CIT's Backup and Recovery of Your Servers—Files Are Stored Off-Site

CIT offers automatic backup and recovery for your file servers—wherever they are located—via NBARS, the NIH Backup and Recovery service. NBARS provides a secure, centralized backup/recovery service that you can configure for your needs, leaving decisions and control in your hands.

Whether your servers or workstations are on the Bethesda campus, in NIH rental buildings, or in the on-campus or off-campus co-location sites (at NIH or in Virginia), NBARS backs up your files to a secure location in the NIH Data Center. NBARS uses the Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) client/server software. TSM has three elements: a server component at CIT that stores and keeps track of the backed up files; a backup client for users to back up and restore directories and files from workstations; and an administrative client for central and local administration of the system.

Advantages of NBARS

Once NBARS service is set up for your server or workstation, backups occur automatically on the schedule you determine. When you need to restore a file, use the graphical interface on your own computer to select the backup file you need—and the file is quickly and securely transmitted back to your computer. Among the main advantages:

• backups
  – you specify what files to back up and how many backup versions to keep
  – you determine the frequency and time of backups


• rapid recovery
  – you can restore files any time, day or night


• security
  – you create a TSM password to protect data against unauthorized access
  – you have off-site data storage for your important data files

In addition, you have no hardware or software to buy. And the costs of file storage and transmission of data are inexpensive considering the alternative—taking the time to redo your work.

Security

You have the comfort of knowing that two backup copies are being kept. All backed-up data is stored in the secure NIH Data Center on the Bethesda campus. In addition, every night another copy is made to our off-site facility in Baltimore, Maryland. The TSM server database that keeps track of the backed up files is also backed up to the Baltimore facility, in case the current database develops a problem.

Data is transmitted between the client and server across the network with normal network security. TSM also provides keyed encryption methods for transmitting data.

NBARS provides a highly reliable and secure backup service for your file servers—whether you need a single file restored or need business to carry on as usual in the event of a disaster.

Charges for NBARS

Charges for this service are based on the number of backup files stored and the amount of data transferred over the network. The monthly charges are:

• storage charge — $.00075 per file


• transfer charge — calculated on a sliding scale that provides a discount for large transfers, ranging from $.015 per megabyte for the first 1000 megabytes to as little as $7.50 per gigabyte.

How Do I Get NBARS?

In order to use NBARS for your backup needs you must:

• be part of a policy domain (join NBARS public domain or set up your own custom domain)


• contact CIT to have a node name and initial password assigned


• install the free, downloadable TSM client software

Information is available on the NBARS web site. The links to "Overview" and "Getting Started" will be especially helpful.

If you have questions or need help, contact the NIH Help Desk at 301-496-4357 or via the web page.

See the following article in this issue on the new version of the TSM client software.