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Centralized Monitoring Console

BackupAssist v6

Centralized Monitoring allows system administrators who are managing multiple BackupAssist installations to:

1. Receive one summary report email per day instead of one email per BackupAssist installation

2. Log into a central console to see the status of all machines, and view reports from one location

This will be useful for:

1. Resellers - who have multiple clients running BackupAssist [1]

2. Businesses / schools - that have multiple sites or campuses, and a centralized IT department

Notes

· Use of Centralized Monitoring is OPTIONAL - at a VAR/administrator level, at a server level, and at a backup job level¹.

· Posted information is encrypted when being transmitted via the Internet

· Our privacy and data collection policy outlines exactly what data is transmitted - but the brief summary is: only the data needed to display the reports are transmitted, and will not be used for solicitation, sales or marketing purposes!

The table below summarises the current report structure:

This summary table shows the status of jobs that ran the previous night (or alternatively, in the 24 hours leading up to the daily cut-off time). This report will be delivered via email each night.

Jobs that ran in the last 24 hours for monitoring account "First Computers Pty Ltd":

Jobs that require urgent attention

Results for 06 June 2008

*Last successful: Specifies date when this backup was last successful (includes backups that completed successfully or with minor warnings).

This report is similar to Report #1 but shows the last result of every monitored backup job, including those that did not run in the last 24 hours (for example, backups jobs that run once each week).

Last Backup Results for monitoring account "First Computers Pty Ltd"

*Last successful : Specifies the date when this backup was last successful. This includes any backup that completed successfully or with minor warnings.

This view is similar to the Reports screen in BackupAssist. Resellers can access this report from their Reseller Portal.

Backup History

This is the HTML as generated when a user clicks on a backup job execution from the Reports tab in BackupAssist. This report is very similar to the reports currently generated in BackupAssist.

Simple line chart to show data growth. This report will be available through a reseller's online reseller portal.

Data Growth

Quick Stats

Media Usage for Last Backup

*The latest backup used 95% of the backup device's maximum capacity.

How is data transmitted?

Data is sent to the BackupAssist servers via HTTPS - meaning that the data is strongly encrypted when being transmitted across the Internet.

What data is transmitted?

Only the data outlined below is transmitted to the BackupAssist servers.

For reporting purposes

· The HTML report (same as the report viewable from the BackupAssist Console) and the data contained therein (such as status, start date/time, end date/time, BackupAssist version, computer name, any warning or errors, data size, etc.)

· Backup Engine Type (eg. NTBackup, SQL, Exchange Mailbox, Drive Imaging)

· Job key and execution key

· Next expected run date

· Organization name for the client (to identify them in the reports)

For authentication purposes

· Centralized Monitoring Account ID

· Pre-shared Authorization Key (a non-human-readable hash)

· BackupAssist Installation ID (a non-human-readable GUID)

· BackupAssist Product Keys

How long is data stored?

It is anticipated that data will be stored for 100 days to allow to meet the current minimum reporting requirements. However, the minimum periods may change and the data could be stored for longer periods.

Where is data stored?

Data is stored on our servers, which currently run RedHat Enterprise Linux and are hosted by InetU Inc. Our servers are dedicated servers - they are not shared with any other company or user. InetU specialize in Managed Hosting, and have been highly ranked by NetCraft (even #1 at times) for reliability. InetU also monitor the security on our servers for things like intruder detection, etc.

Analysis of data for troubleshooting purposes

We reserve the right to analyse errors reported by BackupAssist for the purposes of improving our software and services to our clients. For example, periodically we may choose to data mine and rank the most commonly reported errors to try to solve them or streamline the debugging process. Our only interest is to improve the BackupAssist user experience.

Data is not collected for solicitation, sales or marketing purposes

None of the data sent contains names, addresses or contact details. Additionally, we will not approach your clients for any solicitation, sales or marketing purposes.

In the event that we need to correspond with someone regarding a particular BackupAssist installation, it will be done to the registered owner of the Centralized Monitoring account - ie. the VAR or system administrator.

Notification in case of discovery of bugs

If we discover major bugs in our software that are affecting your servers under management, we will endeavour to contact you and notify you so that you can take corrective action. However, we are not under any obligation to notify you of such bugs and cannot guarantee that this will be done.