BE 2012 to backup SAN storage

[me007today]

Hello

I have *two* Dell PowerVault MD3600f fibre channel SAN storages and a Dell PowerVault TL2000 with fibre channel LTO5 drive.

I want to backup data direct from *both* SAN box to Tape via *fibre channel*.

I got a server as media server (with only LAN interface. No FC HBA).

What Backup Exec 2012 license and options do I need?

Thank you in advance

Regards

George

[teiva-boy]

This is NOT possible.  Data must almost always pass through the BackupExec server with the exception of NDMP.

That said, data flowing over FC from SAN to BE server to tape is not an issue.  That is NOT a bottleneck in 90%+ of cases.  Your bottleneck is LAN speeds, and clients that send data over the LAN.

Of which there are options to install the full BackupExec software on clients, and leverage SSO and CASO (Part of Enterprise Options) so that clients can write over FC over a shared tape drive.  

Whihle the cost is higher for this configuration, the performance benefits outweight them.  Besides, you invested in FC infrastrucutre, BE licenses will be the lowest cost of anything you buy going forward.

[Jaydeep_S]

The direct transfer of data on SAN to SAN without Media Server coming in picture might be only possible in 3 situations -

1. Agent for VmWare Infrastructure backups using SAN transport mode.

2. Off-host backups using Advanced disk based backup.

[Larry_Fine]

I got a server as media server (with only LAN interface. No FC HBA).

I would suggest adding an FC HBA to the BE media server.  Is that not possible?

[teiva-boy]

#1, data still has to pass-through the Media server whether it be FC(SAN) or LAN(NBD)

#2, a joke of an option with little compatibility in the market and even less documentation from Symantec and supported vendors. Not to mention so many restrcitions to OS, or snapshot options supported or disktype options supported.

[Colin_Weaver]

#3 - If SAN storage device is supported by NDMP Option that you can use this to stream straight to a library attached to the storage

#4 make whatever server writes the data to the SAN device in the first place into a media server and then (if needed) use CASO/ESO to manage that media server from your other media server for job management.

BTW I agree with the other answer that #1 does need a SAN connection on the media server

I think #2 also needs a SAN connection and additionally needs thhe hardware (snapshot mechanism) to be supported by ADBO

[me007today]

Hi all

Thank you all for the enlightening suggestions.

As suggested, I can add a FC HBA in BE media server. With that in place, can I confirm that the data from SAN via FC reach BE media server then send to tape backup library via FC?

What licenses would I need to backup *two* SAN box to tape library?

Regards

George

[CraigV]

...you can't just backup the arrays...those LUNs are presented somewhere. You consider the SAN SSO option for the media server and install full versions of BE on every server you want to make use of the SAN backups.

To accomplish this, you'd need to have a license for ESO, a media server license for every other server you want to backup over the SAN, and any additional application licenses (eg. Exchange/SQL etc).

Thanks!