Zmanda Cloud Backup FAQ

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1. What is Zmanda Cloud Backup (ZCB)?
2. Why cloud backup?
3. Which cloud providers does ZCB support?
4. What do you mean by Initial Setup Assistance service?
5. Would uploading/downloading data to cloud be slow?
6. I am a reseller and wish to offer ZCB to my customers. Do you have a reseller program?

7. Is there a web-interface to check my cloud usage and backup reports?
8. Which versions of Windows can you backup?
9. How does ZCB backup SQL Server databases?
10. How does ZCB backup Exchange Server databases?
11. How does ZCB backup Hyper-V Servers?
12. Can ZCB backup other operating systems such as Linux?
13. Can I restore deleted files? Do you support versioning so that I can restore files from an earlier backup run?
14. What options I have to store my backup data? Do you support network drives?
15. What about data retention?
16. What data format do you use for backup images?
17. For us the best time to backup MS Exchange/MS SQL Server/Windows machine is different from the best time to upload backup data to Amazon S3. What do you recommend for our situation?
18. Do you support backup of sparse files and hard links?
19. Does the timestamp of files change after ZCB backs them up?
20. Can ZCB backup open/locked files?
21. Can I use ZCB in a bare metal disaster recovery (DR) scenario?
22. How do you provide hot backup of applications such as MS Exchange and MS SQL Server?
23. Can you provide hot backup of Oracle?
24. Can I run ZCB in a virtualized environment such as Amazon EC2?

25. How secure is my data with ZCB?
26. Is ZCB HIPAA compliant?

27. How does ZCB compare with Mozy Professional (MozyPro)?
28. How ZCB is different from other online/cloud backup products?

Google Cloud Storage

29. I have purchased ZCB to backup to Google Cloud Storage. Where is my data stored?
30. How can I check my backup data present on the cloud?
31. How can I check my current quota utilization?
32. What happens if we exceed our storage quota?
33. Will you notify us if our quota is about to get exhausted?
34. How do I delete the old backups to reclaim my cloud storage space?
35. The utilized quota being shown by you is old. How do I update it?

Amazon S3

36. I have purchased ZCB to backup to Amazon S3. Where is my data stored?
37. How can I check my backup data present on the cloud?
38. I host my Windows Server on Amazon EC2 cloud. What are my costs for backup?

Google Cloud Storage

39. Are there any geographical restrictions to availability of ZCB service?
40. Do I have to register and pay for Google Cloud Storage separately?
41. We don't have a corporate credit card. What payment methods are available to us?
42. We wish to buy a subscription plan with more storage than our current subscription plan. Will you give a credit for the remaining duration of our current subscription?
43. What kind of customer support you provide?
44. Our subscription period is ending soon. Will you renew automatically?
45. Can we downgrade to a lower storage plan?
46. We are using the 1 month evaluation license. We would like to buy ZCB and retain our data/configuration. Can we do this?
47. We wish to buy a different storage quota than those listed on your website. Can we do this?
48. Do you offer discounts on multi-year subscriptions?
49. Can we cancel?
50. We are already using ZCB to backup to Amazon S3 and would like to migrate to Google Cloud Storage. Can we do so?

Amazon S3

51. Amazon S3 pricing is complex. Can you simplify it?
52. I have multiple Windows systems to protect. How does ZCB pricing work in my environment?
53. I'm backing up to Amazon S3. How's the billing done?
54. I want to change the credit card that I use to pay for the ZCB. How do I do that?
55. I'm backing up to Amazon S3 and would like to get the invoice in a different format. Is this possible?
56. I'm backing up to Amazon S3. How do I cancel my ZCB subscription?
57. I'm interested in backing up to Amazon S3. Is there a free trial?
58. What do you mean by the "80 GB free tier" for Amazon S3 usage?

1. What is Zmanda Cloud Backup (ZCB)?

   Zmanda Cloud Backup (ZCB) is a comprehensive backup solution for small and medium businesses that need disaster recovery for their Windows Servers, Desktops and Laptops and applications such as Microsoft Exchange and MS SQL Server.

   ZCB has an open architecture which puts you in control of your backup data, storage location and backup policies. It can back up to two highly robust storage clouds - Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage - to ensure your backed up data is safe and secure at all times.

2. Why cloud backup?

   There are several reasons. First and perhaps the most important is data safety. The popular backup media such as magnetic tapes, hard disks, DVDs are error prone and have higher failure rates. And of course, keeping your backup data at your office location doesn't protect you from unfortunate disasters such as cyclones, floods, etc.

   Second important reason is automation and reliability of backups. With cloud backup, backups happen automatically in background and require no manual intervention at all.

   Cost effectiveness, round-the-clock availability and easy access from anywhere are some other important reasons.

3. Which cloud providers does ZCB support?

   ZCB supports two of the most robust and secure cloud services today - Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage. Both of these clouds are robust (SLA backed), highly scalable, meet SAS70 guidelines and have detailed security policies in place. Amazon S3 Service Level Agreement is available here and it security policy is available here.
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4. What do you mean by Initial Setup Assistance service?

   This is an optional service that gets you up and running with ZCB quickly. In approximately 20 minutes, we'll install ZCB using a remote assist program and help you with the configuration of your first backup set. This service is available between Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

   Charges:
   This service is complementary to all customers of the Yearly Plan ZCB (for Google Cloud Storage). Customers of our Pay-As-You-Go ZCB (for Amazon S3) need to upgrade to the Premium support level to avail this service.

   Ready to get started? Contact us at ZmandaSales@carbonite.com!

5. Would uploading/downloading data to cloud be slow?

   Unlike many online backup solutions which use their owned datacenters in one or two locations, ZCB leverages the distributed cloud offerings of Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage. This allows you to choose the specific cloud datacenter which is closest/faster for you. You also benefit from significant investment made by Amazon and Google to improve connectivity to their data centers for end-users around the world.

   ZCB is network resilient and intelligently attempts to resume upload jobs in case of network connection outages. In addition, ZCB can adapt to best suit your internet connection. ZCB supports multithreaded uploads/downloads, which means it opens multiple parallel connections to the cloud. Depending on your CPU, memory and bandwidth resources, you can configure ZCB to use specific number of threads.

   Also, you can change the block size of the transfers to and from cloud, based on the quality of your Internet bandwidth.

   For more details, please see our help article.

6. I am a reseller and wish to offer ZCB to my customers. Do you have a reseller program?

   Yes, we do have an attractive reseller program. Please visit our partners page for more details.
   
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7. Is there a web-interface to check by cloud usage and backup reports?

   Yes, please look at our ZCB Global Dashboard web-application. Resellers can also use this application to monitor the cloud usage of all their customers in a single-login system.

8. Which versions of Windows can you backup?

   ZCB supports Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP, Server 2003 / 2008 /2012 and SBS Server 2008 / 2011.

9. How does ZCB backup SQL Server databases?

   ZCB supports efficient Full, Differential and Incremental (Log) backups of SQL Server databases. Full backups are VSS snapshot based while Differential and Incremental backups are SQL VDI based. Using incremental (Log) backups, you can achieve Continuous Data Protection (CDP) of your SQL server databases.

10. How does ZCB backup Exchange Server databases?

    ZCB supports VSS snapshot based Full, Differential (Log) and Incremental (Log) backups of Exchange Servers. To recover individual mailboxes, you can use by using native Microsoft tools. Please see this help article for details.

11. How does ZCB backup Hyper-V Servers?

    ZCB supports VSS snapshot based Full backups of specific guest VMs. You can restore a VM to the original location or a different Hyper V server.

12. Can ZCB backup other operating systems such as Linux?

    No. But there is a workaround. ZCB supports backing up of network mapped drives. So if you wish to backup data on your Linux servers, you can map them on ZCB machines using sharing protocols such as Samba.

    However, if you need a native cloud backup support for heterogeneous systems such as Linux, Windows, Mac, Solaris, etc. we suggest you consider Amanda Enterprise our open source network backup product which provides an option to backup to Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage clouds.

13. Can I restore deleted files? Do you support versioning so that I can restore files from an earlier backup run?

    Each ZCB backup has a unique timestamp and can be used to restore all the data which existed at the time of running a backup. The future actions such as modification or deletion of files don't touch the earlier backups at all. So as long as the backup run data hasn't expired (as per your configured retention policy), you would be able to retrieve older versions of your files.

    This means that unlike many other backup products which enforce a time period or number of versions to preserve file history, ZCB offers you a complete control on this feature. You can increase/decrease the backup frequency to control versioning and you can configure the data retention policy to control the number of days your deleted/modified data will be available for restore.

14. What options do I have to store my backup data? Do you support network drives?

    ZCB offers you the complete flexibility about storage media. You can choose to keep your data only on cloud storage, only on local disk storage (local disk, external hard disk or network mapped drive) or both for high redundancy and faster local restores.
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15. What about data retention?

    ZCB supports retention periods from 0 days to forever. This retention policy can be specified separately for local storage and cloud storage. This enables implementation of unique backup policies, such as keeping last 10 days of backups on the local storage and last 60 days of backups on the cloud.

16. What data format do you use for backup images?

    ZCB keeps the backup archives in well-defined and widely used ZIP64 format.

17. For us the best time to backup MS Exchange/MS SQL Server/Windows machine is different from the best time to upload backup data to cloud. What do you recommend for our situation?

    ZCB allows different schedules for backup and for upload. For example, you can perform backups of MS Exchange/MS SQL/File server to a local disk during weekdays and schedule the uploading part to occur over the weekend. The local backup data can be either retained or deleted as per your data retention policy.

18. Do you support backup of sparse files and hard links?

    Yes, we detect sparse files and hard links and backup only the minimal data to reduce the size of backups. At the time of restore of such files, we also restore these attributes.

19. Does the timestamp of files change after ZCB backs them up?

    No.
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20. Can ZCB backup open/locked files?

    Yes, ZCB can backup open files using Microsoft VSS snapshot technology. For example, you can continue sending and receiving e-mail using Outlook while backups are running.

21. Can I use ZCB in a bare metal disaster recovery (DR) scenario?

    ZCB can help since it supports backup of Windows System State which contains important system files, registry and other operating system components. Once you have installed the operating system on a compatible hardware, you can perform disaster recovery by restoring backups of Windows System State and C:\ and other drives. You may refer to this Microsoft article for more details on the Windows System State based Disaster Recovery.

22. How do you provide hot backup of applications such as MS Exchange and MS SQL Server?

    ZCB takes advantage of VSS-awareness of MS Exchange and MS SQL Server. When a backup starts, ZCB coordinates communication between ZCB Requestor, the Exchange and SQL Writers, and Windows Providers that create the snapshots (shadow copies) of Exchange or SQL.

23. Can you provide hot backup of Oracle?

    Yes. ZCB supports hot backup of Oracle via VSS snapshots similarly to backup of MS Exchange and MS SQL Server.

24. Can I run ZCB in a virtualized environment such as Amazon EC2?

    Absolutely. ZCB is fully supported in a VM environment. In fact, we utilize virtualization and Amazon EC2 resources extensively in the development and QA of our software.
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29. How secure is my data with ZCB?

    ZCB provides great control and flexibility when it comes to data security. Here is an overview:
    
    
    
    • ZCB offers optional encryption (performed as soon as the backup data is generated) using industry standard methods such as AES 256 bit encryption and ARC4 encryption. ZCB's encryption ensures 100% data privacy since the encryption keys are known only to the end-user.
    • In addition to encrypting the backup data, ZCB provides an option to transfer your data from your computer to cloud via secure 128-bit SSL.
    • ZCB client software directly transfers data to the cloud. The data is never sent to any Zmanda or third-party servers.
    • Once transferred to cloud, your data is safeguarded by Amazon and Google's strict access and security policies. (The security policy of Amazon S3 security is available here ).

30. Is ZCB HIPAA compliant?

    With proper configuration ZCB helps you maintain compliance with HIPAA regulations. When applied to cloud backup, HIPAA regulations apply in two areas - data privacy and data security.

    Data privacy: You need to configure ZCB to transfer the backup data to cloud over 128 bit SSL channel. You also need to enable encryption so that data is encrypted, even before it leaves your computer. We offer two encryption methods, both of which are secure and maintain complete privacy since the encryption keys are owned and managed completely by the end user. This means once data is encrypted, it can only be decrypted by the customer and not by any other third parties, including Zmanda and the cloud storage provider (Amazon or Google).

    Data security: ZCB backup data is directly uploaded to the cloud and is never sent over to any Zmanda or third party servers. Once uploaded to cloud, the cloud provider (Amazon or Google) safeguards and manages the data per their security and access policies. You can refer to Amazon's security policies here: Amazon Web Services: Overview of Security Processes.

    For more information about HIPAA compliance, please see
    http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/administrative/securityrule/securityruleguidance.html

27. How does ZCB compare with Mozy Professional (MozyPro)?

    Some of the key differences are:
    
    
    • Data retention: Mozy provides inflexible data retention period of 30 days only. Using Mozy you will not be able to recover your Exchange, SQL or a file going back in time for more than 30 days. With Zmanda Cloud Backup (ZCB) you control for how long you want to retain your data &mdash from 0 days to forever.
    • Live application backups: In comparison to MozyPro, ZCB supports live backup of many more applications. E.g. Mozy does not support live backup of MySQL, Oracle or SharePoint, whereas ZCB has built-in functionality for all of these applications.
    • Control and own your data: With ZCB, you own and control your data completely. The ZCB data archives stored on robust, public clouds and are in a well-known open format (ZIP64) and can be accessed by users directly. As opposed to this, Mozy stores data in proprietary format, and only way to get to your own data is through Mozy's interface.

      Also, ZCB offers geography control. Once you choose a cloud location (say Europe or Singapore), the data always stays within that geography. This may be required for regulatory compliance or for other policy reasons. You have no such control with Mozy.

    • Durable storage with well-known SLAs: Amazon and Google are market leaders in cloud services and adhere to well-advertised and understood access and security policies.
    • Affordable: Even though Mozy Pro's prices are substantially higher, it doesn't allow you to protect multiple machines using the same license. You need to buy separate licensed for different machines. This makes ZCB far more affordable than Mozy Pro.
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28. How ZCB is different from other online/cloud backup products?

    Some key differentiators for ZCB are:
    
    
    • Comprehensive backup: ZCB can backup not only file systems (with unlimited file size, open file support, network drive support and external disk support) but also live applications such as Windows System State, MS SQL Server, MS Exchange and MS SharePoint.
    • Unparalleled flexibility: ZCB offers an unparalleled array of options so that users can use it in just the way they want:
      • Options to backup to local disk, cloud or both
      • Configurable number of threads for upload/download
      • Customized pre/post backup actions
      • Intelligent, time specific bandwidth throttling options
    • Reliable storage: ZCB supports two of the most robust and secure cloud services today - Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage. Both of these clouds are robust (SLA backed), highly scalable, meet SAS70 guidelines and have detailed security policies in place.
    • Peace of mind: Coming from Zmanda, an open source company with 1,000,000+ deployments worldwide, ZCB uses open standards while storing your backup data. This enables the use of this data even outside of ZCB, providing a great flexibility and peace of mind.

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