Serverless Backup
LAN
Master
Application Servers
Backup
with
Server
Backup client
Data mover (switch/router
supporting SCSI XCOPY)
SAN
Control data
Application data
Tape
Serverless backup can also remove the media server from the architecture:
The master backup server sends a list of files or records across the LAN
to the backup client.
The backup client translates the list into block addresses and sends the
block addresses to a SAN device that supports the SCSI extended-copy
(XCOPY) command (also known as “third-party copy”). This SAN device
can be an intelligent FC switch platform, an FC router, or a FC-SCSI
bridge. This type of device is sometimes referred to as a “data mover.”
The SAN device then initiates a direct copy of the disk blocks to tape.
Several SCSI-FC routers implement XCOPY, but this limits the application of
serverless backup to legacy SCSI tape libraries that are bridged to the SAN.
Because there are limited serverless backup solutions for native FC tape
devices, serverless backup has not been widely implemented.