In my last post, I gave you an overview of the essential benefits of Blackbird recovery. Today, I will describe the Active Directory backup tool’s architecture and its main functions.

Data handler

The diagram above gives you an overview of Blackbird recovery’s architecture. As you can see, you have to install an agent, the Blackbird Data Handler, on all your domain controllers to enable the collection of a continuous change log. This agent is not only for Blackbird continuous recovery but for all the other modules of the Blackbird Management Suite. The agent collects the data and directly stores it into a Microsoft SQL Server (or SQL Server Express) database.

(more…)

The Blackbird Group is raffling two license packages of Blackbird recovery for AD, a sophisticated Activate Directory backup tool. The value of each license is $1,800 USD and allows you to back up an Active Directory with 500 users. You will find more information about how to take part in this contest at the end of the article.

Blackbird recovery is a module of the Blackbird Management Suite, which consists of Blackbird auditor for AD (real-time auditing for Active Directory), Blackbird auditor for Windows File System (real-time file system auditing), Blackbird privilege explorer for Windows File System (access rights reporting), Blackbird protector (protection against AD modifications), and Blackbird privilege manager (workflow based management of AD privileges).

(more…)

The release of SharePoint 2010 caused a lot of hype. Nonetheless, its predecessor Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is still used in many companies. For those who haven’t updated yet, I want to introduce a very valuable tool: SharePoint Utility with a Smart, Helpful Interface (SUSHI).

SharePoint is a big success for various reasons; one of them is certainly the ease of administration. Once you have internalized the structure of SharePoint, it is very straightforward to use. Almost too straightforward: because it is so easy to create new websites and lists, web applications often grow too fast and unstructured. Keeping the content ‘findable’ often requires the taming of the rank growth. It is a difficult task, but doable.

(more…)

Rate this tool: (2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit a free admin tool | Free admin tools index | Browse free admin tools

In my last post, I described how convenient it is for admins to configure backup jobs with GFI Backup. Today, I will show you how end users can manage their own backup jobs, thereby making the life of admins even easier.

Agent configuration

I already mentioned in the first post of this series that the agent basically is GFI Backup Home. That is, end users have a full-fledged backup tool on their desktops. Please read my review of GFI Backup’s free edition for a detailed description of how users can manage backups with this free tool. In this article, I will describe only the additional features that come with the business edition.

First of all, you should know that admins can disallow access to the agent’s user interface. Actually, this is the default setting. With this configuration users will only be informed whenever a backup job starts or if errors have occurred.

(more…)

In the last article in this series, I gave a short introduction into GFI Backup. Today, I will talk about the features that make GFI Backup a perfect desktop and laptop data backup solution for businesses.

Last time I mentioned that new backup clients are added automatically to the GFI Backup Administrator Console. In some environments the backup admin might prefer to authorize new backup clients. For this you can disable auto-approve in GFI Backup’s settings.

Automatic data backup job configuration

However, automatically adding new backup clients has its advantages in environments with many desktops. GFI Backup is a specialized solution for this situation because it can also configure the backup jobs automatically for new clients.

(more…)

GFI is raffling an Asus netbook worth 328 USD and a license of the brand new GFI Backup Business Edition, —a server and desktop backup solution for small- and mid-sized organizations— for 500 workstations and 50 servers worth 7,100 EUR.

The netbook runs Windows 7 and its battery lasts a whopping 11 hours (1 more than with the iPad). It is the ideal gadget to restore user backups with GFI Backup directly from the beach or wherever you plan to spend your summer holidays. You’ll find more information about the contest at the end of the article.

GFI Backup Business Edition allows you to back up servers and desktops with one solution. However, the main strength of this backup tool is that end users can independently restore backups and even create their own backup jobs. Administrators can centrally monitor everything and only have to intervene if problems arise. So chances are that you only need your netbook to watch some Flash videos (which you can’t do with the iPad) when you get bored by all this sand and water.

(more…)

In my previous post, I described Oops!Backup’s CDP features and its advantages over conventional backup tools. Today, I will give you an overview of the tool’s so-called ReverseDelta technology and how you can use the tool for notebook backups.

Oops!Backup’s ReverseDelta stores file changes in so-called delta files. These delta files contain changes at the byte level. There is some overhead if only a few bytes are changed, but this can save a lot disk space on your backup drive if you have to secure large files as they are common with database systems. For instance, a conventional backup system will store a full 10GB database if only one record has been changed, but Oops’Backup would only require a few MBs of additional space. The tool allows you to configure the file size on which ReverseDelta is invoked, and you can also specify the number of versions after which a full copy of a file is preserved.

(more…)

Altaro is raffling 15 licenses of their nifty backup tool for desktops and laptops. Each license is worth US$37. I tested Oops!Backup for a few days and was quite content with the results. I am a big fan of Continuous Data Protection (CDP), not only because the backup intervals are significantly shorter than with conventional backup tools, but also because configuration and handling are much easier. In this post, I will outline the CDP features of Oops!Backup and, in my next post, I will discuss the tool’s ReverseDelta technology and its suitability for laptop backups.

(more…)

GFI Backup Home Edition is a free backup tool for desktops and laptops which can also be useful in a corporate environment. The number of and laptop workers who only stop by the office every now and then to synchronize their data with corporate servers is constantly growing, as is the number of workers who telecommute. As such, the need for a good desktop backup tool is increasing. Windows XP has a nice backup tool, but it is hopelessly outdated, while Vista’s backup tool is probably the weakest component of that otherwise great operating system. Windows 7 has an improved backup tool, but it is certainly no match for GFI Backup, a newly-developed backup and recovery software.

(more…)

Submitted by Haim Chibotero – Website: ITServices The ESXi Configurator is a utility to help manage stand along ESXi hosts. This utility is a GUI interface to VMware RCLI application. The ESXi Configurator uses the VMware RCLI scripts to execute all its function and features. The utility is a GUI application that uses the RCLI perl scripts to perform its tasks. This is a very simple front end interface to the RCLI (command line only) scripts.

This initial release includes the ability to backup, restore and update your ESXi host (epically handy for people that are not using VirtualCenters Update Mangers).

VMware RCLI is required to be installed on your machine in order to use the ESXi Configurator Utility.

I have been using this tool for some time now , and it’s working great , I would really recommend it !

ESXi Configurator Utility

Rate this tool: (2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit a free admin tool | Free admin tools index | Browse free admin tools

Do you have users in your organizations who never logon to the corporate network with their laptops? In such cases, you have to make sure that they backup their laptops at home. I tried one solution with my own laptop and I am quite content with it. I connected the external hard drive Seagate Freeagent Pro via eSATA to my laptop. As backup software for my files, I used Autobackup which comes with Freegent Pro. To backup the whole computer, I used Windows Vista’s Backup and Restore Center.

Freeagent is available in three sizes: 320GB, 500GB and 750GB. I opted for the biggest drive because I like to keep old backups as long as possible. Amazon offers it for less than $200. You can connect the drive through USB or eSATA. For the latter you need an eSATA card adapter. I think, it is worth the extra 30 bucks because it is much faster. USB 2.0 supports up to 480 Mbps and eSATA 3 Gbps. You won’t always reach this speed, though, because there are bottlenecks like drive speed or the performance of your laptop.

(more…)

Even though USB memory sticks are quite reliable, there still is the risk of losing it, or even worse, that somebody might steal it from you. The data, you store on your memory stick is probably vital to you; otherwise you wouldn’t bring it with you always. Hence, it is important to backup your memory stick regularly and make sure that nobody is able to access the data on it, if it gets into the wrong hands. It is certainly no solution to just copy all files manually every now and then. It is the first law of any backup strategy: Never backup manually! The reason is obvious. It is easily forgotten, and the probability is high that if you ever need the backup its data is outdated.

(more…)

Submitted by rork

DeltaCopy is an open source, fast incremental backup program. Let’s say you have to backup one file that is 500 MB every night. A normal file copy would copy the entire file even if a few bytes have changed. DeltaCopy, on the other hand, would only copy the part of file that has actually been modified. This reduces the data transfer to just a small fraction of 500 MB saving time and network bandwidth.

DELTACOPY

Rate this tool: (7 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Submit a free admin tool | Free admin tools index | Browse free admin tools

Data Protection Manager 2007 RC is finally out. I have been waiting for this already for some time. Just some days ago, we had a serious problem with our current backup solution, Symantec Backup Exec. We didn’t renew our service contract with Symantec because I am seriously considering moving to DPM 2007.

(more…)

Jason Buffington, the “Data Protection Guy” at Microsoft explains the difference between DPM 2006 and DPM 2007 (Data Protection Manager) with respect to continuous data protection. Whereas DPM 2006 uses a file system filter “to grab a copy of the file operation”, DPM 2007 uses a VSS writer (Volume Shadow Copy Service) instead.

(more…)