THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700


S U M M A R Y


DIARY: April 27, 2000 04:32 PM Thursday; Rod Welch

Receive call on using Ultrabac backup software.

1...Summary/Objective
2...UltraBac Provides Excellent Customer Support
3...UltraBac Permits Specifying Backup Specs with an Editor
4...Complex Two Step Process Required for Backups
5...Full Backup Failed

ACTION ITEMS.................. Click here to comment!

1...Why can't we create the ubb files with the editor simply by
2...day, so she will call back tomorrow to review restore procedures.

CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Backup Improve on C11
UltraBac Backup 000426

0704 -    ..
0705 - Summary/Objective
0706 -
070601 - Follow up ref SDS 20 0000, ref SDS 19 0000.
070602 -
070603 - As a result of MCE recommendation for improving Microsoft backup
070604 - utility tried Ultrabac.  Got outstanding support from Ultrabac, but
070605 - the process of doing a backup seems fairly awkward.  Logistics are
070606 - complex.  The Interim backup seems to be successful; however, the full
070607 - file backup process failed.  Alena will call back tomorrow about
070608 - using the Restore operation.
070609 -
070610 -    [On 000429 removed program. ref SDS 21 0001
070611 -
070612 -
070613 -
070614 -
070615 -
0707 -
0708 -
0709 - Progress
0710 -
071001 -  ..
071002 - UltraBac Provides Excellent Customer Support
071003 -
071004 - Follow up ref SDS 20 0001, ref SDS 19 3431.
071005 -
071006 - Alena Lowery called..........  425 644 6000 ext 282
071007 -
071008 -
071009 -                   alena@ultrabac.com
071010 -
071011 -
071012 - She is with UltraBac, which is the vendor for the backup program
071013 - recommended by MCE on 000331. ref SDS 19 3431
071014 -
071015 - Alena helped configure specifications for full file and interim
071016 - backup operations.
071017 -
071018 -
071019 -
071020 -  ..
071021 - UltraBac Permits Specifying Backup Specs with an Editor
071022 - Complex Two Step Process Required for Backups
071023 -
071024 - Ultrabac generates two files for each backup, a header and a data
071025 - file.  These need to be differentiated, so we store backup data sets
071026 - in separate directories.
071027 -
071028 - We used the editor to support a two step process creating backup up
071029 - specification files with a ub extension, and also processor files with
071030 - a ubb extension.
071031 -
071032 -   1.  Detailed backup specifications...
071033 -           ..
071034 -       a.  Full file backup
071035 -
071036 -            h: 00 09 06 fc11.ub          ref OF 3 0000
071037 -
071038 -       b.  Interim requires separate file for each drive...
071039 -
071040 -            h: 00 09 06 ic11c.ub         ref OF 7 0000
071041 -
071042 -                 +00\10\* /r /da
071043 -
071044 -            The syntax uses * to be the same as *.*  To specify a
071045 -            class of files use *.[name] of extension.
071046 -
071047 -            /r = subdirectories
071048 -
071049 -            /da = archive bit on files, or something like that.
071050 -
071051 -            h: 00 09 06 ic11d.ub         ref OF 8 0000
071052 -            h: 00 09 06 ic11e.ub         ref OF 9 0000
071053 -            h: 00 09 06 ic11f.ub         ref OF 10 0000
071054 -            h: 00 09 06 ic11g.ub         ref OF 11 0000
071055 -            h: 00 09 06 ic11h.ub         ref OF 12 0000
071056 -
071057 -
071058 -   2.  Used Ultrabac windows stuff to create a processor...
071059 -
071060 -       a.  Full file backup...
071061 -
071062 -            h: 00 09 06 full.ubb         ref OF 1 0000
071063 -
071064 -       b.  Interim backup...
071065 -
071066 -            h: 00 09 06 interim.ubb      ref OF 5 0000
071067 -
071068 -       Why can't we create the ubb files with the editor simply by
071069 -       entering the commands???
071070 -
071071 - Once the specification and processors are created we can run the daily
071072 - interim backups to disk by clicking...
071073 -
071074 -     1.  Select
071075 -           Storage Device
071076 -
071077 -         This opens a window showing a device, identifier and path
071078 -
071079 -         We have to set the path each backup, so the backup files are
071080 -         stored separately.  This program creates at least two files
071081 -         for each drive...
071082 -
071083 -         a.  Header
071084 -         b.  Data
071085 -
071086 -         We are saving the backup data on the disk, as has been done
071087 -         recently on e drive...
071088 -
071089 -             e: bu
071090 -
071091 -         We create a directory that corresponds to the date of the
071092 -         backup data...
071093 -
071094 -             e: bu 000427
071095 -
071096 -         This is done by editing the prior spec.
071097 -
071098 -         Highlight the line, then click "Edit"
071099 -
071100 -         This opens a separate screen where the name of the operation
071101 -         is shown in one section.  This does not require editing.
071102 -
071103 -         The directory is in a second section.  Modify by changing the
071104 -         name to the current date, so there is a separate location for
071105 -         each group of files for the backup.
071106 -
071107 -         Click OK to close the Select operation.
071108 -
071109 -     2.  Schedule
071110 -            Schedule Backups
071111 -
071112 -         This opens a complicated looking window with a bunch of
071113 -         stuff.
071114 -
071115 -         Schedule Backup section has three entries...
071116 -
071117 -           New
071118 -           full.ubb
071119 -           interim.ubb
071120 -
071121 -         Click on interim.ubb to select it.
071122 -
071123 -         Click Run Now which is sort of in the top right corner.
071124 -
071125 -
071126 - This goes out an chugs away to do the backup.
071127 -
071128 - The backup log is a slight improvement on the stuff produced by
071129 - Microsoft in that it creates a file of commensurate size to the actual
071130 - backup that is created.  If we backup 2 MB of stuff the file is about
071131 - 2 MB, instead of 15 MB, as occurs with Microsoft's backup utility,
071132 - because it lists every directory on the system, rather than only
071133 - those that contain files that are backed up.
071134 -
071135 - The format for the backup report stacks files below a directory,
071136 - instead of placing each file on its directory, which makes it hard to
071137 - read.
071138 -
071139 - The output backup files have no apparent correlation to the backup
071140 - specifications.  There is a list produced of the following type...
071141 -
071142 -        -ub-back.001        32K  001 File     4/28/2000
071143 -        -ub-back.002     5,952K  001 File     4/28/2000
071144 -        -ub-back.003        32K  001 File     4/28/2000
071145 -        -ub-back.004       224K  001 File     4/28/2000
071146 -        -ub-back.005        32K  001 File     4/28/2000
071147 -        -ub-back.006        96K  001 File     4/28/2000
071148 -        -ub-back.007        32K  001 File     4/28/2000
071149 -        -ub-back.008        32K  001 File     4/28/2000
071150 -        -ub-back.009        32K  001 File     4/28/2000
071151 -        -ub-back.010     2,240K  001 File     4/28/2000
071152 -        -ub-back.011        32K  001 File     4/28/2000
071153 -        -ub-back.012         0K  001 File     4/28/2000
071154 -
071155 -
071156 - This seems to correlate to there being 2 files created for each data
071157 - set c - h which makes 6, i.e., 2 x 6 = 12.  But there is no
071158 - idenfification that correlates to the work performed accumulating
071159 - backups for drives c - h.
071160 -
071161 - The size of the files does not correlate with the actual work in that
071162 - the d drive should be file ....004 and it only shows 224 KB, whereas
071163 - it should be much larger than ....002 which presumably is for the c
071164 - drive and shows 5,952 KB.
071165 -
071166 - It may be that the software figures everything out and displays
071167 - things correctly, but that is not apparent yet.
071168 -
071169 -
071170 -
071171 -  ..
0712 -
0713 -
0714 - 1823
0715 -
071501 - At this point Alena had to do some other chores and leave for the
071502 - day, so she will call back tomorrow to review restore procedures.
071503 -
071504 - Issues are...
071505 -
071506 -      Where are backup logs stored?
071507 -
071508 -      How do we get rid of them, and build them as needed, instead of
071509 -      wasting disk space?
071510 -
071511 -         A full file backup for example, might require 30 - 80 MB just
071512 -         to list the stuff.
071513 -
071514 -         We don't want to accumulate these files, which may or may not
071515 -         ever be used, when the stuff can be created at will.
071516 -
071517 -         Deleting logs, might be one thing we want to run after a
071518 -         backup.
071519 -
071520 -      How do we do a selective restore, i.e., go through and specify
071521 -      what files or directories to restore.
071522 -
071523 -      How do we enter remarks in a spec file?
071524 -
071525 -      Need manual for Ultrabac commands.
071526 -
071527 -
071528 -
071529 -
071530 -
0716 -
0717 -
0718 - 0248
0719 -
071901 -  ..
071902 - Full Backup Failed
071903 -
071904 - Early next morning, tried full file backup spec. ref SDS 0 1550 It did
071905 - not backup anything and produced no error messages.
071906 -
071907 - Tried it twice, and failed twice.
071908 -
071909 - Tried formatting the media, and got message the media is already
071910 - formatted.
071911 -
071912 -
071913 -
071914 -
071915 -
071916 -
071917 -
0720 -