Dell PowerVault DL2000 - Manual (Page 7)

Centralized Management
7 October 2008
FEATURES AND BENEFITS OF CASO (CONT.)
RESILIENCY
Disconnected managed media server
To reduce network traffic, or if there is no persistent network connection with the CAS,
managed media servers can be configured to operate independently from the CAS while
maintaining a level of centralization. This is ideal for remote branch offices where
network connectivity may be intermittent. Disconnected managed media servers can
receive copied jobs from the CAS and be monitored and reported by the CAS.
Centralized job delegation
Job delegation is the automatic load balancing of jobs among the various storage
devices attached to the Backup Exec managed media servers. These storage devices,
when logically grouped in device pools, process jobs delegated from the CAS as they
become available. For example, if a drive pool contains two storage devices and one is
busy processing a job, the CAS automatically delegates another job to the idle storage
device.
The advantage of job delegation is realized when a policy is targeted to a device pool
that spans multiple Backup Exec managed media servers. When multiple managed
media servers and their devices are available to the CAS for job delegation, the
efficiency of Backup Exec for Windows Servers is greatly improved because job
processing does not have to wait for a specific device or managed media server to
become available
Centralized job failover
If the job ends in an error or if a managed media server communications are down, the
CAS determines what to do with the job by invoking enabled default or user-defined
error-handling. For example, if communications are lost with a managed media server,
jobs lost will automatically be deployed to another managed media server.
Centralized catalog storage
In the CASO environment, you can choose the catalog location. With Backup Exec, there
are three possible catalog locations:
•
Distributed—Image files, which are small files that contain information about the
backup set, are distributed to the CAS from every managed media server. History
files, which contain detailed information about the backup set, remain on the
managed media server. A distributed catalog provides increased performance,
centralized restore capability, and decreased network traffic.
•
Centralized—All catalog files and information for the managed media server are
kept on the CAS. A centralized catalog is ideal for complete central control of the
catalogs and if the network can handle the extra bandwidth required.