Proof of Concept: Docker with BoostFS
Docker: it’s where all the cool kids are playing these days (or so I’m told). It’s certainly got some good functionality and offers a lightweight approach to spinning up workloads compared to running a...
View ArticleThoughts on how to Protect PaaS
As an organisation becomes more mature in their dealings with cloud they recognise that certain cloud decisions (AWS vs Azure, IaaS, vs PaaS) have operational impacts. One of the ones that I frequently...
View ArticlePay the Ransom or Recover the Data?
Let’s consider a theoretical scenario: your business has been hit by Ransomware, and a chunk of data on a fileserver has been crypto-locked. So the question is: what will get the data back faster –...
View ArticleMyspace Data Loss – Some Questions
While it’s been murmuring in the background, and something affected users have been well aware of for a while, over the past few days the story has well and truly broken that Myspace, had lost during a...
View ArticleBasics – Determining PSS Saveset Dependencies
A question I’ve been asked a few times is “how do we use mminfo to determine dependencies between PSS savesets?” When we do a Parallel Save Stream (PSS) saveset, NetWorker breaks down the saveset into...
View ArticleI can’t stand world backup day
Another year rolls around, and I yet again find myself facing an onslaught of “world backup day” posts. So yet again, I put on my fiercest Ye-Olde-Unix-Veteran expression and encourage all you...
View ArticleBackup Servers and Malicious Attacks
Many years ago when I was still a Unix system administrator, some midrange systems manager got the bright idea to standardise on a particular monitoring and control software across the country for our...
View ArticleBasics – Recovering Microsoft SQL Server Databases as Flat Files
You don’t always want to be able to recover a database backup as a live database – either overwriting an existing database or going to another database. Sometimes, you might want to ship the recovered...
View ArticleBasics – Recovering SQL Databases as Files in Avamar
Introduction In an earlier post this week, I walked through the process of executing a file level restore of a Microsoft SQL database using NetWorker. The databases had been backed up in the NetWorker...
View ArticlevSphere Integration without Flash is Even Better
Introduction What with it being wrapped around easter and ANZAC day, I took last week off to get some writing done. But during that time, I also wanted to upgrade my VMware lab as well – it was running...
View ArticlePowerProtect – Changing Data Protection
At Dell Technologies world, PowerProtect was announced. This is next generation data protection software and appliances; these aren’t just an incremental update, but a pivot to a new approach to data...
View ArticleStart with “Why?”
Introduction I admit, I’m riffing on Simon Sinek’s Start with Why? for the title of my blog post here, but I’m going to be talking about the different services we often lump together as ‘backup and...
View ArticleData Protection Software 19.1
It’s that time! Data Protection Software 19.1 has been released. With new versions released simultaneously, that means there’s updates available for: Data Protection Central Data Protection Advisor...
View ArticleProtecting Information Assets and IT Infrastructure in the Cloud
Last year, I was asked to co-write a book with Ravi Das on risks and data protection in the public Cloud. I saw this as an interesting opportunity: for a start, I’d never co-authored a book, so that...
View ArticleGiving Boost a Boost: Multi-Mounted Devices in NetWorker
Particularly if you’re using Data Domain Boost within your NetWorker environment, most of the time your storage nodes exist simply as device access brokers. That is, rather than having the NetWorker...
View ArticleNetWorker Basics – How much did that backup deduplicate?
Sometimes, backups don’t deduplicate as you’d expect them to. Someone, somewhere, decided that spare 5TB on a server would be a cool landing zone for a bunch of encrypted SQL database dumps, or...
View ArticleLinear tape (not-so) Open?
Something I missed at the end of May: troubles in LTO-land. According to The Register, Fujifilm has unleashed some sueballs on Sony, alleging patent infringement, and this is causing supply problems in...
View ArticleBook Giveaway Competition (Protecting Information Assets and IT...
Hi! So in May my latest book, “Protecting Information Assets and IT Infrastructure in the Cloud” was released. Co-authored with Ravi Das, it covers a history of cloud, examples of cloud services,...
View ArticleNetWorker Pools with Data Domain
As far as backup is concerned, I’m an old-timer these days. I’ve dealt with a plethora of tape formats: DDS 1 through 5, AIT, DLT, Exabyte, 9840, SuperDLT, and a whole lot of LTO generations. When I...
View ArticleThe Last Gasp of Windows 2008
Hopefully it’s reasonably well known that Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2 are almost end of service life. In case you missed it, here’s the Microsoft announcement: On January 14, 2020, support for...
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