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OTM Optional Software Module for TIBS

Teradactyl^® is an authorized CDP OEM. Open Transaction Manager is licensed, sold, and supported by Teradactyl only in conjunction with the purchase of the True incremental Backup System (TiBS). OTM is available as an optional software module for all versions of TiBS. The OTM module is licensed per TiBS backup server with no per seat charges. Additional Teradactyl Pricing Information...

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BACKUP PROBLEMS IN THE DATA CENTER

Conventional open-file agents or managers face significant problems in the data center. Here are a few:

The Timestamp Problem (Relational Integrity)

Most of today's applications have multiple associated files that are all updated together. When a backup is done while running an application, the backup copies file 'A' to tape. Now an application subsequently updates file 'A' and another associated file 'B' that must match each other for the data set to load. The backup now backs up file 'B' to tape, which no longer matches file 'A' on the tape. Everything looks good to the administrator, until restore is necessary. Convinced that the file restore must have gone awry, he tries again and again, but it just won't run the data after 'restoring'.

Disappearing Backup Window Problem

Most of today's most critical applications such as email, web-servers and transaction-servers, can no longer be shut down for backup and are running 24x7. This makes backup integrity a virtual impossibility when utilizing open file agents or managers.

Configuration Induced Loss

When using open file agents or managers, the only way to overcome this limitation is for the administrator to learn each applications' file structures and directories, then configure groups of all the associated files together in the open file agent or manager, and finally test to make sure that no files were missed in the grouping. Since many applications write these files in multiple directories, the chance for error is high.

Improved System/Backup Performance

Since open file agents and managers must operate at the file level, they can seriously degrade the server's performance by consuming huge amounts of CPU and I/O bandwidth. OTM can be operational without seriously impacting system performance as it acts at the disk sector level, bypassing the operating system, and thus CPU overhead. Open file agents and managers consume vast system resources like most backup software--users and vital processes are left out and can't run at the same time as the backup in this virtual 'musical chair' performance game.

The 'Daily' Upgrade

Dedicated open file managers and open-database agents must have intimate knowledge of the underlying database to work correctly. So anytime the database vendor makes a change; the open file agents vendor must make a corresponding change. So the customer must always be playing catch-up, installing new software and then going through extensive testing to insure that it is working and configured properly. Some open file agent vendors are now grouping all files together, which improves the odds of a good backup. Unfortunately, if server activity is high during the first 60 seconds, all the grouping goes away, and so does your data set relational integrity.

Hidden Data Loss

As more and more hidden structures in the operating system are suddenly 'discovered', file-based open file agents and managers must constantly change to accommodate these new objects--and they may not be allowed by the underlying OS to properly protect them.

Open Transaction Manager^™

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Columbia Data Products’ Open Transaction Manager (OTM) facilitates backing up active networks providing comprehensive data protection of open files and applications with standard network backup routines. You get complete, non-disruptive protection of all data including today’s most critical applications such as email, web servers, database volumes and transaction servers. OTM used with the True incremental Backup System delivers data protection, ensuring relational integrity vital to the protection of your data with negligible impact on system and network performance. In other words, it eliminates the backup window.

Open Transaction Manager is an enabling technology that presents a stable, coherent, point in time snapshot alternative view of a volumes or physical drive to the True incremental Backup System without impacting system performance. OTM permits a user to back up a server or workstation with all files and databases open and active. Popular databases like Oracle and Lotus Notes, SQL servers, and Email servers can be in use and running.

The technology creates an alternate "virtual drive" or static copy of the drive to be backed up. Software looks for a short period of inactivity, five seconds or so, where no writes are occurring to the volume or drive that has been selected for backup. Once this "quiescent period" is obtained, OTM maps in a virtual drive letter for the volume selected for backup. TiBS can now access this static virtual volume instead of the original volume, which is changing during the backup.

When a write occurs on the original volume, OTM pauses it and copies the old corresponding data to its cache file and immediately sends the original write data to the hard drive. This keeps the hard drive real time current and safe at all times during the backup. Read requests from all applications except the backup are passed directly to the hard drive with no intervention. Read requests from the backup package are passed to the OTM filter driver that determines if the data is already in cache.

If that data is in cache, OTM passes the cached data to the backup package. If not, the data is passed directly from the hard drive. Since OTM only needs to preserve the original data, additional writes to the same sector are not cached and passed directly to the hard drive.

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OTM Features and Benefits

Assures backup and restore integrity with critical applications such as email, web-servers and transaction servers without needing to shut down the applications

Time stamps all files concurrently, to precisely match those from when the backup commenced.

Eases system performance, as it acts at the disk sector level, bypassing the operating system, and CPU overhead.

Improved backup performance – consumes less than 4% of the CPU utilization, enabling users and vital processes to run while a backup is performing.

Protects all hidden structures that reside on the drives, such as FATs, Directories, NDS, registries, partition tables, NDP's, sparse files, deleted un-purged files, or even hidden application copy-protected raw sector writes.

Solves configuration induced loss issues – all files and even hidden system transactions are automatically grouped together across the entire server, so there is no chance of data relational integrity loss due to improper configuration.

Windows Operating Environments: Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 7. TiBS OTM module operates on both x86, x64, and AMD64 platforms.

Now ported to 64 Bit Platforms!

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I/O Performance Supports The True incremental Backup System^® Function

Since OTM sees all I/Os, OTM pauses the backup I/Os if there are outstanding user I/Os. Since the system will time slice, no one will ever have to wait for their data. When the system is at 100% I/O utilization, then the backup will wait, not the user. Because the I/Os from the backup are being paused in a 100% I/O saturation situation, TiBS itself will not be issuing more file requests to the OS until the current requests are fulfilled. If the backup file requests were to continue, the OS itself could quickly overburden the CPU, the network cable, and the storage subsystem. By preventing more backup file I/O requests, the OS, CPU and the Ethernet are free to service all user requests and the backup resumes only after the user requests are satisfied.

OTM works at the block level, and not the file level, all of its work is done within OTM and not the OS and the file system. This improves performance in read/write operations. Since write operations are typically less than 10% of reads, OTM's I/Os are generally invisible to the user or the backup.

For reads from user's volumes, the read request is passed directly to the hard drive with no delay or system impact. For reads from TiBS's alternate "virtual" volume, these blocks reads are passed through to the hard drive if the data has not changed since backup commencement. For block reads from the virtual volume that have changed, OTM will read only those blocks from the hard drive's cache file, resulting in slightly slower file access to the backup.

For writes, either from the user or TiBS, the old data is first copied to the cache file before the write is passed to the hard drive. OTM speeds up this operation by utilizing the "lazy write" feature of the OS to write to the cache file. Additional performance can be achieved by placing OTM's cache file on a separate system. All subsequent writes to the same sectors will not be cached, but would be immediately written to the hard drive. Once volumes have completed their backups, OTM can be told to release them, thus allowing all subsequent reads and writes to be immediately passed to the hard drives without OTM.