Cryptexonline ADVANCED compares timestamps of files on the server with the corresponding copies on your machine. Archive bit is not used as it does not detect relocated files. Therefore tape backup would not affect Cryptexonline ADVANCED.

After the initial upload, subsequent backup jobs will only transfer the modified or new data to the My Backup server. It depends on the nature of the data, but normally, less than 2% of all data is modified.

If you have a lot of data (e.g. 300GB) to backup to the Backup server, it would take a considerable amount of time to perform the first full backup over the Internet. You can try the following method:

  1. Order a seed load service from Cryptexonline using the My Cryptex portal.  Choose the seed load service from the categories drop down box and follow the process to complete the order.

  2. Cryptexonline will send you a device upon which to load your initial data.  Use the seed loading utility in the client software to backup your backup set to that local device (instead of directly transfering to the My Backup server)

  3. Send the device, complete with your backup data, back to Cryptexonline using the postage bag provided.

  4. Cryptexonline will then load all your backup files into your backup account on the My Backup server. This could save you days (even weeks) of performing your first full backup.

In addition, subsequent backups are incremental (only new or updated files will be uploaded to the server), the amount of data transfer should be relatively small.

You can request a data restore service from Cryptexonline.  To do this, log in to your account on the My Cryptex server and go to Orders.  Under the categories drop box, choose data recovery services and follow the order process to the end until you purchase the service.  Cryptexonline will then copy your data to a device and send the device to you.  You can then use the “Decypt Files Tool” in Cryptexonline ADVANCED to restore the backup data from the device to your hardware, in its original format.

Cryptexonline ADVANCED requires a temporary storage for the delta file before it gets sent to the server.

For example:
If you have a 10GB file that has already been backed up to the server and you have updated 5MB of this file, then you need to have at least 5MB of free space in the temporary directory for the delta file.

*Note: Certainly you do not need 10GB of free disk space.  Also, if you want to backup 3 x 10GB files in the same situation you will only need 5MB of free space (not 3 x 5MB), because each delta file will be automatically deleted right after it has been backed up.

All backup files are compressed and encrypted before uploading to the My Backup server.  The average compression ratio for text-based file is around 4:1. However, no further compression can be made on files that are already in compressed format (e.g. JPG, ZIP).  In general, you can assume a 2:1 compression ratio when you are backing up a file set with variety types.

The encrypting key cannot be changed once you set up your backup set. This is necessary for the integrity of the backup set. If you change encryption keys you will have problems identifying which encryption key to use should you need to restore your files in the future.

If you need to change your encryption key, you should recreate your backup set and you will need to re-upload your data to the My Backup server.

By selecting the “User Login Password as Encrypting Key” option when creating a backup set, Cryptexonline ADVANCED will set your login password as the encrypting key for the backup set. Once set, even if you change your login password afterward, the encrypting key will remain as your original password. In other words, if you have changed your login password, you still need to use the original password to decrypt and restore the backup set.

Currently, if the encrypting key is forgotten or lost, the backup set can never be restored. It is not possible to restore without the key.

There are two encryptions being performed by Cryptexonline:

    1.    Encryption of backup data - This is being done by 128-bit symmetric key encryption (AES, TripleDES, TwoFish). 256-bit is not available because it requires too much CPU and it is not really required. (128-bit is currently being used by most banks)
    2.    Encryption of backup traffic - This is being done by 1024 bit RSA public key encryption.

Please check if the external hard drive is in FAT32 volume format.  Also check whether there is any folder containing more than 32,000 files and there is no file bigger than 4GB within your backup set.  This is a FAT32 limitation.  You may try to convert the FAT32 volume to NTFS. 

Please try the following:

1.    Check if [Control Panel] -> [Administrative Tools] -> [Services] -> [Online Backup Scheduler] is available and started
2.    Check if C:\Program Files\Cryptexonline ADVANCED\home.txt contains the home directory for your backup account (e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\.obm)
3.    Check if C:\Program Files\Cryptexonline ADVANCED\jvm\bin\SchedulerOBM.exe exists
4.    Check if C:\Program Files\Cryptexonline ADVANCED\log\Scheduler\info.log contains the startup loading entry, e.g.
    i.    [2005/12/12 12:42:44] OS Name=Windows XP
    ii.    [2005/12/12 12:42:44] OS Version=5.1
    iii.    [2005/12/12 12:42:44] Scheduler Version=5.0.1.3e
    iv.    [2005/12/12 12:42:44] Java Vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc. Version=1.4.2_10
    v.    [2005/12/12 12:42:44] [info] Starting Scheduler, User:'backup-account', Home:'C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\.obm'
5.    Check if C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\.obm\log\Scheduler\debug.log contains the debugging information for your scheduler

If your system settings is not the same as the above steps, please download a new installer from our portal and try again.

If you are backing up files from a network drive, please check if you have included the valid “Network Resources Authentication” information for the backup set. This is required for scheduled backups that access any network resources.

If you are using port 80, please check whether your proxy server accepts "HTTP CONNECT" calls on port 80. You may also want to try other ports like 443 to see if your proxy server accepts that.

Currently, it is not possible to do hard disk image backup with Cryptexonline ADVANCED. However, you can still backup/restore the operating system by doing the following:

To backup all files including the operating system, please do this:
1.    Add all files to your backup source
2.    Add a SystemState backup type to your backup account (Windows only)

To restore all files including the operating system, please do this:
1.    Re-install the operating system and applications
2.    Restore the SystemState backup to your machine (Windows only)
- To restore the System State data on a domain controller, you must first start your computer in a special startup option called "Directory Services Restore Mode". To access "Directory Services Restore Mode", press F8 during startup and select it from the list of startup options.
3.    Restore all files to your machine

You can try running “osql –L” in a command prompt.  You should see the following:

Servers:
    (local)
    SQLSERVER1\INSTANCE1
    SQLSERVER2\INSTANCE2

If you have a firewall installed, please disable it. UDP Broadcast must be allowed.

If you have a firewall installed on your network, please make sure UDP port 1434 is allowed on the SQL Server.

You can change the recovery model by running the following commands.  These should be run for each of the databases that you want to run transaction log backup.
C:\> osql -E -S SQLSERVER1\INSTANCE1 -Q "ALTER DATABASE xxx SET RECOVERY FULL"
    Where
SQLSERVER1\INSTANCE1 = the SQL Server and the corresponding instance
xxx = the name of the database

MySQL backup is performed using native MySQL backup technology.  At the moment, it is not possible to do incremental backups using the native MySQL backup technology.  However, our In-File Delta feature ensures that only the changed data blocks are uploaded to the My Backup server.

In an incremental backup, only modified files will be uploaded to the My Backup server.

In-File Delta is applicable to the physical files to be uploaded to the My Backup server.  It does not matter whether it is a database file or any normal file in a backup set, only the changed blocks in comparison to the original file on the My Backup server (delta file) will be uploaded.

For each modified file, Cryptexonline ADVANCED would determine whether the entire file or only the delta file should be uploaded. If the entire file is to be uploaded, the old version of the file will be moved to the Retention area. If only the delta file is to be uploaded, the previous delta files will be moved to the Retention area and the Data area should contain the original full backup file, checksum file and the latest delta file of this file.

When you do backup, the Cryptexonline backup software will do the following:
1.    Check if any files are added, updated or deleted (the calculation of these files are based on files having the same filename).
2.    New files will be uploaded to the server in whole.
3.    Deleted files will be removed from the Data area and placed into the Retention area on the My Backup server.
4.    Updated files will be processed by the In-File delta option (i.e. only changed data blocks within the files will be uploaded to the Backup Server)

Off-line Backup is basically designed for notebook users who are off-line most of the time, and cannot rely on a backup schedule to backup regularly. The backup interval allows notebook users to specify the interval that they would like their data to backup. If this interval has elapsed without a backup performed due to the machine being offline, the backup will run automatically once this machine is online.

Logout Backup Reminder asks user if they would like to backup if they logout of the computer or shutdown their computer.

Local Backup allows an extra copy of the backup file to be kept on a local hard disk when the backup is running.

You might have “Off-line backup” enabled for every hour. Please do the following to disable that:
1.    Log on to the My Backup portal https://mybackup.cryptexonline.com
2.    Select the backup set you want to modify from the left panel
3.    Select the [Extra Backup] node under the backup set node on the left panel
4.    Uncheck the [Enable off-line backup] checkbox under the “Off-line Backup” section
5.    If you want to do this to all backup sets, please repeat the previous step for each backup set
Press the [Save Setting] button from the toolbar

To disable the “System Logout Backup Reminder”, please do the following:
1.    Log on to Cryptexonline ADVANCED
2.    Select the backup set that you want to amend from the left panel
3.    Select the [Extra Backup] node under the backup set node on the left panel
4.    Uncheck the [Enable System Logout Backup Reminder] checkbox under the “System Logout Backup Reminder (Windows)” section
5.    If you want to do this to all backup sets, please repeat the previous step for each backup set
Press the [Save Setting] button from the toolbar

If you have interrupted any of the backup jobs, the file tagged with the datetime of the corresponding backup job will be renamed to its original filename just before it is uploaded. This is necessary as we need to ensure that the snapshot of different dates would not overwrite each other.

If a backup job is still running, just let it run to completion. If the backup has been stopped already, just remove all files tagged with the corresponding datetime in the “temporary directory” and try to perform a full database backup again.

You need to have Cryptexonline ADVANCED, as well as support from the underlying operating system. Windows XP and 2003, by default, come with Volume Shadow Copy, which allows for the backup of open files. Earlier versions of Windows are not capable of open file backup without an open file backup manager.

*Open file option is not required on Linux/Unix/Mac OS X because no files are held exclusively open by applications.

If you want to completely remove Cryptexonline ADVANCED from Windows, after uninstalling the software from [Control Panel] -> [Add or Remove Programs], please do the following:
1.   Ensure that the Cryptexonline ADVANCED installation directory is deleted
2.   Remove the C:\Documents and Settings\administrator\.obm\ folder

It makes no difference to Cryptexonline ADVANCED if the connection is always on or dial-up.

If you want Windows to connect to the ISP automatically when a backup starts, you can go to [Control Panel] -> [Internet Options] -> [Connections] and select “Always dial my default connection”.

To recover a machine from scratch, you have to do the following:
1.    Re-install the operating system
2.    Re-install all applications required
3.    Restore the SystemState backup onto the recovered machine (this will update the recovered system with the latest configuration and settings)
4.    Restore all data files onto the recovered system.