Blaze Vault Online Backup - Development Department
June 25, 2009.
1. General
2. Blaze Vault Online Backup Manager (Blaze Vault Manager) / 1-Click Backup
The Blaze Vault Online Backup Suite consists of 3 main modules:
Blaze Vault Manager is a client application with a user-interface for easy backup configuration. It allows users to upload selected files to the Backup server and runs scheduled backup jobs. It also allows users to create different backup sets for different backup purpose. Besides file backup, Blaze Vault Manager can backup a list of applications such as MS Exchange, MS SQL, Oracle, MySQL, Lotus Domino, and much more. Blaze Vault Manager supports Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, Linux, Mac OS X, etc.
Blaze Vault 1-Click is a client application with essential file backup functionalities and an intuitive user-interface targeting for simple end-users. It allows users to upload selected files to the Backup server and runs scheduled backup jobs.
Blaze Vault Server is a server application which store backup data from multiple Blaze Vault Managers backup accounts. It has a web-based Management Console for system administrators to manage the Backup Server, such as configuring system and backup account settings, and viewing backup statistics and reports. Users can also logon to this Management Console to manage their own backup account or restore their own backup data. Blaze Vault Server supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS platforms.
Blaze Vault Replication is another server application running on a separate machine, it provides close to real-time backup for multiple Blaze Vault Servers. So even if one of the Blaze Vault Server failed, the RPS still has a copy of the backup data.
The relationships of the Blaze Vault Online Backup Suite are depicted in the diagram below.
Of course it is possible. You can refer to our Administrator's Guide as well as our Partner Portal for more details.
It really depends on what kind of data to be backed up, e.g. for personal file backups, the daily data transfer should be limited, while MS Exchange backup could be significant. You may want to use the following white paper as a reference:
http://www.blazevault/whitepapers.html
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To connect Blaze Vault Manager to Blaze Vault Server through Microsoft ISA Server, please do the following to enable [Web Proxy] service on the ISA Server:
If you run into any problems connecting to the Blaze Vault Server from Blaze Vault Manager using ISA Server, please do the following to check if your request is being blocked:
Check if there are any errors generated in the log table.
You can either run Blaze Vault Manager on a Linux version of Sun Java JDK (performance might not be optimized) or on a FreeBSD native Java SDK.
Please do the following for the Linux version of Sun Java JDK option:
Please do the following for the FreeBSD native Java SDK option:
Please do the followings to install OBM on SCO:
Please do the followings to install Blaze Vault Manager on AIX:
Run $OBM_HOME/bin/Scheduler.sh to start the backup scheduler
There are few things that could create errors during or after executing the installer.
Also, if you are transferring this file from one machine to another, please be sure the file size is valid and you are transferring the file in binary mode.
Java Testing
Please try running any of the Swing demos that came with the Java runtime in 1.4.X and see if it hangs on Windows. In order to fix this problem, some knowledge base on the Internet suggested updating DirectX to at least DirectX 8.1. Most machines got this problem had DirectX 7.0 installed. (You can use the “dxdiag” command to find out the directX version)
SUN recommended two workarounds for certain video card issues
To manually install Blaze Vault Manager on Windows, you’ll need to copy and zipping the program directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\Blaze Vault Manager) from another machine with Blaze Vault Manager installed. Then do the followings on the machine you wish to manually install:
Try manually installing Blaze Vault Manager on your Mac with the following instructions:
Some users would have problems when trying to install Blaze Vault Manager on Novell Netware Client version. (The machine had met all the system requirements: Netware v5.1 and Netware Java v1.3.1). User could receive the following error message during installation.
Exception in thread "main"
Java.lang.noclass def found error.obm
Java: class obm exited with status 1
Check the following
Please check if the OBM_HOME environment variable set in SYS:\OBM\bin\BackupManager.ncf is correct?
envset OBM_HOME=SYS:\OBM
envset OBM_CLASSPATH=$OBM_HOME\bin;$OBM_HOME\bin\obm.jar;
$OBM_HOME\bin\obm-lib.jar
envset LIB_PATH=$OBM_HOME\bin
java -mx384m -Djava.library.path=$LIB_PATH -cp $OBM_CLASSPATH obm SYS:\OBM
Please change the SYS:\OBM environment variable to your installation directory.
Yes, there are scripts in [OBM Program Home]\bin and they are described below:
Windows
Linux
*You may have to set some variables in these scripts and more instructions are provided.
Blaze Vault Manager compares timestamps of files on the server with the corresponding copies on client machine. Archive bit is not used as it does not detect relocated files. Therefore tape backup would not affect Blaze Vault Manager.
After the initial upload, subsequent backup jobs will only transfer the modified or new data to the Backup server. It depends on the nature of the data, but normally, less than 2% of all data is modified.
Backup data is transferred in blocks (instead of file by file) to minimize connection negotiation roundtrips. It is not the TCP/IP block size. This setting is optimal for the backup operation.
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 over the Internet. You can try the following method:
In addition, subsequent backups are incremental (only new or updated files will be uploaded to the server), the amount of data transfer should be relatively small.
Please refer to the User’s Guide for details on the “Seed Loading Utility”.
Blaze Vault offer a service to copy data to a portable USB HDD and currier it same day to your site. You can then use the “Decypt Files Tool” in Blaze Vault Manager to restore the backup data from the removable media to its original format. This would be an additional 1 off cost.
Blaze Vault Manager requires a temporary storage for the delta file before it gets sent to the server.
For example:
If you have a 10GB file that has already been backed up to the server and you have updated 10MB of this file. Then you need to have at least 10MB of free space in the temporary directory for the delta file.
*Note: Certainly you do not need 10GB of free disk space.
Also, if you want to backup 5 x 10GB files in the same situation. You will only need 10MB of free space (not 5 x 10MB), because each delta file will be automatically deleted right after it has been backed up.
All backup files are compressed and encrypted before uploading to the Backup Server, the average compression ratio for text-based file is around 4:1. However, no further compression can be made on files that are already in compressed format (e.g. JPG, ZIP). In general, you can assume a 2:1 compression ratio when you are backing up a file set with variety types.
The encrypting key cannot be changed once you setup your Backup Set. This is necessary for the integrity of the Backup Set, making sure that backup data is only encrypted by one key. Otherwise, you will have problems remember two encrypting keys when you want to restore your files in the future.
You need to recreate your Backup Set if you really want to change your encrypting key.
By selecting the “User Login Password as Encrypting Key” option when creating a backup set, Blaze Vault Manager will set your login password as the encrypting key for the backup set. Once set, even if you change your login password afterward, the encrypting key will remain as your original password. In other words, if you have changed your login password, you still need to use the original password to decrypt and restore the backup set.
Currently, if the encrypting key is forgotten or lost, the backup set can never be restored. It is not possible to restore without the key.
You can find out the encrypting key from the corresponding Blaze Vault Manager.
There are two encryptions being performed by Blaze Vault Manager:
Please check if the external hard drive is in FAT32 volume format. And also check whether there is any folder containing more than 32000 files and there is no file bigger than 4GB within your backup set. It is a FAT32 limitation, you may try to convert the FAT32 volume to NTFS.
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Please try the followings:
If your system settings is not the same as the above steps, please download a new installer (obc-win.exe) from our website or the customization portal and try again.
If you are using port 80, please check whether your proxy server accepts "HTTP CONNECT" calls on port 80. You may also want to try other ports like 443 to see if your proxy server accepts that.
Yes if you are running 2008 server. However if you are running 2003 or below then I can still backup/restore the operating system by doing the followings:
To backup all files including the operating system, please do this:
To restore all files including the operating system, please do this:
You can try running “osql –L” in a command prompt, you should see the following:
Servers:
(local)
SQLSERVER1\INSTANCE1
SQLSERVER2\INSTANCE2
If you have a firewall installed, please disable it. UDP Broadcast must be allowed.
If you have firewall installed on your network, please make sure UDP port 1434 is allowed on the SQL Server.
You can change the recovery model by running the following commands, run it along with each of the database that you want to run transaction log backup.
C:\> osql -E -S SQLSERVER1\INSTANCE1 -Q "ALTER DATABASE xxx SET RECOVERY FULL"
Where
SQLSERVER1\INSTANCE1 = the SQL Server and the corresponding instance
xxx = the name of the database
You may want to try editing a few Windows Parameters.
SMB Size
When running applications that copy or move a large amount of data to a remote server, the speed of such action is determined by network speed and by the SMB (a protocol related to Windows map drive) size.
NT/2000 negotiates the SMB size and will generally set this to 4K blocks for applications that are moving or copying data to a remote server. By increasing this block size, you will allow the server to complete its file copies faster. This will increase the performance of the application making the copy/move calls.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Current Control Set\Services\LanmanServer\Paramerters
"SizReqBuf"= REG_DWORD
Set Value To: 16000 = HEXDEC
Ref: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320829
Map Drive Auto Disconnect Settings
Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138365/EN-US/
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;297684
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Current Control Set\Services\LanmanServer\Paramerters
Autodisconnect to: fffffff
Creating BAT file for better performance
If you are still having problems, you may want setup a BAT file and scheduled this file to run every 10 minutes, please setup the BAT file as follow:
BAT file settings:
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ping mapdrv
ping 192.168.1.15
net config server /autodisconnect:-1
net use /persistent:yes
net use "\\mapdrv\DATA STORAGE1"
net use "\\192.168.1.15\DATA
net use d: \\192.168.1.15\DATA STORAGE1
net use e: "\\mapdrv\DATA STORAGE1"
dir d:\
dir e:\
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In addition, create a host file on the server hosting the program, have the following entry in it:
And if you are on a 2003 server, refer to the following:
Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;890553
For Windows 2000, you may want to install the following Hotfix:
Windows2000-KB903237-x86-ENU
Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;903237
If you want to backup \\SERVER\SHARE that is located on a NetWare server 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]
This will authenticate the current process with the NetWare server and therefore allow your backup to run correctly.
Advantages
Disadvantages
You can check which version a client is running by checking the access log.
The default location of the access log file is:
The ‘/obs/obcX.X/file/????File.obc?u=USER_NAME&..ver=Y.Y’ entries contain this information, where:
And starting from Blaze Vault Server v5.0.1.5, the version of OBM can be check from the Blaze Vault Server Management Console under the [Manager User] -> [Report] -> [Detailed Report] page of the corresponding user.
Blaze Vault Manager uses its own copy of Java and leaves the system Java VM intact.
Blaze Vault Server works with previous versions of Blaze Vault Manager (However not the other way round). You only need to upgrade the existing client software if you want to take advantage of the new features. And you do not need to transfer client backup data again after the Blaze Vault Server ugprade.
MySQL backup is done with SQL Dump file, and it generates a single file which is then uploaded. These backup files usually very large size and it takes time to backup to the server. At this moment, it is not possible to do incremental dump with mysqldump. But our In-File Delta feature shall ensure that, instead of the entire backup file, only the changed data blocks within the dump file are uploaded to the Backup Server.
In general, daily snapshots followed by a weekly snapshot or a monthly snapshot, etc. will be removed; weekly snapshots followed by a monthly snapshot or a quarterly snapshot, etc. will be removed; and so on.
This is illustrated by the following example.
Assume today is 17Jan06, and the Advanced Retention Policy is as follows:
If “Remove retention files for overlap policy” is NOT enabled:
Then a total of 14 snapshots (7+4+3) will be kept on the server accordingly, i.e.:
(Daily): 10Jan06, 11Jan06, 12Jan06, 13Jan06, 14Jan06, 15Jan06, 16Jan06
(Weekly): 24Dec05, 31Dec05, 7Jan06, 14Jan06
(Monthly): 1Nov05, 1Dec05, 1Jan06
If “Remove retention files for overlap policy” is enabled:
Then only the following snapshots are kept: 1Nov05, 1Dec05, 1Jan06, 14Jan06, 15Jan06, 16Jan06.
Specifically, the weekly policy overrides the daily policy so 10Jan06, 11Jan06, 12Jan06 and 13Jan06 will be removed. The monthly policy overrides the weekly policy, and 24Dec05, 31Dec05 and 7Jan06 will be removed as well.
In an incremental backup, only modified files will be uploaded to the Backup Server.
On the other hand, In-File Delta is applicable to the physical files to be uploaded to the Backup Server, does not matter whether it is a MS SQL database file, MS Exchange transaction log file or any normal file in a FileBackupSet. Specifically, only the changed blocks in comparison to the original file on the Backup Server (delta file) will be uploaded.
For each modified file, Blaze Vault Manager would determine whether the entire file or only delta file should be uploaded. If the entire file is to be uploaded, the old version of the file will be moved to the Retention area. Else if only the delta file is to be uploaded, the previous delta files will be moved to the Retention area and the Data area should contain the original full backup file, checksum file and the latest delta file of this file.
If the block size is set to “Auto”, the effective block size (Started from OBM v5.0.1.7) will be chosen from the following table based on the file size of the updated file:
| File Size | Delta Block Size |
| 0-500M | 4k |
| 500M - 2G | 8k |
| 2G - 8G | 16k |
| 8G - 15G | 32k |
| > 15G | 64k |
When you do backup, the Blaze Vault Online Backup software will do the followings:
Blaze Vault Manager can backup application data while the application is still running. Particularly, we have special agents for MS Exchange Server, MS SQL Server, Oracle, Lotus Notes and MySQL, which allows these applications to be backed up while they are online. With the Volume Shadow Copy feature started from Blaze Vault Manager v5.0, we are able to backup other types of applications while they are online.
Off-line Backup is basically designed for notebook users who are off-line most of the time, and cannot rely on backup schedule to backup regularly. The backup interval allows notebook users to specify the interval that they would like their data to backup. If this interval has elapsed, backup will run automatically once this machine is online.
Logout Backup Reminder asks user if they would like to backup if they logout of the computer or shutdown their computer.
Local Backup allows an extra copy of backup file to be kept on local hard disk when backup is running.
You might have “Off-line backup” enabled for every hour. Please do the following to disable that:
Press the [Save Setting] button from the toolbar
To disable the “System Logout Backup Reminder”, please do the followings:
Press the [Save Setting] button from the toolbar
Please do the followings for upgrade:
Please take a look at SYS:\OBM\home.txt. It contains the path to the .obm directory. You can do the followings to make the changes:
Example
java -mx384m -Djava.library.path=$LIB_PATH -cp $OBM_CLASSPATH obm SYS:\OBM C:\[new location]\.obm
If you have interrupted any of the backup jobs, the file tagged with the datetime of the corresponding backup job will be renamed to its original filename just before it is uploaded. This is necessary as we need to ensure that the snapshot of different dates would not overwrite each other.
If a backup job is still running, just let it runs to completion. If backup has been stopped already, just remove all files tagged with the corresponding datetime in the “temporary directory” and try to perform a full database backup again.
You need to be on Blaze Vault Manager v5.0 or above, as well as support from the underlying OS. Windows XP and 2003, by default, come with Volume Shadow Copy, which allows backup open file. For older platforms, e.g. Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000 or NetWare, we would recommend adding a third party open file manager option (e.g. St. Bernard Open File Manager - http://www.stbernard.com/).
*Open file option is not required on Linux/Unix/Mac OS X because no files are held exclusively open by applications.
Please refer to:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/2b0d2457-b7d8-42c3-b6c9-59c145b7765f1033.mspx
This is a Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy issue. Microsoft's recommendation is to try re-registering the Volume Shadow Copy Service. If you are on Win XP Pro, you can simply run the batch file available in C:\Program Files\OBM\bin\RegisterVSS.bat
To backup Oracle 7.3.4 on NetWare 5.1, it is not possible to use the Oracle agent, you need to do the followings:
When you need to restore the database, just restore all datafiles, control files, pfile to its original location and use "imp" (import utility) to put the data back into Oracle database.
For version 5.1 or later, NTFS permission is also backed up during the backup operation. For other versions, please do the followings:
For version 5.1 or later, the backed up NTFS permission will be restored automatically. For other versions, assuming the NTFS Permission is being stored in "C:\NTFS-Permission.txt", please do the followings:
For version 5.1 or later, Linux file permission is also backed up during the backup operation. For other versions, please do the followings:
For version 5.1 or later, the backed up Linux file permission will be restored automatically. For other versions, assuming the Access Control Lists is being stored in "/ACL.txt", please do the followings:
If you want to completely remove Blaze Vault Manager from Windows, after uninstalling the software from [Control Panel] -> [Add or Remove Programs], please do the followings:
It makes no difference to Blaze Vault Manager if the connection is always on or dial-up.
If you want Windows to connect to the ISP automatically when a backup starts, you can go to [Control Panel] -> [Internet Options] -> [Connections] and select “Always dial my default connection”.
Check to see if you can find a hs_err_pid????.log file under the [OBM Home], and if it contains the error "Unable to complete restart processing, err = Recovery Manager: Error from Logging Subsystem", please do the followings:
To recovery a machine from scratch, you have to do the followings:
This means that the backup account has run out of its allocated quota. Please contact your administrator (or backup services provider) to increase your backup quota.
This means that the file is not accessible by Blaze Vault Manager. Please check if the system account that runs OBM has read access permission to the mentioned file.
This error occurs when the backup file uploaded to the server is corrupted. Corrupted backup files would not be stored on the backup server but will be uploaded to the backup server again in the next backup job.
If more than one backup job of the same backup set is being run on more than one computer at the same time, you might get this error. Please check if you have installed the client software (Blaze Vault Manager) with the same backup account on more than one computer.
Also, please check the file C:\Program Files\Blaze Vault Manager\home.txt and see if you have more than one “.obm” record (e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\.obm) in this file that refers to the same backup account on the server. If you can find such entries, simply remove the redundant lines from this file and restart the computer.
Sometimes, this problem could be caused by network instability. If this only happens occasionally, you can safely ignore this error.
There is latency between the backup agent with the list of files to be backed up and the time these files are actually backed up. If any of these files are removed between this latency, an informative message, “C:\xxx\yyy\zzz.txt has been removed already”, will be logged in the backup log report. Under most condition, you don’t need to worry about this since files created and then removed in this situation are usually temporary files. It is used by some other applications and it is not necessary to backup these files.
If you are using Infile-Delta, please make sure “Temporary directory for storing backup files” setting of your Blaze Vault Manager is pointing a writable directory with plenty of disk space.
You get this message when backing up “C:\xxx\yyy\zzz.txt” because another application has held a read-exclusive lock on “C:\xxx\yyy\zzz.txt”. The backup agent, therefore, is unable to open the file to read its content. Please try the followings to resolve this problem:
This means that the file is currently locked by another process (or program). Please shutdown the program locking this file before running the online backup program again. You can also refer to “What do I have to do in order to backup open files” for more information (for file backup set only).
It means that the client software has problem downloading the list of files to be backed up from the backup server. It then retries getting the list again. This is nothing to worry about. Blaze Vault Manager would log this as information rather than warning to avoid raising false alarm.
Please try the followings:
Also, please try increasing the "connectionTimeout" attribute within the "Connector" tag inside [OBS Home]\conf\server.xml to a larger value (e.g. connectionTimeout="180000" or connectionTimeout="600000"). This should help solve the problem.
Please check if you have any antivirus or personal firewall software installed. Kindly disable it from scanning the related data and traffic to see if the problem persists.
The specified Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) port is not allowed. ISA Server is not configured to allow SSL requests from this port. Most Web browsers use port 443 for SSL requests.
Refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283284
You need to change the Recovery model to FULL. If you are using Microsoft SQL Server 7.0/2000, please refer to the following screenshots:
If you are using MSDE, please issue the following commands:
osql -E -S [Server Name] -Q "ALTER DATABASE [Database Name] SET RECOVERY FULL"
These will enable transaction logging option for your MSDE databases and allow incremental/differential backup to be run with no problems.
You need to disable circular logging in MS Exchange. Please uncheck the [Enable circular logging] option as shown below and restart the “Microsoft Exchange Information Store” service after you are done.
This is an error returned by the Microsoft API and is a Microsoft issue. Please try to restart the "Microsoft Exchange Information Store” service. If the problem persists, you may want to schedule the service to restart on a daily basis.
If you have just disabled the MS Exchange circular logging option, please try running a full backup again, this should fix the problem.
This is the MS Exchange having problem in writing to the Temporary spooling directory. Please ensure that the system account running the MS Exchange has full access right to that directory. If it is a network drive, please use an UNC path (e.g. \\server\share), and the “Network Resources Authentication for Windows” is properly set for the corresponding backup set.
If you get this error while you are doing MS SQL or MS Exchange backup, please try to use an UNC path (e.g. //server/share) in "Temporary directory for storing backup files" under [Backup Source Settings]. Please make sure that your OBM is on the same machine as your MS SQL or MS Exchange. Please also ensure that you have included the appropriate “Network Resources Authentication for Windows” information in the backup set.
For MS SQL Server, you may want to check whether if it can spool the database file correctly by running the following command:
(Windows Authentication mode)
osql -E -Q "DECLARE @dbname char(64) SET @dbname = 'xxx' BACKUP DATABASE @dbname TO DISK = '//server/share/abc.txt' WITH SKIP"
OR
(SQL Server Authentication mode)
osql -U USERNAME -P PASSWORD -Q "DECLARE @dbname char(64) SET @dbname = 'xxx' BACKUP DATABASE @dbname TO DISK = '//server/share/abc.txt' WITH SKIP"
Note:
USERNAME/PASSWORD = the database username/password
xxx = the database that you would like to backup
//server/share/abc.txt = the location for the database spooling file
This occurs when the log sequence of MS Exchange was altered by other backup software, e.g. NTBackup. Thus when the Backup Manager next performs a MS Exchange backup, the Exchange log sequence would not match the one that it is expecting. With the broken sequence, the Exchange server cannot be restored to its latest state.
To resolve this problem, you need to deactivate all other backup software that is operating on MS Exchange, and then you need to perform a Full MS Exchange database backup manually via the Backup Manager.
Alternatively, instead of backing up transaction logs during the weekdays, you can consider doing Full Exchange Database backup on a daily basis with the In-File Delta option enabled. This should avoid interference from other backup software while keeping the amount of upload data to minimal.
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For MS Exchange backup, *.stm and *.edb are backed up in pairs, if this error occurs, it implies that during a previous backup, there was a problem with either the *.stm or *.edb file. If this happens, please perform a Full MS Exchange backup manually via the Backup Manger to resolve this problem.
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This suggests that the .stm file on server may have been corrupted or found missing. To resolve this error, please perform a Full MS Exchange backup manually via Blaze Vault Manager.
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This is caused by a missing library in Fedora Core 6. To resolve this, just open a terminal window. From here type in the command 'yum install libXp' (please note that the command is case sensitive), this will ask you if it is ok to download the package. Just type 'Y' and the libXp library will be installed. Once installed, just run the command
"sh $OBM_HOME/bin/RunBackupManager.sh"
You should find that the Blaze Vault Manager will open up and you should be able to create the backup set via the GUI interface.
When running the 'yun install' command, you may see the following error:
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Existing lock /var/run/yum.pid: another copy is running. Aborting.
This is because the background YUM updater service is running. To stop it, run:
/etc/init.d/yum-updatesd stop
Once the process has been stop, you should be able to run the command 'yum install libXp' without any problems.
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