OpenText Data Protector Reviews

The integrations with other applications, for example SQL, Oracle, and Exchange is valuable. Also, especially valuable is the granular mailbox backup.

• It's use is intuitive
• Performs quick restores
• Integrates with multiples applications

In this company, I’ve used this product for five years, but I used this product in my last company, at an HP partner where I did a lot of installations. I've used it from v5 to v8.

In new installations I’ve never found any problems, but with the upgrade from v7 to v8, I found some problems with the IDB errors.

There have also been issues with Exchange integration misconfigurations and licenses.

In v7, some W2012 clients fail occasionally.

No issues encountered.

It's perfect.

It's perfect.

No previous solution was used.

The initial set-up is very intuitive.

I’ve implemented the solution as HP partner and as final customer.

No other options evaluated.

There are some issues with W2012 server clients. HP's solution is to update Data Protector version 8 or 9.

I would advise that you to test the product with all the options.

• Integration with a lot of OS and applications, e.g. SAP, Oracle, Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, VMware, Unix, Linux etc.
• Very reliable SAP and Oracle integration.
• Licensing is based on a backup library/drive instead of a licensing model based on the involved servers. This library centric model allow you to add some new backup procedures very quickly.
• Intuitive user interface
• Easy and reliable client agents installation
• Backup log files accurate and clear
• A lot of customization is possible through the configuration files and script integration
• Preview for backup and restore
• A powerful CLI interface is also available

• Fantastic SAP backup resilience and reliability
• Offline and on-line consistent backup possibilities
• Oracle log treatments for archive log mode databases
• Affordable restores with preview possibilities

• Reports
• Possibilities to personalize the GUI adding desired columns
• Windows image backup (similar to Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery that allows you to restore an entire Windows system through the network without the need to create DVD or boot devices)

We've used it for 10 years, starting with v5.1.

No, but it depends on the application platform you want to work on.

No. Recently I accidentally destroyed my backup server and the HP technicians restored my backup server in the entirety in a few hours using Data Protector's own backup. We often use Data Protector for disaster recovery tests, and the results were always successful.

No issues encountered.

They're honest and helpful.

Until last year it was very good, but in 2015 we felt a drop in service because some technical resources disappeared.

In the past we used the different manual operating system approach. We also used Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery to backup Windows images and files. Our schema is a specific tool for OS system images (Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery for Windows OS, to do net recovery for HP Unix OS) and Data Protector for the data.

It's a very simple deployment on file systems, Exchange, SQL server, and VMware, and more difficult on SharePoint, SAP and Oracle, and even these difficulties are derived from the Applications architecture itself. It depends on how large is your backup scope; the wider it is, the more time you need to dedicate to the implementation of the product. However, the Initial set-up itself is not complex.

We implemented the initial version of the product through a vendor team. They were experts, and helpful, and we have done some upgrade projects within the team.

We implement the initial version of the product through a vendor team, the team was expert and helpful, we also have some upgrade projects with the team.

The licensing approach is very convenient and useful because if you purchase the license based on physical drives, you can backup everything on them. If a new server application is deployed, you can start backup to it immediately. Other license, possibilities are available, for example if you have some D2D appliance you can acquire licenses based on the per-terabyte approach. The maintenance contract grows every year by 5%.

No, but we know different customers that use more popular backup product like Legato, Tivoli, and Netbackup. Often, they tell us that these products are good but very expensive or complex to use. Often when competitors suppliers visit us for marketing, they always says that Data Protector is not an enterprise backup solution. This is a typical vendor approach and I really think that this is not true because in our experience, Data Protector does its work well, and this is what a customer need.

Trust in Data Protector. It's probable that HP doesn't push it enough in marketing but the product works well.

Backup View by Type

Client View

Restore View

Sessions View

Tape Slots View

For us, disaster recovery is the most valuable feature.

We do not use the product within our own organization’s backup solution.

The Disk Agent feature is pretty basic, for instance, with the included wildcards.

I've used it for more than five years.

Upgrades can lead to issues with the internal database.

Data Protector is pretty stable, but when it does fail, we can quickly reset the internal database.

No issues encountered.

I haven't contacted customer service.

High. The last upgrade caused issues, but due to their support, we didn't need to roll back.

No previous solution was used.

It's straightforward.

We did it in-house.

It wasn't chosen, but mandatory for the specific customer.

Look to other products before buying, if you require complex backup solutions.

ZDB, and instant recovery. Also, it will do both physical and virtual backups with Hyper-V and ESXi.

Using the backup storage snapshot functionality we are able to back up 2T databases and 2T file storage fast.

Hyper-V backups need improvement so they can do GRE.

I've used it for five years.

We have a very complex and unusual environment so it took a while to get things working.

Since we started using v5, stability has improved quite a bit.

This has also improved since earlier versions.

We have very good customer service.

We pay for premier support and it is great, but it's not so good if you just have regular support.

We used Tivoli and it did not work well in our environment. Data Protector was cheaper and would do what we needed to do.

It was complex. We had a consultant in for several weeks to get us working. We needed to get the ZDB type, and virtual backups working. The file system backups were no problem.

We had a vendor team, and the main person is still the most knowledgeable one I know for what we needed.

You get what you pay for so don’t skimp.

We had it included in a large purchase we were making at the time.

If you are just doing straight file system backups, this product is straightforward, but if you use any of the many features I would suggest getting help. The interface could be improved and it doesn’t have some things that other products do, but it would depend on what you need from your backups/restores and what your window is.

The GUI is nice. However, the command line options are more important when setting up customize backups and restores in a custom scripts routine.

We are required to send sensitive information offsite, and Data Protector has made it easy to meet this requirement.

Better documentation on how to backup the device itself through a flash drive or CD.

I've used HP Data Protector, formerly OmniBack, since 1997.

No issues encountered.

No problems after I upgraded to v7. On version 6.10, it would not bar-scan a pool correctly. After upgrading, I no longer had the issue.

No issues encountered. What I like about it is that you are licensed per drives not how many clients/agents are installed. It can support various filesystem types (HFS, VXFS, Windows, etc.), and use a databases utility like RMAN to backup to other disk or tapes.

9.5/10.

9.5/10.

For the projects I support, I used Data Protector. Other projects used BackupExec. However; Backup Exec is very limited of what it can support in filesystem types and even operating system support matrix.

It's straightforward for me.

We implemented it through an in-house team of only one member. They were very knowledgeable, with over 20+ years of system administrator experience and knowledge.

My personal satisfaction is that the products work as intended.

The licensing is based on your primary purpose, what type of cloning environment you are utilizing, and if it is a disk to disk copy etc. The technical assistance should help with your decision.

Evaluated Backup Exec and it is limited in what it supports.

Evaluate your need first of all. We are a small government shop, and the needs are limited here. However, Data Protector can do much more.

• VMware level backup
• Exchange integration
• Flexibility
• Cost

We now have a common enterprise backup product across all our infrastructure and services. We have also extended this by deploying HP Data Protector VMware level backup capability VEPA, (Virtual Environment Protection Agent) across both Data Centre and Divisional services.

For me, the main weakness of Data Protector now is the Granular Recovery integrations, as they just don’t work as smoothly as they could.

I've used up since March 2013.

Not really. However, I have extensively used HP Data Protector in other roles with other organisation so I know the product very well. This was key consideration in the initial selection as it reduced costs and risks for the deployment.

We did experience a major issue when we first deployed Data Protector 8.10, but HP support were able to help.

No, we still two Data Protector installations, (known as Cells in in DP terminology). One cell manages the Data Centre backup/restores and the other the divisional side of things. At some point in time, we will probably consolidate into a single cell, (or manager of managers) configuration, but we have no current technical or business driver for this move.

It's excellent.

It's excellent, very prompt and professional.

In autumn 2012, we had two important backup issues in our enterprise data centres. The organisation was about to deploy MS Exchange as our corporate email system, (replacing Novell GroupWise) and our portfolio of VMware guests was increasing. We needed MS Exchange integration and NDMP backup capabilities to meet our data centre backup needs. At that time our IS organisation had a split between remote sites, (divisions) and the enterprise server data centres. We used Symantec NetBackup in our Data Centres and Symantec Backup Exec in divisions to meet our backup requirements.

The cost to license Symantec NetBackup for MS Exchange and NDMP was too large. So, we looked for alternatives. I had used HP Data Protector in a previous organisations and I knew it was a cost effective drop in replacement for NetBackup. So we looked at HP Data Protector and EMC offerings and eventually chose HP Data Protector and cost and functionality. This is just for the enterprise/data centre environment. Data Protector did all we wanted for our data centre backups.

As stated earlier, our technical IS had two teams/areas, data centre and divisions, (remote sites/hospital). The divisional team supported site based infrastructure and local services, (file & print etc.). The divisional servers were backed up using Symantec Backup Exec, and following an upgrade to Backup Exec 2012 we had several critical issues with backup at our divisions and the team evaluated HP Data Protector as replacement for Symantec Backup Exec and selected HP Data Protector.

For us, it was easy, as I had extensive previous experience of the product. I first used the product when it was called Omniback I, (not Omniback II). And, as stated we deliberately built the initial deployment as a drop in replacement for NetBackup in the Data Centre.

Just me.

It's difficult to calculate this as we didn’t have a plan to implement an enterprise backup infrastructure, we just used the cost and in-built flexibility of the product to meet our needs.

Initially in the data centre our first quote for NetBackup licenses for exchange integration and NDMP was about AU$200,000. Our complete Data Centre HP Data Protector deployment was AU$46,000.

Since our deployment HP has introduced capacity based licensing for Data Protector. I would advise any potential customer to look at this option, it may work better for their organisation. On balance if deploying today I would tend to prefer the capacity based licensing model. But do the sums and make sure it work for your organisation. The other point is even traditional Data Protector licenses is very flexible and relatively inexpensive, this allow an organisation to build an Enterprise backup architecture over time and allows in to evolve to meets changing requirements.

Plan, and call in outside help if required. Get the production evaluation mode and try it (it comes with a complete 60 day trial license). Get to know the product and plan. One other really nice feature of HP Data Protector that I haven’t mentioned up to now is Reporting. Data Protector has a whole load of built-in configurable reports, it really covers most use cases and when it doesn’t Data Protector has an extensive CLI, for when you just need that extra special something.

For us there are no features which we could call the most valuable. I think all components fulfill their jobs, but not one more than another.

I think this product doesn’t improve any processes or functions in our company.

We think troubleshooting is one of the most difficult parts in this product. It is hard to find any signs for job errors and why a job did not run successfully.

We've used the Data Protector solution for more than ten years now.

At the moment, we are updating to v9 together with an HP consultant, so hopefully he can help us with our issues.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

9/10.

9/10 - we have not had any bad experiences with support.

The initial setup wasn’t that complex, because Data Protector recognized all the tapes automatically, and we could adapt some settings.

We did it in-house with support from a consultant.

Have a consultant available in case there are any issues.

• StoreOnce software
• Federated deduplication
• Vendor agnostic

It is our enterprise backup solution centralizing all backup needs.

Technical support process could be easier/technical web site.

I've used it for five years.

When well-planned out and tested deployment was effectively flawless.

It’s as scalable as my pocket is – limited to my budget.

It’s as scalable as my pocket is – limited to my budget.

As mentioned this needs work – support is very granular and needs reorganization. Issues should be separated into tier 1,2,3 etc teams vs type of support needed.

I have used others – nothing is perfect.

Fairly straightforward when planned out and reviewed.

I did it by myself.

Check the available options to ensure your purchasing correctly for your requirements.

We evaluated other backup solutions all of which are very costly compared to this one.

If you don’t have sys admin resources to dedicate to this project, use proffessional services and ensure your support staff get knowledge after.