Disaster Recovery In SCO Unix Operating Systems
The Remote Control ERA A MICROLITE CORPORATION WHITE PAPER. For all of their other various features, the number one reason that third party
backup software has been so popular on SCO operating systems has been the availability of Emergency Boot Recovery Software (EBRS), i.e. emergency boot diskettes created to facilitate rebuilding
systems in the event of hard disk failures, catastrophic data loss, or simply the need to quickly and easily reconfigure or replace hard drives.Initial versions of EBRS systems were released within a
few months of each other for SCO Xenix by Lone Star Software Corporation, Microlite Corporation, and UniTrends Software Corporation. These systems helped those companies to dominate the backup software marketplace for
SCO operating systems, and forced other vendors to play catch-up. Today every major vendor of backup software in the SCO marketplace has at least rudimentary EBRS. Sales of backup software are driven by
two categories of consumers:
Unix Value Added Resellers and systems consultants. MIS departments of large corporations with many Unix servers in a corporate or retail environment.
Both groups typically have responsibility for large numbers of systems and require, among other things:
Reliable, unattended backup systems on all servers. A consistent, known method of putting a system back together after a crash, or reconfiguring it in the event of end-user growth and upgrade to larger, faster
systems.
No Unix system is simple, but the development of easier to administer Unix systems has allowed them to be rolled out in hundreds of thousands of places where there is no real system administrator, just persons
responsible for running the productivity tasks the box was designed to execute, with consultants and corporate administrators a phone call away if needed.
Over the years, many features and capabilities have been added to EBRS, most of which facilitate ease of use. Many end users are capable of putting a system back exactly as it was after a crash using the
"Automatic" recovery features of the most recent generation of EBRS, and this capability has saved thousands of users from down time and lost productivity.
However, the overriding, and until recently unsolved, shortcoming of EBRS has been that, for the most part, systems need to be reconfigured when they are being rebuilt, and this is a task beyond the
capabilities of most on-site end users. Third party hardware service companies can come in, repair hardware, or install newer and larger disk drives, but the consultant/VAR and the corporate administrator have always
had to either travel on-site, or attempt to talk the end users through system configuration questions. NO LONGER Microlite Corporation is pleased to be a market leader in the new generation of
Internet/Intranet Enabled, Remote Control Emergency Boot Recovery
Software (RCEBRS).Introducing RecoverEDGE 2 release 2.1. Now, an end user need merely insert their RCEBRS
diskettes, and enable in-bound network access. A system administrator anywhere in the world can attach to the system and perform a complete reconfiguration and data recovery with no further intervention on the part
of the end user. The remote administrator sees the full color, curses based application normally seen on the system console. Simultaneously, the local end user can monitor the entire recovery process by either checking
a RecoverEDGE 2 remote status screen, or by viewing the configure / restore process exactly as it appears on the remote administrator's display. At any time, the remote administrator can choose to
disconnect, and control is returned to the local end user at exactly the point in the recovery process where the disconnect occurred. If needed, the remote administrator can re-connect at any point to take back control.
So, during a long restore, the remote administrator can prepare the system, initiate the restore, disconnect, and go about his/her other duties. After the restore is complete, he or she can re-connect, check to make
sure all is OK, and initiate a shut down of the RCEBRS if desired. The end user simply needs to reboot the system into multi-user mode at the appropriate time. RecoverEDGE 2 has long
supported remote backups and restores, and this release is no exception. Through the Internet or private Intranets, the actual system, the tape drive containing the backup tape, and the system administrator can all be
in different locations. For those systems without an Ethernet card, i.e. no internet/intranet connection or connection only through a PPP connection, RecoverEDGE 2 RCEBRS still works.
Using standard modems on the COM1 or COM2 (tty2A/tty2A
) ports, remote administrators can connect take control and perform the same functions as they could over a network connection. This INCLUDES the capability of
at-will disconnect and reconnect. It is not necessary to either maintain an expensive long distance telephone connection OR configure the system, then drop the connection and force the end user to begin the restore
process. This is expected to be a unique and quite valuable feature of RecoverEDGE 2 release 2.1.RecoverEDGE 2 release 2.1 began shipping to end users on Monday, July 14,
1997. Versions of RecoverEDGE 2 release 2.1 with internet/intranet/modem support are available for SCO Unix 3.2v4.2 (including OpenDesktop 3.0) and SCO OpenServer 5, release 5.0.0, 5.0.2, and 5.0.4,
including Internet FastStart. As always, there is no extra charge for this release of RecoverEDGE 2. It comes free with registered copies of Microlite BackupEDGE 01.01.02
(July 1, 1997 release) for the above listed platforms. BackupEDGE with RecoverEDGE 2 may be downloaded right now from the Microlite Corporation Web Site for a no charge, 60 day evaluation.
Microlite Corporation
D. Thomas Podnar - President (tom@microlite.com)
2315 Mill Street Aliquippa PA 15001-2228
888-BKP-EDGE (Toll-Free Sales)
888-REC-EDGE (Toll-Free Fax)
724-375-6711 (Support/Administration)
724-375-6908 (Fax)
http://www.microlite.com
ftp://ftp.microlite.com
Last Modified 31-January-1998 |
