HP Data Protector Operations Guide

The Data Protector client/server architecture provides multiple manager layers, which offer
tremendous flexibility and adjust easily to organizational needs and changes.
Cell Manager and clients
The Cell Manager is the heart of the Data Protector backup environment. The clients are controlled
from the Cell Manager system.
Enterprise Console
The Data Protector integration with HP Operations Manager provides the concept of the Enterprise
Console. HP Operations Manager allows remote administration and monitoring of one or more
Data Protector cells from a single Enterprise Console.
Manager of Managers—MoM
An existing Data Protector Cell Manager can be configured as the Manager of Managers
(M.o.M.) which allows remote administration and monitoring of many cells from a single
consolidated GUI. A centralized media management database (CMMDB), cross-cell device
sharing as well as central license management may also be configured with MoM.
There is no enforced limit to the number of systems per Data Protector Cell, but the cell size may
be limited by a number of factors:
the number of supported systems (a maximum of 1000, although 100 is recommended)
the size of the Data Protector internal database
the number of backups that can be effectively managed (a maximum of 2000 per day)
The Data Protector internal database (IDB) can grow to be many GB. An estimate is to allocate
enough disk space to allow the internal database to be approximately 2% of the quantity of data
that is backed up. You may find that if you are backing up many large files (50 MB–100 MB
each), the size of the database can be as little as 0.25% of the size of the data; this is especially
true when backing up large database files. Backing up many small files means more records in
the database, which means more space is required for the database.
Which Factors Should Be Considered when Defining Cells?
Systems that have a common backup policy
Systems that are to be backed up on the same LAN
Systems administered by the same team of administrators
Systems within the same time zone
Systems should use time synchronization
Systems in the same Windows Domain (for simpler administration)
Cells are generally independent parts of the enterprise network. They are administered and
operate independently of each other.
Data Protector has the capability to monitor and administer all the cells from a central
administration point utilizing the Cell Console, the Enterprise Console or the Manager of
Managers console.
The agent processes are used for accessing disk and tape devices for backup, restore and media
management tasks. The two fundamental agents are:
Disk Agent – responsible for read/write actions from disk drives for backup and restore
Media Agent – responsible for read/write actions to backup media (which may be tape
or disk)
The basis of the client/server model is that the Data Protector software consists of client modules
and a server module. These modules can all be installed on a single system (a single client cell) or
distributed across many systems.
Communication between modules is accomplished via TCP/IP sockets, initiated on port 5555.
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