Backup Exec

Backup Exec was the first backup program to support Windows NT and as such, it has been our primary backup solution since its release around 1993/94.

We make extensive use of some of the more advanced features such as media groups, retention policies and vaults. We have a number of scripts/batch files which communicate with Backup Exec through its command line interface. These make some aspects of Backup Exec easier/quicker to manage for the power user.

All Exmos' customers' Backup Exec systems report job outcomes/issues by e-mail. These messages are received into a custom e-mail system which then processes these messages and stores them in an SQL Server database. These results are then summarised into a single e-mail message which is delivered to the systems team first thing each morning. Instead of wading through a deluge of email messages, the team is presented with a single, concise overview and detail of how the prior night's backup jobs performed across all our customer sites.

Exmos Backup Exec Tape Manager

This is an Exmos developed web based application which provides the person managing the backup tapes with a single screen view of their media.

This view gives them a preferred usage order for the tapes, along with tape statistics such as total capacity backed up, number of times loaded plus hard/soft error counts. Tapes with errors are clearly highlighted.

It also interfaces with the tape location mechanism, giving the person a clear indication as to whether the tape is in the drive, autoloader or media vault.

The customers running this application regularly comment on how much easier it is compared to loading the full Backup Exec console and trying to figure out which tapes to use.

Tape Autoloaders

For a robust backup system, which can run mostly unattended and be managed easily over a remote connection, a tape autoloader still has a place in the medium to large networks.

Properly configuring and managing these devices and ensuring they work in harmony with the backup software requires some skills over and above managing just a single tape drive.

Exmos has ten years experience in selecting and implementing autoloader based backup systems, as well as integrating them with two stage backup-2-disk scenarios.