated into any language in any form by any means without the prior written consent of us. Information in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of the vendor. We do not warrant that this document is error free. If you find any errors in this document, please report to us in writing.

This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).

Disclaimer

Blaze Vault will not have or accept any liability, obligation or responsibility whatsoever for any loss, destruction or damage (including without limitation consequential loss, destruction or damage) however arising from or in respect of any use or misuse of or reliance on this document. By reading and following the instructions in this document, you agree to accept unconditionally the terms of this Disclaimer and as they may be revised and/or amended from time to time by Blaze Vault without prior notice to you.

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Table of Content

1     Overview

    1.1        Benefits
    1.2        Features
    1.3        Security
    1.4        System Requirements

2     Installing Blaze Vault

    2.1        Installing Blaze Vault for Windows
    2.2        Installing Blaze Vault for Mac OS X
    2.3        Installing Blaze Vault for Linux/Unix/Solaris
    2.4        Installing Blaze Vault for Netware

3     Uninstalling Blaze Vault

    3.1        Uninstalling Blaze Vault for Windows
    3.2        Uninstalling Blaze Vault for Mac OS X
    3.3        Uninstalling Blaze Vault for Linux/Unix/Solaris
    3.4        Uninstalling Blaze Vault for Netware

4     Using Blaze Vault

    4.1        System Tray Launcher (Windows Only)
    4.2        Logon Dialog
    4.3        Language Selection
    4.4        Main Window
    4.5        User Profile
    4.6        Backup Logs

5     Setting Up Backup Sets

    5.1        Backup Set Type
    5.2        Backup Source
    5.3        Backup Schedule
    5.4        Continuous Data Protection (CDP)
    5.5        Encryption
    5.6        Mapped Network Drive
    5.7        Backup Filter
    5.8        Pre/Post-Backup Command
    5.9        Temporary directory
    5.10       Transfer Block Size
    5.11       Follow Symbolic Link (Linux/Unix/Mac only)
    5.12       Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)
    5.13       Retention Policy
    5.14       Extra Backup (Off-Line backup, Logout Reminder)
    5.15       In-File Delta
    5.16       Local Copy
    5.17       Using One Backup Account for Multiple Computers

6     Backing Up Files

    6.1        How files are backed up
    6.2        Backup files directly to the backup server
    6.3        Backup files to removable hard disk (seed loading)

7     Restoring Files

    7.1        Restore backup files directly from backup server
    7.2        Restore backup files from removable hard disk
    7.3        IP addresses Restriction for Online Restore

8     In-File Delta Technology

    8.1        Overview
    8.2        Block Size
    8.3        Minimum File Size
    8.4        Uploading full file again
    8.5        Advanced In-file delta type

9     Backup/Restore Oracle 8i / 9i / 10g / 11g

    9.1        Requirements
    9.2        Overview
    9.3        How to backup an Oracle Database (Physical Backup)
    9.4        How to restore an Oracle Database
    9.5        How to restore a single tablespace
    9.6        Export and Import a Database (Logical Backup)

10   Backup/Restore Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 / 2000 / 2005 / 2008

    10.1       Requirements
    10.2       Overview
    10.3       How to backup Microsoft SQL Server database(s)
    10.4       How to restore Microsoft SQL Server database(s)

11   Backup/Restore Lotus Domino / Notes

    11.1       Requirements
    11.2       Overview
    11.3       How to backup Lotus Domino / Notes database(s) / file(s) on Windows
    11.4       How to restore Lotus Domino / Notes database(s) / file(s) on Windows.
    11.5       How to backup Lotus Domino / Notes database(s) / file(s) on Linux
    11.6       How to restore Lotus Domino / Notes database(s) / file(s) on Linux

12   Backup/Restore Microsoft Exchange Server

    12.1       Requirements
    12.2       Overview
    12.3       How to backup Microsoft Exchange Server
    12.4       How to restore Microsoft Exchange Server

13   Backup/Restore Windows System State

    13.1       Requirements
    13.2       Overview
    13.3       How to backup Windows System State
    13.4       How to restore Windows System State

14   Backup/Restore Individual Brick Level Backup for Microsoft Exchange Server

    14.1       Requirements
    14.2       Overview
    14.3       Granting Privileges
    14.4       How to backup Individual Brick Level Backup
    14.5       How to restore Individual Brick Level Backup

15   Backup/Restore System with Microsoft Windows System Backup

    15.1       Requirements
    15.2       Overview
    15.3       How to backup system with Microsoft Windows System Backup
    15.4       How to restore system with Microsoft Windows System Backup

16   Backup/Restore Windows System with ShadowProtect

    16.1       Requirements
    16.2       Overview
    16.3       How to backup system with ShadowProtect
    16.4       How to restore system with ShadowProtect

17   Backup/Restore MySQL Server

    17.1       Requirements
    17.2       Overview
    17.3       How to backup MySQL server on Windows
    17.4       How to backup MySQL server on Linux (command line mode)
    17.5       How to restore MySQL server

18   Email Reporting

    18.1       New User Report
    18.2       Forgot Password Report
    18.3       Backup Job Report
    18.4       Setting Change Report
    18.5       Inactive User Reminder

19   Web Features

    19.1       Install Blaze Vault
    19.2       Update User Profile
    19.3       Request Forgotten Password
    19.4       Restore/Delete/Undelete Backup Files
    19.5       Review Backup Jobs
    19.6       Review Storage Statistics

20   Further Information

    20.1       FAQs
    20.2       Contact Us

 

Overview

1.1 Benefits

 

1.2 Features

1.3 Security

1.4 System Requirements

Client-side applications

 

Supported Platforms

Application Compatibilities

Hardware Requirements

Blaze Vault
  • Windows 95 / 98 / ME / NT / 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista /  2008
  • Linux kernel 2.4 or above
  • NetWare 5.2 or above
  • Solaris 2.x or above
  • AIX
  • HP-UX
  • FreeBSD
  • Mac OS X 10.3 or above
  • All other operating systems that supports Java2 Runtime Environment 1.4.2 or above
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 / 2003 / 2007
  • Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 / 2000 / 2005 / 2008
  • Lotus Domino / Lotus Notes 5.0 or above
  • Oracle 8i or above
  • MySQL 3.2.4 or above
  • Outlook / Outlook Express i.e. *.pst, *.dbx and *.wab
  • Other common files e.g. *.doc, *.xls
  • Also supports backing up of:
    • Windows System State (all platforms except Vista / 2008)
    • Windows System Backup for Vista / 2008
    • Windows NTFS access privileges
    • Linux access privileges and modes
    • Mac OS X metadata and resource forks
  • Memory:
    • 128MB (minimum)
    • 256MB (recommended)
  • Disk Space:
    • 110MB
  • Network Protocol:
    • TCP/IP (http/https)

Blaze Vault 1-Click
  • Windows 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista / 2008
  • Mac OS X 10.3 or above
  • Outlook / Outlook Express i.e. *.pst, *.dbx and *.wab
  • Other common files e.g. *.doc, *.xls
  • Also supports backing up of:
    • Windows NTFS access privileges
  • Memory:
    • 128MB (minimum)
    • 256MB (recommended)
  • Disk Space:
    • 110MB
  • Network Protocol:
    • TCP/IP (http/https)

2. Installing Blaze Vault

Before you can start backing up data to the Ahsay Offsite Backup Server (Blaze Vault Server), you need to install the Ahsay Online Backup Manager (Blaze Vault) onto your computer.

2.1 Installing Blaze Vault for Windows

  1. Download the Blaze Vault installer (obm-win.zip) from the website.

    1

  2. Follow the instructions on the installation wizard to complete installation
  3. When finished, a new icon (Blaze Vault / Blaze Vault 1-Click) will be installed to the system tray (near the clock) automatically and Blaze Vault / Blaze Vault 1-Click will be launched automatically.
  4. (optional) Enter the backup server host name in the [Address] field and press the [Next] button.
  5. If you don't have a backup account, register a trial user by the following steps:
  6. If you have a backup account already, select [already a user?] and logon to the server with your existing username and password.
  7. If this is your first time logging into the server, you will be guided to create a backup set:
  8. To run a backup immediately, click [Backup] button on the left panel, select the backup set and press [OK] button.
  9. Setup completed.

^Back to Top.

2.2 Installing Blaze Vault for Mac OS X

  1. Download the Blaze Vault installer (obm-mac.zip) from the website.

    2

  2. Expand the archive and run the installation wizard [Blaze Vault / Blaze Vault 1-Click] within the archive.
  3. Restart your Mac. Double click the desktop Blaze Vault / Blaze Vault 1-Click icon to start.
  4. (optional) Enter the backup server host name in the [Address] field and press the [Next] button.
  5. If you don't have a backup account, register a trial user by the following steps:
  6. If you have a backup account already, select [already a user?] and logon to the server with your existing username and password.
  7. If this is your first time logging into the server, you will be guided to create a backup set:
  8. To run a backup immediately, click [Backup] button on the left panel, select the backup set and press [OK] button.
  9. Setup completed.

^Back to Top.

2.3 Installing Blaze Vault for Linux/Unix/Solaris

Linux

  1. Download the Blaze Vault tarball release (obm-nix.tar.gz) from the website.

    3

  2. Unpack the install file to /usr/local/obm

    # mkdir /usr/local/obm
    # cd /usr/local/obm
    # gunzip obm-nix.tar.gz
    # tar -xf obm-nix.tar

  3. Install Blaze Vault

    # ./bin/install.sh >install.log

    All installation information can be found in the file "install.log"

    The backup scheduler and autoupgrade services are automatically installed. Backup sets can now run at their scheduled times automatically. *

  4. Please go to X Window or command line mode to continue installation.

 

^Back to Top.

Solaris

  1. Download the Blaze Vault tarball release (obm-nix.tar.gz) from the website.

    4

  2. Unpack the install file to /usr/local/obm

    # mkdir /usr/local/obm
    # cd /usr/local/obm
    # gunzip obm-nix.tar.gz
    # tar -xf obm-nix.tar

  3. Remove bundled jvm

    # rm -rf /usr/local/obm/jvm

  4. Install J2SE Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.4.x or later to /usr/java

  5. Create a symbolic link for JRE

    # ln -s /usr/java /usr/local/obm/jvm

  6. Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable

    # JAVA_HOME=/usr/java; export JAVA_HOME

  7. Install Blaze Vault

    # ./bin/install.sh >install.log

    All installation information can be found in the file "install.log"

    The backup scheduler and autoupgrade services are automatically installed. Backup sets can now run at their scheduled times automatically. *

  8. Please go to X Window or command line mode to continue installation.

^Back to Top.

BSD

  1. Download the Blaze Vault tarball release (obm-nix.tar.gz) from the website.

    5

  2. Unpack the install file to /usr/local/obm

    # mkdir /usr/local/obm
    # cd /usr/local/obm
    # gunzip obm-nix.tar.gz
    # tar -xf obm-nix.tar

  3. Remove bundled jvm

    # rm -rf /usr/local/obm/jvm

  4. Download J2SE Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.4.x or later

  5. Install J2SE Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.4.x or later to /usr/local/diablo-jre1.5.0

  6. Create a symbolic link for JRE

    # ln -s /usr/local/diablo-jre1.5.0 /usr/local/obm/jvm

    If you are using csh as your shell, you need to type "rehash" and hit enter to make the symbolic link take effect. For other shell types it should work.

    # setenv JAVA_HOME /usr/local/obm/jvm

  7. Verify the installed JRE

    $JAVA_HOME/bin/java –version

    See if the output does not contain warning

    With warning

    Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM warning: Can't detect initial thread stack location java version "1.4.2_12"
    Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_12-b03)
    Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_12-b03, mixed mode)

    Without warning

    java version "1.5.0"
    Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build diablo-1.5.0-b01)
    Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build diablo-1.5.0_07-b01, mixed mode)

  8. Install Blaze Vault

    # ./bin/install.sh >install.log

    All installation information can be found in the file "install.log"

  9. Install the backup scheduler and autoupgrade services

    Add two entries to system file /etc/rc.conf for auto starting backup scheduler and autoupgrade agent.

    # obmaua_enable="YES"
    # obmscheduler_enable="YES"

    Restart computer or run the following scripts

    # /usr/local/etc/rc.d/obmscheduler start &
    # /usr/local/etc/rc.d/obmaua start &

    The backup scheduler and autoupgrade services are automatically installed. Backup sets can now run at their scheduled times automatically.

  10. Please go to X Window or command line mode to continue installation.

^Back to Top.

X-Windows

  1. Set the DISPLAY environment variables

    Linux / Unix (sh, bash): DISPLAY=IP_ADDRESS_OF_XTERMINAL[:0.0]; export DISPLAY

    For example

    DISPLAY=:0.0; export DISPLAY
    or DISPLAY=127.0.0.1; export DISPLAY
    or DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0.0; export DISPLAY
    or DISPLAY=192.168.0.2; export DISPLAY
    or DISPLAY=192.168.0.2:0.0; export DISPLAY


    BSD (csh): setenv DISPLAY IP_ADDRESS_OF_XTERMINAL[:0.0]

    For example

    setenv DISPLAY :0.0
    or setenv DISPLAY 127.0.0.1
    or setenv DISPLAY 127.0.0.1:0.0
    or setenv DISPLAY 192.168.0.2
    or setenv DISPLAY 192.168.0.2:0.0

  2. Run Blaze Vault Online Backup Manager

    # sh /usr/local/obm/bin/RunOBC.sh &

  3. (Optional) Enter the backup server host name in the [Address] field and press the [Next] button.

  4. If you don't have a backup account, register a trial user by the following steps:

  5. If you have a backup account already, select [already a user?] and logon to the server with your existing username and password.

  6. If this is your first time logging into the server, you will be guided to create a backup set

  7. To run a backup immediately, click [Backup] button on the left panel, select the backup set and press [OK] button.

  8. Setup completed.

^Back to Top.

Command Line Mode

  1. Use the web interface to add, update and remove backup sets

  2. Using Backup Configurator

    # sh /usr/local/obm/bin/Configurator.sh

  3. Enter your Login Name, Password, Backup Server URL and proxy setting as shown below

    Login Name: userXXX
    Password: *******************
    Backup Server URL: xxx.yyy.com
    Which Protocol ? (1) Http (2) Https : 1
    Use proxy ? (Y)es or (N)o : Y
    Proxy Type ?(1) Http/Https Proxy (2) SOCKS : 1
    Enter proxy server : aaa.bbb.com
    Enter proxy port : xxx
    Enter proxy username (optional) : administrator
    Enter proxy password (optional) : *******************

  4. If you have created a new backup set using the web interface, you set the encrypting key, the encrypting algorithm and the encrypting mode of this backup set by following instructions below.

    Important: You cannot change these parameters once they are set

    Found new backup set 'xxx'
    Please enter the following values for this backup set:

    Encrypting Algorithm ?
    (1) Twofish (2) AES (3) Triple DES (4) No encryption : 1
    Encrypting Key: *******************
    Re-Enter Encrypting Key: *******************
    Encrypting Mode ? (1) ECB (2) CBC : 1
    Run scheduled backup on this computer ? (Y)es or (N)o : Y

  5. If you want to make any changes to the setting above, you can use the main menu below to do so.

    Main Menu:
    ------------
    (1). List Backup Setting
    (2). Change Password
    (3). Change Network Setting
    (4). Change run scheduled backup setting
    (5). Toggle Masked Field (Password, Encryption Key)
    (6). Generate Configuration Report (text format)
    (7). Quit

    Your Choice:

  6. You can then run a backup by executing the command below.

    7. # sh /usr/local/obm/bin/RunBackupSet.sh [BACKUP_SET]
    where [BACKUP_SET] is the name of backup set to be run

  7. Setup completed.

* The backup scheduler and autoupgrade services are verified to install successfully on Solaris, FreeBSD and all major Linux distributions. If these services for other platforms cannot be installed, please refer to the specific OS manual for further information.

^Back to Top.

Installing Blaze Vault for Netware

  1. Download the Blaze Vault zip release (obm-netware.zip) from the website.

    2. 6

  2. Expand the zip file to SYS:\Blaze Vault
  3. Install Blaze Vault

    SYS:\> SYS:\OBM\aua\bin\install-aua.ncf

  4. Start Auto Upgrade Agent

    SYS:\> SYS:\OBM\aua\bin\startup.ncf

  5. If you want scheduled backup to run automatically, you must start the backup scheduler by

    SYS:\> SYS:\OBM\bin\Scheduler.ncf

    All backup sets will now be run at their scheduled times automatically.

  6. Open Blaze Vault by running SYS:\Blaze Vault\bin\RunBackupManager.ncf
  7. (Optional) Enter the backup server host name in the [Address] field and press the [Next] button.
  8. If you don't have a backup account, register a trial user by the following steps:

  9. If you have a backup account already, select [already a user?] and logon to the server with your existing username and password.
  10. If this is your first time logging into the server, you will be guided to create a backup set

  11. To run a backup immediately, click [Backup] button on the left panel, select the backup set and press [OK] button.
  12. Setup completed.

^Back to Top.

Uninstalling Blaze Vault

This section describes the steps required to uninstall Blaze Vault from your computer.

Uninstalling Blaze Vault for Windows

  1. Open [Start] -> [Control Panel]  -> [Add/Remove Programs]
  2. Select [Blaze Vault Online Backup Manager] from the list and press the [Remove] button

Uninstalling Blaze Vault for Mac OS X

  1. Remove all program files by running

    # cd $OBM_HOME/bin
    # sudo ./uninstall.sh

  2. Remove all backup setting by removing ~/.obm

    # rm –rf ~/.obm

  3. Restart your computer

Uninstalling Blaze Vault for Linux/Unix/Solaris

  1. Run the uninstall scripts

    # sh /usr/local/obm/bin/uninstall.sh

    Removing Scheduler from service using script name obmscheduler
    Using init script path /etc/init.d
    Using run level script path /etc/rc.d
    Removing symbolic link from run levels
    Removing script file obmscheduler from /etc/init.d
    Shutting down AutoUpdateAgent
    Waiting 5 seconds for AutoUpdateAgent to clean up
    Removing AutoUpdateAgent from service using script name
    Using init script path /etc/init.d
    Using run level script path /etc/rc.d
    Removing symbolic link from run levels
    Removing script file obmaua from /etc/init.d
    Online Backup Manager uninstall service is complete!
    It is now safe to remove files from /usr/local/obm

  2. Remove installed files and all application data

    #rm -rf /usr/local/obm
    #rm -rf ~/.obm

  3. Uninstall completed.

Uninstalling Blaze Vault for Netware

  1. Stop the running backup scheduler by running

    SYS:\> touch SYS:\OBM\ipc\Scheduler\stop

  2. Stop the running auto upgrade agent by running

    SYS:\> SYS:\OBM\aua\bin\shutdown.ncf

  3. Remove all program files by removing the directory SYS:\OBM
  4. Remove all backup settings by removing the directory SYS:\.OBM

^Back to Top.

Using Blaze Vault

This chapter will describe all the features available in Blaze Vault and outline how you can use Blaze Vault to meet various backup needs.

System Tray Launcher (Windows Only)

After you have successfully installed Blaze Vault onto your computer, an Blaze Vault icon will be added to the system tray area (next to your system clock) automatically.

7

This icon is the entry point to Blaze Vault. Right clicking the icon will show a menu that provides the following functions:

Menu Item

What it does

Open

Run Blaze Vault.

Backup

Runs a specific backup set (or all backup sets) chosen from the sub-menu in silent background mode.

Backup and Logoff

Runs a specific backup set (or all backup sets) chosen from the sub-menu in silent background mode and then logoff from Windows when finished.

Backup and Restart

Runs a specific backup set (or all backup sets) chosen from the sub-menu in silent background mode and restart Windows when finished.

Backup and Shutdown

Runs a specific backup set (or all backup sets) chosen from the sub-menu in silent background mode and shutdown the computer when finished.

Backup and Standby

Runs a specific backup set (or all backup sets) chosen from the sub-menu in silent background mode and enter the Standby mode of Windows.

Backup and Hibernate

Runs a specific backup set (or all backup sets) chosen from the sub-menu in silent background mode and enter the Hibernate mode of Windows.

Help

Shows a help dialog

Stop running backup

Interrupts a running backup set (or all backup sets) chosen from the sub-menu.

Exit

Close this system tray launcher application.

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Logon Dialog

Before you can use Blaze Vault, you have to be authenticated by Blaze Vault Server first. The logon dialog shown below will check if you have the right to access Blaze Vault by submitting the username and password you provided to the backup server.

8

For secure communication, you can choose to communicate with Blaze Vault Server in SSL (Secure Socket Layer) by selecting the [https] option.
The [Address] field shows the network address of Blaze Vault Server to which Blaze Vault will connect to authenticate your username and password. You can use either a resolvable host name (e.g. backup.your-domain.com) or an IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.1).

If Blaze Vault Server is not accepting connection from the standard ports (Port 80 and 443 for http and https respectively), you can append a semi-colon “:” and the custom port number to the host name of the [Address] field (e.g. www.backup-provider.com:8080) to connect to the server using the custom port number (port 8080 in this case).
If you need to connect to the server through proxy, just enter your proxy setting in the [Proxy Setting] section. For [SOCKS] proxy, both v4 and v5 without user authentication are supported.

^Back to Top.

Language Selection

You can switch the language of the Blaze Vault user interface by choosing the desired language available from the [Language] drop down list. The languages available includes English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Finnish, Italian, German, Swedish, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, Lithuanian and Slovenian.

9

^Back to Top.

Main Window

Press [OK] to logon. After the backup server authenticates you successfully, the Blaze Vault main window appears.

10

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User Profile

You can then use Blaze Vault to update your user profile. Press the 11 button to open the [User Profile] dialog.

12

You can perform the following update to your user profile.
To change your [Display Name], enter the new display name in the [Display Name] field and press [OK].
To change your [Password], press the [Change] button next to the password field. A [Change Password] dialog will appear. Enter your original password and new password into the text field of this dialog and press [OK].

13

To change your [Time Zone], just select your time zone from the drop down list next to the time zone entry.
To add a new contact email to this account, press the [Add] button in the [Contact] section. A [Add New Contact] dialog will appear. Enter a name and an email address in the text field provided and then press the [OK] button.

14

To remove a contact email, select the email that is to be removed from the email list and press the [Remove] button. Press [OK] to confirm the removal.

To update a contact email, select the email that is to be updated from the email list and press the [Properties] button. A [Properties] dialog will appear. After you have made the changes that you want, press the [OK] button.

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Backup Logs

All backup activities are logged to backup activity log files. They are available for reviewing from Blaze Vault.

How to review backup activities?

You can review all your backup Jobs by

  1. Press the [Backup Log] button on the Blaze Vault main window.
  2. Select the Backup Set you want to review from the [Backup Set] drop down list.
  3. Select the Backup Job you want to review from the [Log] drop down list.

    16

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Setting Up Backup Sets

A backup set contains all backup settings of a backup operation. This section will describe all features available within a backup set and explain how you can use each of them to achieve various tasks.
Each backup account can have multiple backup sets. Each backup set is an individual and independent entity. For example, if you want one directory to be backed up during the day and another directory to be backed up during the night, you can create two backup sets, each with a different backup schedule and backup source, to serve this need.
To start setting up backup sets, click the  button to open the [Backup Setting] dialog. As an example, let’s create a “File Backup Set” for the rest of this chapter.



On the left panel, press the  button to create a new backup set.

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Backup Set Type

A backup set can be of one of the following types:

Backup Type

Description

File

Backup set type to backup common files/directories

Lotus Domino Server

Backup set type to backup Lotus Domino

Lotus Notes Client

Backup set type to backup Lotus Notes

MS Exchange Server

Backup set type to backup Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 / 2003 / 2007

MS Exchange Mail Level

Backup set type to backup individual emails, contacts, calendars, tasks etceteras from Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 / 2003 /2007

MS SQL Server

Backup set type to backup Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 / 2000 / 2005

MySQL Server

Backup set type to backup MySQL Server

Oracle Database Server

Backup set type to backup Oracle 8i/9i/10g database

System State

Backup set type to backup Microsoft Window’s System State

Backup set type is defined at backup set creation and cannot be modified. If you want to change the backup set type, you have to create another backup set in the new backup set type.

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Backup Source

A “Backup Source” defines the files/directories that are to be included in a backup set. There are two types of backup source: Selected and Deselected. Selected backup source defines files/directories that are to be included in a backup set while deselected backup source defines files/directories that are to be excluded from a backup set. Blaze Vault will generate appropriate backup source setting for you automatically when you make your backup source selection.
Please note that for Windows operating systems, if the “Hide protected operating files (Recommended)” setting is enabled for the file explorer, system folders/files will not be shown in the backup source. By selecting the parent folders however, all subfolders (including system folders/files) will be included in the backup set. Thus if you want to exclude system folders (e.g. recycle bin) from the backup, please select the desired folders/files directly rather than selecting the parent folder. Alternatively, you can enter the corresponding system path to the [Exclude List] of the backup set using the web interface.

On the first screen of the dialog, you can easily select the following common folders to be backed up:

  1. “Desktop” folder
  2. “My Documents” folder
  3. “Favorites” folder
  4. “Outlook” and “Outlook Express” mail store folder



    5. On clicking the [Advanced] button, you can easily select other common folders to be backed up as well.



    The checkbox next to the files/directories shown above can be in one of the following mode:

    Mode

    Description

    All files/directories (recursively) under this directory will be backed up

    All files/directories (recursively), except those explicitly excluded, under this directory will be backed up. If you add files/directories to this directory in the future, they will be backed up as well.

    Only the checked files/directories under this directory will be backed up. If you add files/directories to this directory in the future, they will NOT be backed up.

    Nothing under this directory will be backed up.


    By clicking on the boxes, you can change the modes of each file/directory, in order to create a set of files to be backed up.
    You can change the backup source anytime after creating the backup set, by clicking the [Backup Source] node of the left panel on the [Backup Setting] dialog.

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Backup Schedule

A “Backup Schedule” defines the frequency and the time that backups should run automatically.



Backup schedule can be in one of the following types:

Type

Description

Daily

Backup Jobs will run everyday

Weekly

Backup Jobs will run on the specified day(s) of every week

Monthly

Backup Jobs will run on the specified day or on a day with a given criteria (e.g. first weekend, last weekday) of every month

Custom

Backup job will run once on any particular date

For each schedule type above, backup will run at the scheduled time for a maximum of the duration specified (or until all data are backed up if [Stop on backup completion] option is chosen). If a backup job does not finish within the maximum duration specified, it will be interrupted.
Please note that you can have more than one schedule within a backup set. For example, you can have a daily backup schedule that runs at 13:00 at noon and another daily backup schedule that runs at 00:00 at midnight. The combination of these schedules effectively creates a backup schedule that runs daily at 00:00 and 13:00 everyday.
You can change the backup schedules anytime after creating the backup set, by clicking the [Backup Schedule] node of the left panel on the [Backup Setting] dialog.

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Continuous Data Protection (CDP)

Blaze Vault / Blaze Vault 1-Click Continuous Data Protection (CDP) feature enables files to be backed automatically at the time when there are changes to files on local hard disks. The benefits of using CDP are:

  1. All intra-day interim changes are backed up automatically. Even if the computer breaks down completely before users had the change to backup their data at the end of the day in logout backup reminder, all changes within the day have been backed up safely by CDP and no data are lost.

  2. Sometimes users do not save their data in the folders designated as backup source path and thus results in data not being backed up even when backup runs. Since CDP tracks all changes of files on local hard disk automatically for users, all files changed by the users are automatically backed up no matter whether the files are located in the backup source paths or not. This makes defining a backup set a much easier task for both administrators and users.

Although CDP is a very helpful feature, it does have some drawbacks. For example, a memory resident program, which tracks file changes to the file system and backs up files continuously in background, consumes both a computer’s CPU and memory resources. It can potentially slow down a computer considerably. For application servers, e.g. Microsoft Exchange Server or Microsoft SQL Server, that does not require CDP features (you can use transaction log backup interval of as frequent as every 1 minute to mimic a continuous backup strategy instead), please turn off CDP by changing the startup method of [Control Panel] -> [Administrative Tools] -> [Services] -> [Continuous Data Protection (Blaze Vault)] -> [General] -> [Startup type] to “manual”.



The following table explains all CDP parameters available within a backup set.

Parameter

Description

Enable Continuous Data Protection (local disk only)

It defines whether CDP is enabled in this backup set. Please note that CDP will only backup files on local hard disks, not files on floppy drives, removable drives and network mapped drives.

Time Mark Interval

It defines the interval of point-in-time views generated by CDP. For example, if this setting is set to “60 minutes”, the point-in-time views selectable under Blaze Vault / Blaze Vault 1-Click restore wizard and Blaze Vault Server File Explorer will be “00:00”, “01:00”, “02:00” etc, for each day.

Minimum Update Interval

It defines the minimum interval that repeatedly updated files are backed up again. For example, if a file is updated every minute and the [Minimum Update Interval] is set to “10 minutes”, CDP backs up this file every 10 minutes instead of every minute. If you want all changes to be backed up instead, please change this setting to “Always”. However, since Blaze Vault Server  keeps only 1 snapshot of file within a single point-in-time view (“Time Mark Interval”), only the last backup file within each point-in-time view is restorable from Blaze Vault Server, all other interim backup files are overwritten automatically without notice.

Please note that this applies to all full file backup only, but not for files that are backed up incrementally by in-file delta. To maintain a valid in-file delta chain for incremental delta files, Blaze Vault Server  will not delete incremental delta files automatically. If you are interested in restoring any of these snapshots backed up, you can use the [Show all files] view to display all interim incremental backup files.

Type

[Backup file(s) selected by backup sources and filters] – when this option is selected, CDP will only back up all changed files selected by backup set sources and filters settings
[Backup all files]            – when this option is selected, CDP will only back up all changed files
[Custom] – when this option is selected, CDP will only back up changed files selected by CDP backup sources and CDP backup filters settings

Do not backup files defined as system files

If this option is enabled, CDP will exclude the following files from its backup:

  1. '[WINDOWS_DIR]' (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\*)
  2. '[PROGRAM_DIR]' (e.g. C:\Program Files\*)
  3. '[RECYCLE_BIN_DIR]' (e.g. C:\RECYCLER, D:\$Recycle.Bin)
  4. '[ALL_LOCAL_DRIVE]:\Pagefile.sys' (e.g. C:\Pagefile.sys, D:\Pagefile.sys)
  5. '[ALL_LOCAL_DRIVE]:\hiberfil.sys' (e.g. C:\hiberfil.sys, D:\hiberfil.sys)
  6. '[ALL_LOCAL_DRIVE]:\***\*.tmp' (e.g. C:\xxx\abc.tmp, D:\yyy\abc.tmp)
  7. '[ALL_LOCAL_DRIVE]:\System Volume Information' (e.g. C:\System Volume Information, D:\System Volume Information)
  8. '[APP_DATA]\Microsoft'
  9. '[APP_DATA]\Kaspersky Lab'
  10. '[APP_DATA]\Symantec'
  11. '[APP_DATA]\Avg7'
  12. '[APP_DATA]\Avg8'
  13. '[APP_DATA]\McAfee'
  14. '[APP_DATA]\McAfee.com'
  15. '[APP_DATA]\Sophos'
  16. '*\ntuser.dat'
  17. '*\Application Data\Mozilla\*'
  18. '*\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\*'
  19. '*\Application Data\Macromedia\*'
  20. '~$*.(doc|dot|ppt|xls|DOC|DOT|PPT|XLS)'
  21. '*\Local Settings\(Temp|Temporary Internet Files|History)\*'
  22. '*\LOCALS~1\(Temp|Tempor~1|History)\*'

 

where              
[APP_DATA] = "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\" (XP) or "C:\ProgramData" (Vista)

If you are interested in contributing to the maintenance of this by adding your suggestions, please contact us.

Backup Source

This option is only available when [Custom] CDP type is selected. When this option is used, CDP will only backup the files under the paths defined and all other files are ignored.

Backup Filter

This defines whether any file will be backed up by CDP. When CDP type is [Backup all files], it is only possible to exclude files from CDP backup. CDP backup filter is similar to backup set filter, please refer to Backup Filter section for more information.

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Encryption

Before your files are sent to Blaze Vault Server, all your files are compressed and encrypted using your choice of encryption algorithm, mode and key.



The following table explains all encryption parameters available within a backup set.

Note:
Encryption settings are set at backup set creation time and cannot be modified. You need to create a new backup set if you want to change your encryption settings for a backup set.

Parameter

Description

Encryption Algorithm

It defines the encrypting algorithm used to encrypt your backup files. There are three encryption algorithms available:

[AES]        Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm
[DESede]  Triple DES algorithm
[Twofish]   Twofish algorithm

We recommend the use of AES as it has been chosen as the encryption standard for commercial use. Please refer to references on Cryptography for more information about encryption algorithms.

Encryption Mode

It defines the encrypting mode used to encrypt your backup files. There are two encryption modes available:

[ECB]        Electronic Cook Book Mode
[CBC]        Cipher Block Chaining Mode

We recommend the use of CBC mode as it offers better security. Please refer to references on Cryptography for more information about encryption modes.

Encrypting Key

The key used to encrypt all files within a backup set. Please write it down on paper and keep it in a safe place. If the key is lost, you will not be able to recover your files from the encrypted backup files.


If you are not familiar with cryptography, it is recommended to use [Default] encryption. By selecting [Default], the encryption key will be your login password.
You can change the encryption key anytime after creating the backup set, by clicking the [Encryption] node of the left panel on the [Backup Setting] dialog. The algorithm and mode cannot be changed however.

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Mapped Network Drive

If you need to backup a mapped network drive on Windows (it will only work in Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista), you must enter your Window’s domain, username and password into the [Network Resources Authentication for Windows] section as shown below. It is required because scheduled backups will always run under the context of Window’s “Local System” account (which does not have the privileges required to access network resources) by default. Blaze Vault needs to collect your Windows username, password and domain name to authenticate itself to the windows domain controller to acquire the required access privileges to the network files to be backed up. If you don’t supply a username and password, Blaze Vault will have problems accessing network resources in its scheduled backup Jobs.
If you need to backup network mapped drive in scheduled backup, please do this:

The steps above apply only to computers running in a Windows domain. If you don’t have a windows domain with your network and you are using a workgroup or using a NetWare server, please use the “net use” command to authenticate the running backup process against the computer hosting the mapped drive. Otherwise, you will get “Access Denied” error from the backup report.

For example, if you want to backup \\SERVER\SHARE that is located on a NetWare server (or another computer in a windows workgroup) and you are getting "Network drive is not accessible" error message, please try adding the following command as a [Pre-backup command]

net use \\SERVER\SHARE [PASSWORD] /USER:[DOMAIN | MACHINE_NAME]\[USERNAME]

E.g.



Enter one of the following commands directly into the Pre-Backup Command:

net use \\Netware\Data password /USER:peter
net use \\WorkgroupComputer1\Data password /USER:WorkgroupComputer1\peter

This will authenticate the current process with the NetWare server (or another computer in a windows workgroup) and backup will then run correctly.

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Backup Filter

A “Backup Filter” defines the file selection rules that allow user to easily include/exclude files into/from the backup set by applying user defined criteria(s) to the file names or directory names.

There are some basic rules regarding backup filters:

  1. Filters are checked in creation order. Once inclusion/exclusion has been identified, the remaining filters won't be checked.
  2. Inclusion/Exclusion made by filter always takes precedence over backup source selections
  3. If all filters do not apply to a particular file, this file is then checked for inclusion/exclusion backup source selections
  4. To add a new filter, press the [Add] button at the bottom of the right panel.

    5. Key

    Description

    Name

    The name of a filter

    Top Directory

    The top directory to which this filter is applied. Filtering rules will be applied to all files and/or directories under this directory.

    Apply To

    Define whether to apply the filtering rule to files and/or directories

    Pattern Matching

    It defines the filtering rules of a filter. A filtering rule can be of one of the following types:

    [Starts With]            Include/Exclude all files/directories with name starting with a certain pattern.
    For example: You can use B* to match all files with name starting with a ‘B’ character

    [Contains]                Include/Exclude all files/directories with name containing a certain pattern.
    For example: You can use *B* to match all files with name containing with a ‘B’ character

    [Ends With]              Include/Exclude all files/directories with name ending with a certain pattern.
    For example: You can use *.doc to match all files with name ending with ‘.doc’ (all Word documents)

    [Regular Expression]      Include/Exclude all files/directories with name matching a regular expression.

    To add a new pattern, press the [Add] button in the [Pattern Matching] area.

    Filter Mode

    Defines whether you want to include or exclude matched files into/from the backup set. Also, for those unmatched files, you can choose to exclude (if include filter type) or include (if exclude filter type) them into/from the backup set.

Example 1:

If you want to backup only Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents in your document directory (e.g. C:\My Documents), you should setup your backup filter as follows.

Top Directory       = C:\My Documents
Apply To              = File (true)
Matching Type      = End With
Matching Patterns = *.doc, *.xls, *.ppt
Filter Mode           = Include
Exclude all others  = True

Example 2:

If you want to backup all files, excluding all *.exe, *.dll and *.tmp, in C:\Applications, you should setup your backup filter as follows.

Top Directory       = C:\Applications
Apply To              = File (true)
Matching Type      = End With
Matching Patterns = *.exe,*.dll, *.tmp
Filter Mode           = Exclude
Include all others = True

Example 3:

If you have made your selection of files (all under C:\) from the backup source setting but you want exclude all images (e.g. *.jpg and *.gif) from your selection, you should setup your backup filter as follows.

Top Directory       = C:\
Apply To              = File (true)
Matching Type      = End With
Matching Patterns = *.jpg, *.gif
Filter Mode           = Exclude
Include all others = false

Please note that the [Include all others] setting is not enabled because you don’t want to include all other files (NOT *.jpg, *.gif) under C:\ into the backup set.

Example 4: (advanced)

If you want to include everything, except the “log” directory, under C:\Applications into a backup set, you should setup your backup filter as follows.

Top Directory       = C:\Applications
Apply To              = Directory (true)
Matching Type      = Regular Expression
Matching Patterns = ^log$
Filter Mode           = Exclude
Include all others = True

Example 5: (advanced)

If you want to include all directories named “log” from the backup set files with file name starting with “B” and ending with “*.doc” under C:\My Documents into the backup set, you can use a regular expression of “^B.*\.doc$” to do your selection. The filter backup can then be setup as follows.

Top Directory       = C:\My Documents
Apply To              = File (true)
Matching Type      = Regular Expression
Matching Patterns = ^B.*\.doc$
Filter Mode           = Include
Exclude all others   = True

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Pre/Post-Backup Command

The [Command Line Tool] feature has two major components, the [Pre-Backup] command and the [Post-Backup] command. You can use the [Pre-Backup] or [Post-Backup] commands to run any native OS (operating system) commands before or after running a backup job.



Both [Pre-Backup] and [Post-Backup] commands comprise of the following parameters:

Key

Description

Name

Name of this Command

Command

The command to be run
(e.g. C:\My Documents\Application.exe or C:\My Documents\BatchJob.bat)

Working Directory

The directory at which this command will run

The backup set type affects the time at which [Pre-Backup] and [Post-Backup] commands run. The following table outlines when [Pre-Backup] and [Post-Backup] commands will run in different types of backup set.

Backup Set Type

When Pre-Backup Commands run?

When Post-Commands run?

File

Before uploading backup files

After uploading all backup files

Non-File Backup Sets (e.g. Microsoft SQL Server)

Before spooling backup files to temporary directory

After spooling backup files to temporary directory (i.e. before the first backup file is uploaded)


Note: You should never backup an application while it is running as this can result in inconsistent and unusable files getting backed up. Please use the “Volume Shadow Copy” feature if you’re running Windows XP/2003/Vista or make use of the Pre-Backup Command feature to shutdown your application before running a backup job and use the Post-Backup Command feature to restart your application after the backup job has completed.

For Example

You want to stop Microsoft Outlook using the Pre-Backup Command and restart it after backup using the Post-Backup Command, create the two following text files and assigned the files to Pre-Backup and Post-Backup Command.

Set objOLK = createObject("Outlook.Application")
objOLK.quit

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\OUTLOOK.EXE"

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Temporary directory

If you are running a file backup job with in-file delta enabled or a database type backup job, Blaze Vault will generate temporary files and the directory that will be used to store all these files are defined by [Options] -> [Temporary directory for storing backup files]. Please set this to a non-system disk partition that has enough free space to avoid problems.
You can set the [Temporary directory for storing backup files] to a mapped network drive. If you choose to do this, please use a UNC path (e.g. \\SERVER\SHARE) and don’t forget to configure the [Backup Set] -> [Network Resources Authentication for Windows] setting.

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Transfer Block Size

Transfer block size defines the block size Blaze Vault will use to transfer your backup blocks. Generally, backup jobs using a larger block size will have better performance, because of the smaller number of connections involved. However, some firewalls or proxy servers may block out-going network traffic (HTTP/HTTPS POST method) with large block size for security reasons. If you are in a network with this type of restriction, please lower the transfer size value and try again.

To change the transfer block size of any backup set, please select the [Options] node on the left panel and then you can make changes to the [Transfer Block Size] under [Advanced Options]. After you have made your changes, just press the [OK] button to save.

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Follow Symbolic Link (Linux/Unix/Mac only)

Under Unix/Linux/Mac, users can create a symbolic link to link a file/directory from another directory. This setting defines whether you want Blaze Vault to traverse any symbolic links encountered on your backup path.

To change the follow symbolic link of any backup set, please select the [Options] node on the left panel. You can then make changes to the [Follow Symbolic Link] by checking or un-checking the box. After you have made your changes, just press the [OK] button to save.

Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)

Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) allows you to backup files that are exclusively opened. Without VSS, you will get the error message “The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file” if you are trying to backup a file that is exclusively opened (e.g. Outlook PST file).

Please note that VSS is only available on Windows XP / 2003 / Vista / 2008 and you must have administrative privileges to start the VSS service on a computer. Also VSS will only work if at least one of your partitions is formatted using NTFS. If you are running Windows 2003, please install the Windows 2003 VSS hot fix available in http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;887827 before running VSS. If you are running into problems with VSS running on Windows XP / 2003, Microsoft's recommendation is to try re-registering the Volume Shadow Copy Service again. Simply run the script [OBM Home]\bin\RegisterVSS.bat to do so.

For more information, please take a look at the following page for a technical introduction to Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS):
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/2b0d2457-b7d8-42c3-b6c9-59c145b7765f1033.mspx

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Retention Policy

During backup, if Blaze Vault finds that you have deleted a file (or updated a file) on your computer, it will put the corresponding deleted (or updated) file already backed up on the backup server into a retention area. The retention policy setting defines how long files inside the retention area will be kept on the backup server before they are deleted automatically from the server.

Retention policy will only affect “retained” file (i.e. files that have already been deleted or updated on your computer and thus are moved to the retention area of the backup server). For those files that have not been updated on your computer, the backup of these files is kept in the data area on the backup server and won’t be affected by the setting of retention policy. These backup files of unchanged files will stay on the backup server forever until the original files are removed (or updated) from your computer.

Standard Retention Policy

The standard retention policy allows you to delete retained files automatically after a user defined number of days or after a user defined number of backup Jobs. To change the retention policy setting of any backup set, please select the [Retention Policy] node on the left panel. You can then make changes to your retention policy under the [Retention Policy] section. After you have made your changes, just press the [OK] button to save.

Advanced Retention Policy

The [Advanced] retention policy allows you to configure a more flexible retention policy. It allows you to keep a set of snapshots of all backup files based on the time of the backup Jobs. For example, you can configure the advanced retention policy to keep the following sets of backup files to mimic the retention policy of the old days when you were still doing tape rotations:

To do so, you need to setup your advanced retention policy as follows:

Assuming today is 17-Jan-2006, if [Remove retention files for overlap policy] is NOT enabled, a total of 22 snapshots (provided you have run backups daily for more than 7 years) will be kept on the server accordingly, i.e.:

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Quarterly

Yearly

16-Jan-2006

14-Jan-2006

01-Jan-2006

01-Jan-2006

01-Jan-2006

15-Jan-2006

07-Jan-2006

01-Dec-2005

01-Oct-2005

01-Jan-2005

14-Jan-2006

31-Dec-2005

01-Nov-2005

01-Jul-2005

01-Jan-2004

13-Jan-2006

24-Dec-2005

 

01-Apr-2005

01-Jan-2003

12-Jan-2006

 

 

 

01-Jan-2002

11-Jan-2006

 

 

 

01-Jan-2001

10-Jan-2006

 

 

 

01-Jan-2000

If [Remove retention files for overlap policy] is enabled, only the following snapshots are kept:

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Quarterly

Yearly

16-Jan-2006

14-Jan-2006

01-Jan-2006

01-Jan-2006

01-Jan-2006

15-Jan-2006

07-Jan-2006

01-Dec-2005

01-Oct-2005

01-Jan-2005

14-Jan-2006

31-Dec-2005

01-Nov-2005

01-Jul-2005

01-Jan-2004

13-Jan-2006

24-Dec-2005

 

01-Apr-2005

01-Jan-2003

12-Jan-2006

 

 

 

01-Jan-2002

11-Jan-2006

 

 

 

01-Jan-2001

10-Jan-2006

 

 

 

01-Jan-2000

The weekly policy overrides the daily policy so the snapshots of 10-Jan-2006, 11-Jan-2006, 12-Jan-2006, 13-Jan-2006 and 14-Jan-2006 are removed. The monthly policy overrides the weekly policy so the snapshots of 24-Dec-2005 and 31-Dec-2005 are removed. The same applies to the monthly, quarterly and yearly policy giving a total of 11 snapshots.

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Extra Backup (Off-Line backup, Logout Reminder)

Off-line backup is basically designed for notebook users who are off-line most of the time and cannot rely on the backup schedule to backup regularly. The "Backup Interval" allows notebook users to specify the interval that they would like their data to backup. When the machine is online and this interval has elapsed, backup will run automatically. If [Off-Line Backup Alert] is enabled, a popup message box will ask the user to confirm starting the backup. The [Email Notification] setting is the number of days since the last backup that triggers the backup server to send email notification to the client to remind him to run an off-line backup. When the [System Logout Backup Reminder] setting is enabled, a popup message box will ask the user to start a backup before logging out / shutting down Windows.

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In-File Delta

Please refer to the in-file delta section for more information on this topic.

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Local Copy

If you want to save an extra copy of backup data on your local hard disk (in addition to a copy of backup data stored on the backup server) to minimize file-restoring time and/or to provide an extra safety precaution, you can do the following:

  1. Open Blaze Vault from the System Tray (see previous sections for details)
  2. Setup your backup set (see previous sections for details)
  3. Select [Local Copy] under your backup set from the left panel



  4. Check the [Copy to Local Hard Disk] checkbox.
  5. Enter a directory to where you want an extra copy of your backup files to be stored in the [Copy to] field provided (preferably a directory under another hard disk)
  6. An extra copy of backup will be saved in the [Copy to] directory when you run your backup job

If you want to make local copy to a directory located on a NetWare server (or another computer is a windows workgroup) and you are getting "Network drive is not accessible" error message, please try adding the following command as a [Pre-backup command]
net use \\SERVER\SHARE [PASSWORD] /USER:[DOMAIN | MACHINE_NAME]\[USERNAME]

E.g.

C:\> net use \\Netware\Data password /USER:peter
C:\> net use \\WorkgroupComputer1\Data password /USER:WorkgroupComputer1\peter

This will authenticate the current process with the NetWare server (or another computer is a windows workgroup). Backup will then be allowed to run correctly.

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How to restore “Local Copy” files

“Local Copy” files are stored in the [Copy to] directory (under [Local Copy] setting). To restore backup files, please do the followings:

  1. Press the  button on the main page of Blaze Vault dialog.
  2. Select the required [Backup Set] from the list and press [Next] to proceed.
  3. Fill in the [Source Directory] (directory where “Local Copy” files are stored) and [Destination Directory] (directory to where you want “Local Copy” files to be restored)



  4. Click [Start Decrypt], and when it finishes you can see something similar to the following on the screen:


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Using One Backup Account for Multiple Computers

Blaze Vault allows you to backup multiple computers using a single backup account. To backup multiple computers, you need to create a different backup set to backup each individual computer and to configure the [Run scheduled backup on this computer] checkbox, which is placed under the [Backup Schedule] node.

For version 5.2 or above

Since the computer that created the backup set will have its computer name associated with the backup set. The backup scheduler running on each computer will only run backup sets with the same computer name as itself. Thus, you just need to make sure that all your computer names using a single backup account are unique.

For version 5.1 or Earlier

You must configure Blaze Vault on each computer that it only runs scheduled backup for the intended backup sets only. If this is not setup properly, scheduled backup job of the same backup set from different computers will both be started. This will result in lots of checksum errors and files being deleted on the backup server.
To allow multiple computers to be backed up under a single backup account, you are required to do the following for each computer that has installed Blaze Vault under the same backup account:

  1. Logon to one of the computers that has Blaze Vault installed under the same backup account.
  2. Open Blaze Vault and select a backup set that is not intended to run on this computer from the left panel.
  3. Make sure that the [Run scheduled backup on this computer] checkbox on the right panel is not checked.
  4. Repeat the previous step for the rest of the backup sets that are not intended to run on this computer.
  5. Repeat steps ii to iv for each computer that has Blaze Vault installed under the same backup account.

IMPORTANT If you create a new backup set or want to backup another computer using the same backup account at a later date (this implies that you need to create an additional backup set under this backup account for the new computer), please make sure to repeat the procedure above (i.e. uncheck the [Run scheduled backup on this computer] checkbox for the added backup set) for each computer.

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Backing Up Files

This chapter describes how files are backed up by Blaze Vault to the backup server

How files are backed up

The diagram below describes how Blaze Vault backup your files.

Run backup at scheduled time automatically

Once you set your backup scheduled, a backup job will be started automatically to perform backup operation for you at your absence. You can have backup running at your scheduled time as often as you want (e.g. twice a day or hourly during office hour) without requiring doing any extra work.

Incremental Backup

Unchanged files are already backed up to server and need not to be backed up again. Blaze Vault will pick the new or updated files from your backup set files and upload only these files to the server. It significantly reduces the time required to perform the backup operation since most users update less than 5% of their total data each day.

Compress and encrypt data automatically

Data are compressed and encrypted before they are uploaded to the server. Not only does it reduce the storage space to keep you backup files, it also ensures the privacy of your data.

File Retention Policy

The built-in file retention policy allows you to access multiple versions of the same file or even deleted files from your backup set. Backup files are put into a retention area before they are removed from the server. If you want to get back a deleted file (or you want to get back the previous versions of an updated files) within the retention period, these files will always be available in the retention area. This feature is particularly useful when you have accidentally deleted a file or incorrectly updated a file within the file retention period (file retention period is user customizable).

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Backup files directly to the backup server

You can backup your data to Blaze Vault Server by following instructions below.

  1. Open Blaze Vault.
  2. Right click Blaze Vault icon available in the system tray and choose [Open].
  3. Run Backup

Note:

1.

You can have more than one backup set in a backup account.

2.

Please write the encrypting key down on paper and keep it in a safe place. If you lose your encrypting key, you will not be able to restore your backup files.

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Backup files to removable hard disk (seed loading)

If you have a lot of data (e.g. 300GB) to backup to the backup server, it would take a considerable amount of time to perform the first full backup through the Internet. If you run into this problem, you can use the Seed Loading Utility to backup your backup set to local hard disk (instead of directly to the backup server) and then transport the backup data, using removable hard disk, to Blaze Vault Server. The administrator can then load all your backup files from your removable hard disk into your backup account. This could then save you days (even weeks) of performing your first full backup. Since subsequent backup will be incremental backup (only new or updated files will be uploaded to the server) you should have no problems uploading your backup data afterwards.
To perform seeding loading, please do the following:

  1. Open Blaze Vault from the System Tray (see previous sections for details).
  2. Setup your backup set (see previous sections for details).
  3. Select the backup set you want to run and select [Local Hard Disk (Seed Load Utility)] to start backing up your files to local hard disk. In the field under the option, enter a directory where you want all backup files to be stored.



  4. Please make sure you have enough free space in the directory specified. If you are going to transport a removable hard disk to Blaze Vault Server, please enter a directory under your removable hard disk here.
  5. Press the [OK] button to start the backup job.
  6. You should get the message “Backup Completed Successfully” as shown below after all backup files are spooled to the directory you specified.



  7. Transport the data in the specified directory to Blaze Vault Server.

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Restoring Files

This chapter describes different ways files can be restored from the backup server

It is very important to write down your encrypting key on paper and keep it in a safe place because there will be no way to restore your backup files if you lose your encrypting key.

Restore backup files directly from backup server

You can use either Blaze Vault or the web restorer to restore backup files from the backup server.

Using Blaze Vault

You can restore your data from the backup server by following instructions below.

  1. Open Blaze Vault from the System Tray (see previous sections for details).
  2. Select the [Restore] button on the left of the main page of Blaze Vault dialog.
  3. Select the backup set from which you would like files to be restored from the list.



  4. Select the snapshot of your backup files that you would like to restore from the backup server by using [Show files after Job] drop down list



  5. Use the [Change] button to select the directory to where you want files to be restored (or simply select [Original location] to restore files to their original path).
  6. Select the files that you would like to restore and press the [Start Restore] button to start.
    Files will be restored automatically as shown below (a file won’t be downloaded from the backup server again if an identical file exists on local path already).

Using the web interface

You can restore your data from Blaze Vault Server by following instructions below.

  1. Logon to the Blaze Vault Server web interface
  2. From the top menu, click [File Explorer]



  3. Select the [Backup Set] that contains the files that you want to restore by clicking on the links
  4. Select the snapshot of your backup files that you would like to restore from the backup server by using [Show files As Of] drop down list



    If you want to see all the different versions of all files (shown as gray below), just choose the [Show all files] radio button on the [File Explorer] page.

    Files, which are shown in gray below (e.g. Copy of test.txt), are being stored in the retention area on the backup server but you can still restore these files from the backup server.



  5. Select the files that you would like to restore and press the [Restore] button on the toolbar
    A dialog shown below would appear



  6. Press the [Restore] button

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Restore backup files from removable hard disk

If you want to restore lots of backup files from the backup server and you find it too slow to restore all your backup files from the backup server through the internet. You can ask your backup services provider to send you all your backup files in removable hard disk (or CD/DVD). However, all backup files stored on backup server are in encrypted format. You need to decrypt them back to their original format before you can use them. To decrypt your backup files from removable media, please do the followings:

  1. Open Blaze Vault from the System Tray
  2. Press the  button to start the [Decrypt Files Wizard].
  3. Use the [Change] button to locate the “files” directory (provided by your backup provider in removable hard disk or DVD) which contains the backup files that you want to decrypt



  4. If you have more than one backup set under the “files” directory, select the [Backup Set] which contains the backup files that you want to decrypt



  5. Select the snapshot of your backup files that you would like to restore from the removable media by using [Show files after Job] drop down list



  6. If you want to see all the different versions of all files (shown as gray below), just choose the [Show all files] radio button on the [Decrypt Files Wizard] dialog.
  7. Use the [Change] button to select the directory to where you want files to be restored (or simply select [Original location] to restore files to their original path).
  8. Press the [Start Decrypt] button to start restoring. When it finishes, you will see a screen similar to the following:

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IP addresses Restriction for Online Restore

Online file restore operation can be restricted by IP addresses. You can ask your backup service provider to restrict online file restoration for your backup sets by IP addresses to only allow people from authorized IP addresses to restore files from the backup server. To check if online file restore of any backup set is restricted this way, please logon to the web interface of Blaze Vault Server, and check the section of [Backup Set] -> [Online Restore IP restriction] (shown below).
Users are not allowed to update the [Online Restore IP restriction] directly. Please ask your backup services provider to do the changes for you.

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In-File Delta Technology

The chapter describes what in-file delta technology is and how in-file delta can be used to backup large database files (e.g. a 10GB Outlook.pst file) without uploading the whole database file everyday.

Overview

In-file delta technology is an advanced data block matching algorithm which has the intelligence to pick up changes (delta) of file content between two files. Using this algorithm, daily backing up of large files (e.g. a 10GB Outlook.pst file) over low-speed internet connection is made possible because it requires only the changes of information (should be marginal) since the last backup to be sent over a low-speed internet connection to complete the backup of a large file (here we assume that the full backup of the file has been saved on the backup server already).

This is what will happen in the backup of a 10GB Outlook.pst file when it is backed up by Blaze Vault with in-file delta technology.

  1. The whole files (10GB), along with its checksum file, are backed up to the backup server. This can be done directly through the internet or indirectly using the seed loading utility on a removable hard disk.
  2. When backup runs again later (normally the next day), Blaze Vault will download a checksum listing of all data blocks of the full backup file (or last incremental backup file) from the backup server and use it to pick up all changes that have been made to the current Outlook.pst file.
  3. Changes detected are then saved in a delta file which is uploaded to the backup server. A new checksum file is generated and is also uploaded. (This delta file is assumed to be small because the content of PST files doesn’t change a lot during daily usage)
  4. Subsequent backups of this 10GB Outlook.pst file will go through step ii and step iii again. As explained, only a small delta file and checksum file will be uploaded to the backup server.
  5. With in-file delta technology, daily backing up of large file over low-speed internet connection is now possible

Incremental in-file delta type

Incremental Delta will facilitate ease of backup. The delta is generated by comparing with the latest uploaded full or delta file. The delta file generated is the smallest possible and uses the least bandwidth during backup. For restoration, the full file and all delta files up to the required point-in-time is required to restore the file to a specific point-in-time.

Example: If you are adding around 100MB changes to a 10G Outlook.pst everyday. After the first full backup job, Blaze Vault will continue to generate and upload delta files instead of uploading the full file until either one of the following two rules are true:

  1. Number of deltas generated since the last full backup is greater than the [No. of Delta] setting.
  2. The delta ratio (the ratio of the delta file size against the full file size) is greater than the [Delta Ratio] setting

Using incremental delta, the delta generated by comparing the current file with the latest uploaded full or delta file is around 100MB. Since the delta file size is around 100MB daily, the delta ratio (around 1%) will not trigger a full file upload. Instead Blaze Vault will continue to generate and upload delta files until day 102 (assuming the full file was uploaded on day 1) when the number of deltas generated exceeds the [No. of Delta] setting and triggers the upload of the full Outlook.pst file. You can disable the [No. of Delta] and [Delta Ratio] if you don’t want to upload the full file. All delta files are generated with respect to changes made since the last incremental or full backup. This means that the last full backup file and ALL incremental delta backup files are required to restore the latest snapshot of a backup file.

Differential in-file delta type

Differential Delta will facilitate ease of restore. The delta is generated by comparing with the latest uploaded full file. The delta file generated grows daily and uses more bandwidth during backup. For restoration, the full file and a single delta file is required to restore the file to a specific point-in-time.

Example: If you are adding around 100MB changes to a 10G Outlook.pst everyday. After the first full backup job, Blaze Vault will continue to generate and upload delta files instead of uploading the full file until either one of the following two rules are true:

  1. Number of deltas generated since the last full backup is greater than the [No. of Delta] setting.
  2. The delta ratio (the ratio of the delta file size against the full file size) is greater than the [Delta Ratio] setting

Using differential delta, the delta generated by comparing the current file with the latest uploaded full file is around 100MB for the 1st delta, 200MB for the 2nd delta, 300MB for the 3rd delta and so on.

Since the delta file grows by 100MB daily, the delta ratio for day 52 (delta file size is approximately 51x100= 5.1GB, assuming the full file was uploaded on day 1) being over 50% exceeds the [Delta Ratio] setting and triggers the upload of the full Outlook.pst file. You can disable the [No. of Delta] and [Delta Ratio] if you don’t want to upload the full file.

All delta files are generated with respect to changes made since the last full backup file (i.e. differential backup). This means that only last full backup file and the last delta file are required to restore the latest snapshot of a backup file. This means that other intermediate delta files are only required if you want to restore other snapshots of a backup file.

Differential in-file delta backup has the benefits that a corrupted delta file would only make one particular version of a backup file non-recoverable and all other backups created by other delta files of the same file would still be intact.


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Block Size

The block size defines the size of data block being used to detect the changes between the last full or delta backup file and the file sitting on the local computer right now. In general, the smaller the block size, the more likely a matched data block can be found between the last backup file and the file on local computer. It, therefore, produces a smaller delta file but it would require more processing power to detect these changes. On the other hand, in-file delta backup running with larger block size will run faster but this will generally produce a larger delta file. In most case, the default setting [Auto] will choose the optimal block size for each file (depending on the size of the file) for you.

Minimum File Size

The [Minimum Size] setting defines the smallest file size a file must have before the use and application of in-file delta backup technology.
If the size of a file that is being backed up is smaller than the [Minimum Size] setting, in-file delta backup technology won’t be applied to this file and the whole file, instead of just the delta file, will be uploaded to the backup server. It is not necessary to perform in-file delta backup on small files because backing up the whole file doesn’t take too long anyway. Backing up the whole file instead reduces the time required to restore a backup file.

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Uploading full file again

No. of Delta

The [No. of delta] setting defines the maximum number of delta files from the same full backup file to be generated and backed up to the backup server before a full backup (the whole file) of this file is uploaded to the backup server instead.

For example, if you have created 100 delta files from the full backup file already and the [No. of delta] setting is set to 100, the next backup will upload a full backup file (the whole file) instead of just the delta file. However, if the [No. of delta] rule is disabled, it will keep generating delta files and uploading these delta files to the backup server until the other delta rule forces a full backup (i.e. delta ratio exceeded). This setting is here to make sure that there will always be a full backup file after a certain number of delta files have been generated.

Delta Ratio

The [Delta Ratio] setting is defined to be the size of a delta file divided by the size of its full backup files (i.e. the percentage of changes detected between the last full backup file and the current file).

If the delta ratio calculated from the size of the generated delta file and the size of the full backup file is greater than the [Delta Ratio] setting, the whole file, instead of just the delta file, will be backed up to the backup server. It is done this way because the difference between backing up the whole file and the delta file is not significant and it is better to upload the whole file instead to reduce the time required to restore the file.

The default setting of [Delta Ratio] is 50%. This means that if a file changes by more than 50%, the whole file, instead of just the delta file, will be backed up and uploaded to the backup server.

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Advanced In-file delta type

The [In-file delta] -> [Advanced] setting allows users to override default in-file delta type when on a certain number of days (e.g. all Sundays or the 1st day of each month). This is useful if you want all in-file delta backups to be incremental but you want to do a differential in-file delta backup on Saturdays as well as the full file backups on the 1st day of every month. If you want to do this, simply press the [Advanced] button and the [Advanced In-File Delta Type Setting] dialog will be popped up as shown below.



With this setting, all backup Jobs on Saturdays will be differential in-file delta backups, backups for the 1st day of each month will run a full backup. This ensures that all backup files will be backed up in full at a regular interval. One benefit of this is that restore time will run faster because of less delta merging. Another benefit is that the risk of a corrupted incremental delta file resulting in data loss is much lower because a full backup is always available periodically.

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Backup/Restore Oracle 8i / 9i / 10g / 11g

This chapter will describe in details how Blaze Vault backup your Oracle Database Server and how you can restore an Oracle database using the backup files.

Requirements

  1. Blaze Vault must be installed onto the computer that can connect to your Oracle Database Server using TCP/IP protocol.
  2. Data from Oracle database will be backed up to a temporary directory before they are sent to Blaze Vault Server. Please make sure you have sufficient space on your computer to store these data when you run the backup job.
  3. Database must be in archived log mode

    To switch database to archived log mode, please do the following:
    1. Set the parameters below in the PFILE to enable automatic archiving

      LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST = [directory where archive redo logs will be stored]
      LOG_ARCHIVE_FORMAT = 'log%t_%s_%r.arc'
      LOG_ARCHIVE_START = TRUE

    2. Set ORACLE_SID to your database’s System Identifier (SID)

      export ORACLE_SID=GDB1 (assuming your database’s SID is GDB1)
      Run SQL Plus and connect to database as SYSDBA

    For Oracle 9i/10g/11g

    sqlplus "/ as sysdba"

    For Oracle 8i

    connect internal;
    Shutdown database

    shutdown immediate
    Start and mount database

    startup mount
    Switch database to archived log mode

    alter database archivelog;
    Open database

    alter database open;
Oracle 10g Example:

$ export ORACLE_SID=GDB1

$ sqlplus "/ as sysdba"

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Thu Nov 8 15:08:57 2007

Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

 

Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options

SQL> shutdown immediate
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.

SQL> startup mount
ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area  285212672 bytes
Fixed Size                  1218992 bytes
Variable Size              96470608 bytes
Database Buffers          184549376 bytes
Redo Buffers                2973696 bytes
Database mounted.

SQL> alter database archivelog;

Database altered.

SQL> alter database open;

Database altered.
  1. JAVASYSPRIV role is granted to system account

    You can grant this role to system account by executing:

Grant permission to system account

For Oracle 9i/10g/11g

SQL> grant javasyspriv to system;

For Oracle 8i

SVRMGRL> connect internal

SVRMGRL> @?/javavm/install/initjvm.sql;

SVRMGRL> @?/rdbms/admin/catalog.sql;

SVRMGRL> @?/rdbms/admin/catproc.sql;

SVRMGRL> @?/javavm/install/initdbj.sql;

SQL> grant javasyspriv to system;

Oracle 9i/10g/11g Example:

 

SQL> grant javasyspriv to system;

Grant succeeded.

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Overview

Blaze Vault will backup your Oracle database by taking the following steps.

  1. Connect to the Oracle database using SQL*NET over TCP/IP
  2. Run all Pre-Commands of this backup set
  3. If the backup type to run is [Database Backup type],

  4. If the backup type to run is [Archived Log Backup type],

  5. Run all Post-Commands of this backup set
  6. Upload all files copied to the temporary directory to Blaze Vault Server
  7. Remove temporary files from the temporary directory

Note:
If your Oracle database is running on Windows, please install Blaze Vault onto the company running the Oracle database if Blaze Vault is to backup this Oracle database. This would shorten the time required to backup the Oracle database.

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How to backup an Oracle Database (Physical Backup)

Please follow the instructions below to backup your Oracle database to Blaze Vault Server.

  1. Install Blaze Vault onto your computer.
  2. Open Blaze Vault.

    Right click Blaze Vault icon available in the system tray and choose [Open].



  3. Create a backup set.
  4. Enter a name for your backup set.



  5. Enter the system password, the Oracle Database Server Host Name, TNS Port and SID.
    Select the tablespace(s) you want to backup.



  6. Set the backup schedule for database backup and archived log backup.



    Note: You can have more than one schedule in a backup set, i.e. you can perform intra-day transaction log backup by adding more than one daily transaction log backup schedule to your backup set.

  7. Set the encryption algorithm, encryption mode and encrypting key for this backup set.



    Hint: For maximum security, please select AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) Algorithm, CBC (Cipher Block Chaining) mode and use an encrypting key with more than 8 characters.

  8. Run Backup.

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How to restore an Oracle Database

Please follow the instructions below to restore your Oracle 9i/10g/11g databases from Blaze Vault Server.

  1. Download the backup files from Blaze Vault Server.
  2. Please refer to the [Quick Start - Backup File] section for information on how to download backup files from Blaze Vault Server.

For restore an existing database

Oracle 9i/10g/11g Example:

 

$ export ORACLE_SID=GDB1

$ sqlplus "/ as sysdba"

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Thu Nov 8 17:04:57 2007

Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

 

Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options

SQL> shutdown immediate
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.

For recover a database that currently does not exist

Oracle 9i/10g/11g Example:

 

$ orapwd file=/oracle/OraHome1/dbs/orapwGDB1 password=pwd123

Modify the PFILE to update file path

Open the PFILE ($ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initGDB1.ora), change every file path to the new location, and then save it

For example:

background_dump_dest = /oracle/OraHome1/admin/GDB2/bdump

control_files = (/oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB2/control01.ctl,
/oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB2/control02.ctl,
/oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB2/control03.ctl)

core_dump_dest = /oracle/OraHome1/admin/GDB2/cdump

user_dump_dest = /oracle/OraHome1/admin/GDB2/udump

Change to

background_dump_dest = /new_db_location/OraHome1/admin/GDB2/bdump

control_files = (/new_db_location/OraHome1/oradata/GDB2/control01.ctl,
/new_db_location/OraHome1/oradata/GDB2/control02.ctl,
/new_db_location/OraHome1/oradata/GDB2/control03.ctl)

core_dump_dest = /new_db_location/OraHome1/admin/GDB2/cdump

user_dump_dest = /new_db_location/OraHome1/admin/GDB2/udump

You may need to quote the values of dispatchers as a single argument.

Add double quotation marks

dispatchers = "(PROTOCOL=TCP) (SERVICE=GDB1XDB)"

Delete the SPFILE

Delete the SPFILE ($ORACLE_HOME/dbs/spfileGDB1.ora)

Create a backup of the control file to trace file

SQL> alter database backup controlfile to trace as '/New_DB_Location/control.trc' reuse; (assuming you create a trace file to /New_DB_Location/)

Rename each of data file, log file and tempfile

Open the trace file that just created, and then check for the filename of each datafile, log file and tempfile.

Please do the following to rename each of the files:

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE 'xxx' TO 'yyy';
where xxx is the old filename found in the trace file, and yyy is the new filename with updated path

For example:

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/system01.dbf' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/system01.dbf';

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/undotbs01.dbf' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/undotbs01.dbf';

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/sysaux01.dbf' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/sysaux01.dbf';

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/users01.dbf' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/users01.dbf';

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/TS1' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/TS1';

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/redo01.log' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/redo01.log';

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/redo02.log' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/redo02.log';

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/redo03.log' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/redo03.log';

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/temp01.dbf' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/temp01.dbf';

Oracle 9i/10g Example:


$ export ORACLE_SID=GDB1

$ sqlplus "/ as sysdba"

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Fri Nov 9 17:50:30 2007

Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connected to an idle instance.

SQL> startup mount

ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area  285212672 bytes
Fixed Size                  1218992 bytes
Variable Size              92276304 bytes
Database Buffers          188743680 bytes
Redo Buffers                2973696 bytes
Database mounted.

SQL> alter database backup controlfile to trace as '/new_db_location/control.trc' reuse;

Database altered.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/system01.dbf' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/system01.dbf';

Database altered.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/undotbs01.dbf' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/undotbs01.dbf';

Database altered.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/sysaux01.dbf' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/sysaux01.dbf';

Database altered.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/users01.dbf' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/users01.dbf';

Database altered.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/TS1' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/TS1';

Database altered.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/redo01.log' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/redo01.log';

Database altered.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/redo02.log' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/redo02.log';

Database altered.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/redo03.log' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/redo03.log';

Database altered.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE RENAME FILE '/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/oradata/GDB1/temp01.dbf' TO '/new_db_location/oradata/GDB1/temp01.dbf';

Database altered.

 

Restore Database

Use Recovery Manager to restore your database by doing the following:

For Oracle 9i/10g/11g

Set ORACLE_SID to your database’s System Identifier (SID)

$ export ORACLE_SID=GDB1 (assuming your database’s SID is GDB1)

Run Oracle Recovery Manager (rman) and connect to the target database

$ rman target /

Start and mount database

RMAN> startup mount

Reapply all transactions from the archived log files to the last sequence

RMAN> recover database until sequence=4 thread=1; (assuming the sequence number of your last archived redo log is 3)

Sequence number are named on the filename of archived redo log

e.g.     /oracle/OraHome1/dbs/o1_mf_1_2_3m5h1svs_.arc
/oracle/OraHome1/dbs/o1_mf_1_3_3m5h1yby_.arc
in this case, the sequence number of archived redo log is 4.

Open database

RMAN> alter database open resetlogs;

Oracle 9i/10g/11g Example:


$ export ORACLE_SID=GDB1

$ rman target /

Recovery Manager: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Thu Nov 8 17:46:27 2007

Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

connected to target database (not started)

RMAN> startup mount

Oracle instance started
database mounted

Total System Global Area     285212672 bytes

Fixed Size                     1218992 bytes
Variable Size                113247824 bytes
Database Buffers             167772160 bytes
Redo Buffers                   2973696 bytes

RMAN> recover database until sequence=4 thread=1;

Starting recover at 08-NOV-07
Starting implicit crosscheck backup at 08-NOV-07
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=157 devtype=DISK
Finished implicit crosscheck backup at 08-NOV-07

Starting implicit crosscheck copy at 08-NOV-07
using channel ORA_DISK_1
Finished implicit crosscheck copy at 08-NOV-07

searching for all files in the recovery area
cataloging files...
cataloging done

List of Cataloged Files
=======================
File Name: /oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/flash_recovery_area/GDB1/archivelog/2007_11_08/o1_mf_1_3_3m5h1yby_.arc

using channel ORA_DISK_1

starting media recovery

archive log thread 1 sequence 2 is already on disk as file /oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/flash_recovery_area/GDB1/archivelog/2007_11_08/o1_mf_1_2_3m5h1svs_.arc
archive log thread 1 sequence 3 is already on disk as file /oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/flash_recovery_area/GDB1/archivelog/2007_11_08/o1_mf_1_3_3m5h1yby_.arc
archive log filename=/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/flash_recovery_area/GDB1/archivelog/2007_11_08/o1_mf_1_2_3m5h1svs_.arc thread=1 sequence=2
archive log filename=/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/flash_recovery_area/GDB1/archivelog/2007_11_08/o1_mf_1_3_3m5h1yby_.arc thread=1 sequence=3
media recovery complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01
Finished recover at 08-NOV-07

RMAN> alter database open resetlogs;

database opened

 

For Oracle 8i

Set ORACLE_SID to your database’s System Identifier (SID)

$ export ORACLE_SID=GDB1 (assuming your database’s SID is GDB1)

Run Oracle Server Manager (svrmgrl)

$ svrmgrl

Connect to the target database

SVRMGRL> connect internal

Start and mount database

SVRMGRL> start mount;

Reapply all transactions from the archived log files

RMAN> recover database using backup controlfile

Open database

RMAN> ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS;

Oracle 8i Example:

 

$ svrmgrl

SVRMGRL> connect internal

SVRMGR> startup mount;
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area               95874448 bytes
Fixed Size                             64912 bytes
Variable Size                          52744192 bytes
Database Buffers                       40960000 bytes
Redo Buffers                           2105344 bytes
Database mounted.

SVRMGRL> recover database using backup controlfile
ORA-00279: change 419671 generated at 06/14/03 02:51:49 needed for thread 1
ORA-00289: suggestion : /data/ora815/vin/archive/ARCH0000000225.LOG
ORA-00280: change 419671 for thread 1 is in sequence #225
ORA-00278: log file '/data/ora815/vin/archive/ARCH0000000224.LOG' no longer needed for this recovery
Specify log: {<RET>=suggested | filename | AUTO | CANCEL}
AUTO
Log applied.
. . . . . . . . . . .
ORA-00279: change 547222 generated at 06/18/03 19:58:26 needed for thread 1
ORA-00289: suggestion : /data/ora815/vin/archive/ARCH0000000384.LOG
ORA-00280: change 547222 for thread 1 is in sequence #384
ORA-00278: log file '/data/ora815/vin/archive/ARCH0000000383.LOG' no longer needed for this recovery
ORA-00308: cannot open archived log '/data/ora815/vin/archive/ARCH0000000384.LOG'
ORA-27037: unable to obtain file status
Linux Error: 2: No such file or directory
Additional information: 3

SVRMGR> recover database using backup controlfile until cancel
ORA-00279: change 547222 generated at 06/18/03 19:58:26 needed for thread 1
ORA-00289: suggestion : /data/ora815/vin/archive/ARCH0000000384.LOG
ORA-00280: change 547222 for thread 1 is in sequence #384
Specify log: {<RET>=suggested | filename | AUTO | CANCEL}
CANCEL
Media recovery cancelled.
SVRMGR> alter database open resetlogs;
Statement processed.

 

 (Optional) Create Net Service Name and Database Service Listener

To create Net Service Name
Start Net Manager by running the command netmgr
$ netmgr
à   expand [Oracle Net Configuration]
à   expand [Local]
à   select [Service Naming]
à   click “+” icon on the toolbar
à   Net Service Name Wizard will be launched to guide you through creating a net        service name
à   click [File] on the menu bar
à   [Save Network Configuration] on the menu bar

To create Database Service Listener
Start Net Manager by running the command netmgr
$ netmgr
à   expand [Oracle Net Configuration]
à   expand [Local]
à   expand [Listeners]
à   select [LISTENER]
à   select [Database Services] from combo box
à   click [Add Database]
à   input Global Database Name and SID
à   click [File] on the menu bar
à   [Save Network Configuration] on the menu bar

How to restore a single tablespace

Restoring a tablespace required a backup of datafiles consistent with the existing archived logs and control files, as redo will be applied during the restore operation.
Please follow the instructions below to restore a tablespace from Blaze Vault Server.

Oracle 9i/10g Example:

 

RMAN> recover tablespace TS1;

Starting recover at 19-JUL-07
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=156 devtype=DISK

starting media recovery

archive log thread 1 sequence 1 is already on disk as file D:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.
2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\GDB1\ARCHIVELOG\2007_07_19\O1_MF_1_1_39Y98F0H_.ARC
archive log thread 1 sequence 2 is already on disk as file D:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.
2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\GDB1\ARCHIVELOG\2007_07_19\O1_MF_1_2_39Y98JSD_.ARC
archive log thread 1 sequence 3 is already on disk as file D:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.
2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\GDB1\ARCHIVELOG\2007_07_19\O1_MF_1_3_39Y9SW4D_.ARC
archive log filename=D:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\GDB1\ARCHIVELO
G\2007_07_19\O1_MF_1_1_39Y98F0H_.ARC thread=1 sequence=1
media recovery complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01
Finished recover at 19-JUL-07

Oracle 9i/10g Example:

 

RMAN> recover tablespace TS1;

Starting recover at 19-JUL-07
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=156 devtype=DISK
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of recover command at 07/20/2007 12:24:49
RMAN-06163: some datafiles cannot be recovered, aborting the RECOVER command
RMAN-06166: datafile 7 cannot be recovered
RMAN-06166: datafile 6 cannot be recovered
RMAN-06166: datafile 5 cannot be recovered

Oracle 9i/10g Example:

 

RMAN> recover tablespace TS1;

Starting recover at 20-JUL-07
using channel ORA_DISK_1

starting media recovery

archive log thread 1 sequence 12 is already on disk as file D:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10
.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\GDB1\ARCHIVELOG\2007_07_18\O1_MF_1_12_39VF4JNJ_.ARC
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of recover command at 07/20/2007 12:28:52
RMAN-06053: unable to perform media recovery because of missing log
RMAN-06025: no backup of log thread 1 seq 13 lowscn 660617 found to restore

Oracle 9i/10g Example:


$ export ORACLE_SID=GDB1

$ rman target /

Recovery Manager: Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production

Copyright (c) 1995, 2002, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.

connected to target database (not started)

RMAN> startup mount

Oracle instance started
database mounted

Total System Global Area     235999352 bytes

Fixed Size                      450680 bytes
Variable Size                201326592 bytes
Database Buffers              33554432 bytes
Redo Buffers                    667648 bytes

RMAN> report schema;

using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
Report of database schema

using target database controlfile instead of recovery catalog
Report of database schema
File K-bytes    Tablespace          RB segs Datafile Name
---- ---------- ------------------- ------- -------------------
1        419840 SYSTEM              ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/system01.dbf
2        204800 UNDOTBS1            ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/undotbs01.dbf
3         20480 CWMLITE             ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/cwmlite01.dbf
4         20480 DRSYS               ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/drsys01.dbf
5        141440 EXAMPLE             ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/example01.dbf
6         25600 INDX                ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/indx01.dbf
7         20480 ODM                 ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/odm01.dbf
8         10240 TOOLS               ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/tools01.dbf
9         25600 USERS               ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/users01.dbf
10        39040 XDB                 ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/xdb01.dbf
11            0 TS1                 ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/TS1_datafile1.dbf
12            0 TS1                 ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/TS1_datafile2.dbf
13            0 TS1                 ***     /oracle/OraHome1/oradata/GDB1/TS1_datafile3.dbf

List of Temporary Files
=======================
File Size(MB) Tablespace           Maxsize(MB) Tempfile Name
---- -------- -------------------- ----------- --------------------
1    20       TEMP                 32767       D:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\
GDB1\TEMP01.DBF

RMAN> recover tablespace TS1;

Starting recover at 30-AUG-07
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=11 devtype=DISK

starting media recovery
media recovery complete

Finished recover at 30-AUG-07

RMAN> alter database open;

database opened

 

Export and Import a Database (Logical Backup)

While physical backup of database files permit the full reconstruction of database, logical backup is a useful supplement to physical backup for some purposes.  For instance, logical backup using the export and import utilities are the only method that Oracle supports for moving an existing database from one platform to another.
Please follow the instructions below to backup a database:

  1. Export the full database to a dump file

    $ exp system/pwd123 FULL=y FILE='/oracle/data.dmp' LOG='/oracle/export.log'
    (assuming your system password is pwd123, the name of dump file is /oracle/data.dmp and the name of log file is /oracle/export.log)

    2. Oracle 9i/10g Example:

     

    $ exp system/pwd123 FULL=y FILE='/oracle/data.dmp' LOG='/oracle/export.log'

    Connected to: Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
    With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options
    Export done in WE8MSWIN1252 character set and AL16UTF16 NCHAR character set

    About to export the entire database ...
    . exporting tablespace definitions
    . exporting profiles
    . exporting user definitions
    . exporting roles
    . exporting resource costs

    ///////////////////////
    // ... exporting ... //
    ///////////////////////

    . exporting dimensions
    . exporting post-schema procedural objects and actions
    . exporting user history table
    . exporting default and system auditing options
    . exporting statistics
    Export terminated successfully without warnings.
    1. Backup the exported dump file to Blaze Vault Server.
      Please refer to the [Section 6.2 Backup files directly to the backup server] for information on how to upload backup files to Blaze Vault Server.

    Please follow the instructions below to restore a database:

    1. Download the backup files from Blaze Vault Server.

      Please refer to the [Section 7.1 Restore backup files directly from backup server] for information on how to download backup files from Blaze Vault Server.
    2. Import the full database from the downloaded backup of dump file

      $ imp system/pwd123 FULL=y FILE='/oracle/data.dmp' LOG='/oracle/import.log'
      (assuming your system password is pwd123, the name of dump file is /oracle/data.dmp and the name of log file is /oracle/import.log)

    Oracle 9i/10g Example:

     

    $ imp system/pwd123 FULL=y FILE='/oracle/data.dmp' LOG='/oracle/import.log'

    Connected to: Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
    With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options

    Export file created by EXPORT:V10.02.01 via conventional path
    import done in WE8MSWIN1252 character set and AL16UTF16 NCHAR character set
    . importing SYSTEM's objects into SYSTEM
    . importing OLAPSYS's objects into OLAPSYS
    . importing SYSMAN's objects into SYSMAN
    . importing SYSTEM's objects into SYSTEM
    . importing OLAPSYS's objects into OLAPSYS

                ///////////////////////
    // ... importing ... //
    ///////////////////////

    . importing OLAPSYS's objects into OLAPSYS
    . importing SYSTEM's objects into SYSTEM
    . importing OLAPSYS's objects into OLAPSYS
    . importing SYSMAN's objects into SYSMAN
    . importing SCOTT's objects into SCOTT
    Import terminated successfully without warnings.
     

Backup/Restore Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 / 2000 / 2005 / 2008

This chapter will describe in details how to use Blaze Vault to backup your Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 / 2000 / 2005 / 2008 server and how you can restore your Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 / 2000 / 2005 / 2008 server from the backup files.

Requirements

Blaze Vault must be installed onto the computer running Microsoft SQL Server.

  1. Data from Microsoft SQL Server will be backed up to a temporary directory before they are sent to Blaze Vault Server. Please make sure you have sufficient space on your computer to store these data when you run the backup job.

Overview

Blaze Vault will backup your Microsoft SQL Server database(s) by taking the following steps:

  1. Before running any backup activities, Blaze Vault will run all Pre-Commands of the backup set.
  2. For each database that is to be backed up, Blaze Vault will issue a database / transaction log backup command to Microsoft SQL Server to backup each database to a Microsoft SQL Server database backup file (*.bak file) and save it in the temporary directory you specified.
  3. After all *.bak files have been spooled to the temporary directories, Blaze Vault will run all Post-Commands of the backup set.
  4. Upload all files copied to the temporary directory to Blaze Vault Server.
  5. Remove temporary files from the temporary directory

How to backup Microsoft SQL Server database(s)

Please follow the instructions below to backup your Microsoft SQL Server databases using Blaze Vault.

  1. Open Blaze Vault

    Right click Blaze Vault icon available in the system tray and choose [Open]



  2. Create a backup set
  3. Enter a name for your backup set

  4. Enter the Microsoft SQL Server administrator username and password
  5. Select the database(s) you want to backup



  6. Set the backup schedule for full database backup and transaction log backup



    (Note: You can have more than one schedule in a backup set, i.e. you can perform intra-day transaction log backup by adding more than one daily transaction log backup schedule to your backup set)

  7. Set the encryption algorithm, encryption mode and encrypting key for this backup set



    (Hint: For maximum security, please select AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) Algorithm, CBC (Cipher Block Chaining) mode and use an encrypting key with more than 8 characters.)



  8. Run Backup

How to restore Microsoft SQL Server database(s)

Please follow the instructions below to restore your Microsoft SQL Server databases from Blaze Vault Server.

  1. Download the backup files (.bak) from Blaze Vault Server
    Please refer to the [Quick Start - Backup File] section for information on how to download backup files from Blaze Vault Server.

  2. Open Microsoft SQL Enterprise Manager
    You can open Microsoft SQL Enterprise Manager from [Start Menu] -> [Program] -> [Microsoft SQL Server] -> [Enterprise Manager]

  3. (Optional) Restore “master” database

  4. You need to restore “master” database if you:

  5. You do not need to restore your master database if you just want to restore a user database. For more information on Microsoft SQL Server “master” database, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/sql/.

  6. To restore “master” database, please do the following:

  7. Right click your Microsoft SQL Server and select [Properties].



  8. Press the [Startup Parameters] button.



  9. Add a “-m” parameter to the [Startup Parameters].



  10. Restart Microsoft SQL Server.

    From [Enterprise Manager], right click your Microsoft SQL Server and select [Stop] and then [Start].




Restore “master” database

  1. From [Enterprise Manager] -> [Tools] -> [Restore Database].



  2. Select [master] in the [Restore as database] drop down list.
  3. Select the [From device] radio button.
  4. Press the [Select Devices] button.



  5. From the [Choose Restore Devices], press the [Add] button.



  6. From the [Choose Restore Destination] panel, press the […] button to choose your master backup (*.bak) from your backup files.



  7. Press the [OK] button, to start restoring the “master” database.

Restart Microsoft SQL Server in “Normal Mode”

  1. Remove “-m” parameter from the [Startup Parameters] as in previous step.
  2. Restart your Microsoft SQL Server as in previous step.
  3. (Optional) Restore “model”, “msdb” and “distribution” database

  4. Restore user database(s)

    For each of the database you would like to restore,

Backup/Restore Lotus Domino / Notes

This chapter will describe in details how to use Blaze Vault to backup your Lotus Domino server / Notes client 5 / 6 / 6.5 and how you can restore your Lotus Domino server / Notes client 5 / 6 / 6.5 from the backup files.

Requirements

Data from Lotus Domino server / Notes client will be backed up to a temporary directory before they are sent to Blaze Vault Server. Please make sure you have sufficient disk space on your computer to store these data when you run the backup job.
Lotus Domino server must runs with archive transaction logging enabled

To set up transaction logging in archive style, please do the following:

From the Domino Administrator, click the Configuration tab.
In the "Use Directory on" field, choose the server's Domino Directory.
Click Server Configuration, and then click Current Server Document.
Click the Transactional Logging tab.
Complete these fields, and then save the document.


Field

Enter

Transactional Logging

Choose Enabled. The default is Disabled.

Log path

Path name location of the transaction log.
The default path name is \LOGDIR in the Domino data directory, although it is strongly recommended to store the log on a separate, mirrored device, such as a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) level 0 or 1 device with a dedicated controller.
The separate device should have at least 1GB of disk space for the transaction log. If you are using the device solely for storing the transaction log, set the "Use all available space on log device" field to Yes.

Logging style

Choose Archive. The default is Circular.

Maximum log space

The maximum size, in MB, for the transaction log.
Default is 192MB. Maximum is 4096MB (4GB).
Domino formats at least 3 and up to 64 log files, depending on the maximum log space you allocate.

Use all available space on log device

Choose one:

  • “Yes” to use all available space on the device for the transaction log. This is recommended if you use a separate device dedicated to storing the log. If you choose “Yes”, you don’t need to enter a value in the "Maximum log space" field.
  • “No” to use the default or specified value in the "Maximum log space" field.

Automatic fixup of corrupt databases

Choose one:

  • Enabled (default). If a database is corrupt and Domino cannot use the transaction log to recover it, Domino runs the Fixup task, assigns a new DBIID, and notifies the administrator that a new database backup is required.
  • Disabled. Domino does not run the Fixup task automatically and notifies the administrator to run the Fixup task with the -J parameter on corrupt logged databases.

Runtime / Restart performance

This field controls how often Domino records a recovery checkpoint in the transaction log, which affects server performance.
To record a recovery checkpoint, Domino evaluates each active logged database to determine how many transactions would be necessary to recover each database after a system failure. When Domino completes this evaluation, it:

  • Creates a recovery checkpoint record in the transaction log, listing each open database and the starting point transaction needed for recovery
  • Forces database changes to be saved to disk if they have not been saved already

Choose one:

  • Standard (default and recommended). Checkpoints occur regularly.
  • Favor runtime. Domino records fewer checkpoints, which requires fewer system resources and improves server run time performance.
  • Favor restart recovery time. Domino records more checkpoints, which improves restart recovery time because fewer transactions are required for recovery.

Overview

Blaze Vault will backup your Lotus Domino server / Notes client by taking the following steps:

If the backup type to run is [Database Backup type],

the notes.ini file, if selected, will be copied to the temporary directory
only filled log extents will be copied to the temporary directory, and the Domino server is notified of their availability for reuse (for Domino server only)
(for Domino server only) If the backup type to run is [Transaction Log Backup type],

Run all Post-Commands of this backup set
Upload all files copied to the temporary directory to Blaze Vault Server
Remove temporary files from the temporary directory

How to backup Lotus Domino / Notes database(s) / file(s) on Windows

Please follow the instructions below to backup your Lotus Domino server / Notes client databases / files using Blaze Vault.

Create a backup set
To start setting up backup sets, click the  button to open the [Backup Setting] dialog.
On the left panel, press the  button to create a new backup set.
On the dialog, choose [Lotus Domino Server Backup] (or [Lotus Notes Client Backup] for Lotus Notes) as the [Type].



Enter a name for your backup set.


Select the location of the “note.ini” file.
Select the database(s) / file(s) you want to backup


Set the backup schedule for Database Backup


Set the backup schedule for Transaction Log Backup (for Domino server only)
(Note: You can have more than one schedule in a backup set, i.e. you can perform intra-day transaction log backup by adding more than one daily transaction log backup schedule to your backup set)
Set the encryption algorithm, encryption mode and encrypting key for this backup set



(Hint: For maximum security, please select AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) Algorithm, CBC (Cipher Block Chaining) mode and use an encrypting key with more than 8 characters.)
Run Backup

Select the backup type (e.g. Database, Transaction Log) you would like to perform (for Domino server only). Select the backup set you want to run and select [Offsite Backup Server] to start backing up your files to Blaze Vault Server. If applicable, you can change the In-File Delta Type also.


Click [OK] to start backing up your files to Blaze Vault Server.

How to restore Lotus Domino / Notes database(s) / file(s) on Windows

Please follow the instructions below to restore Lotus Domino server / Notes client database(s) / file(s) from Blaze Vault Server.

Install Blaze Vault

Please refer to the [Installation] section for information on how to install Blaze Vault onto your computer.
Shutdown Lotus Domino Server
If you want to perform a full domino restore (restore all databases and files):

Media Recovery Example:

 

C:\program files\obm\bin>DominoRecover.bat
Media Recovery Utility for Lotus Domino 5.0 or above

Please make sure that you have done the following:
1. Reinstall Lotus Domino on this computer in the same directory
2. Restore Notes.ini to the Lotus Domino installation directory
(e.g. C:\Lotus\Domino)
3. Restore Domino Data directory back to the directory defined
in Notes.ini (e.g. C:\Lotus\Domino\Data)
4. Restore all archived transaction logs to the directory defined
in Notes.ini (e.g. C:\Lotus\Domino\Data\logdir)

Continue ? (Y) or (N) y
Running media recovery ...
Please wait, creating new transaction logs in directory: C:\logdir\
02/12/2003 14:39:19   Recovery Manager: Restart Recovery complete. (0/0
databases needed full/partial recovery)
Media Recovery Replay (122 MB): 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
02/12/2003 14:39:22   Recovery Manager: Media Recovery complete for
C:\Lotus\Domino\Data\admin4.nsf, last update applied .

 Backup file C:\Lotus\Domino\Data\admin4.nsf recovered.

…………

Media Recovery Replay (122 MB): 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
02/12/2003 14:40:57   Recovery Manager: Media Recovery complete for
C:\Lotus\Domino\Data\statrep.nsf, last update applied .

 Backup file C:\Lotus\Domino\Data\statrep.nsf recovered.

C:\program files\obm\bin>

All content of all database(s) are now rolled forward to the last committed transaction found in the last archived transaction log.
Restart Lotus Domino server

If you just want to restore a single database:

(optional) If you need to perform media recovery on this database, please download all archived transaction logs and save them back to its original location
Modify the “DominoRecover.bat” located under the bin directory of the Blaze Vault installation to reflect your setup.

For example we will recover the “admin4.nsf” and have restored the file to C:\restore\notesdata, change the tags to:
PROGRAM_DIR=C:\Lotus\Domino
INPUTFILE=C:\restore\notesdata\admin4.nsf
RESTOREDB=C:\Lotus\Domino\Data\admin4.nsf
RECDATE=18/01/2007
RECTIME=00:02
Run “DominoRecover.bat”.

You should see something similar to the screen below.


Media Recovery Example:

 

C:\program files\obm>DominoRecover.bat
Media Recovery Utility for Lotus Domino 5.0 or above

Running media recovery ...
Restart Analysis (0 MB): 100%
18/01/2007 14:42:15   Recovery Manager: Restart Recovery complete. (0/0
databases needed full/partial recovery)
Media Recovery Replay (122 MB): 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
18/01/2007 14:42:17   Recovery Manager: Media Recovery complete for
C:\Lotus\Domino\data\admin4.nsf, last update applied .

 Backup file C:\Lotus\Domino\data\admin4.nsf recovered.

 

C:\Lotus\Domino>

All content of the database are now rolled forward to the last committed transaction found in the last archived transaction log.
Restart Lotus Domino Server

How to backup Lotus Domino / Notes database(s) / file(s) on Linux

Please make sure that the user running Blaze Vault have sufficient privileges to read and write to the “notesenv” file located in the “bin” subdirectory of where Blaze Vault is installed. This file is used by Blaze Vault to store the location of the domino/notes application executables. e.g. use chmod to set read, write & execute permissions
# cd $OBM_HOME/bin
# chmod 777 notesenv

Please follow the instructions below to backup your Lotus Domino server / Notes client databases / files using Blaze Vault.

Create a backup set

On the left panel, press the  button to create a new backup set.
On the dialog, choose [Lotus Domino Server Backup] (or [Lotus Notes Client Backup] for Lotus Notes) as the [Type].


Enter a name for your backup set


Select the location of the “note.ini” file. The default path for this will be in the /local/notesdata folder.
Select the database(s) / file(s) you want to backup


Enter a temporary location to store the backup files before they are sent to Blaze Vault Server. Please make sure that the user running Blaze Vault have sufficient privileges to read and write to this location and sufficient space is available.
Set the backup schedule for Database Backup

Set the backup schedule for Transaction Log Backup (for Domino server only)
(Note: You can have more than one schedule in a backup set, i.e. you can perform intra-day transaction log backup by adding more than one daily transaction log backup schedule to your backup set)
Set the encryption algorithm, encryption mode and encrypting key for this backup set



(Hint: For maximum security, please select AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) Algorithm, CBC (Cipher Block Chaining) mode and use an encrypting key with more than 8 characters.)
Run Backup

Select the backup type (e.g. Database, Transaction Log) you would like to perform (for Domino server only). Select the backup set you want to run and select [Offsite Backup Server] to start backing up your files to Blaze Vault Server. If applicable, you can change the In-File Delta Type also.


Click [OK] to start backing up your files to Blaze Vault Server.
You should get something similar to the screen shot below.

How to restore Lotus Domino / Notes database(s) / file(s) on Linux

Please follow the instructions below to restore Lotus Domino server / Notes client database(s) / file(s) from Blaze Vault Server.

Install Blaze Vault

Please refer to the [Installation] section for information on how to install Blaze Vault onto your computer.
Shutdown Lotus Domino Server
If you want to perform a full domino restore (restore all databases and files):

Make sure that the owner and group permissions of the restored files are the notes user

For example:  # chown –R notes:notes /local/notesdata

This will assign the owner and group to all files and directories within /local/notesdata.
Modify the “DominoRecover.sh” located under the bin directory of the Blaze Vault installation to reflect your setup. You need to specify the data directory and the lotus executable directory.

For example change the DATA_DIR and LOTUS tags to:
DATA_DIR=/local/notesdata
LOTUS=/opt/ibm/lotus
Make sure the current user is the notes user before running the “DominoRecover.sh”.
Run “DominoRecover.sh” and press ‘Y’ to continue.

For example: #./usr/local/obm/bin/DominoRecover.sh

This will run media recovery for all databases (*.nsf and mail.box) found under the Lotus data directory (e.g. /local/notesdata). You should see something similar to the screen below.


Media Recovery Example:

 

bash-3.00$ cd /usr/local/obm/bin
bash-3.00$ ./DominoRecover.sh
Media Recovery Utility for Lotus Domino 5.0 or above

Please make sure that you have done the following:
1. Reinstall Lotus Domino on this computer in the same directory
2. Restore Notes.ini to the Lotus Domino installation directory
(e.g. /local/notesdata)
3. Restore Domino Data directory back to the directory defined
in Notes.ini (e.g. /local/notesdata)
4. Restore all archived transaction logs to the directory defined
in Notes.ini (e.g. /local/notesdata/logdir)

Continue ? (Y) or (N) y

Running media recovery ...
directory /local/notesdata// already exists
Please wait, creating new transaction logs in directory: /local/notesdata/logdir/
02/01/2007 11:38:43 AM  Recovery Manager: Restart Recovery complete. (0/0 databases needed full/partial recovery)
02/01/2007 11:38:45 AM  Recovery Manager: Assigning new DBIID for /local/notesdata/names.nsf (need new backup for media recovery).
Media Recovery Replay (0 MB): 100%
02/01/2007 11:38:45 AM  Recovery Manager: Media Recovery complete for /local/notesdata/dfc/dfc100.nsf, last update applied .

 Backup file /local/notesdata/dfc/dfc100.nsf recovered.
Media Recovery Replay (0 MB): 100%
02/01/2007 11:38:46 AM  Recovery Manager: Media Recovery complete for /local/notesdata/help/decsdoc.nsf, last update applied .

…

 Backup file /local/notesdata/iNotes/help70_iwa_en.nsf recovered.
Media Recovery Replay (0 MB): 100%
02/01/2007 11:38:50 AM  Recovery Manager: Media Recovery complete for /local/notesdata/mail/notes.nsf, last update applied .

 Backup file /local/notesdata/mail/notes.nsf recovered.
bash-3.00$

All content of all database(s) are now rolled forward to the last committed transaction found in the last archived transaction log.
Restart Lotus Domino server
If you just want to restore a single database:

(optional) If you need to perform media recovery on this database, please download all archived transaction logs and save them back to its original location
Modify the “DominoRecover.sh” located under the bin directory of the Blaze Vault installation to reflect your setup.

For example we will recover the “admin4.nsf” and have restored the file to /restore/local/notesdata, change the tags to:
DATA_DIR=/local/notesdata
LOTUS=/opt/ibm/lotus
INPUTFILE=/restore/local/notesdata/admin4.nsf
RESTOREDB=/local/notesdata/admin4.nsf
RECDATE=18/01/2007
RECTIME=22:41
Make sure the current user is the notes user before running the “DominoRecover.sh”.
Run “DominoRecover.sh”.

You should see something similar to the screen below.


Media Recovery Example:

 

bash-3.00$ cd /usr/local/obm/bin
bash-3.00$ ./DominoRecover.sh
Media Recovery Utility for Lotus Domino 5.0 or above

directory /local/notesdata// already exists

 Recovering backup file ...

Restart Analysis (0 MB): 100%
18/01/2007 03:35:56 PM  Recovery Manager: Restart Recovery complete. (0/0 databa ses needed full/partial recovery)
Media Recovery Replay (1 MB): 30% 50% 80% 100%
18/01/2007 03:35:57 PM  Recovery Manager: Media Recovery complete for /local/res tore/local/notesdata/admin4.nsf, last update applied .

 Backup file /local/restore/local/notesdata/admin4.nsf recovered.

 Taking database /local/notesdata/admin4.nsf offline ...

 

 Restoring database /local/notesdata/admin4.nsf
from recovered backup file /local/restore/local/notesdata/admin4.nsf ...
Database file /local/notesdata/admin4.nsf restored from /local/restore/local/not esdata/admin4.nsf

 Bringing database /local/notesdata/admin4.nsf online ...

 

Program completed successfully.
bash-3.00$

All content of the database are now rolled forward to the last committed transaction found in the last archived transaction log.
Restart Lotus Domino Server

Backup/Restore Microsoft Exchange Server

This chapter will describe in details how to use Blaze Vault to backup your Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 / 2003 / 2007and how you can restore your Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 / 2003 / 2007 from the backup files.

Requirements

Blaze Vault must be installed onto the computer running Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 / 2003 / 2007.
Data from Microsoft Exchange Server will be backed up to a temporary directory before they are sent to Blaze Vault Server. Please make sure you have sufficient space on your computer to store these data when you run the backup job.

Overview

A Microsoft Exchange Server 2000/2003/2007 stores its data in Windows Active Directory as well as in its databases. To fully backup a Microsoft Exchange Server 2000/2003/2007, you need to backup the following components:

Microsoft Information Store
Exchange Server stores all emails and documents inside its databases, which are grouped together as storage groups inside Microsoft Information Store. It is important that Microsoft Information Store is fully backed up when backing your Exchange Server.
Microsoft Site Replication Service
Microsoft Site Replication Service is installed automatically when exchange server site replication feature is enabled. Microsoft Site Replication stores its runtime and configuration information inside its own database. If you are running your Exchange Server with Site Replication Service enabled, please make sure that you backup the site replication database as well.
Microsoft Key Management Service (Exchange 2000 only)
Similarly, if you have setup your Exchange Server with Key Management Services enabled, please make sure that you backup the key management database as well.
Blaze Vault will backup your Microsoft Exchange Server by taking the following steps:
Run all Pre-Commands of this backup set
If the backup type to run is [Database Backup type],

If the backup type to run is [Transaction Log Backup type],

Remove transaction log extents backed up from the Exchange Server
Run all Post-Commands of this backup set
Upload all backup files from the temporary directory to Blaze Vault Server
Remove temporary files from the temporary directory

How to backup Microsoft Exchange Server

Please follow the instructions below to backup your Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 / 2003 / 2007 using Blaze Vault:

Create a backup set

Run Backup

How to restore Microsoft Exchange Server

Please follow the instructions below to restore Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 / 2003 / 2007 from Blaze Vault Server.

Restore Windows Active Directory (if required)

If you have re-installed Windows, please download the Windows System State backup file, named [SystemState.bkf], from Blaze Vault Server and then use [NTBackup.exe] to restore your Windows System State to its backup time from the backup file by following the instructions below:

Install Blaze Vault (if required)

Please refer to the [Installation] section for information on how to install Blaze Vault onto your computer.
Startup the [Microsoft Information Store] services from Windows Services
Restore exchange database(s) from backup:
Download the database backup files to be restored from the Blaze Vault Server (or find the cached copy available in the temporary directory defined in your backup set) and save them to your hard disk (please make sure the directory structure is the same as it appears on the browser), namely:

ExchangeRestore.exe Usage:

C:\Program Files\Blaze Vault\bin> ExchangeRestore.exe

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000/2003 Backup Recovery Utility

Usage:
ExchangeRestore DIR=path SERVER=server TEMP=tempDir [SERVICE=service [STORAGE=st
orage [DATABASE=database]]]

  DIR               Directory containing all backup files
SERVER  Name of Exchange Server to be restored
TEMP              Temporary directory to be used during restore
Please specific a path with plenty of free space
SERVICE   Name of Exchange Service to be restored. It must be either
"Microsoft Information Store", "Microsoft Key Management Service"
or "Microsoft Site Replication Service"
STORAGE   Name of storage group to be restored
DATABASE  Name of database to be restored

Examples:
1. To restore an exchange server:
ExchangeRestore DIR="C:\Backup" SERVER="ExchangeServer" TEMP="C:\Temp"

2. To restore the information store:
ExchangeRestore DIR="C:\Backup" SERVER="ExchangeServer" TEMP="C:\Temp"
SERVICE="Microsoft Information Store"

3. To restore an exchange storage group:
ExchangeRestore DIR="C:\Backup" SERVER="ExchangeServer" TEMP="C:\Temp"
SERVICE="Microsoft Information Store" STORAGE="StorageGroup1"

4. To restore an exchange database:
ExchangeRestore DIR="C:\Backup" SERVER="ExchangeServer" TEMP="C:\Temp"
SERVICE="Microsoft Information Store" STORAGE="StorageGroup1"
DATABASE="Database1"
where
"C:\Backup"      is the directory containing all backup files
"ExchangeServer"   is the server name of an exchange server
"C:\Temp"                  is the temporary directory to be used
"StorageGroup1"            is the name of a storage group
"Database1"                is the name of a database

Exchange Server Recovery Example:

 

E:\Program Files\Blaze Vault\bin> ExchangeRestore DIR="F:\Backup" TEMP="F:\Temp" SERVER="WIN2000SVR"

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000/2003 Backup Recovery Utility

 [Start] Exchange Server - 'WIN2000SVR'
[Start] Service - 'Microsoft Information Store'
[Start] Storage Group - 'First Storage Group'
[Start] Database - 'Mailbox Store (WIN2000SVR)'
Restoring file 'E:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.edb' ...
Restoring file 'E:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.stm' ...
[End] Database - 'Mailbox Store (WIN2000SVR)'
[Start] Database - 'Public Folder Store (WIN2000SVR)'
Restoring file 'E:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\mdbdata\pub1.edb' ...
Restoring file 'E:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\mdbdata\pub1.stm' ...
[End] Database - 'Public Folder Store (WIN2000SVR)'
[Start] Restoring transaction log - 'First Storage Group'
Restoring Log File 'F:\Temp\restore.tmp\First Storage Group\E00000B3.log' ...
Restoring Log File 'F:\Temp\restore.tmp\First Storage Group\E00000B4.log' ...
[End] Restoring transaction log - 'First Storage Group'
[Start] Applying transaction log ...
[End] Applying transaction log
[End] Storage Group - 'First Storage Group'
……………
[Start] Storage Group - 'SG2'
[Start] Database - 'acct'
Restoring file 'E:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\SG2\acct.edb' ...
Restoring file 'E:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\SG2\acct.stm' ...
[End] Database - 'acct'
[Start] Restoring transaction log - 'SG2'
Restoring Log File 'F:\Temp\restore.tmp\SG2\E0100072.log' ...
Restoring Log File 'F:\Temp\restore.tmp\SG2\E0100073.log' ...
[End] Restoring transaction log - 'SG2'
[Start] Applying transaction log ...
[End] Applying transaction log
[End] Storage Group - 'SG2'
[End] Exchange Server - 'WIN2000SVR'

E:\Program Files\Blaze Vault\bin>

Exchange Server Recovery Example:

 

E:\Program Files\Blaze Vault\bin> ExchangeRestore DIR="F:\Backup" TEMP="F:\Temp" SERVER="WIN2000SVR" SERVICE="Microsoft Information Store" STORAGE="SG5" DATABASE="mail"

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000/2003 Backup Recovery Utility

   [Start] Storage Group - 'SG5'
[Start] Database - 'mail'
Restoring file 'E:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\SG5\mail.edb' ...
Restoring file 'E:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\SG5\mail.stm' ...
[End] Database - 'mail'
[Start] Restoring transaction log - 'SG5'
Restoring Log File 'F:\Temp\restore.tmp\SG5\E0300012.log' ...
Restoring Log File 'F:\Temp\restore.tmp\SG5\E0300013.log' ...
[End] Restoring transaction log - 'SG5'
[Start] Applying transaction log ...
[End] Applying transaction log
[End] Storage Group - 'SG5'

E:\Program Files\Blaze Vault\bin>

However, if ExchangeRestore.exe still cannot mount the restored files and returns with strange errors, e.g. bad signature, or null errors, the Exchange server might have incorrectly spooled the backup files in the first place. Please try to mount the restored database and log files manually by the following instructions:

C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA> ..\bin\eseutil /p priv1.edb
C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA> ..\bin\eseutil /p pub1.edb

Completed

Backup/Restore Windows System State

This chapter will describe in details how to use Blaze Vault to backup Windows System State and how you can restore your Windows System State from backup.

Requirements

Blaze Vault must be installed onto the computer containing the system state you want to backup
Windows system state will be backed up to a temporary file before it is sent to Blaze Vault Server. Please make sure you have sufficient space on your computer to store the temporary file when you run the backup job.

Overview

Blaze Vault will backup your Microsoft Exchange Server by taking the following steps:

Windows System State will be backed up to a temporary directory specified in its backup set
Run all Post-Commands of this backup set
Upload the Windows System State backup files from the temporary directory to Blaze Vault Server
Remove the Windows System State temporary backup files from the temporary directory if [Setting] -> [Temporary Directory for storing backup files] is enabled

How to backup Windows System State

Please follow the instructions below to backup Windows System State using Blaze Vault:

Create a backup set

Run Backup

How to restore Windows System State

Please follow the instructions below to restore Windows System State from Blaze Vault Server.

Use [NTBackup.exe] to restore your Windows System State to its backup time from the backup file by following the instructions below:

Completed

Backup/Restore Individual Brick Level Backup for Microsoft Exchange Server

Requirements

Blaze Vault must be installed onto the computer running Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 / 2003 / 2007.

Overview

Brick Level Backup for Microsoft Exchange Server is not designed to fully protect an Exchange server, but to facilitate easy backup and fast restore of individual emails, contacts, calendars, tasks etc. The brick level restore cannot fully recover the Information Store after a disaster. If used, a brick level backup must be utilized in conjunction with full Information Store Backup, in order to fully protect the exchange server.

Granting Privileges

Brick Level Backup requires “Full Mailbox Access” permission for the user running Blaze Vault. Normally, Blaze Vault can acquire the permission on it’s own but if you encounter ‘Access Denied’ errors you need to manually grant access privileges to the user running Blaze Vault using one of the following instructions below:

For one specific mailbox

Use the following procedure to grant access to an Exchange 2000 / 2003 / 2007 mailbox:

Note: To perform Exchange 2007 Brick-Level Backup, install the standalone version of MAPI from the Microsoft site. Download Standalone version of MAPI

For mailboxes located within a specific mailbox store

Use the following procedure to grant access to an Exchange 2000 / 2003 / 2007 mailbox found on a specific mailbox store:

For mailboxes located within a specific server

How to backup Individual Brick Level Backup

Please follow the instructions below to backup all individual items within your Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 / 2003 / 2007 using Blaze Vault:

Create a backup set
To start setting up backup sets, click the  button to open the [Backup Setting] dialog.
On the left panel, press the  button to create a new backup set.
On the dialog, choose [MS Exchange Mail Level Backup] as the [Type].


Run Backup

How to restore Individual Brick Level Backup

Please follow the instructions below to restore individual emails, contacts, calendars, tasks etc. from Blaze Vault Server back into your exchange server. Please note that individual brick level can only be restored using the Blaze Vault client.

Open Blaze Vault from the System Tray (see previous sections for details).
Select the [Restore] button on the left of the main page of Blaze Vault dialog.
Select the backup set from which you would like files to be restored from the list.
Select the items you want to restore

Press the [Start Restore] button to restore









Restore complete. Please logon to exchange to get the restored items.

Backup/Restore System with Microsoft Windows System Backup

This chapter will describe in details how to use Blaze Vault to backup your Mircosoft Windows Server system and how you can restore them from backup files. This feature only works on Microsoft Windows Vista Business/Enterprise/Ultimate Edition and Windows Server 2008.

Requirements

You must install the Windows Server Backup, Command-line Tools, and Windows PowerShell items that are available in the Add Features Wizard in Server Manager. This installs the following tools:

System images generated by Windows Server Backup will be backed up to a temporary directory before they are sent to Blaze Vault Server. Please make sure you have sufficient space on your computer to store these data when you run the backup job.

Overview

Blaze Vault will backup your system by taking the following steps:

Blaze Vault will issue a system backup command to backup the volume(s) selected in backup source to a set of files and save it in the [WindowsImageBackup] directory under the temporary directory specified in the backup set settings.
After all files have been spooled to the [WindowsImageBackup] directories, Blaze Vault will run all Post-Commands of the backup set.
Upload all file copied to the temporary directory to Blaze Vault Server.

How to backup system with Microsoft Windows System Backup

Please follow the instructions below to backup your Mircosoft Windwos Server 2008 or Windows Vista Business /Enterprise/Ultimate Edition using Blaze Vault.

Create a backup set


    1. Enter a name for your backup set.
    1. Select the volume(s) you want to backup.
  3. Note: For Windows Vista, C: will be selected as default and cannot be deselected.
    1. Set the backup schedule.
    1. Set the encryption algorithm, encryption mode and encrypting key for this backup set.
  6. Run Backup
    1. Press the [Backup] button on the main page of Blaze Vault dialog.
    2. Select the backup set you want to run and select [Offsite Backup Server] to start backing up your files to Blaze Vault Server. If applicable, you can change the In-File Delta Type also.
    1. Click [OK] to start backing up your files to Blaze Vault Server.

How to restore system with Microsoft Windows System Backup

Please follow the instructions below to restore your Microsoft Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista Business/Enterprise/Ultimate Edtion from Blaze Vault Server.
Download the backup file (Microsoft_Windows_System_Backup) from Blaze Vault Server

  1. Please refer to the [Quick Start – Backup file] section for information on how to download backup files from Blaze Vault Server.

For Windows Server 2008, please follow the instructions below to recover volumes with Recovery Wizard:
From the [Start] menu, click [Administrative Tools], and then click [Windows Server Backup].
In the [Actions] panel of the snap-in default page, under [Windows Server Backup], click [Recover]. This opens the Recovery Wizard.
On the [Getting started] page, specify whether you will recover volumes from backups stored on this computer or another computer, and then click [Next].
If you are recovering volumes from backups stored on another computer, do the following, and then click [Next]:

    1. On the [Specify location type] page, specify thata you want to restore from a local drive.
    2. On the [Select backup location] page, select the location of the backup from the drop-down list.

Click [Next] to continue.
For a recovery either from the local computer or another computer, on the [Select backup date] page, select the date from the calendar and the time from the drop-down list of backup you want to restore from.
On the [Select recovery type] page, click [Volumes], and then click [Next].
On the [Select volumes] page, select the check boxes associated with the volumes in the [Source Volume] column that you want to recover. Then, from the associated drop-down list in the [Destination Volume] column, select the location that you wean to recover the volume to. Click [Next].

  1. Note: You will receive a message that any data on the desintation volume will be lost when you perform the recovery. Make sure that the destination volume is empty or does nto contain information that you will need later.

On the [Confirmation] page, review the details, and then click [Recover] to restore the specified volumes.
On the [Recovery progress] page, you can view the status of the recovery operation and whether or not it was successfully completed.

  1. Note: To recover volumes from a backup using Windows Server Backup, you must be a member of the Backup Operators or Administrators grouop, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. As a security best practice, consider using [Run as] to perform this procedure.

For Windows Server 2008, please follow the instructions below to recover the operating system or a full server with Instsall Windows Wizard:

    1. Insert the Windows Setup disc into the CD or DVD drive and turn on the computer. If needed, press the required key to boot from the disc. The Install Windows Wizard should appear.
    2. Specify language settings, and then click [Next].
    3. Click [Repair your computer].
    4. Setup searched the hard disk drives for an existing Windows installation and then displays the results in [System Recovery Options]. If you are recovering the operating system onto separate hardware, the list should be empty (there should be no operating system on the computer). Click [Next].
    5. On the [System Recovery Options] page, click [Windows Complete PC Restore]. This opens the Windows Complete PC Restore Wizard.
    6. Perform one of the following actions:
        1. Click [Use the latest available backup (recommended)] and then click [Next].
        2. Click [Restore a different backup] and then click [Next].
    7. If you chose to restore a different backup, please perform one of the following actions on the [Select the location of the backup] page:
        1. Click the computer that contains the backup that you want to use, and then click [Next]. Then, on the [Select the backup to restore] page, click the backup that you want to use, and then click [Next].
        2. Click [Advanced] to browse for a backup on the network, and then click [Next].
    8. On the [Choose how to restore the backup] page, do the following optional tasks, and then click [Next]:
        1. Select the [Format and repartition disks] check box to delete existing partitions and reformat the destination disks to be the same as the backup. This enables the [Exclude disks] button. Click this button and then select the check boxes associated with any disks that you want to exclude from being formatted and partitioned. The disk that contains the backup that you are using is automatically excluded.
  1. Note: Unless a disk is excluded, data on it can be lost – regardless of whether it was part of the backup or whether it has volumes that are being restored. In [Exclude disks], if you do not see all the disks that are attached to the computer, you might need to install the associated drivers for the storage device.
        1. Select the [Only restore system disks] check box to performa an operating system –only recovery.
        2. Click [Install drivers] to install device drivers for the hardware that you are recovering to,
        3. Click [Advanbced] to specify whether the computer is restarted and the disks are checked for errors immediate after the recovery.
    1. Confirm the details for the restoration, and then click [Finish].

For Windows Server 2008, you can also recover volumes with the following sub command:

  1. Wbadmin start recovery –version: <VersionIdentifier> -itemtypeVolume –items:<VolumesToRecover> -backupTarget: <VolumeHostingBackup> -recoveryTarget:<TargetVolumeForRecovery>
        1. Version Identifier: Specifies the version identifier of the backup to recover in MM/DD/YYYY-HH:MM format. If you do not know the version identifier, type [wbadmin get versions].
        2. VolumesToRecover: Specifies a comma-delimited list of volumes.
        3. VolumesHostingBackup: Specifies the storage location that coantains the backup that you want to recover
        4. TargetVolumeForReocvery: Specify the volume drive letter of the alternate volume to restore to.
  2. For example,
  3. Wbadmin start recovery –versionL03/31/2009-09:00 –itemType:Volume –itmes:D: -backupTarget:E: -recoveryTarget:F:

For Windows Vista, please perform a Complete PC Restore within the Windows Recovery Environment:

    1. Insert Windows Vista DVD into the DVD drive and turn on the computer. You will see that a bootable DVD is inserted.
    1. Press any key to boot the computer from the Windows Vista DVD. You should now see a black screen with a white status bar at the bottom stating [Windows is loading files…]. After a while, the status bar will turn completely white and you will see a screen stating that Windows is loading.
  2. Note: It is possible that the DVD came with your computer does not allow you to boot off from it. If this is the case, then your computer manufacturer most likely installed the Windows Recovery Environment directly to a small partition on your hard drive. To access this partition, you would slowly tap the [F8] key on your keyboard after the BIOS information clears from your screen until you see the Windows startup menu. From this menu use your arrow keys to select the option for the Windows Recovery Environment and press the enter key on your keyboard.
    1. Configure the [Language to install], [Time and currency format], and [Keyboard or input method] options. Then, press the [Next] button.
    1. Click [Repair your computer].
    1. The [System Recovery Options] dialog box will be shown. Select the Vista installation you would like to repair.
  6. Note: If there are drivers you need to load in order for Vista to access any of your drives or other components, then you should click on the [Load Drivers] button to load them. When ready, press the [Next] button to continue. If the repair process does not detect any problems starting Vista, it will display a list of available recovery tools. If it does detect a problem it will attempt to perform a Startup Repair to automatically fix these problems. Click on the [Cancel] button and select the [View advanced options for system recovery and support] option to see the list of recovery tools.
    1. Click on the [Windows Complete PC Restore] option.
    1. Complete PC Restore will search your hard drives and DVD media for any saved backup image. If none are found, then a message will papear stating that no backups could be found. On the other hand, if a backup was found in one of your drives or the inserted media, you will see a screen with the latest backup selected.

If the selected backup is the one you wish to restore, press the [Next] button to continue. If there is a differenet backup that you would like to use, select the [Restore a different backup] option and press the [Next] button. This will bring up a screen displaying the list of backups you have created in the past.

Select the backup that you would like to restore. Then click on the [Next] button. Compelte PC Restore will now examine your selected backup and see if there is more than one time you backed up your computer to this location. If you have backed up multiple times it will display an entry for each of them.

It is advised that you select the most recent snapshot and then press the [Next] button to move on to the next screen.

  2. Note: if you select the [Format and repartition disks] options, Complete PC Restore will repartition and format the hard drive you are restoring to exactly as it was when you made the backup. If you do not choose this method, it will just erase the hard disk and restore the data to it. If you are using the same hard drive that you originally used to backup your computer then you may want to select the option to format and repatition disks. On the other hand, if this is a new hard drive that you have partitioned in a different manner, then you should not select this option in order to keep your current disk configuration. It is implrtant to note that with either option you select all the data on the disk you are restoring ot will be erased. When you are ready to continue, you should click on the [Finish] button.

A new window is opened stating that all of your data will be erased. If you want to continue with the restore then you need to put a checkmark in the checkbox labeled [ I confirm that I want to erase all existing data and restore the backup] and then press the [OK] button. Complete PC Restore will now restore the backup on your computer.

When the restore is completed, you will see a message stating that it is complete and it will reboot your computer after a certain amount of time. When your computer reboots, you will now be using the data and configuration from the backup you just restored.
All volume(s) restored successfully.

Backup/Restore Windows System with ShadowProtect

This chapter will describe in details how to use Blaze Vault to backup your Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / 2003 / 2008 system and how you can restore them form the backup files.

Requirements

Blaze Vault must be installed onto the computer with ShadowProtect installed.
System images generated by ShadowProtect will be backed up to a temporary directory before they are sent to Blaze Vault Server. Please make sure you have sufficient space on yor computer to store these data when you run the back job.

Overview

Blaze Vault will backup your system by taking the following steps:

How to backup system with ShadowProtect

Please follow the instructions below to backup your System with ShadowProtect using Blaze Vault.

To start setting up backup sets, click the  button to open the [Backup Setting] dialog.
On the left panel, press the  button to create a new backup set.


On the dialog, choose [ShadowProtect System Backup] as the [Type].

Enter a name for your backup set.

Enter the installation path of Shadow Protect.


Select the volume(s) you want to backup.

Set the backup schedule.


Set the encryption algorithm, encryption mode and encrypting key for this backup set.

How to restore system with ShadowProtect

Please follow the instructions below to restore your system form Blaze Vault Server.


All volume(s) restored successfully.

Backup/Restore MySQL Server

This chapter will describe in details how to use Blaze Vault to backup your MySQL server and how you can restore your MySQL server from the database backup files.

Requirements

Data from MySQL server will be backed up to a temporary directory before they are sent to Blaze Vault Server. Please make sure you have sufficient space on your computer to store these data when you run the backup job.
There must be a MySQL account can be used to connect from localhost.

Add two new MySQL accounts for Blaze Vault

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'localhost'
-> IDENTIFIED BY 'some_pass';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'localhost.localdomain'
-> IDENTIFIED BY 'some_pass';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

They are superuser accounts with full privileges to do anything with a password of some_pass.

Overview

Blaze Vault will backup your MySQL server by taking the following steps:

All database(s) (either local or external) selected are backed up to a temporary directory specified in its backup set
Run all Post-Commands of this backup set
Upload all backup files from the temporary directory to Blaze Vault Server
Remove temporary files from the temporary directory if [Setting] -> [Temporary Directory for storing backup files] is enabled

How to backup MySQL server on Windows

Please follow the instructions below to backup your MySQL server using Blaze Vault:

From the Menu, Choose [Backup Set] -> [New] -> [MySQL Backup Set]
Create a backup set

Run Backup

How to backup MySQL server on Linux (command line mode)

If you want to setup Blaze Vault to backup MySQL server running on Linux using command line mode, please do the followings:

Logon to the web interface of Blaze Vault Server using the backup account created in the previous step (doesn’t matter if it is not from the Linux server running the MySQL server to be backed up)
Create a new backup set by pressing the [Backup Set] -> [Add] button
Select the [Backup Set] -> [Type] -> [MySQL Database Server] radio button and press the [Update] button (which can be found at the bottom of the page)
Setup all [Backup Set] -> [Database Backup Setting]

  • Settings
  • Descriptions
  • MySQL Username (e.g. root)
  • A MySQL user account that has backup access to the databases to be backed up (e.g. root). Please refer to the [Requirements] section for details
  • MySQL Password
  • Password of the MySQL user account being used
  • Host
  • IP address / Hostname of the MySQL Server, e.g. localhost
  • MySQL Connection TCP/IP Port
  • TCP/IP port used to access the MySQL Server (default: 3306)
  • Path to MySQL backup utility (mysqldump)
  • Full path to where mysqldump can be found (e.g. /usr/bin/mysqldump)
  • Temporary Spooling Directory
  • A temporary directory to be used to store all MySQL database dump files before they are uploaded to the backup server
  • Enable Delete Temp. File
  • Whether to delete the temporary MySQL database dump files after they are uploaded to the backup server

Setup the [Backup Set] -> [Backup Source] setting

Setup the [Backup Set] -> [Backup Schedule] by pressing the [Add] link next the “Backup Schedule” sub-title
Install Blaze Vault onto the Linux server running MySQL server (Please refer to the [2.1 Installation of Blaze Vault] section for details. The command line mode installation instructions are available on the web interface)
Completed

If you have started up the Blaze Vault backup scheduler in the previous step, selected databases will be backed up automatically at scheduled time

How to restore MySQL server

Please follow the instructions below to restore MySQL server from Blaze Vault Server.

Restore the database named [db_name] from the database backup file [db_name.sql]:
Connect to the MySQL server

(Windows) C:\> mysql
(Linux) [root@server ~]# mysql

Repeat the same procedure for each database to be restored to the MySQL Server.
Completed

Email Reporting

Blaze Vault Server makes use of the email system to keep you informed with the status of your backup activities. Please make sure your contact information within the backup system is correct to receive the reports described in this chapter.

New User Report

When a new backup account is added to the backup server, a new user report will be delivered to the contact email(s) of the new account. The New User Report contains the following information:


Sample Report

Key

Description

Login Name

Login name

Password

Password

Alias

Alias

Language

Preferred Language for your backup report

Contact

Email Address that will be used to contact you

Backup Quota

Backup quota

Backup Server

Backup server

Forgot Password Report

If you have forgotten your password, you can use the [Forgot Password] feature available on the web interface to have your password delivered to you through email. (Please refer to “Retrieve Forgotten Password” section in the next chapter for more information on how to retrieve your forgot password report.) The Forgot Password Report contains the following information:


Sample Report

Key

Description

Login Name

Login name

Password

Password

Alias

Alias

Language

Preferred Language for your backup report

Contact

Email Address that will be used to contact you

Backup Job Report

For each backup job you have run, a backup job report will be sent to you by email. This report contains a summary for the backup job that was run and a full listing of all files being backed up by the backup job. The backup summary report contains the following information:


Sample Backup Summary Report

Key

Description

Backup Time

The time when the backup job ran

Backup Status

The overall status of the backup job. Normally, you should see “Backup finished successfully” in this field. If you happen to get something else, please consult the attached full report for more information.

New Files

Total number and size of backup files added to your backup set

Updated Files

Total number and size of backup files updated in your backup set

Deleted Files

Total number and size of backup files deleted from your backup set

Moved Files

Total number and size of backup files relocated in your backup set

 

Login Name

Login name

Alias

Alias

Language

Preferred Language for your backup report

Contact

Email Address that will be used to contact you

 

Backup Source

All files/directories that will be backed up

 

Backup Data Size

The total backup data stored in the data area

Retention Area Size

The total backup data stored in the retention area. Old copies of updated or deleted backup files are retained in the retention area for the number of days as specified by the retention policy of the backup set before they are removed from the system.

Backup Quota

Backup Quota

Remaining Quota

Remaining Quota

The full backup report, which contains a full listing of all files backed up by the backup job, is attached to the backup job report email as a zip file. You need to unzip it before you can read the full report.


Sample Report

Key

Description

Backup Set

The name of the backup set

Backup Job

The name of the backup job (which is the start time of the backup job)

Backup Status

The overall status of the backup job. Normally, you should see “Backup finished successfully” in this field. If you happen to get something else, please consult the attached full report for more information.

Backup Time

The time when the backup job ran

 

Backup Log

All messages logged when running this backup job

New Files

Total number and size of backup files added to your backup set

Updated Files

Total number and size of backup files updated in your backup set

Deleted Files

Total number and size of backup files deleted from your backup set

Moved Files

Total number and size of backup files relocated in your backup set

 

New File List

Full list of all backup files added to your backup set

Updated File List

Full list of all backup files updated in your backup set

Deleted File List

Full list of all backup files deleted from your backup set

Moved File List

Full list of all backup files relocated in your backup set

Setting Change Report

After you have updated your user profile or backup setting, a setting change report will be sent to you. This report allows you to track record of the changes that have been made to your backup account.


Sample Report

Key

Description

Login Name

Login name

Alias

Alias

Language

Preferred Language for your backup reports

Contact

Email Address that will be used to contact you

Backup Quota

Backup Quota

 

Backup Source(s)

All backup sources of the backup set

Backup Schedule(s)

All backup schedules of the backup set

Filter(s)

All backup filters of the backup set

Retention Policy

The retention policy of the backup set

Transfer Size

The transfer block size of the backup set

Pre-Command(s)

All Pre-Command(s) of the backup set

Post-Command(s)

All Post-Command(s) of the backup set

Inactive User Reminder

You will receive an inactive user reminder in email if your account has been left inactive for the period of 7 days (or the period specified by the system administrator). This is to remain you that you have not been running backup for more 7 days. If you are a free trial user, your account will be removed from the system automatically if the system can track no records of your backup activities in the next 30 days after receiving this report.


Sample Report

Key

Description

Login Name

Login name

Alias

Alias

Language

Preferred Language for your backup reports

Contact

Email Address that will be used to contact you

Backup Quota

Backup Quota

 

Last Login Time

The last time you logon to the backup system

Last Backup Time

The last time you ran a backup job

Web Features

Other than the features of Blaze Vault described in the previous chapter, the web interface of Blaze Vault Server provides you access to some additional features that are not available in Blaze Vault. This chapter describes each of these features in details.

Install Blaze Vault

Before you can use Blaze Vault, you have to download the Blaze Vault installer from the web interface of Blaze Vault Server and install Blaze Vault onto your computer. Please refer to the installation section (Chapter 2) for information on how to install Blaze Vault onto your computer.

Update User Profile

You can update your user profile by using the [Profile] panel available on the web interface. To change your profile, just make any changes to your profit on the panel shown below and press the [Update] button.


Key

Description

Quota

Backup Quota

Data Area

Total number and size backup files stored in the data area

Retention Area

Total number and size of backup files stored in the retention area

Total Upload

Total number and size of backup files uploaded to the backup server

Total Restore

Total number and size of backup files restored from the backup server

 

Login Name

Login name

Display Name

Alias of your backup account

Language

Preferred Language for your backup report

Time Zone

Your Time zone

Contact

Email Address that will be used to contact you

Request Forgotten Password

If you have forgotten your password, you can retrieve it by simply entering your login name or your registered email address on the [Password Request] form and press the [Request] button. Your password will be sent to your registered email address automatically. 


Restore/Delete/Undelete Backup Files

Using the [File Explorer], you can browse through the backup data (both current and previous versions) on Blaze Vault Server. You can select any current backup files to Restore or Delete. You can also select any deleted backup files (in gray) to Undelete.

Review Backup Jobs

In addition to reviewing your backup activities from the email report and from Blaze Vault, you can also review any of your backup Jobs by using the [Report] panel available on the web interface. To review a backup job, select the required backup job from the [Backup Set] and [Backup Job] drop down lists.


Key

Description

Job Status

The overall status of the backup job. Normally, you should see “Backup finished successfully” in this field. If you happen to get something else, please click the [Detailed Report] images on the page.

Backup Time

The time when the backup job ran

 

New Files

Total number and size of backup files added to your backup set

Updated Files

Total number and size of backup files updated in your backup set

Deleted Files

Total number and size of backup files deleted from your backup set

Moved Files

Total number and size of backup files relocated in your backup set

 

Backup Data Size

The total backup data stored in the data area

Retention Area Size

The total backup data stored in the retention area. Old copies of updated or deleted backup files are retained in the retention area for the number of days as specified by the retention policy of the backup set before they are removed from the system.

Total Upload

Total number and size of backup files uploaded to the backup server

Backup Quota

Backup Quota

Remaining Quota

Remaining Quota

You can open the [Full Backup Report] to review all information logged by a backup job by clicking the [Detailed Report] image on the [Report] panel.


Full Backup Report

Parameter

Description

Backup Set

The name of the backup set

Backup Job

The name of the backup job (which is the start time of the backup job)

Backup Status

The overall status of the backup job.

Backup Time

The time when the backup job ran

 

Backup Log

All messages logged when running this backup job

New Files

Total number and size of backup files added to your backup set

Updated Files

Total number and size of backup files updated in your backup set

Deleted Files

Total number and size of backup files deleted from your backup set

Moved Files

Total number and size of backup files relocated in your backup set

 

New File List

Full list of all backup files added to your backup set

Updated File List

Full list of all backup files updated in your backup set

Deleted File List

Full list of all backup files deleted from your backup set

Moved File List

Full list of all backup files relocated in your backup set

 

Review Storage Statistics

You can review the amount of data you have stored on the backup server and uploaded to the backup server on each day by opening the [Statistics] panel available on the web interface. To review your storage statistics for a different month, just select the month you are after by selecting from the [Month] drop down list.


Key

Description

Date

The date the following statistics are collected

Data Area

Total number and size of backup files stored in the data area on a particular date

Retention Area

Total number and size of backup files stored in the retention area on a particular date

Uploaded Size

Total number and size of backup files uploaded to the backup server on a particular date

Total Storage

Total number and size of backup files stored under your backup account on a particular date

Further Information

 

FAQs

Please see if your question has already been answered in our FAQs available on our website.

Contact Us

You can find our contact information by following instructions below.
Open Blaze Vault from the system tray
Click the  from the top menu

  1. Contact us by using the information shown in the [About] dialog box