E Storage Backup Secure Backup Data Solutions

Questions

  1. Can you briefly explain the idea of how the Online Backup Software works?
  2. The Windows version of OBM installer hangs, what could be the problem?
  3. Are there any command line tools for OBM?
  4. How does OBM detect changes in files? Does it use the Archive bit? Some tape backup software resets the Archive bit. Would this affect OBM when backing up the same data?
  5. Does OBM copy the same set of files regularly?
  6. Transfer Block Size is 128Kb by default. Is there a reason for this?
  7. How can I backup a huge data set over the Internet?
  8. Does In-File Delta backup require a temporary working directory?
  9. What is the average compression ratio?
  10. Can I change my encrypting key?
  11. If the "Use Login Password as Encrypting Key" option was selected when creating the backup set. Why I cannot restore the backup data with my most current login password?
  12. What kind of encryption used by OBM?
  13. When select the backup option "local hard drive" to backup to external hard drive, it fails in the middle of the process, why?
  14. Scheduled backup jobs are not running on my Windows machine, why?
  15. I am having problems with my scheduled backup, why?
  16. I cannot get proxy authentication to work with OBM, why?
  17. Can I backup an entire Operating System?
  18. When setting up a Microsoft SQL Backup Set, I cannot list the available SQL servers, what can I do?
  19. Why are the Microsoft SQL Server databases missing from the backup source list?
  20. How to set the recovery model of a MS SQL database to FULL?
  21. Windows network map drive connections are not stable, why?
  22. What are the advantages and disadvantages of backing up multiple computers using a single backup account?
  23. Does the OBM upgrade the installation of Java on a client machine, or does it install a separate copy for its own use?
  24. Is it possible to do incremental or differential backups with MySQL?
  25. How does the "Remove retention files for overlap policy" under Advanced Retention Policy work?
  26. What is incremental backup and how does In-File Delta work?
  27. How does the "Auto" block size work under In-file Delta settings?
  28. What happens when we do In-File Delta backup on a directory?
  29. Does OBM have to stop the application when doing online backups?
  30. What are Off-line backup, Logout backup reminder and Local backup features?
  31. Why is my OBM running backup once every hour?
  32. How do I disable "logout backup reminder"?
  33. What do I have to do in order to backup open files?
  34. In Windows, when OBM is creating Shadow Copy Set, it gets the "[ERROR] E_UNEXPECTED" error, what can I do?
  35. How do I remove OBM completely from my Windows machine?
  36. Does OBM work with dial-up connections?
  37. How do I restore a machine from my SystemState backup?
  38. "Checksum incorrect" / "Uploaded file size incorrect"
  39. "Access is denied"
  40. "File 'obm-delta.tmp' does not exist on server" / "File 'obm-chksum.tmp' does not exist on server"
  41. "The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file"
  42. "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process"
  43. " [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]The statement BACKUP LOG is not allowed while the recovery model is SIMPLE"


Answers

Can you briefly explain the idea of how the Online Backup Software works?

 The Online Backup Suite consists of 3 main modules:
  1. The client software – Online Backup Manager (OBM)
  2. The server software – Offsite Backup Server (OBS)
  3. The replication server – Replication Server (RPS)
OBM 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, OBM can backup a list of applications such as MS Exchange, MS SQL, Oracle, MySQL, Lotus Domino, and much more. OBM supports Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Linux, Mac OS X, etc.

OBS is a server application which store backup data from multiple OBMs 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. OBS supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS platforms.

RPS is another server application running on a separate machine, it provides close to real-time backup for multiple OBSs. So even if one of the OBS failed, the RPS still has a copy of the backup data.

The relationships of the Online Backup Suite are depicted in the diagram below.





The Windows version of OBM installer hangs, what could be the problem?

 There are few things that could create errors during or after executing the installer.
  1. Make sure there is enough disk space on the machine.
  2. Make sure you do not have any anti virus software or PCanywhere running, as this may create problems with InstallAnywhere installers.
  3. There are also problems with InstallAnywhere installers and Dell OpenManager. If OpenManager has installed on the target system, be sure to disable it before installing OBM.
  4. Hardware could cause errors as well, try set your [hardware acceleration display setting] to off. There are problems with certain versions of Java running along with certain video cards.
  5. This may only be a Java problem.
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
  1. The following will pass properties to the installer's Virtual Machine: In Advanced Designer – Project -> Config -> Additional Arguments set that to "-Dsun.java2d.d3d=false -Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true" without the quotes.
  2. Set the following lax property in your LaunchAnywhere for your application's JVM: lax.nl.java.option.additional=-Dsun.java2d.d3d=false -Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true
Add the same line to the uninstaller lax file, using a modify file action in your installer in post-install.



Are there any command line tools for OBM?

 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.



How does OBM detect changes in files? Does it use the Archive bit? Some tape backup software resets the Archive bit. Would this affect OBM when backing up the same data?

 OBM 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 OBM.



Does OBM copy the same set of files regularly?

 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.



Transfer Block Size is 128Kb by default. Is there a reason for this?

 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.



How can I backup a huge data set over the Internet?

 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:
  1. Use the Seed Loading Utility to backup your backup set to a local hard disk (instead of directly transfer to the backup server)
  2. Send the backup data, using a removable hard disk, to your backup service provider.
  3. The administrator can then load all your backup files from your removable hard disk into your backup account. This could save you days (even weeks) of performing your first full backup.
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".



Does In-File Delta backup require a temporary working directory?

OBM 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.



What is the average compression ratio?

 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.



Can I change my encrypting key?

 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.



If the "Use Login Password as Encrypting Key" option was selected when creating the backup set. Why I cannot restore the backup data with my most current login password?

 By selecting the "User Login Password as Encrypting Key" option when creating a backup set, OBM 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.



What kind of encryption used by OBM?

 There are two encryptions being performed by OBM:
  1. Encryption of backup data - This is being done by 128-bit symmetric key encryption (AES, TripleDES, TwoFish). 256-bit is not available because it requires too much CPU and it is not really required. (128-bit is currently being used by most banks)
  2. Encryption of backup traffic - This is being done by 1024 bit RSA public key encryption. The strength of the encryption depends on the key size you use when you generate your CSR before submitting to your CA. 1024 bit is what is being used by most CAs.




When select the backup option "local hard drive" to backup to external hard drive, it fails in the middle of the process, why?

 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.



Scheduled backup jobs are not running on my Windows machine, why?

 Please try the followings:
  1. Check if [Control Panel] -> [Administrative Tools] -> [Services] -> [Online Backup Scheduler] is available and started
  2. Check if C:\Program Files\OBM\home.txt contains the home directory for your backup account (e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\.obm)
  3. Check if C:\Program Files\OBM\jvm\bin\SchedulerOBM.exe exists
  4. Check if C:\Program "Files\OBM\log\Scheduler\info.log contains the startup loading entry, e.g.
    1. [2005/12/12 12:42:44] OS Name=Windows XP
    2. [2005/12/12 12:42:44] OS Version=5.1
    3. [2005/12/12 12:42:44] Scheduler Version=5.0.1.3e
    4. [2005/12/12 12:42:44] Java Vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc. Version=1.4.2_10
    5. [2005/12/12 12:42:44] [info] Starting Scheduler, User:'backup-account', Home:'C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\.obm'
  5. Check if C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\.obm\log\Scheduler\debug.log contains the debugging information for your scheduler

If your system settings is not the same as the above steps, please download a new installer (obm-win.exe) from our website or the customization portal and try again.



I am having problems with my scheduled backup, why?

 If you are backing up files from a network drive, please check if you have included the valid "Network Resources Authentication" information for the backup set. This is required for scheduled backups that access any network resources.



I cannot get proxy authentication to work with OBM, why?

 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.



Can I backup an entire Operating System?

 Currently, it is not possible to do hard disk image backup with OBM. However, you can still backup/restore the operating system by doing the followings:

To backup all files including the operating system, please do this:
  1. Add all files to your backup source
  2. Add a SystemState backup type to your backup account (Windows only)
To restore all files including the operating system, please do this:
  1. Re-install the operating system and applications
  2. Restore the SystemState backup to your machine (Windows only) - To restore the System State data on a domain controller, you must first start your computer in a special startup option called "Directory Services Restore Mode". To access "Directory Services Restore Mode", press F8 during startup and select it from the list of startup options.
  3. Restore all files to your machine




When setting up a Microsoft SQL Backup Set, I cannot list the available SQL servers, what can I do?

 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.



Why are the Microsoft SQL Server databases missing from the backup source list?

 If you have firewall installed on your network, please make sure UDP port 1434 is allowed on the SQL Server.



How to set the recovery model of a MS SQL database to FULL?

 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



Windows network map drive connections are not stable, why?

 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 protocal 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:
--------------------------
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:\
--------------------------
  • mapdrv = your NAS device network name
  • 192.168.1.15 = mapdrv
    • 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



    What are the advantages and disadvantages of backing up multiple computers using a single backup account?

    Advantages
    Disadvantages




    Does the OBM upgrade the installation of Java on a client machine, or does it install a separate copy for its own use?

    OBM uses its own copy of Java and leaves the system Java VM intact.



    Is it possible to do incremental or differential backups with MySQL?

     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.



    How does the "Remove retention files for overlap policy" under Advanced Retention Policy work?

     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.



    What is incremental backup and how does In-File Delta work?

     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, OBM 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.



    How does the "Auto" block size work under In-file Delta settings?

     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




    What happens when we do In-File Delta backup on a directory?

     When you do backup, the Online Backup software will do the followings:




    Does OBM have to stop the application when doing online backups?

     OBM 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 OBM v5.0, we are able to backup other types of applications while they are online.



    What are Off-line backup, Logout backup reminder and Local backup features?

     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.



    Why is my OBM running backup once every hour?

     You might have "Off-line backup" enabled for every hour. Please do the following to disable that:
    1. Logon to OBM
    2. Select the backup set that you want to disable the Off-line backup from the left panel
    3. Select the [Extra Backup] node under the backup set node on the left panel
    4. Uncheck the [Enable off-line backup] checkbox under the "Off-line Backup" section
    5. If you want to do this to all backup sets, please repeat the previous step for each backup set
    Press the [Save Setting] button from the toolbar



    How do I disable "logout backup reminder"?

     To disable the "System Logout Backup Reminder", please do the followings:
    1. Logon to OBM
    2. Select the backup set that you want to disable the Logout reminder from the left panel
    3. Select the [Extra Backup] node under the backup set node on the left panel
    4. Uncheck the [Enable System Logout Backup Reminder] checkbox under the "System Logout Backup Reminder (Windows)" section
    5. If you want to do this to all backup sets, please repeat the previous step for each backup set
    Press the [Save Setting] button from the toolbar



    What do I have to do in order to backup open files?

     You need to be on OBM 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.



    *Open file option is not required on Linux/Unix/Mac OS X because no files are held exclusively open by applications.

    In Windows, when OBM is creating Shadow Copy Set, it gets the "[ERROR] E_UNEXPECTED" error, what can I do?

     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



    How do I remove OBM completely from my Windows machine?

     If you want to completely remove OBM from Windows, after uninstalling the software from [Control Panel] -> [Add or Remove Programs], please do the followings:




    Does OBM work with dial-up connections?

     It makes no difference to OBM 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".



    How do I restore a machine from my SystemState backup?

     To recovery a machine from scratch, you have to do the followings:
    1. Re-install the operating system
    2. Re-install all applications installed (You can do both of these easily by backing up the system yearly using Norton Ghost)
    3. Restore the SystemState backup onto the recovered machine (This will update the recovered system with the latest configuration and settings)
    4. Restore all data files onto the recovered system.




    "Checksum incorrect" / "Uploaded file size incorrect"

     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 (OBM) with the same backup account on more than one computer.

    Also, please check the file C:\Program Files\OBM\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.



    "Access is denied"

    This means that the file is not accessible by OBM. Please check if the system account that runs OBM has read access permission to the mentioned file.



    "File 'obm-delta.tmp' does not exist on server" / "File 'obm-chksum.tmp' does not exist on server"

     For OBM v5.0.1.4 or before, please:
    1. Upgrade your OBM to a newer version.
    2. Delete the obm-delta.tmp or/and obm-chksum.tmp files from your "temporary backup directory", (e.g. C:\Backup\MSExchange\1137065709669).


    For later versions of OBM, you can simply do step 2 to remove the problematic files which were left behind during the backup operations of previous versions.



    "The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file"

    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:




    "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process"

     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.



    " [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]The statement BACKUP LOG is not allowed while the recovery model is SIMPLE"

     You need to change the Recovery model to FULL.
    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.