ETI-NET – BackBox E4.09 release now available with full support of QoreStor™

In the world of real-time transaction processing NonStop solutions are well known for their effectiveness in providing fault tolerance. Surviving failures has meant that mission critical solutions have run smoothly on NonStop systems for years, even decades without interruption. Of late conversations within the NonStop community have centered on surviving disasters as well as faults and this has raised the question of replicate versus backup. Turns out both are needed and for different reasons.

Any search on this topic brings up a number of points familiar to NonStop users:

Data Backup is ideal for storing large sets of static data for prolonged periods. It is the go-to solution for many industries that are required to maintain reliable long-term records.

Backup involves making a copy or copies of data and storing them offsite in case the original is lost or damaged. Replication is the act of copying data and then moving data between a company’s sites, whether those be datacenters, colocation facilities, public, or private clouds.

Backup is a lower cost option when compared to Replication. Does not call for significant staff or infrastructure investment.

Apparently, according to one source our search engine returned, “the terms backup and replication are often (and inaccurately) used interchangeably. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, and knowing the difference between these two technologies is critical for picking the solution that is right for your business.” However, what has now been introduced into the discussion has been the arrival of cloud services. The larger cloud service providers are offering numerous options to store data and for many enterprises, these are low-cost options worth evaluating when it comes to supporting backup of those “large sets of static data for prolonged periods.”

For the NonStop community ETI-NET has been the provider of the premier product offering for backup of data created on NonStop. With BackBox (BB) and now virtual BackBox (vBB) we have been providing the low-cost option for moving data offsite whether for regulatory purposes or simply disaster avoidance – not all data is stored in databases and not all data lives for prolonged periods on production NonStop systems. However, ETI-NET hasn’t been immune to requests to capitalize on cloud services offerings in support of data backups and this has been the subject to a number of articles published in 2020.

In the article published last month in this digital magazine, ETI-NET – Bringing access to cloud resources a reality for the NonStop community we provided an update to our 2020 announcement of how we would be leveraging the QoreStor™ (QS) product offering from Quest. “The decision to partner is in anticipation that NonStop customers will be among the many IT organizations that embrace a ‘cloud-first’ preference, particularly when it comes to storing data. The best way to view QS is as a ‘software-defined platform for secure cloud storage, deduplication and replication.’”

Backup and replication are indeed quite different, based on the need for both long term protection of data as distinct from having the ability to swap to alternate processing sites, and with this partnership with Quest, ETI-NET is promoting a new price point for even the largest requirements of a NonStop user for data backup. For those customers of ETI-NET that have already deployed BB, a new release is now available from ETI-NET. With BB Version E4.09 support of QoreStor™  has been included and is one of many updates included with this release:

• A new Datastore type (QoreStor) is now available for the embedded dedicated QoreStore server. The new Datastore type automatically creates storage pools based on data management policies by naming them according to the naming convention.

• For QoreStore Datastores or for Winstore storage set as Rapid CIFS (Qorestor), all virtual volumes belonging to a given volume group are automatically stored in sub-folders named to match the specified volume group.

• VTC Management Console displays now QoreStor server node with parameter settings for configuration and replication.

• Improved the event list and associated messages forwarded to NonStop EMS to include QoreStor events.

• QoreStor VM system clock and time zone are automatically set up to match the VTC time parameters.

• New and improved access control using User Management interface feature to allow setting up customized permissions and creating profiles with associated roles.
• SecurID is now supported (MFA) by Sign-In screen to allow authentication by security token (PIN), when required.

• Implemented a batch Datastore password-change program (OBB004/ OBB004B) that validates the access to Datastores.

Following successful Beta tests by a number of ETI-NET customers the early promise of support of clouds, our customers are not only in the process of evaluating what to send to the cloud and how much data will be tracked by QoreStor™, “but looking for significant cost benefits,” said ETI-NET COO, Sylvain Tétreault. “In addition we are anticipating significant performance benefits with our support of QoreStor™  as well simply because of its support of content-aware, variable block deduplication and much more that we know will meet with the approval of even our biggest NonStop users.”

Disasters natural or otherwise are a constant reminder that all in IT management needs to take steps to protect their company’s most important asset, data. When it comes to traditional approaches to data backups, the arrival of cloud service providers has proved to be a disruptive insertion into plans upon which we have executed. The message of clouds hasn’t been lost on ETI-NET and the NonStop community can now turn to them to better leverage options that they otherwise may not have previously considered. BB Version E4.09 changes any perceptions about NonStop and clouds that may still be lingering in the minds of IT management and in so doing, reminds all of the NonStop community that they will always have options when considering their best approach to data backup.

Should you have any questions about our BB / QS product offering and want to know more about our latest release that has now become available, don’t hesitate giving us a call or sending us an email.

 Said Hini
said.hini@etinet.com (514) 663-0501
http://etinet.com/