Syncsort OSSV. Syncsort OSSV is the Open Systems SnapVault agent for Windows. High-performance, disk-based snapshot technology enables administrators to schedule frequent backups with an incrementals forever strategy. All Syncsort OSSV backups after the first (base) backups are incremental backups that are then synthesized into a full point-in-time snapshot of the primary system. This means that every backup instance is a virtual full backup, so restores never require aggregation of incrementals and are extremely fast.

Syncsort OSSV is considerably faster than alternative OSSV agents as it backs up at the block level, by-passing the file system. This is especially notable in base backups involving large numbers of files. After the first backup, subsequent backups are also exceptionally fast because only blocks changed since the previous snapshot are transferred. As less data is transferred, backup time, CPU load, and storage requirements are all dramatically reduced.  

Instant Availability. Instant Availability, for Windows 2000/2003/XP, including Exchange 2003 and SQL Server 2000, provides rapid temporary access to data stored on SnapVault systems, without the need to actually transfer the data. After data corruption or hardware failure, Instant Availability easily restores access to data and applications in minutes instead of hours, using iSCSI target mapping technology to ensure nearly continuous availability.

Once Instant Availability is activated, secondary storage volumes appear as local, fully accessible (read/write) drives. Files on the backup destination (SnapVault secondary) are transparently available to users, who can continue to work while Syncsort OSSV recovery runs in parallel to restore data to the primary server. For quick recovery of individual files, users can easily copy from an Instant Availability drive to another drive on a local node.