Data Protector - Passion for Data Protection

data-protector.org

Home » Common » HP Backup Navigator and BRICK

HP Backup Navigator and BRICK

Posted on by 7 Comments

I often get questions whether it makes sense to use HP Backup Navigator or BRICK for monitoring and reporting of HP Data Protector environments. Many users are already familiar with the tool “Backup Related Information Collector and Keeper” and use it on a regular basis in their environment. What benefits and advantages can HP Backup Navigator offer compared with BRICK?

The most important difference is that HP Backup Navigator is an integrated web-based solution for analyzing, trending, troubleshooting and reporting on Data Protector for both physical and virtual infrastructures. BRICK statically collects information about the Data Protector environment using a command line interface and presents the information graphically.

Executive Summary: HP Backup Navigator provides a quick and easy way to implement analytics, trending and reporting for HP Data Protector backup environments. For more information, quick specs, white papers and documentation, see: http://www.hp.com/go/dataprotector and http://www.autonomy.com/adaptivebackup/backup-navigator. Additionally, HP Backup Navigator is offered with an Instant-On 60 day license, allowing customers to immediately put HP Backup Navigator into operation and evaluate its fit within the overall business assurance strategy of the organization.

In order to demonstrate the differences, the table below compares the features of both solutions.

  HP Backup Navigator BRICK
Purpose
  • Highly interactive and intuitive web-based reporting application
  • Combines strong visualization and real-time operational analytics to simplify and optimize the backup and recovery experience for HP Data Protector environments
  • Provide business assurance insight for both physical and virtual environments
  • Application to document the backup and recovery environment
  • Statically collect information on the environment
Use Case
  • HP Backup Navigator is suitable for clients with enhanced requirements for reporting
  • End-to-end insight into the physical and logical data protection infrastructure make it possible for the administrator and also a company’s executive to make smarter decisions in implementing a backup and recovery process
  • BRICK is suitable for customers who want to use a static snapshot of their environment and the generated result as system documentation
  • The tool is intended for administrators of a Data Protector environment
Intelligent Dashboards
  • Intelligent interactive dashboards
  • Multi-user; users can customize their own dashboards to filter, change and modify views
  • Dashboard reports are based on more than 75 key performance indicators of the backup and recovery process
  • 3 static dashboards (reports) included
Real-Time Predictive Analytics
  • Delivers foresight into the backup and recovery process based on trending, forecasting and modeling algorithms
  • HP Backup Navigator’s foresight algorithms reveal future performance deficiencies, capacity gaps and requirements specific to the data set characteristics, infrastructure capabilities, and organizational requirements
  • Not available
Rapid Root-Cause Analysis and Problem Solving
  • Proactively detect and address potential resource conflicts and systematic/systemic issues before they cascade into outages and data loss that negatively impact business operations
  • Evaluate data protection issues for both physical and virtual environments
  • Root cause analysis is not available
  • Can show systematic/systemic issues, but expertise from a Data Protector expert required to interprets these issues
  • Does not reveal data protection issues specific to virtual environments
Collaboration and Cross-System Support
  • Automates the report creation process, allowing them to be scheduled and shared with stakeholders within the organization, or securely isolated and made available to external customers relying on the backup and recovery service
  • The same information can be exported in a variety of formats (PDF, XLSX, CSV, DOCX, PPTX und HTML) for inclusion into other organizational systems
  • Reports are pre-canned and cannot be modified
  • Reports cannot be shared with stakeholders or isolated for external access
  • Reports cannot be converted into other formats. Results are generated as HTML only
Flexible Reporting
  • Extensible reports can be customized and tailored to match the specific needs of the operator, organization or customer
  • Flexible reports include the data protection details necessary for decision-making and taking appropriate and decisive action
  • New reports, not shipped with the solution, can be created and added easily to support unique business needs and requirements
  • Reports are pre-canned and cannot be modified
  • Pre-canned reports offer very limited customization
  • New reports are not user created and require developer support from the creator
“What-if” Scenario Evaluation
  • Get intelligent insights into current backup and recovery operations before new datasets are included into the process
  • Use insights to determine whether or not service-level agreements remain achievable, the impacts to the backup infrastructure and the best ways to balance the demands of new datasets within the existing infrastructure
  • Model and compare the impacts of using dataset reduction features (i.e. deduplication) on existing data without enabling the feature
  • Data protection scenario modeling and reports are not available
  • Statically collected information from various reports could be used for modeling, with expertise from a Data Protector expert
Automation
  • Automated data gathering for one to many backup and recovery environments
  • E-mail subscription for reports available; reports are sent automatically without user interaction required
  • Automation using “cron” or “task scheduler” is possible
  • No support for e-mail subscription for specific parts in BRICK
Number of Reports
  • > 100 predefined and customizable reports available
  • Custom reports can be easily created and integrated into the solution
  • < 20 static reports available
Multi-Cell Support
  • All reports support Multi-Cell environments
  • Not Available, limited to one Data Protector cell only
Multi-User Support
  • Support for user defined dashboards and favorites
  • HP Backup Navigator as a commercial reporting package allow multiple user roles, such as admin, management, and executive real time report access
  • Not supported and not available
Licensing
  • Capacity-based licensing model
  • Single Cell Manager Edition available
  • Evaluation with Instant-On 60 day license possible
  • No license required
Hardware / Software
  • Requires additional server (virtual or physical) and includes different components
  • One binary, no installation nor additional hardware required
Support
  • Provided by HP based on customer support agreement
  • Best effort / community based support

7 thoughts on “HP Backup Navigator and BRICK”

  1. Hello Daniel, a comment for th Backup Navigator.

    I think that the installation process of the BN is very dificult for the end users and expended much time for the installation at the customer environment.

    HP should do the Backup Navigator in a appliance mode for VMware and Hyper-V with a option to install a dedicated server but in the same way that Data Protector, with DB and all other requirements together.

    Today, is need install separately the Maria DB, the JBOSS adjust OS options and then installa the Application. Also is need have a RHEL Linux to be possible.

    I my opinion, the time expended for this installation and the requirements broken many oportunities on the PoC ( Proof of Concept ) to help to sell this product.

    • Hi Diogo,

      have you already checked version 9 of Backup Navigator?
      As seen in the description the installation and handling became more easier compared to version 8.

      Best regards
      Daniel

  2. Hi Daniel,

    I see the 9.1 version today. It seems that the installations ir more simple that in version 8XX. Appears that all that needed by the BN is installed by the installation script. Do you install the version 9 ? What are your comments about it ?

    Diogo

  3. Hi,
    we are evaluating BN 9.10 right now.
    Installation was a bit tricky and there are some parts of installation guide which need to be checked.
    Collected data from two sites, one large one small. Large one is still collecting.
    There are some (quote: horribly) errors in bn log files to look at.

    Overall seems to work fine. Still playing around with Webinterface and features.

    Anybody here to exchange experiences?
    I.e. I can\\\’t seem to select reports for tiles in overview!?! Only lists \\\’None\\\’ for selection.

    BR
    Alex

  4. Hi,

    You need to first add the report to favorite before you can put it on the dashboard.

    Regards,Blaz

  5. Hi!
    Is this product (Backup Navigator) have a Windows version for installation? I downloaded the v.9.20 of this product and found only Linux bin files (rpm for install).
    Is it possible to install it on the MS Windows HP DP Cell Mgr\’s role server?

    • Hi Andrew,

      no, Backup Navigator at the moment has no Windows version and cannot be installed on a Windows cell server.

      Best regards
      Daniel

Comments are closed.