Subject: REVIEW: Diavolo Backup version 3.0
From: [email-masked] (Mark P Allen)
Date: 9 Nov 1995 17:17:03 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	Diavolo Backup v3.0 Pro
	(Diavolo Backup v3.0 also available)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	Data Backup program for the Amiga computer. Supports SCSI(2)
streamers and removable media, floppy disks (880K/1.76MB, even mixed) and
(multiple) disk files. Includes "Image" backup option, and capability to
backup MovieShop(tm) (VLAB Motion) disks/partitions.

	Note: Diavolo Backup v3.0 (non-Pro version) comes without removable
media, Image, and MovieShop(tm) backup support. It also comes without the
Scheduler and API (Application Programming Interface).

AUTHOR

	Name:		Martin Korndoerfer
	E-mail:		[email-masked]

DISTRIBUTION

	Company:	Computer Corner,
	Address:	Albert Rosshaupterstr. 108
			81369 Munich, Germany

	Telephone:	(+49) (0)89 / 714 10 34
	FAX:		(+49) (0)89 / 714 43 95

A full demo version of the program (Restore disabled, Backup and Compare
fully functional) is available in Aminet's biz/demo directory, and will
also be on Aminet CD 8 and Aminet CD Set 2.

LIST PRICE

	Diavolo backup v3.0 Pro: $US90/DM135
	Diavolo Backup v3.0:     $US64/DM98

	Upgrades between different versions of the program (including from
v1.x to v3.x) simply cost the difference between their original prices.

	Diavolo is not widely available, and therefore a credit card purchase
proved the simplest way for me to to buy it (with the automatic currency
exchange it allows) from its German distributor. I believe a UK distributor
is being negotiated.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		2MB RAM minimum (FAST RAM recommended)
		Hard disk(s)

		Hard disk installation requires approximately 1.1MB
		available disk space.  Floppy installation also possible
		(see below)

	SOFTWARE

		Works under all AmigaDOS revisions including and after v2.04

		Selected XPK libraries provided for data compression and
		encryption capability (NUKE, FAST, FEAL)

COMPATIBILITY

	* Works on 68k family of Motorola processors, including 060
	* Universal QIC/DAT streamer compatibility, including C= 3070
	(Caliper).

COPY PROTECTION

	Copyright is protected by an individual serial number in the main
executable.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

* Amiga A3000T, 2MB Chip RAM, no Fast RAM on motherboard
  scsi.device:
              - Pioneer DRM-602x 6 stacker CD-ROM      (SCSI-2, external)
* WARP Engine 4040, SCSI-2 FAST host, 20MB FAST RAM
  warpdrive.device:
              - Quantum LPS525S (500MB) HD            (SCSI-2)
              - Micropolis 4110 (1GB) HD              (SCSI-2 FAST)
              - Exabyte EXB-4200c 4mm DAT Streamer    (SCSI-2)
* Kickstart 40.68 Workbench 40.42 (WB 3.1)
* DOpus5 as WB replacement
* GVP Spectrum, CyberGraphX 2.10 registered, SAMPO AlphaScan 15gx monitor
* OpalVision, Electronic Design Y/C Genlock, C= 1084s monitor
* Various video peripherals, Sunrise AD1012, HP LJ4L printer, ZyXEL
  U-1496e+ modem etc

INSTALLATION

	Installation is easily accomplished using the supplied standard
Installer and script. The Installer intelligently checks the versions of any
currently installed libraries.

	The installation process offers the (recommended) option to create
an Emergency Boot Floppy Disk.  This can also be performed at any other time
by simply clicking on the "MakeBootDisk" icon that is always available in
the Diavolo directory. It is recommended that this is performed AFTER
Diavolo has been configured for your system, so that the appropriate
preferences are included on the floppy disk.

	The Emergency Floppy Installation took about 905K of floppy disk
space on a 1.76MB floppy disk, due to its intelligently including my
CyberGraphX libraries in the installation (very nice touch IMO). CyberGraphX
users without high-density floppy drives should temporarily remove the
cybergraphics.library, and set their screen mode to an appropriate ECS/AGA
screenmode before making the 880K boot floppy disk. This will allow the
successful creation of an 880K Emergency Boot Disk.

	Non-CyberGraphX users should have no problem creating an 880K
Emergency Boot Floppy Disk as long as only ONE monitor is selected when the
choice is presented. The author is currently looking into a better method of
performing this installation, due to the current limitations presented by
the standard Installer given the wide variety of system configurations
currently in use.

CONFIGURATION

	On first running the program, you can use "Auto Configuration" (in
the "Diavolo Streamer tape / Removable medium settings" configuration
section) to automatically "tune" your configuration. This tests each SCSI ID
on every installed host it detects in the system for tape streamers. On
finding one, it asks whether you wish to accept the device, or continue the
search.

	On the user accepting the device found, Diavolo then asks for media
to be inserted so that it can test the device for supported commands and
features (eg., fast seek, direct seek, update in place) etc. It also warns
that any data on the tape will be destroyed in the process. This process can
be aborted at any stage before any writing is actually performed, but the
supported features will not have been determined if you do.

	As well as auto-configuration capability, it is also possible to
specify drive type. This addresses known problems with the C= 3070 (Caliper)
streamer (if you use this device, specify QIC 150/250. Other users will be
well served by the auto-configuration option).

	Diavolo Pro also comes with API (Application Programming Interface)
capability, with a sample program, DBCLICtrl, included. DBCLICtrl allows the
launching of backup sessions via the CLI, and therefore from Cron events
etc, including full control over desired filters, log files and error
reports etc.

MAIN REVIEW

	There are many aspects of the program that, for one reason or
another, I am unable to test. I refer to it's advertised ability to:

- backup AFS and MuFS filesystems
- backup hard and soft-links
- backup VLAB Motion's MovieShop(tm) projects
- backup to removable media (without using filesystem), eg., Syquest,
  ZIP, Bernoulli etc

	Note: a README file that arrived with the registered distribution
warned that the capability to backup/restore multi-assignments was
temporarily broken and therefore disabled in this release. The author has
subsequently mused that unless users show a specific interest in this
feature, it will possibly not be included due to the complexity of the task,
and the fact that it was not even used by owners of previous versions when
it was available. However, he remains open to suggestions from users
regarding this matter. Personally, while the feature sounds "cool", I do not
see myself needing it, even though I do use multi-assignments (for fonts, c
and libs) on my system.

What I have tested:

- backup to mixed 880K/1.76MB floppy disks in one session
- backup to multiple disk files
- backup to SCSI-2 Exabyte 4200c 4mm DAT streamer
- equivalent restore operations to the above items

INTERFACE

	Diavolo sports an attractive, system complaint GUI and menu
interface, offering extensive keyboard as well as mouse control over it's
features.  It is responsive and extremely informative about all facets of
operation. There is always something there to let you know exactly what the
status of the program is, and how it is/has performed.

	Diavolo has full public and custom screen support, and allows the
selection of the font used, as well as filesystem (1.3, 2.0->3.0, 3.1 or
better), byte display (MB or K), directory tree structure, packet I/O, auto
compare and buffer size.

	The interface offers full MagicWB support if MagicWB is detected on
the system. It sports attractive imagery for the three main Backup, Restore
and Compare options, as well as imagery on the individual media
backup/restore screens (including very neat representations where multiple
media is required for a specified backup session).

	However, for those that chose not to use it, MagicWB is certainly
not a requirement. Intelligent palette handling is provided for standard
screens down to 4 colours for the imagery.

	Many options available from the GUI are also selectable from the
menu, which also offers items for generating filelists, error reports and
clearing the file and selection lists.

	Complete control over a tape streamer is provided in the Rewind,
Retense, Eject and Erase menu items, as well as Show Tape Contents and
Rebuild Tape Index options.

	The window that opens on the WB can also be snapshot, freed
(defaults back to centre screen) and zipped (shows title bar with useful
status information (current operation, % completed etc).

	The Global Configuration menu item provides control over several
aspects of Diavolo's overall operation. Since Diavolo performs it's duties
using several co-operative tasks (rather than one single one) you can control
the priorities of Hard-disk, (Un)Packing and Backup Medium tasks.

	While I have left these at the default "0" priority, the author says
that under certain circumstances (particularly when backing up to disk), some
performance improvement can be obtained by increasing the Backup Medium task
priority by 1. Obviously, if you wanted to perform a backup while
multi-tasking with an even less CPU intensive task than Diavolo, you can
also reduce these priorities accordingly for smooth multi-tasking.

	For those interested in automatic and intelligent handling of task
priorities and efficient multi-tasking, I recently installed Executive (the
new task/priority management system) on my machine, and found that Diavolo
was perfectly happy with it's auto-management of the task priorities. While I
did not note the priorities Executive actually set for the tasks (probably
around -77), there was certainly no performance loss, and multi-tasking
remained smooth and efficient.

	Settings can be Loaded and Saved.

BACKUP

	I have found that best performance on my configuration is obtained
with an I/O buffer of 8MB FAST RAM. All tests described below were conducted
with such a buffer.

	Without being able to actually test certain devices and machine
configurations, I might anticipate that a slower QIC streamer, for instance,
may well achieve maximum performance with only, say, 4MB FAST RAM buffers,
though this would also be greatly affected by the CPU of the host machine,
especially if compression is used.

	Floppy backups will probably work at more or less full speed with
almost any reasonably sized buffer on almost any CPU.

	The backup configuration window offers the usual array of choices
over compression (including XPK compression type and amount), media checks,
setting of protection bits, passwords, encryption library, and whether to
save hard-linked dirs and files.

* General Feedback (backup screen) includes:

      - Directory (name)
      - File (name)
      - Directories read (#)
      - Directories left (#)
      - Files read (#)
      - Files left (#)
      - Bytes read (#)
      - Bytes left (#)

      - Packer (XPK name)
      - Gain (kB)
      - Compression (%)
      - Disks to go (#)
      - Disks done (#)

      - Elapsed (hh:mm:ss)
      - Speed (kB/min)
      - To go (hh:mm:ss)

	Note: the Speed (kB/min) indicator shows real-time performance. Ie.,
in accordance with the types of data being backed up, this figure will rise
and fall (eg., higher with ASCII and executables, lower with compressed
graphics, LHA archives etc). Comprehensive statistical averages are provided
at the end of each session in a separate requester. The speed results below
are taken from the statistical averages.

* Floppy:

    Supports 4 floppy drives
    Tested Speed result:
                        - no compression/verify   =  600K/min
                        - XPK NUKE 100%/verify    = 1000K/min
                        - XPK NUKE 100%/no verify = 1700K/min

	Note: while the 3rd test certainly returned impressive speed, I
would not recommend it due to the vulnerable integrity of floppy disk media
in general. It is provided for reference only.

* Disk files:

    Tested Speed result:  5MB/min (backup to same partition)
                         15MB/min (backup to different partition)

* Exabyte 4200c 4mm DAT streamer:

    Tested Speed result: 13MB/min to 15MB/min

File Selection:

	Diavolo offers several methods of defining which partitions or
directories to backup, including "drag'n'drop"ing WB icons onto the backup
window, filters, selecting partitions from the backup listview, or from a
"Directory" gadget on the backup window (using system requester).

	Filters are configured by "macro recording" your selection of
partitions from the listview. Once done, this means that if you have a
complex combination of partitions as part of a normal backup procedure, you
simply select the filter you want to use by using the "Filter" gadget on the
backup window (or the filter options of the DBCLICtrl command or the
Scheduler GUI), and the appropriate selections are scanned for backing up.

	The simple command format used by the filters is covered in the
manual, so you can also easily create or modify your own filter scripts in
any text editor. Filter scripts are used to create permanent, simple or
complex, selection criteria for re-use.

	Initially, I could not find a way to determine the order in which
partitions selected for backup were actually processed. Ie., no matter what
order I selected them in, they were processed in the order in which AmigaDOS
presents them to Diavolo. In my case, this was exactly the reverse of what I
wanted. The author replied to my query regarding this with the explanation
that if DEVICENAME is used instead of VOLUMENAME, the order in which they
are processed can indeed be controlled.

	While some requester replacements will not allow the manual entry of
a DEVICENAME (will automatically revert it to it's VOLUMENAME), others will,
so that the order can often be determined via the "Directory" gadget. When
using Filters, simply edit with any text editor, and replace VOLUMENAMES
with their DEVICENAMES, and arrange the order of processing to suit your
needs.

Scheduling:

	Diavolo Pro also sports a full featured scheduling program and
daemon for auto execution of backup sessions. Since I only backup about once
per week, I see little reason to leave a 32K daemon running in memory all the
time (the same goes for Ami-Back), and was therefore grateful for the
DBCLICtrl program that allowed simple execution from the Cron program I
already have running for the scheduling of many other system maintenance and
communications tasks.

	However, the Scheduler does offer some extra features, in the form of
"late backups" and unusual schedules like "every 1st Monday in the month"
and "2nd and last Sunday in the month". The "late backup" option allows for
prompting the user on turning on the machine as to whether he wishes to
perform the backup that was missed while the machine was turned off.
Certainly a unique and potentially very useful feature (eg., after some
unexpected downtime).

Compression:

	The XPK libraries NUKE, FAST and FEAL are provided in the
installation. It is not recommended to use other XPK libraries for various
reasons, including a minor bug in the xpkmaster.library itself, which these
three supplied libraries compensate for.

	Other XPK libraries can be used, but the author states that in these
cases, all backups MUST immediately be compared to ensure backup integrity.

	Experimentation with various combinations of compression (XPK only,
XPK + hardware, hardware only [available on my Exabyte 4200c DAT streamer])
produced interesting, though I would not necessarily say conclusive,
results. I found XPK NUKE with hardware compression turned off to provide
the fastest results. I do not know enough about this technology to know the
whys or wherefores, but this certainly appeared to provide the fastest
delivery of data to the tape streamer, as surprised as I was by the result.
I repeat that I do not consider my tests in this regard as conclusive.

	Since hardware compression provides no feedback of the final
compression ratio, it cannot be compared to the XPK results, which (using
NUKE 100%) provided 18% compression on data predominantly comprised of
graphics (mostly JPEG, GIF and IFF24), animations to 24-bits, audio samples
to 16-bits, and LHA archives. About 20% consisted of executables and their
attendant accessories. I noted that on tests involving executables and text
only, NUKE 100% achieved compression rates of up to 51%, while even spreads
of data types seemed to produce averages around 34%.

Appending Backups:

	If the option to overwrite an existing backup has not been explicitly
chosen, Diavolo presents a graphical representation of a backup media's
contents once it has read the media's index. This offers easy to read
feedback of the media's contents, allowing you to select from which point
you wish to append the next write operation, eg., (for DAT streamers) from
the beginning, or after backup session 1, or 10, or whatever you desire.
Since QIC drives cannot overwrite parts of a tape's contents, this
representation offers either complete overwrite, or append from the end of
existing data only for these drives.

	This implementation is remarkably simple and effective, leaving the
user confident of the status of the backup media and it's contents.

COMPARE/RESTORE

	The restore configuration window offers the expected options
regarding the restoration of dirs/files from a backup, including "ask before
replacing", "keep existing", "replace existing", "replace older", "rename
existing", and "rebuild dir structure".

* General Feedback (compare screen) includes:

      - Directory (name)
      - File (name)
      - Directories read (#)
      - Directories left (#)
      - Files compared (#)
      - Mismatched files (#)
      - Bytes compared (#)

      - Newer files (#)
      - Unreadable files (#)
      - Fileheader mismatch (#)
      - Missing files (#)
      - Identical files (#)

      - Disks to go (#)
      - Disks done (#)
      - Elapsed (hh:mm:ss)
      - Speed (kB/min)
      - To go (hh:mm:ss)

* Floppy:

    Tested Speed result:
                        - no compression/verify   = 1300K/min
                        - XPK NUKE 100%/verify    = 1700K - 2000K/min
                        - XPK NUKE 100%/no verify = 1700K - 2000K/min

* Disk files:

    Tested Speed result:  5MB/min (backup to same partition)
                         15MB/min (backup to different partition)

* Exabyte 4200c 4mm DAT streamer:

    Tested Speed result:  6MB/min to 14MB/min

	As a further test, I selected 3 files within a 750MB archive to
restore.  The files were small, and each located several directories deep and
200MB to 300MB apart in the backed up filesystem. Diavolo located and
restored all 3 files within the space of 1 (ONE) minute using the DAT
streamer's direct seek capability.

	Since QIC drives do not support direct seek, Diavolo will take as
long as it takes to locate each file sequentially as it scans the backup
data to perform this operation.

DOCUMENTATION

	Currently, the manual is only available in German. For this reason I
requested that I forego a manual until the English one is finished. In the
interim I have only the demo version's supplied readme for documentation,
and the author's answers to my queries. The English manual is expected to be
available November '95.

LIKES

	What's not to like? :^)

	Specifically, I like the interface, the speed, what appears to be an
excellent SCSI(2) implementation (ie., the program talks and listens to the
system and device drivers carefully and comprehensively), the features and
options available, as well as the extensive statistical and status
information and feedback during operation.

	I also like the active and ongoing development and support the
program enjoys from it's author.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

	I wouldn't actually call it a dislike, since it doesn't impact on my
own system, however the executable size of 510K may well impact on RAM
availability on less well endowed machine configurations.

	However, I might also speculate that many users backing up to faster
media (therefore requiring optimum RAM buffers for greatest throughput) will
often have the appropriate RAM resources available to them.

	I might similarly speculate that users of low-end machines, ie.,
those less likely to have the RAM resources for large buffers, will generally
use slower backup mediums (requiring much smaller buffers). There are always
exceptions to rules however.

	Regardless of these matters, the executable is big, and on raising
this matter with the author, he stated that making the program more modular
is already a priority for a future revision of the program, thereby reducing
the RAM overheads of the program's tasks during operation. This is good news
and serves only to make what is already a superb application even better.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	Over the years I have used Quarterback v3, v4 and v5, and Ami-Back
v2 (to 2.0h, I couldn't use the "i" patch). Quarterback dropped out of the
race ages ago when Ami-Back, with it's speed, multiple partition and append
backup support, arrived on the scene. Diavolo, similarly, takes up where
Ami-Back left off.

	Speed of operation is similar to Ami-Back, however Diavolo's system
compliance, features, controls and feedback are far superior.

	Amiback seems to achieve highest speeds using reasonably small
buffers (I used 2 x 1MB buffers), whereas for Diavolo to reach a similar
operating speed as Ami-Back on my DAT drive, a buffer of about 8MB is
required. I believe this is due to the design of the program (eg., multiple
tasks etc), and also provides benefits in other areas of operation (eg., more
efficient multi-tasking).

	Speaking of which, Diavolo is also superior to Ami-Back during
multi-tasking (regardless of the recent installation here of Executive, as
mentioned previously, which is designed to streamline multi-tasking
operations system-wide), with even screen blankers able to continue smoothly
where Ami-Back causes blanker "stuttering" (system Blanker and MultiCX
blanker) during backup/restore operations.

	Another thing I really like compared to Ami-Back (it used to annoy
the hell out of me ;^), is that if a backup is aborted for any reason, the
current selection of partitions, directories and files is retained and
available for immediate re-use. Ami-Back always dumped the whole scan in
this situation, meaning that a restart always meant from the very beginning
(a total pain on backups containing 25,000+ files or measured in the
hundreds of MB).

BUGS

	No bugs encountered whatsoever. In all aspects the program has
behaved as expected/advertised since installation (approximately 2 months
and 20 or so backups).

VENDOR SUPPORT

	I started communicating with the author some time before this new
version of the program was released (I have not used previous versions),
after I had been told of it's imminent release (I was tired of Ami-Back,
couldn't install the lastest patch, and missed product support and
development).

	He has been prompt and courteous in all correspondence, and answered
any questions in depth. I have no reason to doubt that after sales support
would elicit the same service.

	I have absolutely no connection with the author or his agents except
as a happy customer. This review is an entirely independent initiative.

WARRANTY

	The usual disclaimers apply (ie., all efforts are made to make the
program bug free etc...no responsibility for lost or damaged data assumed
etc).

CONCLUSIONS

	Diavolo v3.0 Pro is an excellent product, and is currently (IMHO) by
far the best available for backing up your Amiga system's data. I rate it as
a high quality and professional computer tool that enhances the Amiga system
in usage, security and profile.

	If the manual is as well thought out and implemented as the
software, I have no hesitation in rating the program:

+--------------+
| 4.8 out of 5 |
+--------------+

	In fact, it's hard not to award Diavolo 5 out of 5 for the thought
and effort that has gone into it's creation. However some room must be left
for possible future enhancements ;^)

	If you're after a serious, well presented, reliable, feature laden
and yet remarkably easy to use data backup program (that also happens to
enjoy continuing development and support) for your system, Diavolo is a "must
have" IMO.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	Copyright 1995 Mark P Allen.
	email: [email-masked]

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