R1Soft Develops Hot Copy for Linux

R1Soft, developer of Continuous Data Protection, announced the upcoming release of a free beta version of Hot Copy for Linux, a new command line utility that takes instant, readable and writable snapshots of disks or volumes on any Linux server, providing an unprecedented level of flexibility for IT administrators.

Hot Copy creates a point-in-time snapshot of the disk while the system is running, without interrupting applications even on the busiest Linux servers. As block level changes are made to the device, Hot Copy makes a backup copy of only the changed blocks instead of replicating the entire drive. These changed blocks are then efficiently stored in the unused space on the hard disk.

"Hot Copy is big news for anyone that has to maintain a Linux server. With Windows you have Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). There is nothing really like VSS for Linux servers. It’s a big missing piece for Linux Enterprise IT. You have LVM snapshots of course, and the challenge with LVM is that most servers don’t run LVM, and even if they do the LVM volumes have to be configured ahead of time with spare disk space. Linux server admins need a simple command that allows snapshots on any Linux server at any time. This is what Hot Copy does. After installing the Hot Copy RPM or .deb package it’s one simple hcp command and they have an instant point-in-time snapshot on any Linux disk," said David Wartell, Vice President of R1Soft, a division of BBS Technologies, Inc.

As the only solution that generates readable and writable backups, Hot Copy is an essential tool for all system administrators. Prior to Hot Copy there was no other choice except to use Logical Volume Management (LVM) for Linux snapshots. Since Hot Copy does not use Logical Volume Management (LVM), it can be used on any Linux server without changing storage configuration. Due to its ability to store changed data on the unused portion of existing drives, Hot Copy requires no dedicated storage device, and can operate on any limited amount of free drive space. This Hot Copy snapshot device can be easily mounted, all without interrupting the running server.

Hot Copy can be used to add point-in-time snapshots to legacy backup applications like tar and rsync. It also adds great flexibility to day-to-day Linux system administration. For example, with Hot Copy Linux administrators can take a snapshot before making a big server change so that if they make a mistake they have an instant backup copy of everything before the change was made. Hot Copy can even be used to run file system check utilities like fsck while the system is online. Normally a server would have to be shutdown to safely run check disk.

The free Linux Hot Copy beta version is scheduled for release in late November. Pre-registration is available for those interested in downloading Hot Copy prior to the general release date.