Cisco Systems MDS 9000 Manual De Usuario

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Many software vendors produce centralized backup software such as Veritas Netbackup, Veritas BackupExec,

Legato Networker, and Computer Associates BrightStor ARCserve 2000 Advanced Edition. All these products

follow a centralized mechanism whereby backups are performed via a dedicated backup server and directly

attached archive device(s). A centralized backup scheme may also involve several different software and hardware

modules. It is important to understand these various components of a backup solution and their role and impact

on performance.

First, the central or master server controls the entire backup environment including indices, backup schedules,

client group definitions, and hardware configurations. The master server is also responsible for logging problems

with backups and reporting them to a system administrator. Sometimes this function is referred to as the
connection broker.

The second type of server in a centralized backup system is a media server or storage node. The media server is

attached to the type of storage medium for the backup, usually a tape device attached via a Fibre Channel or parallel

SCSI connection. The media server is responsible for actually sending data to tape. This server takes its direction from

the master server as to the files to backup and the particular media set to use. The media server may also be referred

to as the data mover.

Third and most important is the backup client that actually refers to the server being backed up. Client software is

installed to every system that requires backup services. Even the master server and media server usually have client

software on them so that they may back themselves up.

As discussed above, enterprises have started to deploy dedicated Fibre Channel based storage networks to solve the

performance bottleneck issues of a shared LAN. Additional advantages of storage networks are listed below:

Third-Party Copy Engine

Embedded in SCSI Bridge

Backup Server

Application

Servers

Backup

SAN

Ethernet
Network

Clients