Windows System Backup and Restore

For computers running Microsoft Windows Vista Business/Enterprise/Ultimate Edition, Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008, Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) client backup application of Backup Planet Backup Software is able to perform Windows System Backup and Restore. For older versions of Windows, we will provide you with a special tool for using in conjunction with PlanetPRO to perform Windows System Backup and Restore.

You can configure PlanetPRO to save a copy of a Windows system on a local or network hard-drive before performing offsite backup. In case of a total-loss disaster happened to a local computer or server, you can recover the Windows system quickly from the local backup. A crashed Windows machine with 10GB in size can be recovered within 10 minutes. If the local backup has been destroyed in the disaster, the backed up Windows image can still be restored easily from the Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS).

Therefore, Backup Planet offers you a complete backup solution in protecting your Windows machines and allows you to recover them quickly after disasters.

Support Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express

Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) and Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE) client applications can be used to backup Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express. Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express are the two most popular email readers used by businesses and home users. However, backing up data stored in these two email readers is a headache to most users, as few users know where to find the related files storing the personal information (e.g. “.pst”, “.dbx”) and address book (“.wab”) used by these email readers to back up. With PlanetPRO / PlanetLITE, backing up these data becomes really easy as it only requires clicking a few buttons.

Brick-Level Backup and Restore for Microsoft Exchange Server

The built-in Microsoft Exchange Brick-Level Backup Module in Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) allows you to perform brick-level backup and restore for Microsoft Exchange Server, including individual emails, calendars, and contact lists, etc. When data loss disaster strikes, user can restore any individual emails, calendars and contact lists within a very short period of time, without the need to restore the full Exchange's information store. This capability makes PlanetPRO an ideal backup tool for Microsoft Exchange Server.

Support All Common Databases

Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) client-side backup application comes with specialized backup modules for backing up commonly used database and email servers. System administrator is able to activate or deactivate individual modules for different users through Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS). These modules include:

Virtual Machine Backup

Our client-side backup application, Backup Planet PlanetPRO (PlanetPRO) version 6, is able to back up the images of individual guest virtual machines in VMware ESX, ESXi, Server, Workstation, Fusion, Player and Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

You can restore the whole backed up image of a particular virtual machine to its original host server. Alternatively, you can also restore the components of a virtual machine, e.g. VMDK of VMWare, or the snapshots, virtual hard disks and virtual machines of Microsoft Hyper-V, for manual restoration.

With Backup Planet, virtual machine backup is simply a breeze.

Backup Planet unifies VMware virtual machines backup

	The only solution that supports VMware ESXi Free version
	Restore whole backed up virtual machine images to the host
	Restore selected components, e.g. VMDK, for manual restoration

Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) is a client-side backup application that comes with the VMware dedicated backup modules for ESX, ESXi, Server, Workstation, Fusion, and Player. Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) is a backup server application for storing all the backup data. For backing up ESX or ESXi, install PlanetPRO on a machine that is on the same network as the ESX or ESXi. For other host types, simply install PlanetPRO on the host machine.

After proper configuration, PlanetPRO will automatically spool out the selected virtual machines' snapshot images, calculate incremental delta changes, encrypt and compress the changes, and then back them up to the PlanetOBS according to the defined backup schedule. The following examples illustrate the steps for backup and restore of the virtual machines in a VMware ESXi host server. The procedures for other host type are pretty much the same.

VMware backup has never been easier

Step 1:

Simply create a VMware VM Backup set in Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) client-side backup application.
   

Step 2:

Enter the information required for logging on the VMware Host.
   

Step 3:

Select the corresponding virtual machines for backup.
   

Step 4:

Configure the backup schedule, encryption setting, and that's it. Once completed, the backup job will start automatically.

Restore is just a few clicks away

Step 1:

Simply choose the VMware backup set that you have created for the VMware ESXi host.
   

Step 2:

Select the virtual machines to be restored and choose [Original Location] for restore files to.
   

Step 3:

User will be prompted if a virtual machine selected to be restored exist on the hypervisor. Choose the appropriate option.
   

Step 4:

When the restore process is completed, the virtual machine(s) will be restored to the original hypervisor.

With Backup Planet, backing up VMware ESX, ESXi, Server, Workstation, Fusion, and Player is simply a breeze.

Continuous Data Protection

Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) and Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE) are equipped with advanced Continuous Data Protection (CDP) feature which can be set to capture every version of the data of a file that has been saved to your hard drive. With CDP, whenever you have made changes to the files in the backup set, it will automatically backup the changes to Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS). Thus, it provides a highly dependable means of real-time, continuous data protection for file servers, desktops, and laptops effortlessly and transparently, without any human intervention.

Open File Backup

Both client-side backup applications, Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) and Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE), are integrated with Microsoft's latest Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) framework. this allows you to back up files that are opened without any additional applications or plug-ins. VSS is only available on Windows XP / 2003 / 2008 / Vista / Windows 7, and you must have administrative privileges to start the VSS service on a computer. Also, VSS will only work if at least one of your partitions is formatted using NTFS.

Flexible Backup Schedule

Other than Continuous Data Protection (CDP), both our client-side backup applications, Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) and Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE), are equipped with flexible backup scheduler that allows you to implement your desired backup policy.

As PlanetPRO is a comprehensive client-side application designed for backing up servers, it comes with an advanced scheduler which allows system administrators to create multiple backup schedules such as backup at a specific time and at multiple times per day etc. PlanetLITE is designed for desktop and notebook backup, thus its scheduler is with simpler options.

Instant Data Replication

Backup data from Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) is replicated to a Backup Planet Replication Server (PlanetRPS) via the Internet. PlanetOBS will automatically push (replicate) the backed up data to PlanetRPS after a backup job is finished. This instant replication provides added protection to the data backed up by Backup Planet users. In case the PlanetOBS fails, PlanetRPS can be converted into PlanetOBS, so that schedule backup jobs will not be interrupted. PlanetRPS servers are in a different physical location then PlanetOBS servers as well as a different geographical location of more then 200 miles. Therefore, PlanetRPS provides an added protection to the backed up data.

In-File Delta Technology

Both client-side backup applicants, Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) and Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE), are equipped with our proprietary In-File Delta technology. With this feature, the original file is required to be backed up once only, i.e. in the first backup job. Subsequently, only changes are necessary to be backed up. There are two types of In-File Delta that users can choose.

Bandwidth Throttling

As a system administrator, you can use the centralized web management console of Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) to assign the maximum bandwidth that a specific backup user can consume. It is extremely useful for better managing the available bandwidth for the whole backup system, and eliminating the chance that a backup user consumes all the available bandwidth because of backing up large files.

Top of the Class Encryption

All data will be compressed and encrypted with 256-bit encryption with an encrypting key selected by the user on the client-side applications, Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) and Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE), before being uploaded and stored on Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS). The encrypting key will NEVER be uploaded to PlanetOBS during backup. In addition, all backup data is uploaded through a secure SSL channel to further increase the level of security. On the other hand, decryption is only possible with user's encrypting key. Therefore, this whole mechanism provides exceptional security to the backed up data.

Centralized Web Management Console

Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) comes with a centralized web management console which allows system administrators to manage the whole backup system from anywhere at anytime through any web browsers.

Through the intuitive user interface, a system administrator can configure backup sets, throttle bandwidth, enable add-on modules, set users' quota, restore data for specific users, retreive system log, statistics, error reports easily.

On the other hand, a user can also make use of the web console to configure profile, edit backup set(s), view backup report and statistics, etc. Moreover, the user is also able to restore backed up files through the console.

Comprehensive Log, Report and Statistics

Backup Planet will send backup report to individual backup users via email, informing them the overall backup status and statistics, including numbers of new, updated, deleted and moved files being backed up. If any errors occurred during backup, users will also be notified. Besides email, they can also access to the report by logging on Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS).

Web Based Data Restore

Backup Planet Backup Software allows users to restore backup data via the Internet through any web browser. This provides you with the option of restoring your backed up data from a computer that has no Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) or Backup Planet PlanetLITE (PlanetLITE) client applications installed. It would thus be very useful when you need to restore some backed up files during traveling, or when your notebook is stolen during your business trip.

Support Windows Active Directory

Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) supports Windows Active Directory (AD). This means that if an AD is present in the network, it is only required to create an user account once in AD and the same user account can also be used in Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS), because PlanetOBS will create this user account automatically after authenticating this logon using AD. This eliminates the need of manually creating backup accounts on PlanetOBS by system administrators.

To further synchronize PlanetOBS and AD, removal of users can be also configured. If you want to delete/disable PlanetOBS user account when the user is removed from AD, you can also configure it in PlanetOBS. You can have both options checked and create your own standard. For example, you can configure the settings in PlanetOBS so that when the user account is removed from AD after 5 days, the user account will be disabled and after 5 more days, the user account will be deleted.

Seed Load Utility

If you have a lot of data (e.g. 550GB) to backup to the backup server, it would take a considerable amount of time to perform the first full backup through the Internet. If you run into this problem, you can use the Seed Load Utility to back up your backup set to local hard disk (instead of directly to the backup server) and then mail the backup data, using removable hard disk, to Backup Planet. The administrator can then load all your backup files from your removable hard disk into your backup account. This could then save you days (even weeks) of performing your first full backup. Since subsequent backup will be incremental backups (only new or updated files will be uploaded to the server) you should have no problems uploading your backup data afterwards.

High Availability Architecture

The high availability architecture of Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) is ideal for businesses who have a large number of client computers to back up concurrently. Specifically, multiple PlanetOBS servers can be configured as a high availability cluster, so that when one PlanetOBS is out of order, there are still other PlanetOBS servers running, making the system still available for backup.

With this configuration, all PlanetOBS instances are essentially standalone except that they share the "user homes" via shared storage. A special distributed locking mechanism is added to control the update of these user homes to eliminate the occurrence that two different processes writing to the same user profile and thus corrupting it. In the event that an PlanetOBS instance fails, Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) and Backup Planet PlanetLITE (PlanetLITE) will automatically "fail over" the backups in progress to other PlanetOBS instances. Therefore, this makes it possible for the complete backup system to achieve optimal resource utilization, throughput, and response time. In addition, system reliability is also greatly improved with added redundancy.

Support 32 Languages

Backup Planet supports 32 languages, which cover over 90% of the world's population. New languages are being added continuously. Therefore, even if you have offices in different corners of the world using different languages, Backup Planet can be used to back up all the servers, desktops and notebooks in all of your offices. Supported languages include:

High Scalability Architecture

The Backup Planet Redirector (PlanetRDR) add-on component makes Backup Planet highly scalable. Specifically, PlanetRDR is a scalable load sharing solution which enables you to spread the user population across multiple standalone Backup Planet Offsite Backup Servers (PlanetOBS). PlanetRDR works by redirecting connections to the corresponding server allowing your backup solution to support any number of users, distributed between any numbers of servers. Therefore, it allows you to easily scale your backup system, both up or down as your requirement changes. In addition, it also allows you to save initial investment on hardware, instead of purchasing a powerful server with a lot of headroom during startup, you can use a smaller server initially.

Command Line Tool

Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) client application is equipped with a command line tool, which allows users to run pre-backup and post-backup commands. This feature is extremely useful for system administrators to back up an application or a database which Backup Planet does not have a dedicated module for.

For example, you can write proper scripts to spool out a database to a temporary folder before running backup, and delete the temporary folder after finishing backup. With this powerful tool, Backup Planet can back up essentially any applications and databases.

Support All Common Operating System

Backup Planet Backup Software is developed with Java. Therefore, all Backup Planet's applications are able to run on all common operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Mac, UNIX and all other platforms that support Java. Please refer to Backup Planet Knowledge Base for the latest supported versions of these operating systems.

Backup Account Protected by Login Name and Password

For each backup account using Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) or Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE) client-side backup application, it is required to have a login name and password. These credentials will be used for logging in the client-side application as well as the user section of the Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) web console for security protection. System administrator will also have a unique account for loggoin in the administrator

Support Proxy Server

All applications of Backup Planet Backup Software, including Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO), and Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE)), support the use of proxy server.

Flexible Retention Policy

Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) is a fully featured client-side backup application that supports a flexible retention policy. You can define multiple retention policies for each backup set. On the other hand, Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE) simplified client-side backup application supports simple retention policy for its backup set.

Logout Reminder

Both Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) and Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE) are incorporated with the System Logout Backup Reminder feature. With this option selected, the user will be "reminded" to perform a backup when logging off Windows or shutting down the machine. If the user selects "Yes", PlanetPRO / PlanetLITE will start the backup job(s) and shut down the machine automatically when the backup job completes.

Triggering backup from server side by administrator

In case a system administrator spots some missed backup jobs through Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS), the system administrator is able to trigger the backup jobs through the web console.

Email Backup Report to User and System Administrator

Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) will automatically send out a full backup report to the backup user as well as the administrator after each backup job finished.

Keeping a Local Copy of the Backup Data on Client Side

Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) is able to keep a local copy of the backup data for fast restoration. Users are even able to define a unique retention policy for keeping the local copy of backup data.

Flexible Backup Filter

Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) and Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE) comes with a comprehensive filtering tool for filtering the files that need to be included or excluded during backup.

CRC Data Integrity Checking on Server Side

Both Backup Planet Offline Backup Server (PlanetOBS) and Backup Planet Replication Server (PlanetRPS) have CRC data integrity checking before storing the backup data. The CRC checking is configured to run bi-monthly on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of every month.

Off-line Backup Reminder

Both Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) and Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE) client-side backup applications are equipped with off-line backup reminder feature. This feature is basically designed for users who are off-line most of the time and cannot rely on the backup schedule to backup regularly. The Backup Interval allows users to specify the interval that they would like their data to backup. When the machine is online and this interval has elapsed, backup will run automatically. If Off-Line Backup Alert is enabled, a popup message box will ask the user to confirm starting the backup. The Email Notification setting is the number of days since the last backup that triggers the backup server to send email notification to the client to remind him to run an off-line backup. When the System Logout Backup Reminder setting is enabled, a popup message box will ask the user to start a backup before logging out / shutting down Windows.

Support Multiple Backup Set

Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) supports the creation of multiple backup sets. For example, if you intend to back up files, Microsoft Exchange database, and Microsoft SQL database on a server, you can simply create three backup sets as shown below.

Creation of Free Trial Accounts for Potential Customers

Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) supports the creation of unlimited backup trial accounts for potential customers. Backup quota, add-on modules and trial period can be defined by the service provider.

OEM Branding and Customization

Backup Planet Backup Software is fully OEM brandable for service providers to put on their own logos and information.

Displaying Advertising Banners on Client Applications

Resellers can choose to place advertising banners onto the Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) or Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE) client-side applications.

Group Policy

As the number of users in Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) grows, managing them can be complicated and time consuming. The new group policy management feature in PlanetOBS allows a system administrator and partners to apply different configurations for different groups of users when using Backup Planet Backup Software. The system administrator can set different default backup sets, assign different backup quota, control the usable options available to users, etc. for different groups of users. For example, you can define a unique set of policies in Policy Group A, and assign it to User Group A. Policy Group B for User Group B, etc. Moreover, when backup users are changed to another group, those users will be automatically governed by the new Policy Group. Thus, this group policy management feature can streamline the administrative work to a great extent.

Server-side Delta Merging

Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) is able to merge the incremental delta file which is out of retention period with the full backup file. This feature helps the system administrator to better utilize the space of the backup server for keeping the data which are really important.

Multi-level System User Management

Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) equips with system user management capability. It allows a system administrator to create and manage multiple levels of sub-administrators in performing different administrative roles.

Reseller Management

Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) equips with system user management capability. It allows a Backup Planet to create and manage multiple levels of sub-administrators in performing different administrative roles. Backup Planet can now make use of it to manage its resellers by treating each reseller as a sub-administrator. Each reseller can have its own branded section in PlanetOBS. Backup data of the resellers will be hosted by Backup Planet.

Multi-threading

The new multi-threading implementation in Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) and Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE) can improve the backup and restoration speed to a great extent, especially for the client machines with multi-core CPUs, as they will create 2 threads per CPU's core during backup or restoration. For a client machine which has a quad-core CPU, 8 threads will be created during backup or restoration. That means the speed will be a lot faster than a single-threading operation.

Auto Software Upgrade

With the auto-upgrade feature of Backup Planet, any Backup Planet PRO (PlanetPRO) or Backup Planet LITE (PlanetLITE) client-side applications connected to Backup Planet Offsite Backup Server (PlanetOBS) will be upgraded automatically whenever Backup Planet releases a new version.