5 1 0:About Backup

Welcome to the latest SEP sesam documentation version 5.1.0 Apollon. For previous documentation version(s), check documentation archive.

Overview

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SEP sesam is a highly efficient enterprise backup solution for heterogeneous environments that enables reliable backup and restore of various operating systems, applications and emails, databases and virtual platforms.

SEP sesam backup is a process whereby file system and application data specified by a backup task is copied and stored in a highly secure manner from primary storage to secondary storage that can be located virtually anywhere, i.e. onsite/offsite, on disc or tape, at a physical location, at a remote location or in a cloud.

Protection of heterogeneous environments

SEP sesam is designed for heterogeneous environments and provides backup and restore of various applications, databases and VMs.

Multi-hypervisor support: Citrix (XCP-ng/XenServer), Hyper-V, KVM/QEMU, OpenNebula, RHV, OLVM, VMware, Proxmox VE, Nutanix AHV

Databases: Oracle, SAP, MS SQL, IBM DB2, Informix, SAP ERP with MaxDB, MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL

Applications, groupware: MS Exchange, SharePoint, HCL (IBM) Domino, GroupWise, Kopano, Filr Backup

Support for all common operating systems such as Windows, Linux, Unix, MAC and legacy

Support for Novell Netware, VMS etc.

Disaster recovery of Windows and Linux, SEP sesam Server Disaster Recovery

Systems also for dissimilar hardware

Protecting data from ransomware through immutability of data: HPE StoreOnce and immutable flag

SEP CAPS (Cloud App Protection Service): Microsoft 365, G Suite, Salesforce, Dynamics 365, ownCloud

Backup direct to S3 Cloud

BaaS (Backup as a Service)

Supported task types

SEP sesam supports heterogeneous computing environments (Windows, UNIX, VMS or NetWare) and provides preset task types, such as common file system backup (type Path), Exchange, MySQL, SAP HANA, etc., as well as task types for virtual environments that enable image-level backups and single-file restore (SFR).

Backup features

SEP sesam operations, such as backup and restore, can only be performed by users who have the appropriate permissions. Only a user with Superuser privileges can configure authentication.

Backup to tape, disk and cloud storage to implement the best possible backup strategy for your environment.

Flexible retention for savesets: backed up data is preserved according to its retention time – EOL.

Backup chain dependencies: a backup chain consists of full, differential and incremental backups. SEP sesam provides automatic EOL (retention) management to preserve the backup chain and make it available for restore.

To ensure successful backups in case data storage (a media pool or a data store) becomes unavailable for some reason, a failover media pool or a failover backup task event can be configured.

To simplify backup of multiple VMs, you can automate the backup process by automatically generating tasks for VMs and creating clients for VMs.

Data can be migrated, deduplicated and replicated to ensure fast and reliable restore.

A standard backup does not prepare for disaster recovery. Such recovery requires special preparation and configuration with SEP sesam disaster recovery solutions: Bare Metal Recovery Linux, Bare Metal Recovery MS Windows and SEP sesam self-recovery.

Backup levels

Note

A backup chain (the full backup and all subsequent incremental backups) is treated by retention management as if it were a single backup. Note, however, that there is currently no limit to backup chains in SEP sesam. Since long backup chains are inefficient and more vulnerable if something goes wrong because the backups in the chain depend on each other, and because they can simply become too long to restore (no more storage available, takes too long), SEP AG strongly recommends setting up regular FULL backups to avoid such problems, and setting the limit to up to 100 incremental backups.

SEP sesam provides four different backup levels: full, differential, incremental and copy. The backup level is specified when creating a backup event or performing an immediate start of the backup.

When planning your backup strategy, it is essential to consider the advantages and disadvantages of different backup levels, particularly in terms of time and storage space. A common approach is to use a combination of FULL, DIFF, and/or INCR backups as part of a structured backup chain.

SEP sesam retention management ensures that all backups in a chain are kept as long as the most recent backup remains valid. Long chains with many backups can become inefficient and vulnerable, potentially leading to restore failures due to storage limitations or prolonged restore times. Since there is no built-in limit for backup chain length, SEP AG recommends scheduling regular FULL backups and limiting the number of consecutive incremental backups to a maximum of 100.

The following backup levels are available:

FULL backup: Full backup captures all data specified by the backup task, regardless of whether changes have occurred. It creates a complete snapshot of the data at the current point-in-time. A full backup might take longer to perform, but offers straightforward restore where only one saveset is required to restore the entire dataset. Full backups serve as the starting point for subsequent differential (DIFF) and/or incremental (INCR) backups, forming a backup chain.; Information about the backup status is stored in the SEP sesam database. Note that on Windows the archive bits are not automatically deleted. To purge the archive bits, the command -o clear_archive can be used in the backup options.

DIFF (differential) backup: Differential backup captures data that has changed or been created since the last full backup. Each differential backup creates a point-in-time backup of all changes since the last full backup, disregarding all other intermediate differential and incremental backups. A differential backup is faster to perform than a full backup, but two savesets are required for restore – the saveset from the last full backup and the saveset from the most recent differential backup.

INCR (incremental) backup: Incremental backup captures the changes made since the last backup, whether it was a full, differential, or incremental backup. Incremental backups are space-efficient, fast, and provide the most frequent data captures in a backup chain. For restore, the last full saveset, the last differential saveset (if it exists) and all subsequent incremental backup savesets are required, which may extend the restoration time. The restore process sequentially applies these savesets to restore data to a specific point-in-time. SEP sesam offers generation restore, which offers high level of granularity and flexibility for data recovery. Each incremental backup creates a new generation of the data. The exact point in time can be selected for restore and SEP sesam applies the incremental backups sequentially from the last full backup, replaying the changes made over time.

COPY backup: Copy backup is a full backup that operates independently of other backups. It creates a standalone backup of the data at that moment. It is useful for archival purposes or for creating a backup copy for specific use cases. Copy backups are not part of a backup chain and don't impact other differential or incremental backups in a backup chain.

	Note
	Differential (DIFF) and incremental (INCR) backups rely on a full backup as a reference point. If no initial FULL backup exists, the first DIFF or INCR backup is automatically performed as a FULL backup to maintain the backup chain and ensure data consistency.

Backup procedure

The standard backup procedure applies to file systems and application data and may differ from the backup procedures for SEP sesam extensions, which might involve additional tasks or include other options. As special methods are used to back up such data, make sure to use the backup procedure specific to the data you want to back up. For details on the supported extensions, their features and backup procedures, see SEP sesam Extensions and the SEP sesam OS and Database Support Matrix.

The standard backup procedure involves the following steps:

Creating a backup task by selecting the data to be backed up
Creating a backup schedule by specifying when you want to back up your data
Creating a backup event by selecting where and how to back up your data

For details, see Standard Backup Procedure.

Automated backup

SEP sesam introduces a powerful scheduling service called SEPuler that constantly checks for backup, restore and other predefined tasks scheduled for execution. When such tasks are found, SEPuler initiates the execution of the event. To prevent possible task conflicts and efficiently manage the tasks in the execution queue, SEP sesam uses event priorities.

Backups can be scheduled for automatic execution or started manually. For more information, see Creating a Schedule and Creating a Custom Calendar.

Backing up multiple VMs can be simplified by automating the backup process. This means that tasks can be created automatically for VMs associated to the same host. It is also possible to automatically create clients for VMs to which the generated tasks and ACLs can be assigned. For more information, see Automating the Backup Process.

Parallel backups

The SEP sesam multi-streaming technology enables extremely fast, simultaneous backups from multiple data sources on one drive. This is called Sesam Multiplex Stream (SMS).

The data from the different streams is split into packets, each packet is given an identifier and copied to the backup media. The data of a certain stream is not contiguously positioned on the media, but interrupted by packets of other streams. The identification marker of the packets enables SMS to restore the initial stream during reading.

SMS is able to split savesets across several media that still have some free space left (indicated by the media properties parameter EOM – End of Media).

The maximum number of parallel streams that can be used during the backup to the backup drive is set in the Drive properties by the parameter Max. channels (see Drives). The number of available data streams depends on the type of Server license, e.g., ONE provides 1 backup stream, etc. See Licensing for more details.

Encryption

SEP sesam provides data encryption types on different levels:

Backup task encryption for savesets (set in backup properties)
Si3 encryption for Si3 deduplication store (only available for Si3 and not for Si3 NG store)
Hardware-based LTO encryption for LTO tape drives (done on a media pool level)

Backup with VSS on Windows

Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is a Windows service for backing up running applications. VSS coordinates with other VSS-aware applications and services to create a shadow copy or snapshot of data for backup purposes. VSS uses a copy-on-write snapshot and allocates a small amount of temporary space to it. Once the snapshot is completed, the temporary storage space is released.

Backup with VSS is enabled by default for the file system task type Path. All other task types, e.g., System state, already use the required VSS Writer by default. However, a specific Writer can be manually excluded from the backup if it is not needed for the current backup task (e.g., exclude a Hyper-V Writer because there is another task dedicated to backing up a Hyper-V system). For more details on SEP sesam VSS, see SEP sesam Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) for Windows.

NDMP backup

SEP sesam enables you to protect and manage your storage file servers by providing support for Network Data Management Protocol. NDMP is a common protocol for backing up and restoring data on storage devices that do not support the installation of a backup agent. It ensures interoperability between NAS file servers and SEP sesam, and is used as an interface that enables SEP sesam to back up different NAS appliances and copy this data to a SEP sesam Server or Remote Device Server (RDS). SEP sesam supports version 4 of the NDMP protocol.

For details, see NDMP Backup. For a list of supported NAS appliances, see the support matrix.

HSM-aware backup for Windows

Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) is a method for reducing data storage costs and facilitating data management tasks. HSM-aware backup for Windows is an integral part of the SEP sesam package. It provides efficient backup of data on Windows systems that is managed by HSM. SEP sesam as an HSM-aware solution recognises the reparse tags in stub files and does not trigger a recall of the original files, but performs a backup of the placeholder files without retrieving their contents. For more details, see HSM-aware Backup for Windows.

Support for NTFS Alternate Data Streams (ADS) for Windows

Alternate Data Streams (ADS) are backed up by default when backing up an NTFS file system. They are automatically restored to any ADS-aware system. ADS are backed up by default, but can be excluded from the backup via a special option in the backup task properties.

ADS are a unique data-hiding feature of NTFS file systems. A file in NTFS consists of the unnamed data stream where the data is actually contained and of alternate data streams that can store additional metadata. Applications may use ADS to store file attributes. For details, see Support for NTFS alternate data streams (ADS) for Windows.

Support for Linux sparse files

SEP sesam provides support for Linux sparse files to prevent running out of disk space during restore. For details on how SEP sesam handles sparse files and what options are available, see Support for Sparse Files.

SEP sesam Logical Volume Manager (LVM) for Linux

SEP sesam uses LVM (Logical Volume Manager) snapshots to perform consistent backups of open files on Linux distributions. LVM snapshots allow a frozen copy of the file system to be backed up without taking the "live" volume offline during the backup.

LVM snapshots only work with partitions created with LVM. For more details, see SEP sesam LVM for Linux.