Avamar Backup and Restore

Avamar backup and restore requires client software to be loaded on each system being backed up dunless a backup proxy is being used, although that is not the common deployment.n  There is an operating-system specific base package for Windows, Mac, UNIX, etc and also application plugins that interface software such as databases to avtar.

Avamar domains are administrative units for organizing backup clients.  Users can be added and given permission to administer domains or individual clients as well as the root domain that gives access to all backup jobs.  Avamar client domains do not segregate data, only administration.

Users can be local or LDAP-integrated (such as Active Directory). 

Scheduled backups run according to a group specification.  All new clients are placed automatically in the default group.  This behavior can not be modified, although the parameters such as time, retention and settings can be modified on the default group.  Group members are clients in the Avamar system.  A group policy contains the data set information (what will be backed up) as well as the schedule for running the backup and notifications, etc and the retention by number of days or weeks.  Indefinite retention can also be specified, but caution must be taken to avoid data bloat.

On-demand backups are performed by browsing the client and selecting the data to back up.

Restore is initiated either from the Avamar Administrator or through the web client for desktop/laptop backup.  Restoration can take place from one client to another as long as both systems are registered with the same Avamar server.  File and folder versions are also maintained and can be selected at the time of restore.

The Avamar Activity Monitor is found in the Avamar Administrator, and the Avamar Client tray application will show the last 72 hours of activity up to 5000 lines.

A partial backup is when a backup job exceeds the allowable backup window but does not complete.  The job will be marked "partial" and is stored on the Avamar server although it is not viewable in any of the interfaces.  The job will run the next scheduled time and will run the entire backup, however because the partial exists to seed the deduplication the backup will typically take less time.  Partial backups are stored by default for 7 days.

Avamar also provides file shredding through the securedelete utility.  When a backup is shredded, all data for the entire backup is deleted.  It works on the local Avamar server only, so remote replicated data must also be deleted as well as any checkpoints that were created need to be rolled back.