FAQ Sections
General
Hardware
Software
General
Q – Is branding supported?
A – Currently, branding is not offered.
Q – What support is offered?
A – Hardware support (including replacement) and software updates are
included in the purchase price for the first year. After the first year,
support plans are available.
Q – Does 3X Systems charge for either the Locator Service or the SMTP
service?
A – No, both services are provided as a means of enhancing device
portability. Either service can be bypassed if desired.
Hardware
Q – What happens if I need to increase the data storage capacity on
the RBA device?
A – The storage capacity is controlled by licensing, and can therefore
be increased by "unlocking" additional capacity, up to the
maximum capacity of the appliance.
Q – What happens if I outgrow the base machine's total storage
capacity?
A – You might reduce the retention policies to allow more storage. If
that is not an option, you would reseed with the new device and keep the
old appliance for archived needs. Currently, there is no officially
supported way to port data over to a new system.
Q – If one hard drive fails, does the RBA device continue to operate
(be available for backup and restore functions)?
A – Yes, the device runs a RAID 1 configuration and will continue to
operate but without data redundancy until the failed drive is replaced.
Q – In the event of a hard drive failure in the RBA device, what is
the replacement/recovery process?
A – Currently, the device would be returned to 3X Systems so the array
can be rebuilt.
Q – In the event of a hardware failure of the RBA device, what is the
replacement/recovery process?
A – The product can be returned overnight to 3X Systems. 3X
Systems can, at your option, place the system back on the internet at
our offices, ensuring that customers can complete a backup during this
process. The RBA will be sent back overnight, minimizing downtime.
Q – Does the RBA unit need to reside inside or outside of a firewall?
A – Either, although best practices would suggest it is inside the
company firewall. If UPNP is available, the device can traverese the
firewall, otherwise the appropriate rules can be set up for the needed
ports (which are user–definable).
Software – Client (agent) questions
Q – Does the agent need to be physically installed on each computer
to be backed up (i.e. or can it be “redirected” in some way)?
A – The agent must be installed on each computer to be backed up.
Q – Can Client installation be performed from a central location?
A – It should be possible to install the client remotely via scripting,
but as the client requires a key to be activated, this neeeds to be done
from the remote PC. If Remote Desktop or some other remote access
solution is available, this could be an option.
Q – Can I predefine a client?
A – There are no predefined clients, but some settings can be edited for
the default client, such as bandwidth throttling and data quotas. Also,
rule sets can be imported so they don't have to be recreated for each
client.
Q – Does the user need to be logged in for the backup to run?
A – No, the agent runs as a Windows service and the computer only needs
to be powered on and connected to the network.
Q – Will the agent work properly on a Domain Controller or an SBS
server running ISA?
A – No issues were encountered during testing.
Software – Backup questions
Q – How do you calculate the quantity of data protected when you say
that an appliance will protect three times it's physical capacity in
data?
A – This number includes the benefit of both compression and
deduplication. On a seed backup of the first system, compression
alone will generate a small savings. If a second system shares an
operating system, program files, or any data files with the first
system, this file size is included in the "protected" size. Our
deduplication technology will only store it once on the appliance so the
additional data will not get charged against your licensed capacity.
If a file changes in a subsequent backup generation, we add the full
file size to the system because we are protecting, and making available
to the user, a new version of the file. Our deduplication
technology will substantially reduce the amount of space "on disk" to
protect this file and only this smaller amount will go against your
licensed capacity. Files that have not changed do not get counted
in this number. Other providers, claiming 20:1 or 40:1 protection
ratios, include these unchanged files in their count.
Q – How does "de–duplication" allow for more efficient backups?
A – If 10 workstations are backed up and each has the same Excel file
present, only one copy of the file is required to represent all ten
files (no matter where they are located on the individual machines).
Q – You say "block–level deduplication". If the hard drive is
defragmented, will your backup system retransmit all of those blocks,
generating almost as much data as a full backup?
A – No. When we say "blocks" we actually mean chunks of data
within the logical file. We don't know or care where it is
actually located on the disk and, therefore, are not impacted by this
type of procedure. Our deduplication process also detects
"shifted" blocks so adding data in the middle of a file will not cause
subsequent data to be retransmitted except in special cases like
zip–compressed files.
Q – How do the backups respond to different time zones (if the RBA is
physically in another time zone from the client)?
A – The backup is performed at the scheduled time with respect to the
client PC.
Q – Is user data passed through the Locator Service?
A – The locator service is only used to provide a transparent method of
ensuring a network connection between the client and the RBA to enhance
portability. The locator service can be bypassed and a true IP lookup
scenario can by used instead.
Q – Can I backup data from different customers on one RBA in a secure
manner?
A – Yes, the RBA maintains the separation and encryption of stored data,
and the system software ensures files are restored only to their
original computer (with administrative override provisions if client
hardware is replaced).
Q – What happens if a backup is interrupted (such as a network
outage)?
A – The backup process features both Full File validation and Offline
validation, and most backups will recover and successfully complete when
the network connection is restored.
Q – Are backup failures logged?
A – Yes. Actual backup failures can be the result of encrypted files, as
the Operating System will usually not transmit encrypted files.
Q – Do small changes in individual files always result in small
"deltas" being transmitted?
A – This is true with most file types, although some compressed formats
may require more data to be transmitted to correctly represent the
changes.
Software – Exchange Module questions
Q – Are Exchange 2007 backups supported?
A – Not at this time, but this will be forthcoming.
Q – Is "brick level" backup of Exchange supported?
A – Not at this time, but this a possibility. Presently, store level
backups are supported.
Software – SQL Module questions
Q – Is the SQL module available now?
A – Not at this time, but this will be forthcoming.
Q – Does the SQL module provide Database or Table level backup?
A – Initially, it will allow database–level backup. If a higher level of
granularity is required, the database can be backed to a file and this
file can be backed up using
the file system backup (with all the deduplication benefits). Partial
restores can be made from that backup file if you have the appropriate
tools.
