If you're trying to protect mission-critical data with your backup solution alone, you can end up with skipped open or in-use files and a corrupt database. While backup vendors claim their solutions can solve the open-file dilemma, there are flaws in the processes they use (see Open File Manager Main Product Page).

Open File Manager solves the problem of open and in-use files during backup so that you are assured of error-free data capture, unimpeded production and more importantly, the protection of your organization's data.

Open File Manager offers advantages found in no other open file solution:

Seamlessly supports virtually all backup software packages, providing an integral and lasting component in your data protection strategy, even if you change backup solutions. Regardless of your backup software, Open File Manager integrates easily to capture open and in-use files during every backup, while maintaining application availability throughout your organization.

Integrates with and enhances the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) framework. Applications that are not VSS-aware are backed up in an unsynchronized state, and backup sets will contain skipped files or corrupt data due to partial transactions. VSS will NOT provide complete backups for:

• Client-server applications : VSS does not support writers that store their data on one system but execute on another, such as "thick clients" and productivity applications.
  
• Legacy applications : It is unlikely that most applications will retrofit non-current versions of their software to make them VSS-aware. End users will be forced to upgrade ALL applications in order to provide coherent backups through the VSS framework.
  
• Non-Supported Applications : Applications that choose not to support the VSS framework.
  

Automatically groups related files and directories, with no user interaction required. With some backup solutions alone, users must manually set file groupings for each application that has a relational data structure. When applications dynamically add directories and files, relational integrity is lost.

Reliably performs system-wide synchronization, insuring that related files (regardless of application type) are backed up together and coherently. Backup solutions often synchronize data on a volume-by-volume basis. Volume-by-volume synchronization does not preserve relational integrity of databases that span several volumes, and can lead to corrupt data on tape. In the case of VSS, only those files that are VSS-aware are synchronized, leading to skipped files, further corrupted data or partial transactions.

The Open File Manager Proprietary Process

Open File Manager works seamlessly with your backup software to insure that you have complete and error-free backups. Here’s how it works:

• Open File Manager monitors the file system for read requests coming from the backup program. When the backup application accesses the first file for backup, Open File Manager determines when there are no partial transactions pending (Write Inactivity Period).
  
• When it discovers this state, it then begins maintaining Preview Data in a dynamically allocated Pre-Write Cache for all open files on the system. The cache is in the form of standard disk files and is distributed across all volumes in order to reduce the load on any one volume. It grows and shrinks dynamically, so that the system administrator isn't required to pre-allocate the peak usage cache space. In comparison, other backup programs have a cache that is limited to a single volume. If the cache grows too large for one volume, or if the administrator doesn't pre-allocate enough space, the operation will fail.
  
• During this time, Open File Manager is constantly monitoring the file system for read requests coming from the backup program.
  
• As the backup progresses, any file-write operation from another application goes directly to the proper file, while a copy of the Preview Data (the data that will be overwritten) is placed by
  Open File Manager into the Pre-Write Cache. When the backup program reaches a part of the file that has been changed during the backup of that file, Open File Manager then substitutes the original Preview Data from the Pre-Write Cache to fulfill the backup request. As a result, the file on tape will look exactly like it did when the backup application started.
  

The diagram below illustrates how Open File Manager maintains the Pre-Write Cache for use by the backup program.