How to backup data over san switch from the client to the media server

[ramy_shaker]

Dears,
in my senario
all backup jobs run over lan network  , i want to configure our servers  to  backup over san switch  with fibre channel.

please help me to do  that

thanks.

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

Hi Ramy,

With a SAN in place, and RAWS agents installed on your remote servers, you will have backups running over your LAN. No way around that.
What you need are the following:

1. SAN-attached tape library
2. SAN SSO option licensed and installed on your media server (SAN Shared Storage Option)
3. Full installations of BE on every server attached to the SAN that you want to back up using the SAN. You need the necessary licenses to back up applications with.

What now happens is that your media server becomes a managing server. It shares the tape library between all your other SAN-attached servers that are also configured with the SAN SSO option. From your media server, you will share that device, with each server having access, and not causing issues. Each server will initiate its own backup job as well. This means you're taking LAN-free backups, although catalogs etc. will be transferred across your LAN. The good thing is that catalogs are relatively small.


Laters!

[pkh]

In addition to what Craig says, each server that wants to back up to the SAN-attached tape library needs a full BE licence, i.e., they must be media servers, not remote servers.

[CraigV]

...furthermore, check pg. 1623 of the BE 12.5 Admin Guide, which can be found at the link below:

http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/308400.htm

[ramy_shaker]

Thanks CraigV and pkh for your quick response.,

please check that attached images and please advice how the data to be transfered directly from the remote client server (only  the agent  , BE Is not installed  ) to the tape library  direcly  without passing the media server. as in the following diagram.


WE DON'T WANT THE FOLLOWING DATA FLOW HAPPEN

[hansdeleenheer]

Ramy,

It look slike you did not understand the answers Craig and PKH gave you before. Therefor this simplified answer: Agents do not write backups, only the media servers do! The only thing an agent does is giving a server the possibility to extract its data (through VSS writers) and put it somewhere else (disk or tape)

[ZeRoC00L]

With this setup you need indeed the SSO option, but also on your remote client server you need to have a licensed version of BE installed.

If you have a lot of servers, this will be an expensive option. As you need a BE media server + SSO license for each server you will backup.

[CraigV]

In order to get what you want, you need to have SAN SSO installed on your media server. This is a licensed option, and you need a full version of BE installed, along with any other agents for LAN-based servers.
For that SAN-attached server, you need a full version of BE installed, along with the SAN SSO option and any agent licenses (SQL/Exchange etc).
SAN SSO allows your tape drive to be shared between servers...the bottom Visio drawing is what you will get.

[CraigV]

Hi Ramy,

Any news here?

Thanks!


 

[krishna27]

connect your media server (which you need to takre back up files) to san switch and connet to remote server and tape library take your back up.....

[CraigV]

Hi Krishna,

This is a very old post.

As things stand, just connecting the media server to a SAN switch and backing up the remote server like that doesn't use the SAN at all. It still calls the RAWS agent for use over the LAN.

You need to install a full version of BE on that remote server with licenses, connect it to the SAN and zone it to see the library.

Once done, you license and activate SAN SSO on your primary media server, which then shares the tape library between it and the other media server/s.

THanks!