[itdiscuss] [BULK] Re: New Backup Software

Thu Apr 29 21:11:03 EDT 2010

Our clients have both that used Ahsay and now use Vembu.

The biggest challenge with trying to send something as large as Exchange is
getting new seeded data.  We can't allow at this point a client to backup
Exchange or SQL DB's that are over 20gb in size.  Even though you are
backing up log files as your 'Incremental' daily backups there will reach a
point when the backup will need to get another full backup.  This would take
too long over the Internet to complete.

In that case we are deploying a local Vembu backup server just for Exchange
and backing it up to a QNAP Raid1 iscsi device and then the client just does
a local restore as often as they like to a usb drive and takes it offsite.

There is talk on Ahsay's and Vembu's forums as well as other Online backup
companies forums about 'Synthetic Fulls'.  One or two of the biggest
companies like e-vault claim to have it but the jury is still out on how
well it will work over time. Synthetic Fulls are an initial seed backup and
then each day the incremental data is merged in with the full to create an
always ready Full backup instead of having to rebuild the data from the seed
and then roll in each incremental since the seed.  It sounds wonderful but
the backend server hardware and software would be pretty great when dealing
with a 100gb Exchange store and merging in 1gb of changed data daily.
Evault is a very expensive solution and they do not re-brand it so for us it
was just not an option.

YBIC,
Jason

  _____  

From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org]
On Behalf Of blloyd at buskercom.com
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 7:58 AM
To: discuss at itdiscuss.org
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] [BULK] Re: New Backup Software

Jason,

Do you have Exchange 2007 or 2003?

Bill Lloyd 
IT Manager

2567 Athens Hwy.
Gainesville, GA 30507
Phone: 770-417-1604 Ext.: 250
Fax:     770-417-1747
Cell:     404-379-6963

blloyd at buskercom.com

This email and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential and
proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are
requested to delete this entire communication immediately. Emails cannot be
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accept any liability or responsibility for any problems that may result from
emails you receive.

From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org]
On Behalf Of Jason Hand
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 8:48 PM
To: 'IT Discussion Forum'
Subject: Re: [itdiscuss] [BULK] Re: New Backup Software

Mike is correct.  We used it with many clients of differing needs and
although all online backup software have troubles of some sort the Ahsay's
products biggest downfall is the support.  They are 12 hours difference from
EST and so getting help for me meant waiting 12-24 hours for each e-mail
round.  I once had to call at 10pm and demand to speak to someone high up in
the chain and was able to get the VP of service on the phone and get the
response I had been needing for 5 days on a critical issue.

The product is written in Java and I ran into many limitations and issues
related to it over the 2+ years using it.  At times, it would just stop
backing up and there would be no errors or indications of why. The Java was
very slow and if you look at the Ahsay forums you'll see tons of complaints
of speed both in the seeding process and the normal over-the-air backups.
Java has memory issues and leaking problems and at times the Javaw.exe
process would just stop functioning and I would have to restart the service
and clear all of the 'working' folder data in order to get a backup set
going again.

I would not advise using this product.

We moved to Vembu Storegrid (www.vembu.com) and it is a far better product
with support that is vastly superior.  It is written in C+ and uses a MySQL
backend on the storage server for the backup information.  The seeding is 2
to 3 times faster and the backups over-the-air are much faster because the
local encryption and compression process on the client is much faster.

I would be glad to share more if you would like more information.

YBIC,

Jason

  _____  

From: discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at itdiscuss.org]
On Behalf Of Mike Walter
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 9:31 AM
To: IT Discussion Forum
Subject: [itdiscuss] [BULK] Re: New Backup Software

I am very familiar with it as we used it at my old company (Xcentric) for
many years (3 years?).  We re-branded it and sold it to our clients.  Jason
Hand could speak quantities about it and in detail because he was the main
guy in charge of it.   

The short list:

*	File Backups - seemed to work great for the most part.    

*	Exchange backup - questionable depending upon the size of your
exchange store and/or your mailboxes.  Remember challenges with this. 

*	Database backups (SQL/Domino) - worked great  

Our struggles were mainly with support.  Very hard to get any decent help
from Ahsay.  Also, if you made changes to your backup set - you would lose
retention settings and it would start all over with a full backup.  It's
been over a year since we used it so who knows if any new developments have
come out to fix the issues we had.  I can say that we traded in Ahsay for a
different backup product and the name escapes me right now...

-- 
Mike Walter

HyperDrive, Inc.
mobile: 404-732-5164
mail: mike at hyperdriveinc.com
web: www.hyperdriveinc.com

On Apr 26, 2010, at 7:10 AM, <blloyd at buskercom.com> <blloyd at buskercom.com>
wrote:

Has anyone heard of or attempted to use Ahsay Backup System?
http://www.ahsay.com/jsp/en/home/index.jsp  If so, what has your experience
been?

Bill Lloyd 
IT Manager

<bcilogo25.jpg>

2567 Athens Hwy.
Gainesville, GA 30507
Phone: 770-417-1604 Ext.: 250
Fax:     770-417-1747
Cell:     404-379-6963

blloyd at buskercom.com

This email and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential and
proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are
requested to delete this entire communication immediately. Emails cannot be
guaranteed to be secure or free of errors or viruses. The sender does not
accept any liability or responsibility for any problems that may result from
emails you receive.

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