BRU Server

Features and Enhancements

BRU Server™ is TOLIS Group's premier network backup software solution that provides client/server-based data backup and recovery services across networks of any size. BRU Server delivers the reliability, functionality and flexibility to meet your organization's backup needs - including regulatory compliance. All major client system OS platforms are supported as well as live database back-up on Windows Server and client systems. BRU Server 2.0 brings ease-of-use with new graphical interfaces, client-side options, and more!

• Completely Redesigned Graphical User Interfaces Control BRU Server from Mac OS X, Linux and now Windows systems. Character-Based and Command Line Management Consoles are also Available for Maximum Flexibility
• Client-Side - User Initiated Backup for Desktops and Laptops (not dependent on any admin-specified backups) Under Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
• Client-Side - User Initiated Restore (not dependent on any admin action) Under Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
• Client-Side - Update of IP Address for DHCP Environments on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows
• Full Support of ACLs and Extended Attributes on OS X and Linux Clients
• BRU Server Hardware/Software Bundles
• Upstage for Offsite - Expands D2D2T to Allow Copying Staged Archives to Tape for Sending Offsite While Retaining the Local Copy on Disk
• Console loads all of the data elements 25-50X faster - archives, tapes, users, and client systems all load much more rapidly to be more productive; more quickly
• Support of single archives up to eight (8) exabytes (8,388,608 gigabytes) in size
• Live Database Backup
• Archives are backwards compatible with all previous BRU Server versions and are also recoverable by any BRU product, on any platform BRU supports
• Flexible Disk Staging Provides Disk-to-Disk (D2D) and Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape (D2D2T) Support
• Off-Site Storage Services
• Comprehensive Native Tape Device Support
• 100% Coverage of All Mac OS X Filesystem Attributes Including Resource Forks, Finder® Information,
  and All Unix Permissions
• Backups 100% Verified as a Background Task which can Dramatically Reduce the Backup Window
• Advanced, Error Recovery Algorithms Restore Data When Other Tools Fail
• Simple Integration with SAN including Apple's Xsan Technology
• Virtual Machine Support

Network Backup Across the Enterprise

BRU Server is TOLIS Group, Inc.'s flagship Backup & Restore software. BRU Server's "server component" runs natively on Linux, Solaris, IRIX and Mac OS X, and the combination of the BRU Server server component with BRU Server Agents for all Unix-based and Windows systems protects the critical information residing across your client/server based network. The BRU Server "console component" can be installed on any number of systems to manage BRU Server's operation. The proven reliability of BRU technology coupled with the proven reliability of a Unix-based operating system creates a backup system of unsurpassed uptime and availability to archived data. BRU Server's Windows Open File Manager is available to back up live databases such as Exchange Server, SQL Server, FileMaker, Oracle, Sybase, Active Directory and others running on Windows client systems, and the bruCLONE ad-on provides unsurpassed disaster recovery for your OS X systems. BRU Server supports all forms of archive storage including disk, tape, virtual tape libraries, NAS and SAN devices. The built-in architecture supports D2D, D2T, and D2D2T without the requirement of expensive add on licenses.

Why Choose BRU Server Over Other Software Tools?

BRU Server never assumes that the data you write to disk or tape is data that is actually recoverable and provides the assurance that the data you think you have backed up can actually be restored. BRU's error recovery algorithms used when writing to tape provide reliability mechanisms unlike any other backup product on the market. BRU can even restore data from the readable portions of a physically damaged tape.

Why Doesn't BRU Server Perform Synthetic Full Backups and Why Should More Frequent Full Backups be Performed?

The concept of Synthetic Backups sounds attractive on the surface—however; the implications for long-term archive storage and recoverability of data are significant. All of our BRU solutions have the ability to perform backups to a user's/organization's requirement, unlike tools that do not provide the necessary flexibility and "force" backups to be done in a manner defined by the software tool. BRU products allow you to easily define full, differential, and incremental backups to meet your organization's requirements. They are easily scheduled, and the frequency is user controlled. So, depending on the particular needs of your organization, backups can be performed at virtually any frequency that makes sense.

The idea of performing a single full backup and then only performing incremental backups for long periods - 12 months or more - may sound good from a backup standpoint, but what happens when you discover that elements of the backup required for a complete recover have become unrecoverable or are simply missing? BRU's 25 years of backup experience with large system environments has shown that performing a full backup only one time in months, or years at worst, dramatically reduces the reliability of the restore—or at a minimum, drastically increases the time to a complete system recovery. Performing full backups on a more regular basis with intervening incremental or differential backups will keep your data fresh and increase the reliability and availability of data for restoration. It is the user's option to perform full backups on any defined schedule; however, BRU's unmatched speed and lightweight process allows those full, incremental, or differential backups to occur without impact to your network.

Why Doesn't BRU Server Perform Single Instance Store and De-Duplication?

The concept of Single Instance Backup/De-Duplication is the conservation of backup media — only one copy of a file common across systems is backed-up. The loss of a "single instance" file means that file is forever gone and is no longer available to support the restoring of a system or systems that utilize that particular file. This approach is not consistent with our philosophy to assure the restorability of each and every system's data.

In addition to the fallibility of the Single Instance Backup/De-Duplication concept, there are significant operational issues. The strategy still requires a complete full backup be done initially and that consumes disk capacity without a minimized-use benefit.  Prior to a subsequent backup operation beginning, a lengthy scan of each system must be performed and this process can literally take hours before the first bit is backed-up.  Data restores are also very slow because the data system must work through all of the pointers.  And finally, to write to a tape that is directly recoverable, the de-duped streams must be reconstituted to original form and no economy-of-capacity is realized.

Does BRU Server Require a High Powered and Dedicated Server?

BRU Server's overhead is exceptionally low and can actually time-share with other server applications. Depending on one's network system topology, BRU Server will consume between 8–20% of a system's resources during backup/restore operations - allowing the majority of system resources to perform other tasks concurrently. Of course, a dedicated backup system is ideal.

Optional Add-on's for BRU Server include:

• Mac OS X Disaster Recovery with bruCLONE for Mac OS X
• Windows Open File Manager for Live Database Backup on Windows Server Systems

How is Hardware Licensed with BRU Server?

BRU Server provides native support of most modern tape drive and library configurations. Because of TOLIS Group's partnership with tape device manufacturers, we have early access to future tape technology. This access assures you of BRU's reliable support before the new technologies hit the streets. BRU Server supports tape libraries with up to 100 slots by default, for larger units the BRU Server Enterprise-class library add-on is required.

There are no additional fee in related to the amount of data that needs to be backed up.

No two organizations are alike, nor do they have the same requirements of a backup system other than the requirement of reliability. BRU Server provides the flexibility to administer the backup strategy via the Mac OS X, Linux, Windows or Solaris graphical user interfaces or by using the character-based interfaces. BRU Server is also fully scriptable from the command line. These interfaces provide access to BRU Server's robust functionality, and backups can be administered locally, or remotely.

Bottom Line — Your organization's data is critical, and how to protect it is an important decision. BRU Server delivers the reliability, functionality, flexibility, scaleability and overall excellent value necessary to provide you with backup peace-of-mind.

Does BRU Server Have Archive Interdependency Constraints?

There are no dependency constraints between full, incremental or differential archives when performing restore operations. Each BRU Server archive is a complete and separate entity from other archives.  Thus, it is not required to have the full archive on-site in order to restore from an incremental or differential backup.

When performing backup operations, once a full backup is completed, the full backup does not need to be on-site in order to perform incremental or differential backups.  This allows you to free up slots inside of your tape library or change hard disks for offsite storage.

BRU Server Solution Choices:

• BRU Server Destkop Edition — BRU Server functionality for single system backups.
• BRU Server Basic Edition — Full BRU Server functionality, includes 2 client licenses, one (1) to back itself up and one (1) other connected system — fully expandable
• BRU Server Network Edition — Includes 25 client licenses and is fully expandable
• BRU Server Enterprise Edition — Includes 200 client licenses, expandable
• BRU Server Client Licenses — Available individually, or in cost-effective packs of 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 licenses
• BRU Server Site Licenses — Custom quoted when more than twenty-five (25) copies of BRU Server, or more than 1,000 clients are required to support an organization

*BRU Server for Solaris, OpenSolaris, and IRIX are disk-to-disk solutions only. Tape support is not currently available.