Archive Manager

File archiving without a database.

•  Performance that does not degrade no matter how many files you have archived.

•  NTFS permissions and file attributes that are 100% completely preserved at all times.

•  The directory structure holding each file that gets archived is also 100% preserved at all times.

•  Ultra reliable design, no central point of failure.

•  Various types of recall stubs so users can access archived files without the need for assistance

•  Free trial version that is fully featured with the exception of a 50 file per run limit.

•  Lightweight, high performance, dynamically multi-threading archiving engine.

•  Absolutely no drivers, client side software or agents are needed, anywhere.                    

Archive Manager is a true clientless file archiving solution.

Archive Manager features flexible archiving options let you get to grips with your files the way that you want to. You can archive files from your file system that have not been used in the period of time you specify, using either the last modified or last accessed date.               

Archive Manager is capable of handling everything from small branch office file systems, to the PetByte sized storage environments in the largest of data centre.               
No database is ever used to store files in (or even pointers to files).The only database that is used by Archive Manager is the tiny configuration and job scheduling one which will run happily on the completely free SQL Express 2005 or 2008.               
Unique 'Graveyard' job to end of life archived files, with the ability to group graveyarded files into correctly sized chunks ready to be written to removable media.

Extreme reliability achieved by a simple and straight forward architecture.

Unlike a lot of other file archiving and HSM solutions Archive Manager does not try to cram files into a database like Microsoft SQL server. While modern databases can cope with this they were not designed for it. In theory this approach can lead to performance problems, reliability issues and it will almost certainly lead to security mismatches.

Archive Manager uses a normal share on your network to create a mirror of your live file system's folder structure. Archived files are then moved into this mirrored structure. When they have been in the archive share for the period of time you specify without being recalled back to the live file system, they are written out to the location you choose to be backed up/deleted. This last step is done by a special type of job called a 'graveyard' job, which like normal 'archive' jobs is fully configurable and can be scheduled to run once, daily, weekly, monthly, manually or once at a specific time of your choosing. The archive share itself can be located anywhere that you choose, thus giving you a centralised storage location that retains a great degree of flexibility. The basic operation of Archive Manager is very straightforward, as the graphic below shows.                
This example demonstrates how Archive Manager can be deployed on a dedicated server, although many other configurations are possible including ones that require no additional hardware at all..

There are any ways that Archive Manager can be set up, and the example above is just one. If you do not have a server that you wish to set up as a dedicated Archive Manager server you could just as easily use an existing machine, create a new share on the existing volume that contains your live files, compress it with Windows built in NTFS compression and install Archive Manager.                
The files in your live file system, the installed copy of Archive Manager and your archive share are all separate components of the same solution and as such can all be located separately (or all on the same machine, it's up to you).
Easy access to archived files can be provided using a range of Windows shortcuts, and Archive Manager can even leave behind true seamless Hard Links to archived files. With Hard Links archived files appear to still be in their original position, even though they are can located on a completely different machine.                
Unlike other solutions, Archive Manager does this without the need to install any kind of 3rd party filter drivers or other software on client machines.

Archive Manager Express - Max 1 Configured Job; Each licence comes with 12 months of support and updates

Archive Manager Standard - Max 5 Configured Jobs; Each licence comes with 12 months of support and updates

Archive Manager Datacenter - Unlimited Configured Jobs; Each licence comes with 12 months of support and updates

• There is no theoretical limit to the size of the file system that Archive Manager can cope with. The largest we know of that it has been deployed on is approaching 1 PetaByte (1,000 terabytes).

• Archive Manager is bomb proof. Once a file has been archived all information about that file is held in/on the file itself. You can take a hammer to the Archive Manager server, chop it up into little bits, and users will still be able to access their archived files so long as the share the files have been archived to is online.

• No information about archived files is stored in the configuration database. It is just used for configuration information and nothing else. This is what gives Archive Manager its incredible flexibility. Neither the configuration database nor the Archive Manager software is involved in the recall process for archived files.

• All NTFS permissions, file attributes and directory structures are maintained throughout the entire lifecycle of any archived file.

•  Windows XP, Vista, 7, 2003 server and 2008 server, including all 32bit and 64 bit variants.

• • Each installed copy of the software requires its own licence.

  • Each installed copy of the software can archive content from multiple servers

  • The advanced feature of ‘Hard Link’ seamless stubs to archived files is only available if the server holding the files to be archived is running Win2k8 or later, the location files are being archived too is running Win2k8 or later, the machine Archive Manager is installed on is running Vista/7/2k8 or later, and finally all client machines are running Vista/7 or later (otherwise they can’t access the ‘Hard Link’ seamless stubs). If the end user does not have the setup to take advantage  of this feature other types of ‘Link’ to archived files is available in the software.

  • ALL volumes that Archive Manager is to interact with REALLY should be NTFS running on a Windows OS. A small number of clients have had issues trying to use volumes on NAS box’s or similar that claim to be 100% NTFSWindows compatible but they aren’t. Other clients have used NAS box’s successfully though, so the end user really has to test this to make sure their own hardware will work properly.

  • After installing a new licence code we strongly recommend that the ‘AMJobEngine’ service be restarted to ensure the licence applies properly.

  • Once a job has been created it should NOT be deleted unless all files archived by that job have been graveyarded or returned to the live file system.

  • Only SQL Express is supported at present.

  • Due to limits in the Windows OS and the .Net Framework Archive Manager does not like paths that are longer than the Windows supported maximum. However, there are workarounds to this.