Veritas NetBackup Professional 3

NetBackup Professional (NBP) is an industrial strength, heavy duty backup application (previously TeleBackup). It is definitely not your every day backup program for a single desktop - but it contains features that should excite any Windows NT Network Administrator.

It enables fully automatic yet flexible backing up of all workstations on your network and they can be local, or remote dial-in machines (RAS or VPN). NBP can be used on both domains and peer-to-peer networks. My four machine network was perfect for an introductory look at the product; but obviously not for a performance test.

STOP PRESS:
As this issue goes to print we are advised by Veritas the version reviewed is now superseded.
Some of the equipment requirements have changed. Requirements for the latest version are listed in Figure 3 and references have been added where appropriate throughout this review.

The three main product components are the Admin Console, the Backup Server and the Client Computer(s)

1. Administration Console

This is used to manage the backup system. It can be located on an NT4 or Win 2000 Workstation or Server. From here (Figure 1), you control all backup operations although some admin duties can be assigned to more experienced "clients". You manage the backup server, the creation of clients and their backup profiles, backup times, server operations and reports. The administrator decides who is backed up, what data and when. Client computer users can interactively start their own backups.

Figure 1. Administration Console on the Server showing some Backup Server history

Figure 2. NT Services on STATION3, the only evidence
the Backup Server is running

The Administration console can run on any Windows NT or Windows 2000 Workstation or Server (including the server running the VERITAS NBU Pro backup Server software.)
The VERITAS NBU Pro Backup Server must run on an NT4 or Windows Server with NTFS. It cannot be run on Workstation versions of NT4 or Windows 2000.
The NBU Pro Client can run on any Windows client version (NT4 Workstation, NT2000 Workstation, W98 etc) but not on any SERVER versions of the above. This is due to the fact that it is a client backup product.

Figure 3. Equipment requirements for the latest
version of NetBackup Professional

Figure 4. Some of the reports available through
Administration Console

With the version reviewed this could be located on an NT4 or Windows 2000 Workstation or Server but that has now changed and must be a server. (Figure 3). There is no keyboard work at this machine. ie. you see nothing happening on the screen, and the only available evidence that NBP is running (as a Backup Server), is from your "services" window. It runs in the background as an NT service (Figure 2).

3. Client Computer(s)

Used to perform administrative tasks on one NBP backup server at a time, through an Admin Web Console.

Main Features

Back Up To Disk

NBP uses disk based storage which is much faster and more convenient than tape. Some would say more reliable, too. The cost of hard drive storage is so low these days that soon everyone will back up to hard disk and daily tape backups will be a thing of the past. This assumes CD-ROMs and DVDs won't be available as substitutes.

One Copy of Each File

One must bear in mind that backing up the essential files from potentially hundreds of machines, these days, would require a huge among of space. NBP overcomes some of that problem by using a single instance storage system where users "share" the one copy of identical files. The file catalog on the Backup Server stores a record of who needs a copy of each file.

Stores Only The Differences

NBP employs "Delta" file handling - where only the differences between the original and a new version of a file are stored. You can store many versions of files (default 3) enabling "point in time" restoration. Restore my machine as it was last Monday at 3.00 pm. Magic!

Client Can Operate Independently

It enables user initiated restore operations - where no help is needed from a network administrator. This should make any administrator sit up and take notice. How many times have you been called upon to do an urgent restore of the MD's machine when Production has been waiting impatiently for several hours while you go through the tedious task of establishing just what went wrong and how to fix their problem?

Compression

Over-the-wire compression is used to save network bandwidth. A benefit when you schedule backups to occur during normal working hours.

Encryption

Over-the-wire encryption is available between the backup server and the client machine to protect sensitive data. It is turned off by default.

NT Security

NetBackup Professional provides NTFS Alternate Stream support where files are restored together with their original security information. When a file is manually restored or copied from tape or floppy under Windows NT it automatically inherits the security of the directory into which it is copied. NBP actually saves the Windows NT alternate data stream with the files and restores your NT files with security intact.

Scheduled Backups

You can schedule backups or do them manually, or use a combination of these. Scheduled backups can be as frequent as hourly. The client is advised when a backup is taking place and alerted if there is, or has been, a problem with a scheduled backup.

Reports

NBP has a myriad of built-in reports, many of them appear extremely handy. See Figure 4 for some of the reports available to the administrator and Figure 17 for a Server Usage Report. Clients can also access full details of their recent backups.

Disaster Recovery

In the event of loss or damage to a desktop or laptop this package supposedly enables "bare metal" recovery of the operating system, the applications and the data. Data can be recovered by the administrator or by the original owners, but that "feature" wasn't available with this review copy and I couldn't test it.

Licensing

NetBackup Professional is available in four licensing levels. The first two are clearly evaluation versions and the last two, are full working versions.

There is no license that allows more than one Backup Server. In effect this means you must purchase another full copy of the software if your needs extend past the first Backup Server. So, even though the Admin Console might "appear" to be the main part of the software package (Figure 1), you are in fact buying the Backup Server. The Administration Console can administer more than one Backup Server.

The Review Network

On a large network you will need two Windows NT Servers. One for the Administration Console and one to host the Backup Server. The Administration Console can be on the same machine as the Backup Server but since the Backup Server will have a potentially large number of clients, and in a normal operating environment could be expected to be running almost flat out all day long, this would be unlikely to comfortably host the Administration Console. On small to medium networks you would probably get away with it.

In the version reviewed the Backup Server could be installed on an NT Workstation but this raises the issue of licensing. On a larger network where the Backup Server catered for (say) 500 or 1000 clients, the Microsoft licensing limit of 10 connections to the NT Workstation would be far exceeded.
For this review I put the Backup Server on my NT4 Workstation and it worked fine - on this little network such licensing issues don't arise.

The How and Why

Traditionally network administrators attach a tape drive to the server and every night the entire server (or designated portions) is copied to tape. In the event of a server crash one must reinstall the server software, restore all the Registry and other user/setup information plus the entire data content of the server from the last good tape. The management of this task alone is fraught with danger because one must know exactly what part of the system to restore.

Irrespective of that, the desktop and laptop workstations are often ignored and any data on an individual machine, that needs backing up, must be either copied to the server before that person shuts down his/her machine and goes home, or handled by an independent backup program or process on that workstation, controlled by the individual operator. Version control becomes an issue there too, where the individual operator needs specific knowledge of a file date and time and it requires manual intervention. NBP solves all that, does it quite cleverly and can do it during normal working hours.

Figure 5. Creating the client installation package, from the Administration Console

Figure 6. Setting up on the Win98 "client" machine (via the network share)

Figure 7. An offer to do the first backup appears at the end of the installation procedure

The opening screen said sound was needed. I don't have sound on my server and put the CD-ROM into another machine to listen. The opening video was just another "this is why you need NBP" sales blurb, and I'm sure I wouldn't have missed anything vital as the installation progressed on the noiseless server.

Nobbled?

The install screen showed that it wouldn't install the Disaster Recovery programs and initially I suspected this was because I hadn't remembered to swap the CD-Writer from the Desktop machine to the Network Server before commencing installation. I backed out and did that, tested the Writer on the NT4 Server to ensure it created a CD, then restarted the installation process.
I had read the manual again too, before finally moving the CD-Writer - to save the extra work if it could be avoided - but the same thing happened again. Disaster Recovery was not about to be installed. Veritas has since confirmed that in some copies this feature is deliberately deactivated. Strange way to impress a reviewer!

Figure 8. Assigning a profile to Desktop via the
Administration Console

Figure 9. On Desktop - waiting for the first automatic
backup to commence

Figure 10. Backup started on time but wanted to dial out
first - this is configurable

Figure 11. Meanwhile the Admin Console is shows
"backup is running" on Desktop

When started for the first time the Administration Console recognised there was no Backup Server and prompted to create one immediately. As planned I created that on the NT4 Workstation. The Backup Server can be installed directly onto that machine from the CD-ROM but I created it over the network from the Administration Console as recommended. I elected to put the Backup Server catalog on drive C: where there was plenty of space available and the backed up files on E: which had almost 40 GB free for backups.

Installing Clients

Client installations are done manually from the client machine, using a network share (Figure 6), or can be done using a script. I didn't test the script method but it would be handy if you were installing hundreds of clients.
The default client profile provides, that as soon as you install a client, NBP offers to do the first backup (Figure 7). You can also configure the profiles so that NBP will prompt for dial-up upon start up and upon loss of dial-up connection etc. It can also be configured to prompt the client operator to start a backup on machine shutdown or when a scheduled shutdown would occur within a given time.

Small Problems

When I was creating the client installation package from the Administration Console, NBP failed to create the share name on the NT4 Server and I had to do that manually. At one stage the Backup Server's history disappeared - possibly after a reboot of the Backup Server - and I couldn't get it back - although it magically reappeared later. At one stage the Administration Console didn't want to start. I checked with NT Task Manager and the process wasn't running; rebooted the server and all was well.

Figure 12. Backup History displayed on Desktop after completion

Figure 13. The "details" button on history screen shows an incredible amount of detail, even when "summary reports"
are chosen

Figure 14. Backup logs available from admin console can be exported to text file

Before a client machine is backed up the administrator assigns the designated profile to that client (Figure 8), otherwise the default profile is used.

I noticed that backup operations on my Win98 client machine had a tendency to occupy all of the available system resources. The initial backup of the Win98 Desktop took just over three hours, when 44,000 files were copied across the network and catalogued. This must be considered when bringing online a large number of workstations from across a substantial network. However, the single instance file storage system would come into play and as machines that shared similar operating systems came onto the system, the first backup time for each would no doubt decrease. Subsequent backups of Desktop have taken every bit of three to five minutes with just a few changed files updated.

There was a bit of a conflict when I added a client installation onto the Backup Server. Whereas NBP would not allow me to install the client software on the network server (the Administration Console host, and the book says they "recommend" you use other software), it did allow me to install the client software on the Backup Server (in the latest version installing a client on the Backup Server would be impossible). The client service on the Backup Server required a manual start although perhaps it would have sorted itself out and started automatically after a reboot.

Clearly this product is designed for a situation where both the NT machine that hosts the Administration Console, and the (now NT Server) machine that hosts the Backup Server, will be backup up entirely independently, perhaps to tape? There is a feature that does automatic backups of the Backup Server catalog (Figure 16) but this appears to be more of a fault tolerance provision than a disaster recovery option because it simply copies the catalog files to a separate, local subdirectory.

Figure 9 shows the client on Desktop (at 2.59 am) waiting to be backed up automatically at 3.00 am. Figure 10 shows the backup has commenced. At the same time, the Administration Console shows this client is being backed up (Figure 11), and of course there is nothing to be seen on the Backup Server screen except the ever increasing number of files in the directory for this particular client. Figure 12 shows the client history window after a first backup and Figure 13 shows the impressive amount of detail available from the details button on that window. It listed thousands of files and the action taken.

Figure 15. Viewing (from console) a list of Desktop files that have been backed up

Figure 17. Server Usage Report on the Administration Console

Figure 16. Setting the Backup Server catalog to
automatic backup. This can be done only from the Administration Console

The optional Web Server component requires IIS4 (Internet Information Server). I installed the Web Server for this review but ran out of time and didn't have the opportunity to test it. Fortunately I installed the Web Server after most of the review was completed and it appears to have corrupted the backup catalog. Having gone through a second install earlier when I changed the name of my Backup Server, and NBP's "review copy" and/or server limitations came into play, I was less than enthusiastic about a third install process. However, the Administration Console has a feature called "catalog repair". I tried that and it did the trick. My only possible conclusion, the catalog must have been corrupted by the Web Server installation.

Clearly the review copy is nobbled and I couldn't give it the ultimate test. I had planned to test NBP's full disaster recovery in a simulated worst case scenario. In my plan I would literally remove the main drive from a machine, replace it with the newly purchased "bare metal" drive of the same size, same manufacturer and then restore that machine from the recovery data set. When reading the manual I concluded it should take little time and effort and would prove this product to be worth the weight of all the hard disks in gold. That couldn't be done, so this product misses out on the ultimate accolade. Despite that, its features are good and if you run a network of any size you'd be well advised to check it out.

Summary

A powerful and easy to maintain backup system, stacked with features. Once this is properly set up and running on your network you really will be able to go to lunch occasionally.

Price and Availability

Price starts at $825 (excl. GST) for a single Veritas NetBackup Professional Server supporting five clients. Other configurations are available in increments of 25,100, 500 and 1,000 clients. Veritas Software Ph: (02) 8220 7000, Fax (02) 9251 2273, or http://www.veritas.com/au.
Review copy supplied by Veritas Software.

Reprinted from the March 2001 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia