File and Virtual Backup Solutions

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File and Virtual Backup Solutions

Posted On : Jul-12-2011 | seen (544) times | Article Word Count : 664 |

In this time, we need always a little help and backup software helps keep our files safe and secure.

As computers and hard drives become increasingly defective, experienced users try different backup software to insure them against data loss and system failure. Similar to all other types of programs, one backup software package rarely fits all purposes and depending on the user's setting, several backup utilities may become necessary. For example, users often need one backup tool for their server appliance and one for each personal computer.

On the PC backup market, one may find various pc backup software providers with different strengths in each product. The typical PC user would want Microsoft Windows, application, and files backed up on a regular basis. Usually a simple disk image is enough but more advanced users with more files than the average user may want to invest in good file backup software.

Experienced power users with extraordinary large amounts of information may want to look into the backup compression features of their backup software. Data compression usually works well on applications, text, PDF, word documents, system files, and other documents with a small noise ratio. Music and video generally do not compress well due to the nature of the information stored within.

In summary, file backup and data backup are key ingredients of a server backup software package. More important than disk imaging on servers is the ability to handle files in configurable ways. A recent tendency has been to skip disk imaging, or to limit it to system partitions, and to focus on more efficient ways to process files, since data files are the vast majority of data volumes stored on servers.

Backing up volumes is critical on workstations since users rarely deploy file backup software to protect their data. Usually disk imaging is applied on an entire physical hard disk, but it can technically be applied to separate partitions as well, such as a single drive letter. The advantage of drive imaging is that it creates an exact byte-level copy of the information, including hidden file system information, such as residues of deleted files.

Since the advent of virtual machines, virtual machine backup has gained more magnitude. In VMware, a backup of a virtual machine while running usually requires the VMDK file to be backed up. To back up VMDK files, however, one needs to either shut down the virtual machine, or the backup program needs to connect to VMware Server to get access to the live virtual disk file. In the latter case a specialized tool may be necessary.

A virtual machine backup script for VMware may suffice to run a virtual server backup against the virtual host but the results may be less than optimal without a specialized software package. By making a copy of all virtual machines, the administrator may be able to provide some disaster prevention; however, if many virtual machines or very large ones need to be backed up, each virtual server copy may take too long to complete and use too much storage.

At a very abstract level, a virtual server backup software copies virtual server files and settings. To back up virtual machines, one needs to either take them offline from the virtual host server, or a dedicated backup software needs to be applied that works closely with the virtual host server system to access the underlying virtual disks.

A common strategy to save storage space is to generate an incremental backup. Incremental backups always refer to the state of the last backup cycle and extract the difference between the two cycles. The disadvantage of incremental backup is that each incremental step needs to be restored as well during the recovery process; hence, incremental recoveries take longer than that of differential backups.

The latest improvement in the industry is delta compression, also known as file version differencing, which essentially reduces backup storage requirements to a bare minimum. Delta compression is applied in many areas but is has been predominantly popular on servers with high activity.

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<h1>File and Virtual Backup Solutions</h1> Author: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/profile_sweetbee.aspx'>sweetbee</a> As computers and hard drives become increasingly defective, experienced users try different backup software to insure them against data loss and system failure. Similar to all other types of programs, one backup software package rarely fits all purposes and depending on the user's setting, several backup utilities may become necessary. For example, users often need one backup tool for their server appliance and one for each personal computer.

On the PC backup market, one may find various pc backup software providers with different strengths in each product. The typical PC user would want Microsoft Windows, application, and files backed up on a regular basis. Usually a simple disk image is enough but more advanced users with more files than the average user may want to invest in good file backup software.

Experienced power users with extraordinary large amounts of information may want to look into the backup compression features of their backup software. Data compression usually works well on applications, text, PDF, word documents, system files, and other documents with a small noise ratio. Music and video generally do not compress well due to the nature of the information stored within.

In summary, file backup and data backup are key ingredients of a server backup software package. More important than disk imaging on servers is the ability to handle files in configurable ways. A recent tendency has been to skip disk imaging, or to limit it to system partitions, and to focus on more efficient ways to process files, since data files are the vast majority of data volumes stored on servers.

Backing up volumes is critical on workstations since users rarely deploy file backup software to protect their data. Usually disk imaging is applied on an entire physical hard disk, but it can technically be applied to separate partitions as well, such as a single drive letter. The advantage of drive imaging is that it creates an exact byte-level copy of the information, including hidden file system information, such as residues of deleted files.

Since the advent of virtual machines, virtual machine backup has gained more magnitude. In VMware, a backup of a virtual machine while running usually requires the VMDK file to be backed up. To back up VMDK files, however, one needs to either shut down the virtual machine, or the backup program needs to connect to VMware Server to get access to the live virtual disk file. In the latter case a specialized tool may be necessary.

A virtual machine backup script for VMware may suffice to run a virtual server backup against the virtual host but the results may be less than optimal without a specialized software package. By making a copy of all virtual machines, the administrator may be able to provide some disaster prevention; however, if many virtual machines or very large ones need to be backed up, each virtual server copy may take too long to complete and use too much storage.

At a very abstract level, a virtual server backup software copies virtual server files and settings. To back up virtual machines, one needs to either take them offline from the virtual host server, or a dedicated backup software needs to be applied that works closely with the virtual host server system to access the underlying virtual disks.

A common strategy to save storage space is to generate an incremental backup. Incremental backups always refer to the state of the last backup cycle and extract the difference between the two cycles. The disadvantage of incremental backup is that each incremental step needs to be restored as well during the recovery process; hence, incremental recoveries take longer than that of differential backups.

The latest improvement in the industry is delta compression, also known as file version differencing, which essentially reduces backup storage requirements to a bare minimum. Delta compression is applied in many areas but is has been predominantly popular on servers with high activity.About the Author: Joan is a writer for <a rel="nofollow" href="http://backupchain.com/Hyper-V-Backup-Software.html">backup csv hyperv</a>, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://backupchain.com/Hyper-V-Backup-Software.html">hyper-v windows backup</a> and <a rel="nofollow" href="http://backupchain.com/File-Backup.html">file backup</a>.

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Joan is a writer for backup csv hyperv, hyper-v windows backup and file backup.

Keywords : time machine for windows, file backup,

Category : Computers : Software

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