Overview
XLServer is a virtual appliance delivered as an OVA image. It operates as a self-contained platform for data protection, fast cloning, and database infrastructure management, designed to run on hypervisors such as VMware or VirtualBox.
Understanding the architecture of XLServer is key to leveraging its full potential. This section provides a comprehensive overview of how the system is designed, its internal components, data flow, and operational principles.
What XLServer Provides
XLServer is an all-in-one platform that addresses these real-world needs:
- Data protection & resilience — full + incremental backups, snapshotting and fast recovery using an OpenZFS datastore.
- Fast time-to-market — instant database clones for dev/test from snapshots (copy-on-write).
- Cost savings — deduplication/compression, small clone footprint, ability to mutualize DBs on same server (reduce license/storage costs).
- Security & compliance — project-based RBAC, data masking templates, TLS/SSH, and encryption options.
- Easy operations — CLI, Web UI and REST API; automated scheduling; simple first-run configuration.
How it works
- Deploy the XLServer appliance (OVA) on your hypervisor (VMware/VirtualBox).
- Add an Environment (single host, oracle cluster, or distributed DB cluster). XLServer discovers running DB instances on that environment.
- Link a live database — XLServer creates a Golden Image (initial full backup) in the datastore and the first snapshot.
- Configure a Backup Strategy (frequency, retention, database log rules). Subsequent backups are incremental and merged into the golden image; snapshots capture point-in-time images.
- Recover by applying a snapshot (fast recovery: mount image directly) or restore to disk with point-in-time recovery as supported by the DB engine.
- Clone from a snapshot into a target environment (instant clone via ZFS copy-on-write), optionally applying data masking for non-production use.
- Monitor, alert and automate via Web UI, CLI, and REST API.
Key highlights
- All-in-one architecture (backup, recovery, cloning).
- CLI and Web UI management + REST API for automation.
- ZFS datastore (checksums, compression, deduplication for read-only clones).
- Project-based access and RBAC.
- Prebuilt data-masking templates.
- Automated scheduling and retention policies.
- Optimized for NVMe/SSD and 10Gb+ networks for high throughput.
Editions
- Free Edition — evaluation with limitations (e.g., single project
DEFAULT, limited storage / features). - Standard Edition — for single production database (suitable for one project development).
- Professional Edition — for medium-scale deployments with extended features.
- Enterprise Edition — for large-scale deployments with extended features.