Backing up NetWare 6 volumes across the SAN

Is there a product that will backup NetWare 6 volumes across the SAN without having to load the individual servers with the backup task? Our intention is to backup different volumes around the clock but we cannot impact the user access to data. Veritas claims they need agents on the servers to perform the backup.

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Yeah, this is a darn shame, but for some strange reason NetWare seems to always be the forgotten child when it comes to the advanced functions of a SAN. Due to the need to use agents to backup NetWare clients, the backup must be done over the LAN for NetWare. I'm not sure when or even IF Veritas will be adding extended copy support for NetWare, so the NetWare servers could be backed up by Netbackup in a "server less" manner through the SAN. Computer Associates may do this, but I'm not sure on that one either.

The best method would be to use snapshot copies of the NetWare volumes in the storage array, mount the snapshots on a NetWare backup server (one with the Veritas agents) and backup the snapshots. The only downtime you would need is the few minutes needed to pause the application, take the snapshot and resume the application. So your backup window would be down to a few minutes and not impact production after the snap is taken. An added benefit would be the ability to do an "instant" restore, which is a simple matter of mounting the snapshot if the production volume becomes corrupt. Just think, you could restore a 900GB database in 30 seconds!

Chris

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This was first published in April 2002

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