Setting up a backup was relatively simple, once we resigned ourselves to the somewhat laggy nature of the Web interface, when tested at multiple broadband locations. We believe the culprit is latency introduced as changes to the configuration are sent from the browser to the online service, then to the host machine and back to the service--and updated on the browser. If you choose to do a complete server backup, the system will configure itself to back up open registry and system state configuration files; this is necessary to LiveVault's emergency system restoration capabilities, and a requirement if you want to use its database-backup capabilities. By default, the agent excluded our backup, temporary and deleted files hanging out in our recycle bin, but we could tweak inclusion/exclusion rules as needed.
We set up our backup scheduling using a simple graphical interface. As with rivals, we could define any combination of hourly, daily and weekly intervals, but only LiveVault supports continuous backups, where file changes are communicated to the off-site backup as they're saved on your local server. This may be useful for servers handling fast-moving transactional data but overkill for a typical remote office or SMB installation. After the initial backup and synchronization, incremental backups were handled using byte-level comparison, with only changes transferred.
LiveVault handles open database, e-mail and system files by means of three tools: proprietary replication technology that captures changes as they occur on the agent computer; software agents that use Microsoft's NT Filter Driver APIs to interact directly with file-system-level functions; and algorithms that run against the data stream to ensure that complete databases, including all associated files, are captured and stored in transactionally safe states. There are also accommodations made to ensure the synchronization of continually backed-up databases, but because of their complexity, these advanced features should be set up during the initial agent configuration with the assistance of a LiveVault technician. According to LiveVault, this functionality works with any relational database.
Restorations are available for files and machine state, and complete system restorations can be done on a replacement server with a base OS build and network connectivity. In an emergency, LiveVault can supply your data on CD-ROM for $25 per gigabyte, or it will ship a NAS device starting at $400 plus shipping. For files with multiple historical iterations, LiveVault guarantees availability of at least one historical save per day, giving customers the option of restoring the most current version of a file or reviewing its historical saves for a specific restoration date. As with all the services in this review, when we went back and checked random files, everything was copacetic, and our full-restores went off without a hitch.
The LiveVault online service is not marketed directly; all direct sales are handled by a network of certified vendor partners. For our tests, we were quoted a price of $199 per month per server for up to 5 Gbytes of storage, based on a 30-day retention plan with no set limit on historical levels. Longer retention plans are available, and though first-level user support is usually provided by vendor partners, direct LiveVault support is available online and through e-mail. The company also offers a free emergency 24/7 telephone support team that will walk you through the process of getting up and running.
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