bruAPP™ Backup Appliance

A Complete Backup and Restore Appliance for Platform-Independent and Ultra-Reliable Data Protection

Enterprise grade client/server data backup and restore services in a self-contained appliance without the need for an enterprise-grade IT staff.
Delivers true "serverless" backup without dependence on any network server. Integrated staging provides LAN-Free backup of client data to tape.
Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X Management consoles run on any system in your network environment with network connectivity to the bruAPP.
Supports all modern OSes
Broad range of models that support D2D, D2T, and D2D2T strategies with up to net 28TB of RAID disk stage capacity and tape libraries up to 8 drives and 96 slots.
Plug and play ease-of-installation and intuitive operation - perform your first backup operation in under 10 minutes.
Totally self-contained and constructed of server grade hardware components.
bruAPP Add-On Hardware/Software Bundles
With prices starting at $2,899 it's the lowest cost per seat of any true client/server-based backup solution

Anatomy of bruAPP

Any solution is only as good as its weakest link. The bruAPP is a complete backup solution in an appliance that uses tested and proven hardware and software components.

All TOLIS Group bruAPP Backup Appliance's use ATTO Technology HBA's

HEART — The bruAPP/OS is a TOLIS Group developed, custom backup-oriented, operating system derived from components of FreeBSD, Linux, and TOLIS Group code. This highly tuned bruAPP/OS forms the heart of the bruAPP appliance. "Backup oriented" is key because the bruAPP performs a single function, and that is the backup and recovery of data. Unencumbered by traditional operating system overhead and complexity, bruAPP/OS delivers rock solid operating system stability to assure uninterrupted and seamless backup system operation today and into the future. bruAPP/OS renders the bruAPP Backup Appliance's operation totally impervious to software upgrades at the server system level.

BODY — Standard, device-matched, tested, and proven hardware components from quality manufacturers comprise the "body" to provide years of reliable and predictable backup performance. The bruAPP Backup Appliance is designed to provide trouble free backup and recovery operations for the long term.

The bruAPP Backup Appliance's hardware architecture is not fixed; rather it is structured to provide longevity via easy expandability as the needs of an organization grow. The capacity of the SATA-based disk stage can be easily incremented as higher capacity hard drives become available. Using 1 TB or 2 TB drives available today - up to 32 TB of disk stage backup capacity can be configured in a 3U chassis. The net 28 TB of disk stage for the 3U model is based on a RAID 5 + hot spare (net 26 TB for RAID-6) architecture, and also contains a redundant power supply.

The bruAPP Backup Appliance is available in 1U and 3U rackmount configurations or tower units if required. The bruAPP Backup Appliance may also be bundled with your choice of external HP tape autoloaders and libraries. All models support externally-connected tape drives and libraries without the need for special drivers, even if the tape device was not purchased with the bruAPP Backup Appliance.

SOUL — BRU Server is the software that comprises the "soul" of the bruAPP Backup Appliance. BRU technology has protected the data on Unix systems for over 23 years, and BRU Server represents the culmination of the knowledge and expertise gained since 1985 to reliably backup and restore Unix-core and Windows systems

Backing up data is all about the ability to recover it when needed. As with all BRU-based solutions, any errors experienced by the bruAPP Backup Appliance during a restore are identified, reported, and circumvented where possible, allowing the restore to continue beyond the point of the error; conditions under which other tools simply abort the recovery.

Management of the bruAPP Backup Appliance is provided via an intuitive graphical interface, character-based interface, or from the command line. The bruAPP Backup Appliance utilizes the BRU Server Graphical User Interface (BRU Server Console) and may be installed on any number of supported systems that have network connectivty to the bruAPP Backup Appliance, thereby removing any physical access for backup/restore management.

Client Licensing System

There is no artificial distinction between the largest of Servers, the potential myriads of installed desk side systems, or laptops occasionally connected to the network. All systems are treated equally, and the cost-per-seat to support those systems is the same. Incremental client system license packs are available that deliver pricing as low as $24.00 per seat.

Depending on the bruAPP model, support of either 10, 25, or 150 client systems is included and expansion client licenses are available in individually or in 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 packs.

Warranty

The standard bruAPP hardware warranty is a three (3) year depot. Additionally, all bruAPP Backup Appliances ship with 1-year of top-tier software support for the BRU Server software and bruAPP/OS.

BRU Server Expanded Highlights

BRU technology has been supporting Unix customers for over 21 years, and the experience gained is incorporated into BRU Server. The following information highlights the robustness of BRU Server.

Operational

Graphical User Interfaces that deliver an intuitive user experience on Mac OS X, Linux, Windows and Solaris
Clearly defined relationship between Full, Base Job backup definitions and the associated Incremental or Differential backup jobs
Scheduling mechanism with easy access to the defined schedules
Client-level user initiated backup
Client-level user initiated restore
Client-level update of IP addresses for DHCP environments
Access and display of archives and tapes known within the BRU Server environment
Job summary e-mail reporting with full disclosure of each job available through the job history database
Supports Mac OS X and OS X Server 10.4 and newer
Supports disk-to-disk, disk-to-tape, and disk-to-disk-to-tape backup strategies
Straightforward installation; client systems and tape devices are automatically recognized and configured
Fully scriptable from the command line
Character-based and graphical management consoles provide local and remote control
Headless backup and restore operations can be managed via telnet or ssh sessions
Flexible backup job definitions because very few sites have the same backup requirements.
Support for Solid State Disks

Performance

High performance tape drive I/O support provides the highest levels of throughput to high-performance devices such as LTO, SAIT, SDLT, and others.
Industry's shortest backup window (fully verified backups) by using Disk Staging and BRU Server's zero impact verify (Anytime Verify™) data verification
Low overhead allows multiple BRU processes to write to multiple storage devices simultaneously with very little impact on system performance.
Pulls data off XServe RAID (2GB/Fibre) in excess of 120 MB/second.
Intelligent cataloguing provides a powerful query capability to quickly recover select files contained in archives.
Client system backups are not interleaved, thereby further shortening the time to restore selected files.

Reliability

Ultra-reliable BRU™ engine delivers unparalleled data protection reliability and restorability of the protected data
Backups can be 100% verified without access to the original file systems, either immediately after a backup or even years later
Anytime Verify™ and Inspect Mode backup verification options can be run as a zero impact process, freeing up the client systems faster.
Broad compatibility - backups can be verified and restored on a different system, and even on a different platform
Backups can be committed to a disk staging area at primary storage subsystem performance levels - virtually eliminating perceived backup windows at the client system level
Proven data restorability of BRU technology - corrupt data is reported, circumvented, and the restore continues unless the tape drive is physically unable to proceed
Catalogs copied to tape in addition to the server HDD to provide enhanced availability to backup data should the server system HDD fail.

Functionality

Full native compatibility with Apple's Xsan, ADIC's StorNet, and other distributed file systems for both backup, and as the disk stage for disk-to-disk (D2D) backup operations
No special tape emulation layer required, however, BRU Server is fully compatible with all VTL implementations.
Live backup of databases and services such as Oracle, Exchange, and Outlook running on Windows client systems using the BRU Server Open File Manager for Windows®.
Full print (printer or PDF) support of all database information
Scalability limited only by the available network bandwidth
Broadest Mac OS X tape library support available
Lights-out, automated backup operations are easily scheduled from the graphical user interface
Handles files and permissions skipped by other Mac OS X backup utilities
Full support of ACLs and EAs.
Properly backs up so-called "open files" under Mac OS X
Full support of case sensitivity under the HFS+ file system
Single archives of any size can be created
There is no limitation to the size of the catalogs
Data can be restored from any BRU backup data set without dependence on any special files contained on the server hard disk
Transport layer agnostic - whether Fibre Channel, SAS, SCSI, iSCSI, Gigabit Ethernet, Wireless LAN, etc.
Provides data backup and restore services within NAS, SAN and wireless environments
QFA (Quick File Access) provides fast access to files contained on tape
Client system data is not interleaved with other client system data
Client-side data encryption provides secure communication between client systems and the server
Network traffic data compression is configurable and can provide better utilization of available network bandwidth
Pre and post scripts may be run on a client system to freeze the state of a database running on that machine or export its state to an intermediate file
Files and directories can be excluded from the backup from the client system (excluding mp3 files, for example)
E-mail notification of all operations including interact requirements and job status.

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