Peak Backup Easter Sale - $1,575 Off 100 OEM ACB Purchase

Sale Link: http://www.peakbackup.com/OEM-ACB-Easter-Sale.html
From now through 30 April 2011, Peak Backup has OEM ACB packages in quantities of 100 for 45% off list. The $3,500 list is on sale for $1,925. That’s $1,575 off list! This is new licensing and comes with one year of maintenance. There are only have 15 packages, and the sale ends 30 April 2011.

The purchase for each $1,925 includes 100 Ahsay OEM ACB. You may issue this as a new license key or add to your existing licensing (if that licensing has current maintenance).
Maintenance after 1 year is $3 per ACB. Don't forget Peak Backup offers additional discounts for maintenance renewal.

If you have any questions, let me know.

Sincerely,
Jim Robinson
Selling Ahsay Since 2004
Ahsay Discount Software Sales
719-433-4230

AHSAY YEAR-END SALE

Ahsay announced an end of year promotion. Peak Backup is offering this promotion PLUS 5% off. With a minimum of quantity 25, you will receive an additional:

· 30% more for OBM
· 40% more for ACB
· 50% more for Mailbox Level Add-on

To order, follow this link: http://www.peakbackup.com/OEM-Purchase
Through 12/31/2010, we’ll add your additional licensing after your purchase. Minimum order to qualify is quantity 25 of each product respectively.


KOR COMPUTING PROMOTION

As many of you know, Kor Computing is major provider of Virtual Offsite Backup Servers and Data Replication. Kor Computing and Peak Backup have referred business to the other for years. In October of this year, Stone Bridge Data acquired Kor Computing. In Q1 of 2011, Kor Computing will expand and have a cage and redundant GigE Internet connections.

If you’re on the fence with backing up your business or starting an online backup business, Kor Computing is offering this promotion through 12/31/2010:

· For new Virtual Backup customers, Kor Computing will have a new Ahsay 10 license OEM ACB created for you to use. After one year of service, the licensing is yours. Ahsay list is $400.
· For new Virtual Backup customers that have their own backup licensing (any vendor), Kor Computing will offer the three months of minimum free ($75.00).
· For new Replication customers, Kor Computing will offer the three months of minimum free ($37.50).
· If you’re an existing Kor Computing customer and have purchased from Peak Backup before, contact Kor Computing by Thanksgiving, and you’ll get one month credit of the minimum.

Kor Computing
888-365-2550
http://www.korcomputing.com/

======================================

Thanks for making Peak Backup successful this year!

Jim

Newsletter - Jan 2010

New Cart

The Peak Backup shopping cart has changed since 2009. On January 1, 2010, we needed to migrate to a new cart platform for a number of limiting pricing options. Migration of accounts was not available. If you ordered in 2009, you can find your historical information here:
http://www.peakbackup.com/2009
For new orders (if you haven’t already) in 2010, you’ll need to create a new account on Peak Backup’s website.

New Cart Specials

For special pricing, this is a permanent page added in 2010:
http://www.peakbackup.com/Ahsay-Special-Used/

Business for Sale

If your online backup business has cash flow and you’re interested in selling, contact Peak Backup.

Ahsay Release Subscription

Ahsay has been relaying this in their correspondence recently…
For news on the latest update, please subscribe to the following RSS: http://rss.ahsay.com/rss/technical-updates.rss

Peak Backup Discount Changes

Ahsay did change our negotiating limits for 2010, so the following link shows the product discounts:
http://www.peakbackup.com/FAQS.html
The two big changes are (1) previously we could offer 12.5% off repurchase, this is now 5%; (2) we can add to licensing not originally issued by Peak Backup.

Affiliate Link

You’ll see an affiliate link on the new cart. It’s not active even though there is wording. I’m considering investing in an affiliate program versus online advertising. So, I’ll send a follow-up newsletter soon if that is the path we decide.

Sincerely,

Jim Robinson
719-433-4230
www.peakbackup.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmyrobinson (New 2010 - Feel free to add to your network)

Jim's Input on Ahsay's Price Increase

I've been using the software since 2004. The 2010 price change to me is merely a bump in the road. The product was very underpriced for years. Take a look on the market for 2009. Ahsay will dominate their market completely in 1-3 years because of new and developing focus: increased quality assurance; support staff and hours are increasing; and the product line is having an extreme focus and performance. I look at the price increase as a move to ensure their presence. And if you are using Ahsay, it's your presence too. Don't look at quantity of 1. Yes, those jump off the page. I always look at big numbers like quantity 1,000 OBM.

I hear so many statements about "my business plan" is shot. Really? I've spoken and e-mailed with hundreds (yes, literally), and there are not too many business savvy deployments out there. I've attempted twice in the past five years to setup a co-op for Ahsay partners where we could buy in $50,000-$100,000 bulk purchases, but when push comes to shove, the "my business plan" doesn't have any real demographics, so people don't buy in bulk. They buy the minimum possible. If you ask yourself how to compete with M*** or Carbon***, then I'll help--don't! Scherring from Ahsay said it best in that even if Ahsay gave you the software free, you couldn't afford the hardware infrastructure.

Are the Ahsay pricing levels for 2010 reasonable for the industry? Yes. Shop around.

Are the pricing levels relative to Ahsay themselves steep? Only with ACB. It's the new flagship though, and file backup is easy and profitable.


Ciao,

Jim Robinson, MBA, PMP

2009 Sale and 2010 Price Changes

I wanted to get some year-end information out.

Ahsay Price Changes

Ahsay is introducing price changes for 2010. Their forum is active because some don't want higher prices while others embrace the change with Ahsay's new quality assurance going full swing. One great feature is that Ahsay will increase free account sizes from 500MB to "at least" 2GB.

You can view list pricing here: http://www.ahsay.com/en/partners/ahsay_partners_pricing.html

Ahsay Reseller Changes

Peak Backup will continue to support and sell the Ahsay product line. Almost all resellers are being dropped in 2010. I was on the phone with Ahsay's sales manager two days this week already, and I did not ask why the realignment of resellers is taking place.
Peak Backup Changes

With Ahsay's focus on quantity versus packages, I'm not sure the shopping can handle the new structure. So, I'm evaluating this. You may see a new cart for 2010.

The discounting of 5% initial, 12.5% for repurchase, and 10% off maintenance will be similar. The only number I expect to modify is 12.5% for repurchase to 10%. This is alignment with pricing changes for 2010. I am not trying to squeeze any more profit.

Peak Backup will focus only on OEM (brandable) sales. We'll support existing Standard clients.

DECEMBER SALE

In preparation for higher 2010 pricing, I've made major purchasing commitments in 2009 to help all add licensing or get into the software before price changes. I have the Peak Backup sale going through December 22, 2009 so I can enjoy some time with the family. I may add an extension from December 28 through December 31, 2009; however, it will be less than the 25% now.

I personnally do not like offering a high discount sale because it leaves people out who purchased in previous months. This is really driven by offsetting some purchasing pricing that was not announced by Ahsay until recently. So, I'm offerring only the two most popular packages to keep this sale focused and coupled with our Dec - Feb committment with Ahsay.

25% off Ahsay List. The following two packages will be on sale at PeakBackup.com until December 22, 2009. This is for new licensing or existing license issued by PeakBackup.com or Ahsay.com directly. If you are adding to an existing license, include that license name at checkout. The two products with major discounting are:

1. OEM All-In-One 25 License / 25 Mailbox
http://www.peakbackup.com/products/OEM-All%252dIn%252dOne-25-License-%7B47%7D-25-Mailbox.html

2. OEM ACB 100 License
http://www.peakbackup.com/products/OEM-ACB-100-License.html

Use this code at checkout and ensure the pricing is reduced before you pay: Dec2009

Note: The only change is that the normal 1-2 day business turnaround will be 2-3 days. This is accounting for expected year-end delays associate with the ordering surge.

5.5.3.X Upgrade Recommendations

Upgrading Ahsay with any release is fairly straight-forward and requires near-zero downtime if you're quick (implemented it by script). When upgrading from 5.5.2.X (or earlier) to 5.5.3.X (or higher), you need to schedule some downtime to let the system implement the new indexing that ultimately greatly enhances performance. None of this is official from Ahsay, but here is how Peak Backup upgraded our servers:

1. Schedule a maintenance window with your customers. Your window depends on the size of your user home directory sizes. Make it something equivalent to the time it takes to perform a recursive directory listing.

2. Disable replication. If something goes wrong, you'll still have your data is good working order.

3. Perform an initial file copy to retain your customization and settings per the administrator upgrade guide. Peak Backup uses rsync instead of copy because of logs files involved in step 6.

4. Prevent users from backup. Either plumb down the network interface or suspend all accounts (http://peakbackup.blogspot.com/2009/08/multiple-ahsay-accounts-suspended.html)

5. Shutdown the service.

6. Perform a second copy of the system logs. Copy could take a while if you’re using copy. Hopefully you'll consider a rsync-like protocol (then it’s 5 seconds).

7. Start the service. With this specific upgrade, Ahsay software knows that performance indexing needs to be performed. It will parse over every file in the user home directories. You can watch this in the logs.

8. When indexing is complete, enable your network interface or enable all users (whatever method you chose).

9. Checkout completely, then enable replication.

10. Wait a week before auto-upgrading your clients.

NOTE: Our upgrades are literally as fast as a service restart plus 5 seconds and do not require preventing user backup access as soon as the service is back online. This specific release recommendation suggests extended downtime for indexing. This is the first time in years of using the software where we just had to show patience and let the system run.

Jim Robinson
Peak Backup LLC
http://www.peakbackup.com

5.5.3.X Upgrade

What happens when you upgrade or you incorrectly modify a license file and some (or all accounts) are set to suspended, infile delta disabled, and shadow copy disabled? Instead of logging into the system and spending hours clicking enable on each account, the following works perfectly in Linux.

==============================
cd /directory/above/userfolder
ls userfolder >/tmp/modify.txt
for n in `cat /tmp/modify.txt`
do
curl 'http://localhost/obs/api/ModifyUser.do?SysUser=SYSUSER&SysPwd=SYSPASSWORD&LoginName='$n'&Status=ENABLE'
curl 'http://localhost/obs/api/ModifyUser.do?SysUser=SYSUSER&SysPwd=SYSPASSWORD&LoginName='$n'&EnableShadowCopy=Y'
curl 'http://localhost/obs/api/ModifyUser.do?SysUser=SYSUSER&SysPwd=SYSPASSWORD&LoginName='$n'&EnableInFileDelta=Y'
done
==============================

NOTE: EACH curl is one line (it's wrapping due to the length)

EXAMPLE
User storage is /storage/users
syspass: PEAK
password: BACKUP

cd /storage
ls users>/tmp/modify.txt
for n in `cat /tmp/modify.txt`
do
curl 'http://localhost/obs/api/ModifyUser.do?SysUser=PEAK&SysPwd=BACKUP&LoginName='$n'&Status=ENABLE'
curl 'http://localhost/obs/api/ModifyUser.do?SysUser=PEAK&SysPwd=BACKUP&LoginName='$n'&EnableShadowCopy=Y'
curl 'http://localhost/obs/api/ModifyUser.do?SysUser=PEAK&SysPwd=BACKUP&LoginName='$n'&EnableInFileDelta=Y'
done

MySQL Backup

Below is what we use to backup MySQL databases.

#!/bin/bash

NOW=`date +"%m-%d-%Y-%H:%M"`;
BACKUPDIR="/backup/mysql/$NOW";

### Server Setup ###
#* MySQL login user name *#
MUSER="CHANGE";

#* MySQL login PASSWORD name *#
MPASS="CHANGE";

#* MySQL login HOST name *#
MHOST="localhost"; #or IP
MPORT="3306"; #standard port is 3306

# DO NOT BACKUP these databases
IGNOREDB="
information_schema
mysql
test
"

#* MySQL binaries *#
MYSQL=`which mysql`;
MYSQLDUMP=`which mysqldump`;
GZIP=`which gzip`;

# assuming that /nas is mounted via /etc/fstab
if [ ! -d $BACKUPDIR ]; then
mkdir -p $BACKUPDIR
else
:
fi

# get all database listing
DBS="$(mysql -u $MUSER -p$MPASS -h $MHOST -P $MPORT -Bse 'show databases')"

# SET DATE AND TIME FOR THE FILE
NOW=`date +"d%dh%Hm%Ms%S"`; # day-hour-minute-sec format
# start to dump database one by one
for db in $DBS
do
DUMP="yes";
if [ "$IGNOREDB" != "" ]; then
for i in $IGNOREDB # Store all value of $IGNOREDB ON i
do
if [ "$db" == "$i" ]; then # If result of $DBS(db) is equal to $IGNOREDB(i) then
DUMP="NO"; # SET value of DUMP to "no"
#echo "$i database is being ignored!";
fi
done
fi

if [ "$DUMP" == "yes" ]; then # If value of DUMP is "yes" then backup database
#FILE="$BACKUPDIR/$NOW-$db.gz";
FILE="$BACKUPDIR/$db.gz";
#echo "BACKING UP $db";
$MYSQLDUMP --add-drop-database --opt --lock-all-tables -u $MUSER -p $MPASS -h $MHOST -P $MPORT $db gzip > $FILE
fi
done

AhsayPro Expansion

The AhsayPro site was originally setup to showcase an example usage of Ahsay's API. From that experiment, both AhsayPro.com and the PeakAPI.com have grown quite a bit. The AhsayPro server is one to two months away from a colocation move. Besides heavier bandwith needs, our goal was to find a SAS Type II Colocation. I found an unbelievable data center with $3.99/mbps for bandwidth. In the interview process, I found most of their business is referral. So, I setup a site that highlights the data center. Who knows, maybe a few referrals will help negotiate an even better deal down the road!

Check out http://www.sasbandwidth.com

For AhsayPro users, storage location will be SAS Type II hosted soon.

Jim Robinson
PeakBackup.com

Happy Easter

Happy Easter.

There's lots going on this past month. From adding a partner to Springs Data, making a ton of enhancements to the PeakAPI.com solution to the snow storm today.

PeakBackup.com: The site's merchant processing is now working 100%. There has never been a security issue, but the American Express and Paypal are online for payment.

PeakAPI.com: The roadmap will be updated soon. There are many enhancement for administrator control as well as security patches. April will bring an enhancement release. May is the month we're hoping to have the proof of concept for WHMCS online with AhsayPro.com. If that goes well, the WHMCS release will finally be released.

SpringsData.com: We've added Rob as a partner and now have SAS Type II data center services available.

New Website

Blogs, forum posts, and PeakAPI has stalled with the release of www.peakbackup.com. It's now production as of this post. More interesting posts here to come.

Your Main Backup and Replication Data Are Gone

Without replication what would happen if your Ahsay OBS user partition became corrupted?

The following options are preventative. They don't save your data, but they do enable you to recover all users and profiles; thus, allowing all client to perform a full backup immediately.

Just a thought!

#/bin/bash
#Author: Jim Robinson
#Date: 3 Dec 2008
#Contact: www.PeakBackup.com
#
#Description: Backup all user db information to include reports

filename=`date +%d%m%Y-%H:%M`

find /path/to/a/directory/ \
/path/to/another/directory2/ \
/path/to/another/diretory3 \
-name db -maxdepth 2 -type d | zip -rp $filename.zip -@

-----------------------------------------------------------------

#/bin/bash
#Author: Jim Robinson
#Date: 3 Dec 2008
#Contact: www.PeakBackup.com
#
#Description: Backup user login and backup set information only

filename=`date +%d%m%Y-%H:%M`

find /path/to/a/directory/ \
/path/to/another/directory2/ \
/path/to/another/diretory3 \
-name Profile.xml -maxdepth 3 -type f | zip -rp $filename.zip -@

Ahsay End of Year Sale

Through December 2008, Peak Backup is honoring Ahsay's 40% more sale for items on our shopping cart, http://shop.peakbackup.com.

Ahsay Year-End Sale. 40% more with your purchase is honored at Peak Backup. Applies to SOHO, All-in-one; ACB 50 or greater; If All-in-one, licenses count is increased by 40%, however mailbox count is not. Offer does not apply to Mailbox Add-On.

Recover the Administrator Login for Ahsay OBS

To recover the Ahsay OBS administrator login....

--Change directories to OBS HOME/conf

--Copy obs.xml to date.obs.xml (just in case)

--Edit obs.xml

--About two lines down you'll see the user/password/hashed for the system login. IE:
----user="system" password="T21egV9cwUi2neWVIDgytQ==" hashed-pwd="Y"

--Change the password to a temp plain text password, then change hashed to N. IE:
----user="system" password="changme" hashed-pwd="N"

--Restart OBS

Now you can login to OBS using system/changeme.

--Reset the administrator password, and it will be converted in the obs.xml to hashed again.


Note: This post does not address encryption keys on a backup set. If you ever lose the encryption key for a backup set, you're in trouble.

Linux Commandline Restart Ahsay OBS

So, much for montly postings. Here's a good one.

Here's a very quick way to restart Ahsay's OBS cleanly and without impacting backup clients. The software client will reconnect (much like a network bump).

1. First line is #!/bin/bash
2. Place contents in a filed called "restartAhsay.bash"
3. #chmod 700 restartAhsay.bash
4. Restart! #./restartAhsay.bash

#!/bin/bash

echo `date` >> /root/restartLog.txt
echo "Stopping OBS" >> /root/restartLog.txt
nice -19 service obs stop

sleep 2

pid=`ps -ef |grep obs |grep -v grep | awk '{ print $2 }'`
if [ $pid ]; then
kill -9 $pid
fi

nohup nice -19 service obs start

echo `date` >> /root/restartLog.txt
echo "OBS Started" >> /root/restartLog.txt
echo >> /root/restartLog.txt

echo "OBS Server Restarted at `date`" mail -s "Peak Backup OBS Restart Status" e-mail@peakbackup.com

Our 5th Full Page Ad in Smart Computing for 2008

What is Ahsay Backup Software Service Provider Edition? An easy, secure, and brandable backup software that enables you to start a profitable online backup business.



Peak Backup is an Ahsay Authorized Reseller and has helped companies since 2004 with purchasing Ahsay software and providing startup support to include: data center storage hosting, website design, and Ahsay API integration.



Ahsay is the leader in online backup software that allows you to fully brand the software into your own label while enabling total data protection and disaster recovery solutions for your customers. Ahsay Systems Corporation has been developing reliable and stable online backup software since early 2001. Their software is used by over 1,900 service providers and 700,000 users.



How It Works

· Purchase Ahsay software from Peak Backup
· Install on a main server
· Customize installers and reports to your company name
· Install client software on thousands of computers
· Bill your clients using Ahsay’s billing module or API

Features & Benefits

· Simple and secure
· Incremental backup
· Continuous data protection
· OS support: Windows, Linux, Mac, NetWare, and NAS devices
· Database support: Microsoft Exchange Server and SQL Server, Lotus Notes/Domino, Oracle, and MySQL

Application Sales Changes

As of 5/1/2008, Peak Backup LLC has restructured what products we offer for Ahsay. We now offer:

AHSAY
--OEM
--Standard

We no longer offer:
--A-la-carte
--Business Edition
--Leasing

Why? OEM and Standard sales fit 95% of the business models that exist. Offering more product has introduced confusion and unwarranted sales delay.

PEAK BACKUP LLC

We have dropped the Reseller API price from $999 to $499.

You can view all pricing at http://shop.peakbackup.com

Advertising

Check out the March 2008 issue of Smart Computing. We have the entire back cover! There is also a "redeem code" there for an extra $25 off our already discounted Ahsay prices.

Linux Plesk Backup

This is a continuation of our Linux command line backup blog post from January 2008.

Plesk has its own set of utilities for backup. So, simply run a pre-command with Ahsay's OBM client, backup the Plesk native file(s), and you're done.

Here's what to do:

#mkdir /pleskbackup

In the backup set, run this pre-command without the quotes:
"/usr/local/psa/bin/pleskbackup all /pleskbackup/pleskbackup"

In the backup set, you only need to backup this directory without the quotes:
"/pleskbackup"

NOTES:
--You don't need to enable in-file delta. The way Plesk writes the file causes 80-100% of the file to change. So, every backup will be a full backup.
--Backing up Plesk this way enables a full backup of files; customers; databases; spam settings; and so on. It's very comprehensive
--Read more on pleskbackup command if you need to backup a single account versus the entire server.
--We do not keep the Ahsay service running on any command line Linux server. We recommend running from crontab.

Linux Server Causing Missed Backups

Some time back we had missed backup sets being sent out. Turns out the timezone on the Linux OBS was wrong. This could be the case for any OS server. Below is the quick timezone fix for linux:

--identify tmizone location from /usr/share/zoneinfo
--copy this file to /etc/localtime (replacing the file there) - that's it
--example, #cp -f /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Vienna /etc/localtime

Another way if you're lucky: #system-config-date

This will make your online backup software reporting more reliable--with the correct timezone.