QStar Ships Revision 5 of HSM and Data Director Software

QStar Technologies, Inc. announces revision 5 for its award winning data management software products QStar HSM, Data Director, and Master is now available. QStar R5 offers more data management features and support for new hardware configurations enabling customers to manage online pools of archive data through a seamless hybrid storage management structure with a mix of hard disk and near-line technologies in multiple storage archive formats.

QStar provides transparent access and a developer API for archive solutions supporting 19 operating systems including all current versions of Windows and popular versions of Linux and UNIX. The new version-5 graphical user interface provides multiple language support and enables single-point, transparent access to virtually any storage technologies while supporting standard securities and off-the-shelf applications.

"In light of increasing power management costs and data storage capacity requirements, QStar is staying on the forefront of data preservation with the release of Version 5. With the increased functionality in v5, we help our customers maintain direct access to their archive data in both emerging operating systems and on new greener archive technology such as Blu-ray Disc. This allows end users to continue to manage their compliance data over time with online access, while driving down the cost to manage both legacy data as well as current data with less power consumption in the data center," explained Riccardo Finotti, President of QStar.

Device Manager Enhancements
Device manager improvements include storage library management changes for new media types. In addition new simulated media templates have been added, UDO2, BD-RE, BD-RS, CD-R, and RW tape. The device manager is a fully multi-threaded operation and provides faster reads and writes. A home position for the library has been added when the QStar service is stopped to provide faster reset of the library on start up.

Improved SCSI Management
SCSI management improvements include; better reporting of library drive status by adding log and email messaging for drive calibration errors. This includes improved support for tape medium. In addition, operation with remote SCSI devices have been implemented as another SCSI class so they can work as both a real or simulated device through QStar.

Data Management Enhancements
Archive data retention and revision security is the core to the QStar archive products. QStar has always provided functionality to manage data on write once media and has had the ability to prevent file deletion from rewriteable media. QStar has added more granular file retention policies for Grace Period and Retention Period along with user defined off-line location text for all media in a magazine that has been exported from a library. Grace period locks files in a write once mode, even on rewriteable media, while Retention period denies deletion for a specified period of time.

Disaster Prevention Enhancements
QStar provides disaster prevention functionality so customers can mitigate data loss by always having a copy of data available through a mirror or a media copy utility. QStar disaster prevention functionality has been enhanced by adding cross mirror media copy, which will allow users to mirror or copy data stored on optical to tape media for a lower cost off-site disaster recovery solution. In addition improved mirroring features include an added delayed job feature for ‘Offsync’ mirrors, added support for quick mirror volume check, and enhanced mirror audit information.

QStar Magnetic Cache Enhancements
The magnetic cache file system has been completely redesigned. The format of the cache now allows files to be moved between different operating systems, which allows customers to move data between operating systems without having to import the file system into the new operating system platform. With a large archive this could save weeks of data transfer. Now the cache formatter is no longer needed. Previous cache size limitations per volume set have been eliminated and improvements have been made to the resource utilization.

File System Enhancements
The FUSE file system interface for Linux, and support for the off-line bit in Windows Explorer have both been added. Log messaging for de-duplication functionality have been added to support de-dupe applications prior to sending data to the archive. In addition, a shredding error code has been added to the logging feature in support of data deletion.

Several enhancements have been added to the QStar SDF file system functionality; support for new Blu-ray media-BD-RS for customer wishing to move to future Blu-ray formats. Shredding support for UDO Compliance WORM media is included in the new release for data destruction.

R5 now supports a new multi-threaded UDF file system migrator for faster reads and writes to optical media. Support has been added for UDF versions 2.5, 2.6 and Plasmon UDF. A new version of the UDF spanning database has been introduced for spanning configurations that also contain directory entries. This modification requires less access to the media when a user is browsing the file system and provides faster mount procedures in the case of rebuilding the cache and media databases. Improvements have also been made to enhance spanning interchange levels between media and platforms.

Proprietary Plasmon PFS, AFS-1 and AFS-2 have been added to R5 for read only applications. This will help customer transitioning from Plasmon technology to newer technology over time without having to replace hardware in the near term.

Publisher Archive Enhancements
Publisher Archive, a version of HSM, now uses Simulated and Proxy Jukebox to support publication devices such as Epson, MicroTech, Primera, Rimage and Rorke Data is now available.

User Interface Enhancements
R5 includes a completely new GUI redesign including multi-language support for English, German, Italian, Russian, and Japanese, and enhanced remote user GUI administration.

Enhanced Device Support
R5 Increases the number of supported EMC Centera devices from a single server to 30 Centeras, and implements a license check on write for EMC Centera.

A number of new Blu-ray technologies have been added to the support list to include: JVC Blu-ray libraries, Matsushita BD-MLT SW-5582 and 5583, along with the following Blu-ray publisher devices- Rimage Producer and Professional series, Epson DiscProducer, MicroTech X100, Primera Bravo XR, ER, and XRn, and the Rorke Data RDXRN50 and RDXRN100. New tape support includes, Sony AIT 4 and 5 as well as IBM Ultrium LTO-4. Support was also added for UDO2 and two new DVD-RAM drives from Matsushita; SW 9587 and SW 9590.

New Operating System Support:

• Windows 2003, Vista, XP, and 2008
• Linux Minimum 2.6 Kernel
• Solaris 10
• AIX 5.3
• HP UX 11.31

Upgrade Programs Available
For customers using an older version of QStar data management software and under current service agreement with QStar there are upgrade discounts available.