Pillar AxiomONE File Replicator

AFR provides policy-based, secure, and reliable IP-based file movement over internal networks, an extranet, or the Internet. The software supports data movement between both local and remote Pillar Axiom storage systems, to and from UNIX / Linux and Microsoft Windows® direct-attached storage (DAS) and heterogeneous SAN and NAS environments.

Cost Effective Long Distance Replication Solution
Pillar AxiomONE™ File Replicator (AFR) is an enterprise-class, heterogeneous solution that offers protection from data corruption, accidental deletions, and site disasters.

A key component of disaster recovery plans, AFR replicates consistent copies of critical file data in local and remote locations, delivering recovery time objectives (RTOs) in minutes or hours.

It offers bidirectional replication with no distance limitation, guaranteed data consistency, and advanced bandwidth reduction technology designed to dramatically reduce bandwidth requirements and associated costs.

Enterprise Consolidated Backup solution
Enterprises can establish a unified backup/restore process with AFR. AFR automates protection of file and database backups, moving data or backup images from multiple locations to a central, highly-available Pillar Axiom storage system.

Archiving and Data Life Cycle Management solution
AFR can move inactive data identified through policy
from Tier-1 storage platforms to Tier-2 or Tier-3 platforms,
keeping critical high-performance storage
resources available for critical data while improving
backup windows.

AFR uses policy-based mechanisms and file attribute-based criteria to perform file migration and retain end-user access to original data. Granular migration controls can be between Performance Dynamics tiers on a Pillar Axiom system or
between the Axiom and other heterogeneous
storage environments.

Central Policy-Based Control
To efficiently control data at remote sites, enterprises must be able to set up and implement central policies.

While many products claim central control capability, they in fact require administrators to establish a unique connection to each remote node to set policy. This approach consumes hours of administration time not only during initial set up, but each time a business requirement changes.

AxiomONE File Replicator provides a central “set it and forget it ” approach that automates the communication of policy to the remote sites (which range from the ten’s to thousands), and will notify the administrator if something does not proceed according to policy.

Distributed Architecture
AxiomONE File Replicator consists of a central manager and distributed data transfer agents. The manager and agents may be installed on data engines or appliances provided by Pillar. The manager sets, communicates, and monitors file movement jobs, while the agents handle all aspects of the file movement itself. The manager is not in the data path and therefore does not present itself as a bottleneck during complex operations.

AxiomONE File Replicator agents are available for:

• Microsoft Windows (NT4.0 and above)
• AIX
• HP-UX
• Solaris
• RedHat Linux
• SuSe Linux

WAN Network Bandwidth Utilization
Remote locations frequently have varying bandwidth that needs to be shared among multiple applications and users at particular times.

For this reason, AxiomONE File Replicator enables efficient use of available bandwidth such as byte-level differential data transfer, bandwidth scheduling and throttling, multi-streaming, and compression.

The amount of network overhead that a product sends over the network is an important consideration. Since some remote connections will likely be impaired during some processes, the ability to restart at the point of failure is critical along with the ability to re-route information flow to alternate network connections and paths.

AFR delivers on these capabilities:

Data Differencing (patent pending): AFR runs in point-in-time mode, thereby reducing the amount of data transmitted by as much as 90 percent compared to real-time replication technologies.

Bandwidth Throttling: Users can select the percentage of available bandwidth to be used on a per-job basis to balance and schedule data movement performance and the impact on other network operations.

Job and Bandwidth Scheduling: File transfer operations can be scheduled to run at times when the load on the network is light enough to support efficient transfer, such as during evening hours and on weekends.

Data Compression: AFR includes in-stream data compression using the standard LZ77 algorithm. The rate of compression varies, but it usually results in at least a 2:1 ratio. For mixed file environments, separate jobs can be set up with one using compression and the other having it turned off.

Resiliency: If a problem occurs during the transmission of a file, AxiomONE File Replicator will pick up where it left off. No more than 32KB will need to be resent when network operations are resumed.

Multi-Threading: To increase the throughput of file transfers, AxiomONE File Replicator will use up to four parallel channels throughout the network, increasing performance and reducing the time it takes to complete the transfer.

Security and Data Integrity
When moving data over networks, data security is always a major concern. Networks are always susceptible to intrusion, but particularly so in remote locations where there are fewer IT controls.

As a result, any remote data solution should authenticate all sending and receiving nodes prior to any data transfer, and encrypt data during transmission. Moreover, they should use a single firewall port and minimize firewall rules. The ability to ensure that data is received with 100 percent integrity is also an important consideration.

Features include:

Mutually Authenticated Data Transfer Agents: Employ a Certificate Authority (CA) to provide each Data Transfer Agent with an X.509 digital certificate. When a job is initiated to move or copy files between systems, the agents involved mutually authenticate each other by comparing their digital certificates, as well as examining their respective grants.

Selectable User Access Levels: There are two levels of user access. Administrator and user administrators have full access to the system, while users can be authorized for any subset of access rights. Operation can be distributed globally, while management and administration remain centralized.

File Encryption: Provides three selectable data-transfer encryption modes: XOR (64-bit), IDEA (128-bit) and AES (256-bit). Encryption can also be set to "none" in organizations that employ hardware-based or other data encryption solutions.

Logging and Auditing: Includes enterprise-class monitoring and reporting features to verify proper operations and diagnose problems.

File Transfer Certification: The solution can be configured to provide file-by-file transfer certifications, providing legal proof that the file was delivered and that the contents of the transferred file have been authenticated.

Firewall-Friendly and Agent Tunneling: By using a single, fixed port for all communications, firewall rules are easy to set up and manage.

Heterogeneous System Support
It is common that a company with multiple remote locations have a variety of computing platforms and applications to support varying business applications and processes. It is important to choose a solution that can work within a heterogeneous environment.

While this requirement seems simplistic, many products today only operate within homogeneous (single operating system) environments. AxiomONE File Replicator has the ability to support all Windows, Unix & Linux systems with storage content on DAS/NAS or SAN.

Recovery Time
All the time and money spent on backup is wasted if data can’t be recovered in a timely fashion.
The amount of time it takes to recover from a data loss event is specified as the Recovery Time Objective (RTO). Some backup and replication technologies require unacceptable manual processing to re-build protected data for use.

AxiomONE File Replicator makes recovery fast and easy: it stores an exact replica of each remote file in the central storage repository, providing immediate access at the file level when it is needed. AxiomONE File Replicator includes a feature to store up to the last 30 versions of a file. This feature is extremely valuable for recovering from a file corruption or deletion incident that isn't noticed immediately.

Remote Process Automation and Application Interfacing
To minimize or eliminate the need for manual effort at remote locations, the management solution must be able to automate processes and interface with remote applications to access data.

For example, it is preferable to back up applications such as Exchange or SQL Server using native backup routines. Therefore, the remote data solution must be able to integrate with the application and invoke the native backup package as part of the backup process.

Similarly, to maintain data and application consistency, filesystem, or disk levels for applications such as SAP and Oracle, data must be accessed through the application to ensure integrity, instead of accessing it directly at the database. Other custom or script-based processes may also be needed or required prior, during, or after data transmission. AxiomONE File Replicator provides the capability to automate these as part of the overall remote backup process.