The SNPB network spans 23 locations, with 530 servers running NetWare® 5.1 and NetWare 6 and approximately 16,000 clients running Windows NT* with the NetWare client. SNPB also uses ZENworks® for desktops v. 4, ZENworks for Servers v.3, and GroupWise® 6. The SNPB directory contains approximately 240,000 objects, and runs on eDirectory 8.7. NetWare and eDirectory are used throughout SNPB’s IT infrastructure, providing support for everything from managing users to the storage of certificates.

There are multiple, complex levels of information in a large network environment. At any level, a successful restoration after a failure should be completely transparent to the users of that system. Obvious items that must be restored in the event of hardware failure are files and directories that make up the file system. Slightly less obvious, file system rights and ownerships, and volume and directory quota restrictions that allow users to use data stored on the server, must also be restored. Fortunately, these two items are well covered by modern backup software and usually straightforward to restore.

More difficult is the task of restoring the parts of the Directory Services database ("Replicas") that were housed on the affected server, and the link information in that database that pertains to other parts of the database itself, and link information that ties the server operating system’s file system to the database.

With eDirectory and earlier versions of the product, NDS, the database used for storing security and access information is partitioned and distributed. It is seen as a logical single entity. However, this entity has many internal links and references between objects. Conventional backups fail to back up the links and references; treating objects like simple files and containers like normal folders instead. This leads to the loss of links between objects, references to other objects, file rights, and object ids which results in costly delays after restore. Standard backup and restore software uses an SMS backup method, which does not work well on restoring objects. When an object is restored via SMS methods, the object contains a new object ID. In the case of a user, it would be the same as creating a new user with the same name. Without a method to quickly restore these objects and links, a system may even become inaccessible by end users. File trustees, login scripts, printer rights, and rights to any other objects contained in the directory must all be re-created, resulting in lost time and duplicate efforts. A different backup approach is needed for distributed databases such as eDirectory, especially in larger organizations.

“In 2002, one of SNPB’s local administrators accidentally deleted a branch of our eDirectory tree, which then required an enormous amount of work to recreate the structure of that branch and restore all of the objects, not to mention the problems it caused for our network users,” described Mikael Groendahl, operations manager for SNPB. “With DeTroubler this would have been considered a minor problem.”

“future gate provides the world's first object-oriented back up and restore software, providing a unique and dynamic backup possibility for eDirectory and NDS,” said Ronny Bremer, development director of future gate. “DeTroubler is not intended to replace standard data back up and restore software enterprises already use. While equipped to back up directory objects, standard back up and restore software fails to backup directory object links. This failure to back up links results in time consuming manual restore of missing links and information.”

With DeTroubler, lost objects or containers are immediately accessible after restore. Users can log onto the network directly after restore, resulting in less loss of productivity and time because all network resources are available. There is no need to manually restore links and rights. DeTroubler offers the unique feature of allowing restoration of selected objects to eDirectory or NDS, as well as the ability to select from a history of the object's backups. Furthermore, should the entire directory be lost, the entire directory tree can be restored automatically. Schema extensions are restored and time synchronizations are recovered. DeTroubler also provides Novell Cluster Services™ support, allowing volumes hosted on clustered NetWare servers to be included in the file trustee handling process.

Offering full protection of all attributes, object references, file trustees, and auxiliary class extensions, DeTroubler delivers a comprehensive back up and the simplest, fastest means of recovering all directory information. “With useful features such as Incremental Backup, we save backup time by skipping unchanged objects,” noted Groendahl. “With DeTroubler we can also now restore an object based on the current schema information in the target tree, ignoring all attributes not present, needed for undoing schema extensions or tree upgrades.” In addition, DeTroubler's multiple backup engines allow for more granularity in WAN structures, useful for multiple WAN sites or large trees due to DirXML® or LDAP deployments.

“When the Swedish National Police engaged the Blackbird Group to recommend and implement a directory backup and restore solution, we selected DeTroubler for its unparalleled functionality and proven reliability in large customer networks,” said Christian Ehrenthal, Managing Director of the Blackbird Group, an equity and global distribution partner of future gate. “DeTroubler works seamlessly with standard backup and restore software, but no other product rivals DeTroubler for backing up and restoring critical directory information.”

With major organizations such as SNPB, the UK House of Parliament, and top companies such as Lufthansa, Rolex, COOP and German Department of Transportation as customers, future gate’s DeTroubler software enjoys a trusted position as a groundbreaking eDirectory backup and restore solution. Concluded Bremer, “future gate was founded in 1995 to develop and market products and technologies dedicated to the enterprise directory services market. We’ve put that experience into a directory product that is proving essential for today’s larger non-stop enterprise network environments.”

*DeTroubler is a registered trademark of the future gate group in the United States and other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective holders.