CA XOsoft™ Replication Option for File Server (formerly CA XOsoft Replication File Server)

CA XOsoft Replication Option for File Server is a file and application server data replication solution that uses asynchronous real-time replication to provide cost-effective disaster recovery capabilities for file servers and other applications on 32- and 64-bit Windows.

Support for AIX, Linux and Solaris servers is also available with CA XOsoft Replication and CA XOsoft High Availability V4, please visit our product platform support pages for more details.

CA XOsoft Replication's asynchronous file server data replication, over LAN or WAN, of files and application data from a production server to one or more local or geographically distant replica servers offers rapid data recovery, integrated continuous data protection as a guard against data corruption, and completely non-disruptive automatic testing of your disaster recovery system, all in a system that sets the standard for ease of configuration and management.

When disaster strikes, and anything that puts a stop to your ability to do business is a disaster, it is critical that your response is urgent and effective. Whether a flood or a blackout, or the more probable virus attack or user error, you must recovery quickly with minimal data loss or risk losing productivity, revenue, customers and opportunities, perhaps even the viability of your entire business.

CA XOsoft Replication Option for File Server software helps ensure that you are ready to respond.

• What differentiates CA XOsoft Replication data replication from competitive products?
• What's new?
• Advanced discussion of CA XOsoft Product Architecture

The CA XOsoft Replication Option for File Server Data Replication Solution

CA XOsoft Replication is a highly cost-effective data synchronization/file synchronization and server data replication solution that protects data on your mission-critical application servers through a wide range of disruptions, from server failure to data corruption to the loss of an entire site.

CA XOsoft Replication Option for File Server provides:

• Asynchronous host-based software replication that transfers changes to files and data as they occur to a standby replica server located locally or over the WAN or performs file synchronization or application data synchronization on a scheduled basis
• Integrated continuous data protection (CDP) solution for recovery from data corrupted by virus action or user or application error
• Data recovery software to automatically recover your data from your replica
• Tailored support for file servers and customizable for other applications
• Replication of all file data and metadata, including ACLs and Unix/Linux permissions
• A CDP Repository with full text searching capability give end users control to recover important data quickly without placing the burden on IT administrators
• With the new Centralized Manager you have greater operational control by allowing you to manage all your replication/failover scenario configurations for your entire environment from a single console
• Bandwidth benchmarking assessment mode allows you to estimate bandwidth requirements prior to the deployment of any replication scenario. This gives you greater cost control by knowing exactly what your requirements are so that you can purchase only the bandwidth you need to meet your business needs
• Unique ease of installation with no application or user downtime, automated remote installation, and wizard-driven creation of new disaster recovery scenarios
• Assessment mode measures exact change rate during evaluation to aid in estimating bandwidth requirements

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Other Resources

Learn more about our data synchronization and server data replication solution by downloading a trial evaluation of our production software or contact us for information related to specific data replication and file synchronization software needs. Our white papers will help to complete your business continuity research.

Be sure to view our library of recorded webcasts and demos pertaining to our disaster recovery solutions.

To take your data protection solution to the next level with application monitoring and fully automated failover and failback, consider CA XOsoft™ High Availability (formerly CA XOsoft WANSyncHA) CA XOsoft's solution for true continuous application availability.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the difference between CA XOsoft Replication and CA XOsoft High Availability?
• Does CA XOsoft Replication support cluster configurations?
• How much bandwidth do I need?

Benefits of CA XOsoft Replication Option for File Server Data Replication Software for File Synchronization over the WAN

The CA XOsoft Replication Option for File Server file synchronization and server data replication solution delivers significant benefits that enable reduced cost and complexity, significantly broader and deeper protection against a wide variety of potential disruptions, and support that allows your business to become much more proactive in handling crisis situations. Major benefits of CA XOsoft Replication data replication include:

A Broader Data Protection Solution for Reduced Vulnerability for File and Application Servers

Effective protection is not about having a single technology, but about layering solutions to provide protection against the full range of types of failures. CA XOsoft Replication is data synchronization software that works with the other critical components of your business continuity system, like clustering, backup, and snapshot technologies. CA XOsoft Replication helps you recover quickly, thereby maintaining continuous, reliable support for your business-critical systems.

• Real-time replication minimizes potential data loss
• Integrated continuous data protection (CDP) ensures recovery even when data becomes corrupted
• "Soft" installation allows software to be deployed without server reboots or application service restarts — which means no downtime is required to deploy the solution

Increased Productivity Through Simple and Rapid Data Synchronization Software

In the end, the purpose of a business continuity solution is productivity: to ensure that people and businesses are able to continue operating during and after a disaster. CA XOsoft Replication ensures this by enabling quick recovery with almost no data loss, increased productivity of system administrators through ease of configuration and management and of users through decreased application downtime.

• Simple wizard-driven server data replication software minimizes downtime
• Intuitive GUI for central management of all business continuity scenarios maximizes administrator productivity
• Support for scenario templates and support for configuration changes to multiple scenarios at once increase productivity and reduce errors
• Remote installation wizard and zero-downtime installation minimize demands on IT staff and impact on users
• Simple file browser interface and auto-configuration of appropriate file server settings means minimal administrator time to configure your high availability solution

True Data Protection Solution with Reduced Complexity and Cost

It is important that the expense in money and time of purchasing, installing and managing your disaster recovery solution be commensurate with the potential cost that you are protecting against. Some systems truly require the tremendous expense and complexity of the very highest-end high availability solutions, but most applications can trade a little time in recovery for dramatically reduced up front and total costs.

• Hardware and platform-independent software approach provides data replication at significantly lower cost
• Intuitive interface reduces administrator time for lower TCO
• Real-time asynchronous replication or schedule file synchronization offers continuous protection over cost-effective networks
• Clear scenario status indicators and multiple alert paths ensure that issues requiring action are identified quickly
• Support for scenario templates and support for configuration changes to multiple scenarios at once increase productivity and reduce errors
• Single point of management and monitoring reduces management complexity.
• Has no hidden costs - does not require advanced OS editions or third-party clustering solutions
• Easily combines with virtual server technologies for reduced cost and complexity (see our solution paper Consolidation of Disaster Recovery Replica Servers: CA XOsoft Replication and Virtual Server Technologies)
• Scheduled bandwidth throttling reduces impact on production environment

Increased Flexibility to Fit Your Needs and Environment

An out-of-the-box solution for someone else's problem is useless. A do-it-yourself project is no better. The CA XOsoft Replication data protection solution is designed to be an out-of-the-box solution, but also provides support for you to customize to fit your needs.

• Supports standalone 32- and 64-bit Windows and MSCS clusters
• Integrated with standard security environments
• Supports both scheduled data synchronization and continuous replication modes
• Works "out of the box," but allows customization through configuration parameters as well.
• Alerts and status messages may be sent by email, system logs, or the CA XOsoft Replication management GUI
• Statistics may be displayed in the GUI, emailed as reports, or integrated with a database
• Supports bandwidth throttling at a constant level or varying according to a specified schedule
• Can be combined with virtual server technologies for reduced cost and complexity (see our solution paper Consolidation of Disaster Recovery Replica Servers: CA XOsoft Replication and Virtual Server Technologies)
• Bandwidth benchmarking assessment mode measures exact change rate during evaluation to aid in estimating bandwidth requirements

Frequently Asked Question

• What is the difference between the usage of the "rewind technology" in CA XOsoft Replication vs. CA XOsoft CDP Solo (formerly CA XOsoft Enterprise Rewinder)?

Server Data Replication Software for Multiple Applications and Platforms

The CA XOsoft Replication Option for File Server data replication solution for disaster recovery ensures that, should critical application data be lost due to server failure or corruption, or access to primary servers be unavailable, a replica set of the data on a remote server is available to retrieve the data or to take over the application on the backup server.

CA XOsoft Replication provides a tailored, out-of-the-box data replication for file servers and may be easily configured for other applications as well. Tailored solutions are also available for industry-standard applications like CA XOsoft Replication Option for Exchange, SQL Server, Oracle databases and IIS support.

CA XOsoft Replication — An Effective File Synchronization Solution

CA XOsoft Replication host-based asynchronous server data replication captures changes in real time as they happen on your production file or application server and transfers those changes over a LAN or WAN to a secondary replica server. The replica may be used as the source for recovering the data, or can act as a replacement server in the event the production server goes down. Data synchronization on a scheduled rather than continuous basis is also supported.

Because asynchronous server data replication is only seconds behind the production system, the CA XOsoft Replication data synchronization software ensures negligible potential data loss, regardless of where it is located in the world, as long as sufficient bandwidth is available, sufficient to transfer only the changes being made to information on the production server.

Of course, if a virus, user action, or software error corrupts your production information, that corruption is replicated to your standby server. Other replication products leave you with two copies of your corrupted data. However, CA XOsoft's Replication has rewind technology that is built in to ensure continuous data protection — simply use the recovery wizard to rewind to the last valid state, and recover from that point, saving potentially hours of data and recovery time.

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For a fully automated failover solution, learn about CA XOsoft High Availability, which extends the CA XOsoft Replication data recovery software to provide true continuous application availability.

You can find more detailed technical information on CA XOsoft Replication and the architecture that supports it in our accompanying advanced discussion of replication, high availability and automated testing technology. An even more in-depth discussion for those who really wish to understand the underlying technology is available in our advanced architecture overview white paper, Disaster Recovery and High Availability with CA XOsoft Replication: An Architectural Overview.

Gain a better understanding of our server data replication and file synchronization solution by downloading a trial evaluation of the production version of our software. View our white papers for further resources to aid your server data replication and disaster recovery research.

Be sure to view our library of recorded webcasts and demos pertaining to our data protection solution or contact us for information related to your specific data replication needs.