FastServers.Net is pleased to announce the rollout of our new remote backup solution with technology provided by our new partner in the industry, Arsenal Digital. Building upon our previous experience with SAN and NAS environments, we’ve added a vast array of enterprise-caliber functionality to streamline the entire backup process starting with client-server installation and through to the actual backup process itself.

Previously, the initial setup consisted of cumbersome shell scripting which located and archived the necessary data to the remote backup server, with a reliance on multiple utilities such as tar, gzip, cron, psadump, cpbackup, and so on. This process has been replaced entirely with the installation of a sophisticated backup agent. This agent runs in the background of your server’s process tree and communicates only with the backup server while managing all data transfers. No more worrying about configuring your transfer processes or compression methods. The Arsenal-driven agent handles all of this for you. This streamlining allows us to provide much-improved support as there is only one program to troubleshoot as opposed to a collection of utilities.

Once the client has been installed, your server is then registered with our centralized backup core. All that remains is to decide what data to backup. For our Plesk, CPanel, and Helm environments, we offer templates that include all of the necessary directory structure in the backup profile. For custom environments, simply provide the full path of the data you wish to backup and you’re ready to roll. These profiles can also be tailored to meet any additional needs you may have going forward.

While the backup process has been improved, as you might expect, so has the restoration process! And quite considerably so.

To start, a web interface is now available. This makes it a snap to download individual files or whole filesystems through the convenience of a web browser. All file transfers are handled over SSL-secured connections on our private (non-public address space) backup network to ensure that your data is not compromised in transit and is delivered safely to your server. Additionally, this environment includes an added benefit in that backup traffic is no longer counted against a server’s monthly allotted transfer, as all servers utilizing this service are now attached to the FastServers’ private backup network.

For those who prefer the familiarity of command line processes, we’ve included that avenue as well. While not quite as innovative or functional as the web interface, it’s still easy to perform restores even on an individual file level. The command line utility utilizes a syntax similar to the Unix tar command, thus adapting previous knowledge to this client is much easier as you are not learning a completely new and foreign command structure.

The third option for restores is that we can initiate a recovery without even logging into your server. The passive agent running on the server is what makes this possible. We can restore to the original file location or to any precise drive and/or directory path you prefer. Existing files are not overwritten if the file names match, but instead, are renamed to avoid collisions or other nasty developments.

The final option is a bare-metal restore. A bare-metal restore allows recovery from a total system crash as the full operating system, programs, and data are backed up. That is to say, absolutely everything existing on the drives in question is archived for restoration purposes, allowing us the complete recovery of a previously working system to a blank hard drive. This process differs from the normal backup/restore process so please contact our Sales Department for more information.

It was just under a year ago today that I put the finishing touches on a draft press release announcing the expansion of our organization to the Windy City - Chicago, IL. There were no shortage of reasons for our expansion to a major metropolitan area but a few stood out as the prime advantages. Our rapid influx of new growth in 2005 actually forced us to stop taking on new customers for a quarter in order to maintain our excellent support standards that our existing customers had come to expect. As a team our management group devised a plan that would allow our staffing and infrastructure to always be two steps ahead of our growth, but there was one tactical road block in our plan; staffing.

The Greater Cedar Valley, Iowa area has always provided this company with highly motivated and extremely hard working individuals; however, the population of the area severely limited the amount of individuals qualified to work in this challenging and unique industry. It became quickly apparent that only a major metropolitan area would have a high enough concentration of individuals with the experience and savvy to fit into our staff shortly upon being brought on board. This along with all the exciting new infrastructure options for us made Chicago an ideal location to expand to.

Well, it’s been less than one year since that move and here I am again drafting another press release. Our new location did everything it was supposed to do except to be physically large enough to house all the new employees we have hired over the past year! As we continue to add servers at a rate that far exceeds even our own expectations it was necessary to ensure that our personal location would not only house our existing staff but sustain us into the future. I’m extremely delighted to announce a successful move from our 4000 square foot O’Hare Airport area office on the outskirts, to our brand new 9000 square feet office located right next to the Chicago Board of Trade in the financial district of the City’s Loop.

Of course we ask all customers to take note of our new mailing address as well as fax and phone numbers, and as always if you have any plans on being in the Chicagoland area don’t hesitate to setup a time to stop by and meet our staff. It’s been a great year serving you and we look forward to continued expansion of the most talented staff in the industry.

New Address Information:

FastServers Inc.
175 W. Jackson Blvd Suite 1770
Chicago, IL 60604
New Fax Number:
FAX Number: 312-235-0937