A LAN-based backup solution best fits a business or department that runs continual business processes and has several servers and workstations connected to a LAN that need to be backed up. If your business has some or all of these characteristics you may benefit from a LAN-based backup solution:
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Operates a continuous, business-critical operation
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Has unpredictable data growth
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Requires hourly or daily backups
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Has more than five networked servers
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Supports multiple operating systems
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Has already deployed a backup system
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Is looking for a scalable, cost-effective solution
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Needs to automate the backup process
In a LAN-based backup scenario, the backup management server can be connected to either the main LAN or a dedicated backup LAN. A dedicated backup LAN is recommended in situations where performance degradation in the main LAN due to backup volume is not acceptable. On a dedicated backup LAN, disk agents placed on servers and workstations push data over the LAN to the backup server, which then writes the data to some kind of disk array (such as a D2D backup system), to tape or to a tape library. A LAN-based backup solution is perfect if you want to automate your backup process and schedule backups on certain servers at certain times without manual intervention.
Capacity and performance planning are key to selecting the appropriate LAN-based backup device. The first step is to calculate the daily backup volume for each server and workstation. When you consider performance, keep in mind that a dedicated Gigabit Ethernet backup LAN will transfer data at about 80 megabytes per second (MB/sec), or approximately 288 gigabytes per hour (GB/hr), as long as the media server has sufficient processing power to support the transfer.
Considerations
As you consider a LAN-based backup solution for your business, keep the following in mind:
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A dedicated backup LAN will give you the best overall performance by segregating the user traffic and the backup traffic on to two separate paths. Because you're not mixing user traffic with backup traffic, you maximize performance for both users and backup.
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If you require a higher capacity and/or faster backup, a tape library with multiple drives (learn more about tape libraries), or a backup server with multiple D2D systems attached (learn more about D2D backup storage options) may be your best option. You can also acquire a virtual tape library (VTL), which is a disk-based solution that emulates tape drives.
An HP LAN solution
An HP LAN solution most likely includes a combination of these hardware components (exact products may differ within product families):
HP PCs and servers on a LAN
HP Workstations
HP Notebook and Desktop PCs
HP Thin Clients
HP ProLiant servers
HP Integrity servers
HP disk-based protection systems
HP StorageWorks D2D Backup Systems
HP StorageWorks Modular Smart Arrays (MSAs)
HP StorageWorks Virtual Tape Libraries
HP StorageWorks RDX Removable Disk Backup System
HP NAS storage systems
HP StorageWorks All-in-One Storage
HP StorageWorks NAS x1000*
HP StorageWorks NAS x3000*
Scalable NAS
HP tape autoloaders and libraries
HP StorageWorks Tape Autoloaders
HP StorageWorks MSL Series Tape Libraries
Note: HP StorageWorks NAS devices are servers that connect the systems you need to back up with a tape solution, taking the place of a direct connection between a tape drive and a single system.
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