St. Bernard adds Volume Shadow Copy Service support

St. Bernard software has been one of my favorite software vendors for many years, ever since it became one of the first to offer the ability to back up open files.

You know that problem, users who go home and leave their desks without closing down whatever they’re working on – sometimes for days on end.

I once had a user go away on vacation leaving an important file open and locked. He also used a password-protected screensaver on his PC so I couldn’t simply go to his desk and close it down. Back in those days, there were no management tools to allow me to get around the problem short of shutting down both the user’s PC and the server. It only took a day or so to restore the database files that were corrupted since they were open when I shut off the server. That user never did understand why we always took so long to respond to his service requests after that, but were always on hand to wish him a pleasant vacation (or “Happy weekend” or “Have a great lunch!”) whenever he was about to leave the office!

St. Bernard’s Open File Manager could have saved me a lot of time and aggravation back then as it did in the years since the product first shipped in 1995. The latest edition, Version 9.1, continues the tradition of greater productivity, more efficiency and increased value for the product. This time the company has built in support for Microsoft Windows Server 2003’s Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) storage management framework.

Last spring, in previewing Windows Server 2003 (see editorial link below), I called VSS a boon to network managers and it still is. In one sense, it’s a way to back up open files. But it’s really more about making incremental backups so that very little would be lost in case of a catastrophic failure. What St. Bernard has done is to make VSS even better.

Open File Manager builds on the basic VSS storage management framework and adds incremental capabilities.  Specifically, it adds systemwide volume synchronization to VSS as well as simultaneous backup of VSS, legacy and non-VSS compliant business applications. 

Open File Manager also provides universal support for heterogeneous computing environments with a complete open file solution for all archival applications, whether VSS compliant or non-VSS compliant, on Windows and NetWare operating systems. That’s enough to at least get you to take a look, I should think. It doesn’t take too many lost files caused by someone forgetting to close down to generate enough expense to afford Open File Manager. Once is usually enough.