HyperBac for Sybase

HyperBac for Sybase is an enterprise backup and archival solution, for your Sybase environment. Working with your existing backup techniques, HyperBac uses high performance lossless compression to reduce the size of your backup data sets by up to 90% and the time taken to perform your backups by up to 50%.

The HyperBac benefit (and hence its capacity to scale to enterprise use) is that it provides the appropriate balance between maximizing compression, ensuring transaction throughput and minimizing operation times.

In practical terms, this means that HyperBac ensures a high transaction throughput during operation, no CPU bottlenecks and a shorter operation window.

HyperBac works with the resultant backup information stream and thus it seamlessly integrates with Sybase's native backup procedures. To that extent, the database administrator does not need to change their existing scripts or deal with another application layer to use HyperBac.

As importantly, HyperBac does not directly read or write data from or to your Sybase database, therefore you can be assured of information integrity at all times.

In addition archive files created by HyperBac can be converted to native backup files (physical or logical) at any time on any system, offering peace of mind for customers as well as a viable alternative recovery path should the restore or import occur on a system which does not have HyperBac installed.

Last but certainly not least, HyperBac has integrated AES (128/192/256 bit) encryption to protect your backup sets.

Yes. HyperBac for Sybase delivers integrated, transparent compression and AES encryption for Sybase BCP export/import operations. This is a unique and differentiating offering which allows Sybase administrators to seamlessly perform compressed/encrypted export archives.

HyperBac for Sybase delivers a number of technical advantages. Solution performance means that there is less contention for resources on the system(s) during backup operations. The advantage here is that you can avoid or avert the need to re-schedule or partition your backup operations to cater for end user requirements.

As your data storage grows, so to will your backup times. HyperBac gives you immediate relief from these growing pains. As well as prolonging the value of your existing infrastructure, HyperBac also allows you to maintain existing procedures and scripts for as long as possible. The advantage there is reduced change management risk and need for support.

Consider the following simple example. Your backup window can no longer accommodate your nightly incremental backups. The issue is serious as other batch transactions such as general ledger consolidations and invoice runs cannot be re-scheduled or changed. One unpalatable response to this situation is to split the backups and target different database objects for different nights. This means risk and greater loss of data in the event of disaster.

A far more appropriate option in this circumstance is to deploy HyperBac to reduce both your backup times to cater for the existing window. The additional benefit is that your backup will be significantly compressed, freeing physical storage resources as well.

Not at all.

HyperBac for Sybase is designed to work with your existing scripts or with Sybase Central wizards. The only thing required is to point your dump device (or output file) to a HyperBac registered destination.

Integration Example 1 - Working with specific file extensions

You perform a dump that writes a file called mybackup.bak. Just change the filename to mybackup.hbc or mybackup.hbe (file extensions which are built in recognised HyperBac archive files)

That is all that is required. Change the file extension and HyperBac will recognize it. In the above scenario we used the default extensions hbc (for compression only) or hbe (for compression and encryption). In fact, you can configure HyperBac to nominate any file extension you wish, for example if you wanted all .BAK files created by Sybase to be compressed and encrypted by HyperBac, you would simply register the .BAK extension with HyperBac.

Integration Example 2 - Working with specific directories or paths.

Let's take the above example and say that you write your backups to the following path and file /mydatabase/backup/mybackup.bak

If you don't want to change your scripts at all, then you can configure HyperBac to recognize the path /mydatabase/backup. That means that all files written to that path (irrespective of their name or extension) will either be compressed and/or encrypted, depending upon what you choose.

No.

But it will give you options that you previously didn't have. By reducing your backup size you can keep more backups online. That gives your flexibility and options during recovery. As importantly, it saves you time during recovery, because you won't have to rely on fetching tapes from off site locations.

You'll reduce risk. Why? Because you'll have more backup sets online and on your site, which can be validated at greater frequency. This is not always possible or feasible with off site archives. As importantly you can almost eliminate the inherent risk associated with failed tape media.

HyperBac for Sybase is a server side solution, deployed on the same machine as your actual database instance.

Not at all.

HyperBac for Sybase works with the existing native APIs to read and write data to and from your database. For example, if you are using the Sybase Central wizards, then all you need to do is point your dump device to a HyperBac recognized path or file type. The fact remains that you are still running the native Sybase commands at all times.

Therefore HyperBac does not interfere with normal database operation in any way. As importantly, HyperBac will operate independently of the database release you have deployed.

Yes.

HyperBac for Sybase is a disk based backup solution and it will seamlessly work with all DASD, SAN or NAS devices.

HyperBac for Sybase is shipped with an royalty free extraction utility, which is a simple command line utility for Linux and Unix installations. Similarly, it is deployed as a graphical tool as well as a command line utility for Windows installations.

In short, the extractor allows you to take an existing HyperBac backup and transform it into the native database format. There are many benefits to this facility.

1. You can transport compressed and/or encrypted backups (securely and without unnecessary bandwidth demand) to remote sites and then simply use the extractor utility to transform the backup set to native format. This has application to those who replicate testing or development environments.

2. The extractor utility can expedite and lower the cost of server migrations or consolidations.

3. The extractor also serves to give you peace of mind. You can continue to work with HyperBac backup sets irrespective of whether or not the product is deployed. In short, we recognize the importance of vendor independence as much as you.

These are just three examples; however there are many more that simply depend upon your imagination and business circumstance.

HyperBac for Sybase delivers an improvement in transaction throughput by up to 10 times during the backup process in contrast to comparable conventional backup operations. This is due to the substantial reduction in write disk I/O during the HyperBac backup process.

With regard to performance on Sybase systems, HyperBac delivers greater compression and takes no more time than a compressed database dump (level 1). Similarly, it delivers equivalent compression at considerably less time than the level 9 compression capabilities within Sybase.

For those using the Sybase Central BACKUP command, then HyperBac delivers 90% compression and reduces the time taken by up to 50% against the native command performance.

Not at present.

However HyperBac backups and archive files are inherently compressed/encrypted so the images written to tape are up to 5 times smaller than equivalent backups direct to tape.

Disk based backups provide database administrators with fast, reliable recovery online points. HyperBac's compression is superior to the hardware compression which is common on many tape devices, so a disk to tape backup strategy will generally yield a 50% reduction in tape storage costs as well as a 75-90% reduction in DASD, NAS or SAN requirements.

Yes.

You can backup any object level that Sybase permits you to backup, dump or BCP.

Yes.

Using HyperBac does not limit the type of backup you perform, the media to which you write it or the vehicle you use to perform the operation.

With regard to performance on Sybase systems, HyperBac delivers greater compression and takes no more time than a compressed level 1 database dump. Similarly, it delivers equivalent compression at considerably less time than the level 9 compression capabilities within Sybase.

For those using the Sybase Central BACKUP command, then HyperBac delivers 90% compression and reduces the time taken by up to 50% against the native command performance.

As importantly, HyperBac gives you the ability to compress your logical backups, which is an important value add to native Sybase capability.

Last, but certainly not least, all of this functionality is delivered with integrated AES Encryption to help you protect your backups against both server and network vulnerabilities. Not to mention, the compliance expectations that are growing by the day.

HyperBac for Sybase supports backup and BCP operations for all releases of Sybase ASE, ASA and IQ.

You can deploy HyperBac for Sybase on Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 operating systems (x86, x64 and IA64), Solaris 2.8 - 2.10, HPUX 11i v2 and 11i v3 and all x86 or x64 Linux distributions (2.4 kernel and above).

HyperBac for Sybase is licensed by the physical Sybase server. That is, the machine(s) on which you are running your database instance. HyperBac is essentially priced and licensed to give you exceptional value for money and pay back it's investment in months.

Let's quickly explain what HyperBac does NOT impose upon you.

1. No additional charges are required for the number of databases or instance on the server.

2. No additional charges are required in accordance with the size of your backup. Whether its 1 gigabyte or 20 terabytes then the investment is the same.

HyperBac is designed to save you money and time. The licensing model is also designed to reflect that ideal.

No need to.

Just as HyperBac works with the native Sybase DUMP and BACKUP commands, it will equally work with other agent based products such as Backup Exec from Symantec. If your present backup solution writes to disk, then HyperBac will simply integrate with it without you having to change the application or underlying infrastructure.

HyperBac is not designed to displace existing backup techniques rather it is designed to enhance them.

HyperBac contributes to a better operational environment for your business. For you, this means lowering the cost of managing your database environment. That could include reduced tape usage; smaller infrastructure requirements, lower support costs and/or deferred infrastructure spend.

Further to this, HyperBac gives you greater surety. By reducing you backup size and window, you can eliminate contention with processes that compete for scarce system resources. Such tasks may include nightly financial batch operations or end user access for transaction processing. With HyperBac you will not have to shuffle resources to meet your backup objectives. More online recovery points also give you surety with regard to the restore process and for disaster recovery planning.

With regard to your customers (whether they are internal or external) HyperBac helps ensure that your existing infrastructure will continue to meet stated service levels for performance and access. That ultimately means greater customer satisfaction and retention.

From a commercial viewpoint, HyperBac is designed to provide you with significant savings on your backup operations. These savings may include, but aren't limited to; lower tape usage, reduced support or personnel costs or even deferred investment in infrastructure spend to accommodate data growth.

HyperBac for Sybase is priced such that it delivers a payback within months just on the savings you redeem on tape usage alone.