Data Protection
Serverless Backup
Serverless Backup
• Minimize server impact
– Data travels directly from disk to tape
– Uses SCSI Extended Copy Command
• Centralize backup management
• Reduce backup window substantially
FC attached
Data
tape library
Backup
server
SAN
Commands
storage
Serverless backup takes the LAN and the server out of the backup data path:
In a LAN-free backup, there is no good functional reason for the backup
data to flow through the server at all, other than to maintain compatibility
with older backup applications which expect to work that way. Meanwhile
the high I/O throughput affects server performance.
A recent approach is to use the SAN to do direct storage-to-storage
copies to implement backups. This frees the server to run applications
while backups are running.
A server is still required for backup management, but the backup data
does not pass through the server.
The SCSI Extended Copy Command, which will make direct storage-to-
storage copying much easier, is currently going through approval, and might
need some work to reach “industrial strength”. For the time being, some
vendors might offer direct storage-to-storage solutions that use proprietary
technologies.