If you are managing a file server in your company or business, you must be very well aware of the amount to data growth that can happen over time. In addition to the data growth, it becomes a challenge to archive the old data to a backup server or to a SAN/NAS storage. It, however becomes a nightmare if you don’t have those two things.
Well, you can relax a bit now as Archive Manager has come to your rescue, which is an archiving solution for file servers.
Mind you, they are not a new entrant in this domain. They have been around for 10 years now and as a matter of fact have been the most cost-effective file server archiving solution for Windows servers. The software works perfectly with Windows Server 2013, 2008, 2012, 2012 R2, and the latest 2016 edition as well.
But why do you need Archive Manager?
For numerous reasons, however these are the most common use cases.
- You have a tier-2 or tier-3 SAN or NAS storage with SATA disks and you would like to utilize this unused capacity for your archiving needs.
- You want to implement an archiving solution, however you are unsure how and where to migrate your data.
- You want to move your files to the cloud.
What’s so special about this archiving software?
There are a lot of features that puts Archive Manager on top with its competitors. For starters, it gives you the capability to use your old SAN/NAS storage for archiving purpose. You just need to install the software on the Windows server and create a CIFS share (NAS) or provision a LUN (SAN) from your old storage boxes to the Windows server. Once you mount the share or the LUN on the host end, you can route all the data to the storage arrays where it will be archived.
This file server archiving software also enables you to archive data from any UNC path to any UNC path and helps you in data lifecycle management as well.
The software has been designed to seamlessly work with the Windows operating system functionalities like compression and de-duplication. And you do not need a separate license to use these features as you are entitled to use this as part of your Windows Server license.
Now, the most important thing while migrating files is that the destination should have the same security style, permissions and directory structure. And this is achieved 100% when using this software.
Also, the files are moved seamlessly from a production share to the archive share and vice-versa, depending on if the file is hot or cold. All the above mentioned features are maintained in this scenario as well.
You can also move your files on a cloud platform like Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure etc. Only thing to note here is that you should be able to access the file using a UNC path. The best thing about this software is that it works at the file system level. This enable seamless integration of the tool with any software that you might already be using.
Is it efficient?
To throw out some numbers for you, the largest storage system managed by the software at the moment has a capacity of 3.4 PB. This setup is a VM with 4 vCPUs, just 6 GB of RAM and combined storage of just 90 GB!
Now, you must be wondering, how is that remotely possible!
It is, however very much possible as the tool doesn’t require you to have dedicated storage. You can create a share on the local system and use that for your archiving needs. This gives you a lot of flexibility and saves you and your company a ton of money.
This is a more powerful tool when you leverage the compression and de-duplication technologies that are already part of your Windows Server license.
Final Thoughts
ArchiveManger is an excellent software for all your archiving needs. It does what it promises at a faster speed, lower costs and in a reliable manner. If you want a powerful, flexible and lightweight archiving software, this is the tool for you.