HP Data Protector Express 4.0 Backup Server Upgrade Single Server Edition
June 2, 2010 by admin
Filed under Unix Server
Sponsored By
Product Description
The Express Backup Server is the starting point for all Data Protector Express Single Server Edition and Data Protector Express installations. The minimum required to protect a machine or machines. The Backup Server manages the Data Protector Express Storage Domain and by default contains the Data Protector Express catalog. Data Protector Express Single Server Edition is based on the Data Protector Express Backup Server and readily upgraded to the full functionality… More >>
HP Data Protector Express 4.0 Backup Server Upgrade Single Server Edition
![Mac OS X 10.3 Panther [OLD VERSION]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/416ACBDKFML._SL75_.jpg "Mac OS X 10.3 Panther [OLD VERSION]")
We use and are reasonably happy with the full version of HP Data Protector with a MSL library to backup our SAN and Servers at our headquarters. We purchased a tape drive which included this software for a remote server based on HP’s recommendation that it would fulfill our needs. We anticipated that the Express version would be very similar to the full version, minus some features. Our initial reaction to this software was that the interface was going to be much better than the full version. After working with this express version for a short period of time, we concluded that the two versions of HP Data Protector that we own, are vastly different.
The full version of HP Data Protector has a VERY dated look and feel. While the express version does have a newer appearance, unfortunately, it is even less intuitive than the full version. For example, to get a job status in the full version, you drop down a list control and select “Job Status”, where you can click on each job in the list (pending and active). On the express version, you have to click on the job name, then wait for another screen to appear with choices that change based on whether the backup is running, then click on the status link to pop up another window. What about the status of the prior or next job you might ask? Exit out of that screen and then drill back down to a status… very inefficient.
The scheduler in this version is the worst backup scheduler I have ever seen (and I’ve used most of the popular backup packages out there). Essentially, you have the choice of telling the scheduler to run the backup repeatedly and it will try every couple of minutes (watch out for pre and post scripts — we shut down some services before and restart them after). Originally, we had the software configured this way… since this is a remote server, the user puts in the tape in the middle of the day, then the backup would think it could start and run the pre script and the next thing you know the users are calling because some service is down. We ended up setting each day up manually… go to the calendar scheduler, right click on each day and then select the backup types. Again, very inefficient.
Finally, the nail in the coffin so to speak is that it’s just not reliable. When it fails, the logs are very unhelpful… we still don’t know why it occasionally decides not to run the backup (we think that it was because we were sitting in a job status screen).
If you have a single server and like us, the software was included with the tape drive, it might be worth a try. In our case, we are using it until we can find anything else that supports the o/s and virtual environments that we need it to. If you have to pay for this, I would look elsewhere.
Rating: 1 / 5