Data Protector Express User's Guide (TC330-96002, October 2010)

Figure 1 Basic Architecture
Terminology
The following terminology is used throughout this document ...
• Clients—Aclie
nt is any computer (or Machine) in the Backup Domain other than the Backup
Server. This includes file servers, application ser vers, and user PCs (desktops and laptops). All
client computers must have Data Protector Express installed. For licensing purposes, clients are
classified as being server or workstation class machines. All clients are considered to be server
class client
s unless they are running Windows X P, Vista, or Windows 7.
• Backup Domain— A Backup Domain is a collection of computers and backup devices that is
managed together as a group. A Backup Doma in can encompass an entire company or ea ch
departm ent c
ould be a separate d omain, even though they are all on the same network. All
resources i
n a Backup Domain can be accessed by all members of the Backup Domain and
centrally managed from a single Data Protector Express interface. Each file ser ver, application
server, user PC, and attached peripherals such as backup devices can be the m em ber of only one
Backup Domain. Each Backup Domain has one and only one Backup Ser ver.
NOTE:
A Backup Domain is completely independent of any Windows Active Directory domain.
The Data Protector Express administrator can administer more than one Backup Domain from
asinglecomputer. However,theDataProtectorExpressinterfacecannotmanagemorethan
one Backup Domain at the same time. The administrator must log off of one Backup D omain
and log into another.
• Backup Server— Each Backup Domain has one and only one B ackup Server. The Backup Server
is responsible for coordinating the backup activities of all other machines in the Backup Domain.
All license information is also contained on the Backup Server.
• Catalog— A catalog is a special-purpose database that c ontains all the information about a
Backup Domain. There is one and only one catalog for each Backup Domain. The catalog
must reside on the Backup Server machine.
• Job— A job is an object stored in the catalog that represents the settings for a task the user h as
configured. Jo bs come in one of four types: backup, restore, verify, and copy me dia.
• Backup devices— A backup d evice is any device to which files can be backed up. This includes
tape drives, tape libraries, hard disks (as virtual tape libraries), and Network Attached Storage
(NAS) appliances. Backup d evices are attached to media servers. Each Backup Domain must
have at least one backup device, such as a tape device, tape library, virtual librar y, or CD device.
This backup device can belong to only one Backup Domain; it cannot be shared among multiple
domains. However, a Backup Domain could have multiple backup devices.
• Media Server— A media server is any machine in the Backup Domain to which a backup device
is attached. Any machine in the Backup Domain can act as a m edia server. There can be
multiple media servers in a Backup Domain. The media server allows its attached backup devices
to be sha red by all the machines in the same Backup D omain
• Media—Backedupfiles are written to media. Media can be a physical tape or a virtual “tape”
in a virtual tape library on a disk drive. Media cannot be used in another Backup Domain without
importing the media into the other Backup Domain.
• Media Rotation — Rotations are a means of efficiently using you available media to maintain
data history. When using a rotation your backups alternate among a set of multiple media,
reusing older media when n ecessary. The type of media rotation you select is based on how
often you want to back up your d ata, how long you want to retain the data, and the number
of media you want to use.
• Disaster Recovery (DR) — Disaster Recovery is the process of restoring a machine that has suffered
a catastrophic failure such as hardware failure or critical system data loss. The recovery process
entails reformatting the affected system’s hard drive and restoring the operating system, system
settings, applications, and data from a backup. This feature replaces the traditional tedious task
14
Overview