A real milestone in the evolution of P5, this brand new storage format, moving away from the virtual tape concept, multiple volumes are now replaced with single 'Storage Containers' in order to access disk and cloud storage. These containers are elastic, growing in size to accommodate data as needed, and optimized for interacting against cloud object storage.

They support multiple write/read streams in parallel without compromising performance. Additionally, they support fine-grained recycling of backup data over time, resulting in best-of-breed backup to cloud with cost saving through lower cloud storage space usage. Full details available here.

Simplified & Improved Storage Management

The administration required to configure disk and cloud storage is now much reduced, with a tab based storage manager consolidating tape, disk and cloud storage setup in one place.

Bare-Metal Recovery Fully Supported for Disk/Cloud

When using new container volumes, all P5 setup/config and backup indexes are automatically stored on disk/cloud with every job that runs. Full recovery of P5 server from disk/cloud storage now just a few clicks in the GUI.

Minimal Local 'Cache' Storage Usage When Writing to Cloud

Backup and archive to cloud object storage will now require a small fraction of the disk space previously required. Local disk space used only for preparation of data for upload.

Space is freed up at first opportunity for both writing and reading to cloud storage.

Enhanced compression with LZ4

P5 now uses this modern compression algorithm when writing to disk/cloud storage, resulting in smaller sizes, faster performance and less cloud storage being used. 2x - 3x compression benefit.

Improved S3 Glacier/Deep Archive Support

When archiving or backing up to S3, the 'Deep Archive' option is now fully supported. When restoring data, P5 will request all required objects at once and wait for cloud objects to become available.

Import of Foreign LTFS Volumes

This feature brings huge benefits for users with data stored on LTFS tapes. Manage LTFS tapes by importing them into P5 Archive, they will appear in the index of your choice, with full search across all volumes. Supports LTFS tapes written by P5 or 3rd party LTFS software. P5 will scan LTFS tape volumes, and add contents to the P5 archive index, data can then be restored across multiple tapes via the archive index. Supports tape libraries for import across multiple slots.

Easier Use of Cloud-Vendors Data-Transport Devices

When seeding archive data using an AWS Snowball, B2 Fireball or similar, P5 now provides a checkbox to suppress writing of data to the cloud object store directly. This removes previous attach/detach workflow and simplifies use of these devices.

LTFS Exchange Support on All Platforms

Simple formatting, reading and writing of LTFS volumes for import/export now available on all our supported P5 platforms, including MS Windows and FreeBSD.

Very Fast Verification of Written Data

Using xxHash 64 and 128-bit algorithms. Speeds up verification using checksums by 3x.

Saved Searches in Mini-MAM

When switching between search results in the archive index and browsing, previously executed search is retained, easing location of the data you're looking for. Previous 10 searches available from drop-down menu.

True Incremental Cloud Backup

Full backups are no longer necessary when writing to cloud and disk storage. With P5 version 7, full backups are only required when writing to tape, to allow whole LTO tapes to be recycled and reused. When writing to cloud/disk storage using our new container volume storage, we have fine-grained removal of expired files and re-use of storage. The 'progressive' backup technique can be used indefinitely, resulting in faster and more efficient backup to cloud object storage.

Perform Dry-Run of a Backup

P5 will compare storage to be backed up with index and report total number of new/changed/moved files. Allows anticipation of the length of the required backup window and number of tapes/storage that will be required for the backup to complete.

Limit Backup Size on Target Storage

P5 Version 7 introduces a new option to limit the backup size on the target. This can be used to create a limited backup on a transfer appliance, such as Amazon Snowball, Backblaze Fireball or Wasabi Ball. This is necessary if the total backup size is more than one unit on the transfer appliance.

Rename Detection

Track renamed folders without re-save of contents

P5 Backup is now able to identify renamed folders with unchanged files inside and update index with new folder position without necessitating re-saving of files/folders contained within.

For example, if a top-level folder on a piece of storage were to be renamed, we avoid needing to re-save potentially many TB's inside, saving time and storage costs.

Files stored with P4 can be restored through P5, but only with reduced functionality and without search capabilities.

P5 Backup: After having upgraded to P5 Backup, a full backup run is required.
Please be sure to schedule backup time and capacity accordingly.

P5 Archive: P5 Archive requires a conversion of the P4 archive index. To do so, each archive index has to be converted within the administration section of P5. Depending on the size of the index as well as computing power, this process can take anything between minutes and hours.

For more details, please read the P5 Upgrade Guide.