* Novell's eDirectory Backup eMTool
As I said in the last issue, some of the best topics for this newsletter are suggested by readers. One of my avid readers, someone whose name and exploits have graced this periodical in the past, dropped me a note last week with a thought about the issue of backing up NDS/eDirectory.
When Ted Haeger (“the Rev”) drops me a note about any Novell product, I do tend to listen since he probably is – or was at one time – marketing manager for the product. Currently, he’s director of product marketing, Novell eDirectory product line, so he does know the directory.
What Ted wanted to remind me about was a “continuous backup” feature introduced with eDirectory 8.7 called eDirectory Backup eMTool. That’s right, in addition to the disaster recovery available using multiple replicas of your directory partitions, the latest versions of eDirectory allow for a live continuous backup of the directory. This allows you to back up large directories (or small ones, for that matter) without having to disable the directory during the backup. No downtime, and faster return to uptime after a disaster. How sweet is that?
You may recall that this discussion came about because of a user doing a hardware upgrade on a single server network. As even the eDirectory documentation points out: “Replication is the primary method for protecting eDirectory. Replication, however, is not possible in a single-server environment. Also, replication might not provide a complete restore of individual servers in case of a server hardware failure or other damage, or in the event of a disaster such as a fire or flood in which you lose multiple servers. Backing up eDirectory on each server increases the fault tolerance for your network.”
As we noted, though, backing up NDS/eDirectory isn’t as straightforward as backing up a bunch of spreadsheets. But eDirectory Backup eMTool makes getting a full, up-to-date backup easier than it has ever been for single as well as multiple server networks. Here are some of its features and benefits:
* Provides hot continuous backup: you can back up your server without closing the eDirectory database, and you still get a complete backup.
* Supports a quick restore of an individual server.
* Scalable: you can back up a server whose eDirectory database contains tens or hundreds of millions of objects. The speed of the back-up process is limited mainly by I/O channel bandwidth.
* Supports a quick restore of the tree, when used with replica planning and DSMASTER servers.
* Lets you perform most back-up and restore tasks in a browser using iManager, inside or outside the firewall. You can perform advanced tasks remotely using the eMBox Client, a command line Java client, with access behind the firewall or through a VPN.
* Lets you back up files on the server that are related to the database, such as NICI security files, stream files, and any files you specify (such as autoexec.ncf) in an include file.
* Restores eDirectory to the state it was in at the moment before it went down, if you use continuous roll-forward logging.
* Makes hardware upgrade simpler. Doing a cold backup and then restoring the eDirectory database is an easy way to transfer the server’s identity to a new machine or safeguard it while you make changes such as RAM upgrades.
Did you catch that last one? MAKES HARDWARE UPGRADE SIMPLER! If you aren’t using NDS/eDirectory 8.7, get it now. If your server version won’t support NDS/eDirectory 8.7, upgrade now. Disaster can strike at any time, be ready.
