O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O
BOX HILL ANNOUNCES VOSASM:
A Unique Means of AFS Volume-Level Support for NetWorker
O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O=O
New York, N.Y. (January 16, 1994) -- Box Hill Systems Corporation a leading
developer of High-Availability Storage Management Solutions and Network
Backup Products, is proud to announce "VOSASM", a Box Hill-created software
extension to Legato NetWorker that provides for AFS volume-level support.
The AFS distributed file system stores files in AFS-formatted partitions
called vice partitions, rather than on standard UNIX UFS partitions. Within
partitions, files are stored in AFS units called volumes. As a result,
attempts by NetWorker to back up AFS files during a standard NetWorker
backup are unsuccessful.
Implementation
==============
AFS provides a utility (vos dump) that can be used to dump AFS volume data
to a plain file or another program. Legato provides a utility (nsrfile)
that can accept input from another program and store it as a single file on
tape and in NetWorker's on-line index.
To these utilities Box Hill adds a third: VOSASM, a program built on top of
nsrfile and vos dump to provide the necessary "glue" logic and
synchronization between NetWorker and AFS to ensure that each AFS volume is
backed up automatically.
Backup
======
By itself, NetWorker attempts to back up Vice partitions as if they were
ordinary UNIX file systems. Box Hill adds a special NetWorker directive to
specify that VOSASM be used to back up files within Vice partitions. VOSASM
enumerates the list of AFS volumes within the Vice partition, and for each
read/write volume, it creates a read-only backup volume and then uses vos
dump and nsrfile to save the backup partition with NetWorker. Ad-hoc
backups may also be done by invoking the NetWorker save utility to save an
AFS volume within a Vice partition, which will obey the special directive
and invoke VOSASM as described above.
Recovery
========
In order to perform a recovery operation, the system administrator first
determines the name of the AFS volume containing the file(s) to be
recovered. The system administrator then logs on to the AFS server that
performed the volume dump (or another AFS server authorized to recover the
original server's backups) and uses the NetWorker recover utility to select
the desired version of the AFS volume. AFS volume names appear in
NetWorker's on-line file index with symbolic names indicating the vice
partition from which they were backed up. The volume data is restored to a
new volume that is accessible to the system administrator and the end user.
Security
========
In a standard AFS backup, the backup process must be authenticated on each
server machine participating in the backup. VOSASM runs entirely on the
local AFS server, using AFS "local authentication". Therefore, no special
authentication or passwords are required, because VOSASM backs up only
those volumes which are physically resident on its current AFS server.
NetWorker provides additional host-based and user ID-based access controls
to protect saved volumes from unauthorized hosts or users.
Should you have any further questions about VOSASM, please do not hesitate
to contact your Box Hill Sales Representative by phone, fax, or email.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
BOX HILL
Systems Corporation
161 Avenue of the Americas
New York, N.Y. 10013
212.989.4455 o 800.727.3863 o FAX:212.989.6817
email:[EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
All products mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.
