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Last Updated July 2008
Here you will find information about Connected Backup service provided by the LAN/NOS Groupware Services (LNGS) team.
(For backup of server class machines, see TSM Backup Service.)
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February, 2008, we began using the version 8.2.0 agent for
Connected Backup.
The following is a summary of what you can expect:
- The new agent will be pushed out to and installed on your machine
automatically.
- The new agent will not back up server-based operating systems.
- You will not be able to do a heal or order optical disks for backups
performed before the new agent was pushed out but files and directories from
that period can still be retrieved.
- The location of the agent has moved to the Iron Mountain folder on your
machine.
- To retrieve files saved before the update, select All in the Show
Versions: menu.
- The
Account Management website is new. To access it, you need the account
number or e-mail address, and a password. You will not be able to log in to it
until after your agent is upgraded to version 8.2.0.
For more information, including information for end-users regarding actions at
the time of the upgrade, please see Version 7 to
Version 8 Transition Information.
Note: Feb. 20, 2008: Some agent upgrades have failed because they do not have local administrator rights on the computer that performed the upgrade. In order to install (or upgrade) to this new version the "logged in" account needs to have local admin rights to the computer in order to complete the install.
Note: April 4, 2008: The Connected Backup agent backs up and sends files to the back-end servers but the back-end processes cannot perform any work on files that have a path and name character count greater then 254, so the files can not be retrieved. This has been the case on all pervious versions of the agent, but since the upgrade to v8.2 an error is generated on the back-end servers that report these files. This behavior will be fixed in a later version so until then it is important to reduce the file's path and/or filename in order for these "long named" files to be available for retrieve and heal.
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Data stored on department servers is considered secure and protected against corruption and theft. However, data stored on individual workstations, whether desktop or portable, is vulnerable to hard drive crashes, viruses, and the theft of the device. Wise users understand that the best protection against the loss of the valuable data on their personal workstations is the regular backup of that data to a secure space.
ITCS offers a Windows workstation backup and disaster recovery service that employs technology from
Iron Mountain Digital. ITCS calls the service Connected Backup (CNB) and it is available to faculty and staff only through their department IT administrator. This service allows any user of a
currently supported 32-bit Windows operating system through Windows Vista, to easily and automatically backup and recover data on their personal workstation hard drives (desktop or portable). The service is not
currently available for non-Windows workstations.
This service is available for general service workstations and is not appropriate for departmental server backup or as a research data archival service. System backups are secure and data is protected by triple DES encryption between the workstation and the backup server. The data is stored in a compressed
and encrypted state. System repairs, needed in case of a hard drive crash or another catastrophic event, can be accomplished easily by restoring the base OS and client on the machine, and then using the
Connected Backup agent software to connect the workstation to the user's personal data files stored on the backup server.
CD/DVD disks containing all data files can also be ordered for a small fee from the
Connected Backup Service Administrator. Individual files that have been made unusable by viruses or corruption can be easily restored without assistance from an IT administrator. Changes made to the workstation, that result in an unstable
system (e.g. installing an application or an update), can be just as easily reversed to a known good date and time by the
heal feature.
Several campus departments, including the College of Engineering, School of
Information, and the Law School, joined ITCS staff in completing the pilot
program. There are currently over 1500 production users.
This service is economical. There is a one-time license fee of $50 and an additional service fee of $5 per
calendar month or fraction of a calendar month, per workstation,
for up to 40 gigabytes. Larger backup sizes are available at an additional cost:
Tier 2 provides for up to 100 gigabytes for $12.50 per calendar month, and
Tier 3 provides for up to 200 gigabytes for $25.00 per calendar month. Faculty and staff need to contact their department IT administrator to request a subscription to the
Connected Backup server and then download the appropriate software to their Windows workstation. Department IT administrators who want to demo the service should contact the
Connected Backup Service Administrator for information and to arrange for the use of three
Tier 1 nodes, free for a three month trial period.
Server class machines (Windows 2000 and Windows 2003) have a one-time license of $1,750.00 and an additional service fee of $57.50 per calendar month or fraction of a calendar month, per server. The maximum backupset size is 250 gigabytes, per server.
The cost for the first disk will be $10.00, and each additional disk will be $5.00. Data will be burned to CD/DVD as appropriate for the amount of data (i.e. if there is less than 700MB to be burned, a CD will be used). Note, this may result in request being filled with DVD(s) and then the last data disc being a CD - this will not affect Connected
Backup's ability to read or use the media.
For more information, go to the Connected Backup
User FAQ.
To offer constructive criticism, or provide other feedback
about our site, click here.
Information Technology Central Services at the University of Michigan
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