Alexandria is a comprehensive unattended software backup solution for tape or optical storage units attached to a computer or a network of computers running UNIX. Alexandria automates the use of mass storage libraries to facilitate the protection of active data through physical replication. A design goal was for Alexandria to provide independence from hardware platform and storage medium with a true client/server architecture running across TCP/IP networks. At this time, Alexandria runs on Sun SPARC (Solaris and SunOS), IBM RS/6000, HP9000, Sequent Symmetry, Unisys U6000, Data General AViiON, Silicon Graphics (SGI), Motorola, SCO UNIX, Auspex, Solbourne, Pyramid, NCR 3000 and Encore Infinity UNIX computers.
Alexandria provides backup and media management capabilities for 8mm, 4mm, 3480, DLT, DST tape, and read/write optical automated media changers through an easy to use OSF/Motif interface.
The X11 interface provides fast, easy access by machines. Specifically, support exists for the Exabyte EXB-10i/e/h. EXB-60/120, EXB-210, EXB-440/480, Advanced Digital Information Corp.
Future support is aided by modular "personalities" that allow users to control libraries. A personality functions like a device driver running in user space to facilitate communication with a library. Once Alexandria has been installed and configured, it will run and manage itself, requiring a minimum of user intervention. Some major capabilities are the scheduling of full and incremental backups, the managing of media and the storage library, the enforcing of security on data and operations, the backing up of RDBMSs, and the speedy recovery of information.
Configure Alexandria to match you backup needs and Alexandria will completely manage: full backups, incremental backups, backup aging, media aging and media management. Alexandria minimizes user intervention and maximizes data safety.
Alexandria's scheduler handles an unlimited number of background tasks. Stores and restores can include or exclude files by any combination of pattern, user, group or date. Repeats can be specified by day, week, month or year. Timed-start capabilities distribute network load evenly through off-peak times.
Alexandria's user interface and extensive database ensure easy restoration, whether a complete file system, disk, directory, or a specific, dated version of a certain file.
Alexandria was designed to support automated media handling systems. Its extensive databases track files and media both in the library and in off-site or vault storage.
Alexandria ages the data against a user-specified duration for both library storage and vault storage. Alexandria then compares usage to expected life and either reuses the media or requests a replacement, optimizing capacity without the risk of writing data to expired media.
You can utilize Alexandria's scheduling and media management capabilities and set up Alexandria to invoke dd (disk to disk) or other backup utilities to write to media. This allows an administrator to back up commercial databases from raw disk partitions as well as from file systems.
Alexandria's architecture is independent of hardware platform, storage medium and network transport, making it ideal for heterogeneous networks today and adaptable to future purchases.
At the heart of Alexandria is a custom database, optimized to store millions of file records in minimal disk space and to access those records quickly.
Alexandria completely automates all backup procedures. X11/Motif environment provides pull-down menus and graphical, intuitive access for all users. Command line interface is included for use with other UNIX utilities and text-only terminals.
User-selectable media format: Alexandria, tar or cpio. Innovative tape format increases restore performance and fault tolerance. Alexandria format allows delete-tracking to restore an accurate snapshot of a file system. Single files can span multiple media elements.
Alexandria provides complete network support across multiple hardware platforms and different storage devices -- any client on the network, privileges permitting, can back up to any server on the network.
Spectra Logic's SSCL (Serial SCSI Command Language) Interface and strict adherence to Posix standards allows Spectra Logic to support new libraries and hardware platforms quickly. This ensures that Alexandria is ready for tomorrow's storage devices and systems.
EAGLE Software, Inc. 123 Indiana Ave. Salina, Kansas 67401-3213 Phone: (913) 823-7257 FAX: (913) 823-6185 SALES HOTLINE: 800-477-5432 email: info@eaglesoft.com
