Open File Manager

Open File Manager (OFM) is a server-side software driver that solvesa notorious problem with backup­backing up open files. With OFM installed,your backup software (or other file-oriented utilities) can access open files asif they were closed.

The software comes on a single disk and is easy to install, but you mustreboot your server to activate OFM. You also need a separate license for eachserver.

OFM is clearly a useful add-on. The overhead of the driver, at least on mydual Pentium Pro 200 is negligible. You do not know that the driver is presentunless you open the OFM interface, which displays an embossed image of a SaintBernard and scrolls through credits as it loads.

Both St. Bernard Software and Computer Associates (CA) sell OFM. As sold byCA, OFM supports only CA's ARCserve backup product. As sold by St. BernardSoftware, OFM supports numerous backup products, as shown in Screen A. Othersupported backup products not shown in Screen A are Syncsort Backup ExpressV1.2.3, UltraBac for Windows NT, Unisys S3 for NT V2.1, and Workstation-basedBackup (in this case, OFM asks for a password to allow remote backup of a serverfrom a workstation). As you can see, OFM works with most backup applications.

Once you've installed it, setting up OFM is easy. The only strategic aspectof setup is the formation of groups of files that you want to back up at thesame time (e.g., aspects of databases). OFM will cache the information in eachgroup during the backup process to prevent partial updates. Other than defininggroups, setup does not require much intervention.

Testing of OFM was straightforward. I opened documents in Word 97,spreadsheets in Excel, and images and layouts in PageMaker 6.5. First, I invokedWindows NT Backup and instructed it to back up my system with OFM disabled. Asexpected, NT Backup skipped over all my open files. I then enabled OFM andrepeated the operation­this time all my open files were successfully backedup. More impressively, OFM successfully backed up the major files for SystemsManagement Server (SMS) and SQL. As you know, SQL database files are difficultto back up without specific vendor-supplied agents, but OFM handled these fileseasily.

OFM works and works well. It is available for both Intel and Alpha systems,although remote use by a workstation is available only on the Intel platform. Myonly complaint about OFM is that it does not conform to NT's uninstallspecification. To remove OFM, you must disable the driver and manually deleteits Registry entries. This inconvenience is relatively minor when you considerwhat OFM has to offer. If you work in an environment where users leave filesopen or where databases run around the clock, you need OFM.