A NetBackup master server manages the who, what, where, when, and why
A backup server under the control of a NetBackup master server is called a media server, which is any NetBackup server having management control over physical storage devices, such as tapes, tape drives, optical drives, robotic control, and robotic management. The media server will respond to requests from the NetBackup master server for tape mounts and optical mounts, and it tracks the physical condition and location of all the media.
The architecture of this expansion takes on a new perspective, since this client was using VERITAS NetBackup Version 3.4, which does not support the pooling of the logical storage or storage units. Had the client deployed NetBackup Version 4.5, they could have used storage unit groups to contain the data to a geographic location. For example, if all the data in building B had to be backed up to building A, a storage unit group could have been created containing all of building A’s storage units. Then all they would have had to do is modify the backup policies to use the storage unit group versus the single storage unit. If you find yourself running into this situation, you should consider an upgrade to Version 4.5.
So this would mean that all backup policies for building B would have to specifically request the storage unit in building B. If building B never grows beyond its current size, this would work out beautifully, but as I know, data grows, so eventually they would have had to expand with yet another media server in building B. Then the complexity of this solution under NetBackup Version 3.4 increases and becomes much more difficult to manage.
In this scenario, the administrator would basically be required to ‘balance’ the backup policies between the storage units. However, this didn’t meet the original expectations of the business unit managers, who wanted to have their data off-site as soon after the backup as possible. The idea of a cross-building backup was introduced; again, this would have worked well with NetBackup Version 4.5, using the storage unit groups.