Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
Hello, In part to the question posed about validating the purchase of Aptare and stating its benefits does anyone have experience with Aptare in comparison to Netbackup 6.0 NOM that they could state reasons to favor one over the other? Does anyone have comments about Symantec Backup Reporter in relation to the previously two mentioned products? I'm in the same situation of validating purchasing improved reporting software to my companies' hierarchy. Thank you, Steve -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hindle, Greg Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:42 AM To: Liddle, Stuart; David Rock; veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits Thanks! Greg -Original Message- From: Liddle, Stuart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 2:39 PM To: Hindle, Greg; David Rock; veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits Greg, I can tell you that we run the command: bppllist -allpolicies -U and put the resulting output into a file which we then put into a revision control system (we use subversion). Plus we have a Change Control system where our users request changes to the backups like adding/removing systems, path changes, etc. These work orders are then referenced when we check in a change to the policy list. --stuart -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hindle, Greg Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:28 AM To: David Rock; veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits David, How do you track policy changes? Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Rock Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 2:10 PM To: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits * Ed Wilts [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2007-03-19 22:23]: These are benefits from StorageConsole that we get all the time - some exclusively from StorageConsole and some in combination with our own tools. I'm pretty sure that there are features that we're not using yet (some just because they're not as applicable to our environment as they could be to others and perhaps some just because I haven't mastered it all (like automated reporting)). I can mirror most of this, plus add a few more. One of the more recent additions is tracking of policy changes. We are just starting to use this as an audit control of what changes are made in a given policy. It makes for a good balance check against our change management process. We have also saved many hours of our operations staff's time by giving them a single screen to monitor off-hours rather than have seven distinct NBU Activity Montiors running to track job status. The consolidated views simplify and help target what we react to. My favorite report is probably the Backup Duration SLA report. It gives a simple view of what backups are taking a long time to complete, allowing us to target those systems as potential items to optimize. -- David Rock [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu This e-mail and any attachments are confidential, may contain legal, professional or other privileged information, and are intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, do not use the information in this e-mail in any way, delete this e-mail and notify the sender. CEG-IP1 ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
* Ed Wilts [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2007-03-19 22:23]: These are benefits from StorageConsole that we get all the time - some exclusively from StorageConsole and some in combination with our own tools. I'm pretty sure that there are features that we're not using yet (some just because they're not as applicable to our environment as they could be to others and perhaps some just because I haven't mastered it all (like automated reporting)). I can mirror most of this, plus add a few more. One of the more recent additions is tracking of policy changes. We are just starting to use this as an audit control of what changes are made in a given policy. It makes for a good balance check against our change management process. We have also saved many hours of our operations staff's time by giving them a single screen to monitor off-hours rather than have seven distinct NBU Activity Montiors running to track job status. The consolidated views simplify and help target what we react to. My favorite report is probably the Backup Duration SLA report. It gives a simple view of what backups are taking a long time to complete, allowing us to target those systems as potential items to optimize. -- David Rock [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
David, How do you track policy changes? Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Rock Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 2:10 PM To: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits * Ed Wilts [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2007-03-19 22:23]: These are benefits from StorageConsole that we get all the time - some exclusively from StorageConsole and some in combination with our own tools. I'm pretty sure that there are features that we're not using yet (some just because they're not as applicable to our environment as they could be to others and perhaps some just because I haven't mastered it all (like automated reporting)). I can mirror most of this, plus add a few more. One of the more recent additions is tracking of policy changes. We are just starting to use this as an audit control of what changes are made in a given policy. It makes for a good balance check against our change management process. We have also saved many hours of our operations staff's time by giving them a single screen to monitor off-hours rather than have seven distinct NBU Activity Montiors running to track job status. The consolidated views simplify and help target what we react to. My favorite report is probably the Backup Duration SLA report. It gives a simple view of what backups are taking a long time to complete, allowing us to target those systems as potential items to optimize. -- David Rock [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu This e-mail and any attachments are confidential, may contain legal, professional or other privileged information, and are intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, do not use the information in this e-mail in any way, delete this e-mail and notify the sender. CEG-IP1 ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
* Hindle, Greg [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2007-03-20 14:27]: David, How do you track policy changes? They have recently added a policy audit module that you can access the same way you would accecss an automated report. We are currently on 6.0.14, I don't remember off the top of my head when they added the access to the report. The reports are in the /opt/aptare/database/custom_reports directory in a typical install. -- David Rock [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
Greg, I can tell you that we run the command: bppllist -allpolicies -U and put the resulting output into a file which we then put into a revision control system (we use subversion). Plus we have a Change Control system where our users request changes to the backups like adding/removing systems, path changes, etc. These work orders are then referenced when we check in a change to the policy list. --stuart -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hindle, Greg Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:28 AM To: David Rock; veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits David, How do you track policy changes? Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Rock Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 2:10 PM To: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits * Ed Wilts [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2007-03-19 22:23]: These are benefits from StorageConsole that we get all the time - some exclusively from StorageConsole and some in combination with our own tools. I'm pretty sure that there are features that we're not using yet (some just because they're not as applicable to our environment as they could be to others and perhaps some just because I haven't mastered it all (like automated reporting)). I can mirror most of this, plus add a few more. One of the more recent additions is tracking of policy changes. We are just starting to use this as an audit control of what changes are made in a given policy. It makes for a good balance check against our change management process. We have also saved many hours of our operations staff's time by giving them a single screen to monitor off-hours rather than have seven distinct NBU Activity Montiors running to track job status. The consolidated views simplify and help target what we react to. My favorite report is probably the Backup Duration SLA report. It gives a simple view of what backups are taking a long time to complete, allowing us to target those systems as potential items to optimize. -- David Rock [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu This e-mail and any attachments are confidential, may contain legal, professional or other privileged information, and are intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, do not use the information in this e-mail in any way, delete this e-mail and notify the sender. CEG-IP1 ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
Ok Thanks. This is a Aptare thing. Good I am trying to convince my management here to buy this product. Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Rock Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 2:35 PM To: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits * Hindle, Greg [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2007-03-20 14:27]: David, How do you track policy changes? They have recently added a policy audit module that you can access the same way you would accecss an automated report. We are currently on 6.0.14, I don't remember off the top of my head when they added the access to the report. The reports are in the /opt/aptare/database/custom_reports directory in a typical install. -- David Rock [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu This e-mail and any attachments are confidential, may contain legal, professional or other privileged information, and are intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, do not use the information in this e-mail in any way, delete this e-mail and notify the sender. CEG-IP1 ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
Thanks! Greg -Original Message- From: Liddle, Stuart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 2:39 PM To: Hindle, Greg; David Rock; veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits Greg, I can tell you that we run the command: bppllist -allpolicies -U and put the resulting output into a file which we then put into a revision control system (we use subversion). Plus we have a Change Control system where our users request changes to the backups like adding/removing systems, path changes, etc. These work orders are then referenced when we check in a change to the policy list. --stuart -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hindle, Greg Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:28 AM To: David Rock; veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits David, How do you track policy changes? Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Rock Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 2:10 PM To: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits * Ed Wilts [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2007-03-19 22:23]: These are benefits from StorageConsole that we get all the time - some exclusively from StorageConsole and some in combination with our own tools. I'm pretty sure that there are features that we're not using yet (some just because they're not as applicable to our environment as they could be to others and perhaps some just because I haven't mastered it all (like automated reporting)). I can mirror most of this, plus add a few more. One of the more recent additions is tracking of policy changes. We are just starting to use this as an audit control of what changes are made in a given policy. It makes for a good balance check against our change management process. We have also saved many hours of our operations staff's time by giving them a single screen to monitor off-hours rather than have seven distinct NBU Activity Montiors running to track job status. The consolidated views simplify and help target what we react to. My favorite report is probably the Backup Duration SLA report. It gives a simple view of what backups are taking a long time to complete, allowing us to target those systems as potential items to optimize. -- David Rock [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu This e-mail and any attachments are confidential, may contain legal, professional or other privileged information, and are intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, do not use the information in this e-mail in any way, delete this e-mail and notify the sender. CEG-IP1 ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
Is there a newsgroup/forum I can go to for tips/hints on how others are using Aptare with NetBackup ? Thanks, /Steve -- On Tue, 20 Mar 2007, Hindle, Greg wrote: Ok Thanks. This is a Aptare thing. Good I am trying to convince my management here to buy this product. Greg snip ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
Greg, I'm trying to convince my management to purchase it as well. Besides all the benefits of the visual dashboard and the daily reports on utilization (Media Servers and tape drives), SLAs, Missing and Suspect client backups; I am using custom reports to email our compliance department of our daily job summaries. In this report, there is a Notes field added to the report that includes the Notes I add to a JobID that either fails, retries or partially succeeds. Overall, I love the ease of creating so many reports that give me a better picture of what my backup environment is doing. Phil. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hindle, Greg Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 1:41 PM To: David Rock; veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits Ok Thanks. This is a Aptare thing. Good I am trying to convince my management here to buy this product. Greg -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Rock Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 2:35 PM To: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits * Hindle, Greg [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2007-03-20 14:27]: David, How do you track policy changes? They have recently added a policy audit module that you can access the same way you would accecss an automated report. We are currently on 6.0.14, I don't remember off the top of my head when they added the access to the report. The reports are in the /opt/aptare/database/custom_reports directory in a typical install. -- David Rock [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu This e-mail and any attachments are confidential, may contain legal, professional or other privileged information, and are intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, do not use the information in this e-mail in any way, delete this e-mail and notify the sender. CEG-IP1 ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu CALAMOS INVESTMENTS CANNOT ACT UPON, AND WILL NOT ACCEPT, ANY TIME-SENSITIVE ELECTRONIC MESSAGES, SUCH AS TRANSACTION ORDERS AND FUND TRANSFER INSTRUCTIONS. ALSO, FOR YOUR PROTECTION, PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY IDENTIFYING INFORMATION, SUCH AS ACCOUNT NUMBERS OR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS, THROUGH THE INTERNET. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is confidential . If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is prohibited. Please notify the sender immediately if this message was transmitted in error. Thank you. ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
* Liddle, Stuart [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2007-03-20 11:39]: Greg, I can tell you that we run the command: bppllist -allpolicies -U and put the resulting output into a file which we then put into a revision control system (we use subversion). Plus we have a Change Control system where our users request changes to the backups like adding/removing systems, path changes, etc. These work orders are then referenced when we check in a change to the policy list. That is certainly a direct (and inexpensive) way to do it. Good idea. -- David Rock [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
I guess the overall consensus is that this is a good product. How much does it cost -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Rock Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 12:07 PM To: veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits * Liddle, Stuart [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2007-03-20 11:39]: Greg, I can tell you that we run the command: bppllist -allpolicies -U and put the resulting output into a file which we then put into a revision control system (we use subversion). Plus we have a Change Control system where our users request changes to the backups like adding/removing systems, path changes, etc. These work orders are then referenced when we check in a change to the policy list. That is certainly a direct (and inexpensive) way to do it. Good idea. -- David Rock [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
* Matthew Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2007-03-20 13:57]: I guess the overall consensus is that this is a good product. How much does it cost It's not exactly cheap, but I think you have to talk to Aptare about the specifics. I get the impression that pricing is not necessarily a fixed option. :-( -- David Rock [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
On 3/20/2007 2:53 PM, Steve Quan wrote: Is there a newsgroup/forum I can go to for tips/hints on how others are using Aptare with NetBackup ? You're there :-). .../Ed -- Ed Wilts, RHCE, BCFP Mounds View, MN, USA mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
[Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
To those NBU Aptare users: I'm already convinced of the vendor preference for Aptare as the third party NetBackup reporting tool alternative, what I'd like to know is the real world experiences for this tool and reports the can be generated and realized in terms of: 1. Cost management. 2. Process management (scheduling). 3. Capacity management (of which there are many. ie. tape utilization, pool utilization etc.) 4. Forecasting (predicative analysis with thresholds etc.) or anything else that has helped in terms of proficiency, driving down costs and/or other economic benefits since having installed it into an enterprise environment. I can get the sales pitch answers from Aptare directly, but I'm more interested in this forum's real world experiences. A timely response would be appreciated. Thank you, Scott PS: Environment - W2K/W2K3 Master ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU Aptare - Real World Benefits
On 3/19/2007 9:49 PM, Scott Jacobson wrote: I'm already convinced of the vendor preference for Aptare as the third party NetBackup reporting tool alternative, what I'd like to know is the real world experiences for this tool and reports the can be generated and realized in terms of: 1. Cost management. 2. Process management (scheduling). 3. Capacity management (of which there are many. ie. tape utilization, pool utilization etc.) 4. Forecasting (predicative analysis with thresholds etc.) or anything else that has helped in terms of proficiency, driving down costs and/or other economic benefits since having installed it into an enterprise environment. We use Aptare StorageConsole in many ways: - identify when we're running out of tape drives by measuring utilization. - identify when we run out of tape library slots - identify tapes in the wrong pool - those tapes did not get returned to the proper pools so therefore were tying up library slots and forcing us to buy more tapes - long-term trending. We don't use the StorageConsole modules to forecast tape utilization but we use the volume trending graphs - 6-Sigma quality control (we use a combination of exported Aptare data and our own graphs) - scheduling quality. StorageConsole helped us identify major bugs in NetBackup 6.0MP3 where jobs weren't being properly scheduled (fixed in MP4). - distributed quality control - DBAs now check their own success rates and volumes. The 6-Sigma graphs are generated by another group without our help (beyond the initial training) - Mission Control reports are superb for seeing the success rate of individual mount points rather than looking at just looking at overall server success rates. Helps identify mount points that are at risk. Especially critical for things like databases that are spread across multiple mount points or Exchange stores. - on the capacity management front, we've migrated from one tape technology to another. We're using StorageConsole to give us visibility into the individual tape pools and retention dates to see if/when we should rewrite the old tapes to new tapes. - centralized reporting - we now report on both BackupExec and NetBackup. We're primarily BackupExec in our remote offices. This now gives us better capacity planning for our remote sites. These are benefits from StorageConsole that we get all the time - some exclusively from StorageConsole and some in combination with our own tools. I'm pretty sure that there are features that we're not using yet (some just because they're not as applicable to our environment as they could be to others and perhaps some just because I haven't mastered it all (like automated reporting)). I hope this helps - I know I rambled but I figured you're rather a rambling timely report than none at all. .../Ed -- Ed Wilts, RHCE, BCFP Mounds View, MN, USA mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Veritas-bu maillist - Veritas-bu@mailman.eng.auburn.edu http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
