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Open File Support - FAQsDo you have questions about the Open File Add-On? Check out the Open File Add-On FAQs below. If you do not see your question here, we would like to hear from you - send an email or give us a call today!
Q: Can Backup for Workgroups backup open files? Yes. You need to use the Open File Add-On with the Backup Client software in order to properly backup open files. The Open File Add-On works on Windows 2008 Servers, Windows 2003 Servers, Windows Vista and Windows XP computers. Q: What is the Open File Add-On? The Open File Add-On is component software that works in conjunction with the Backup Client software to expand the coverage of the backup to include files that are in use and locked at the time of the backup. Q: Why do I need an Open File Add-On? Files that are in use and locked are normally skipped in the backup process unless you have activated the Open File Add-On. Q: Can I use the Windows Volume Shadow Services instead of your Open File Add-On? No. The portion of Volume Shadow Services (VSS) that you can interact with does not provide you with a general purpose Open File agent. VSS is built from many components and the component that provides Open File Access is only available at a low level in Windows and can only be accessed at the API programming level. Q: How does the Open File Add-On work? The Open File Add-On can backup any file or database that is open and in use by utilizing the Windows Volume Shadow Service (VSS) available with the Windows operating system. When a backup is ready to start, VSS will make a copy of the database at that moment. This allows Backup for Workgroups to backup the copy of the database while users can continue to interact with and makes changes to the original database on the server. Any changes made to the original database after the copy was made will be included in the next backup that occurs. Q: What versions of Windows does the Open File Add-On work with? The Open File Add-On is only for Windows 2008 Servers, Windows 2003 Servers, Windows Vista and Windows XP. Q: How do I activate the Open File Add-On during the trial period? You activate the Open File Add-Ons from the Backup Server. Go to the Backup Server and select the Clients panel. Select the name of the Client computer for which you would like to use the Open File Add-on and then press the Modify button. Now you can check/tick the Open File Add-On option and be sure to save your changes. Q: How can I check to make sure the Open File Add-On is activated and working? Go to the Backup Server and look at the Clients panel. Find the name of the Client computer in the list and see if there is an asterisk in the column labeled "OF" - which stands for Open File. Q: Does the Open File Add-On interact with Volume Shadow Services (VSS)? Yes. The Open File Add-On interacts with Volume Shadow Services at a very low driver level. The Open File Add-On interacts with a component of Windows called Volume Shadow Services (VSS). If the VSS component becomes resource locked, you must reboot the computer to unlock the VSS resource within Windows. Note that VSS consists of many different layers and the layer that Backup for Workgroups interacts with cannot be restarted by stopping and restarting a Service. You need to reboot to reset VSS. Q: Can I purchase just an Open File Add-On license? For Version 5.0 Backup for Workgroups license, they now include both a client and an open file license. As a result if you purchase Backup for Workgroups Version 5.0 or higher, the open file is included in the backup client license. If you purchased a backup client license before version 5.0 then you had a choice to purchase the open file add-on with the client or to purchase a client only. If you choose to purchase just a client then you can purchase the open file add-on license for the backup clients that do not have an existing open file add-on license. For more information about pricing, check out our pricing chart. Do you need a Sales Quote to show your purchasing department? Be sure to contact our Sales Department by sending an email to sales@lockstep.com or calling 480-596-9432. Yes. Exchange Server 2003 and higher and SQL 2005 and higher are Volume Shadow Service (VSS) aware applications. When Backup for Workgroups uses the Open File Add-On to interact with VSS, one of the first steps performed in the backup process is to inform all VSS aware applications that a backup is starting. These VSS aware applications react to the initialization of the backup process by bringing their databases up-to-date on disk. For example, these VSS aware applications will play their logs, flush data from memory to disk, and place their databases in a clean state, ready for backup. Then, these VSS aware applications will start new logs after the backup completes. As a result, the databases that are backed up during the backup process have been prepared by Exchange and/or SQL to be in a "ready for backup state." Ready
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