Figure 2
| Application | Backup |
| Servers | SAN |
| | Data |
| Application Traffic | |
| Backup | Tape Drives |
| | Dedicated to |
| Clients | Application |
| Servers |
| |
Ethernet
Network
| | | | LAN-Free Backup |
| Backup |
| Leveraging Shared |
| Server | Storage Capability |
Server-Less Backup
Server-less (or server-free) backup involved the task of moving backup data from a disk to a tape without the data traversing the application server itself. In server-less backup, a snapshot of the data to be backed up is taken with minimal or no disruption to applications on the server. The snapshot of the data is then moved intelligently from disk to tape without going through the server. This process alleviates additional CPU load on the application server as it is not in the backup path. The mechanism used to move data directly between disk and tape is the SCSI extended copy command. The component that performs the extended copy SCSI commands can be located in the SAN fabric or server software. Current implementations of server-less backup, such as Legato Celestra Power and Veritas NetBackup, manage the whole process via the backup server. A typical server-less backup scenario is depicted in the figure below. Most customers currently prefer to deploy separate SANs for backup due to a concern for segregated domains. Hence they may not deploy this solution as the disk subsystem and tape drive must coexist on the same SAN.
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