IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

NDMP backup for Network Attached Storage

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Extended Edition uses Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) to perform high-performance, scalable backups and restores. The backups and restores minimize network traffic and transfer data outboard of the Tivoli Storage Manager client and server.

When doing backups and restores, the NAS device, the Storage Manager server and client all have specific roles. See the figure below.

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IBM Tivoli Storage Manager currently offers the ability to back up and restore data on NAS devices that support NDMP version 3.0 and version 4.0. See the device support page for a list of NAS devices that are certified to work with Tivoli Storage Manager. Full or differential backups can be performed at a directory or filesystem level, including snapshots which are stored as either filesystems or subdirectories. Restores can be performed of an entire file system or selected files/directories within the file system. Multiple backup and restore operations can be performed in parallel.

Currently, NDMP for full or differential backups can be performed at a directory or filesystem level, including snapshots which are stored as either filesystems or subdirectories to a Tivoli Storage Manager server running on AIX, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, Linux, or Windows®. This uses NDMP to back up a full file system image and to restore an entire file system image. Once a full backup image has been created, subsequent backups can be differential images. A differential image consists of all the files that have changed since the previous full image backup. The restore of a differential image automatically restores the differential image after the appropriate full image has been restored. Backup and restore operations can be scheduled using the administrative command scheduler.

During backup and restore operations, data flows directly between the tape drive and the NAS appliance. NDMP operations can be performed using SCSI or ACSLS tape libraries. Additionally, 349X tape libraries may be used with some NAS devices. Refer to the Tivoli Storage Manager device support web page and your NAS vendor's documentation for complete NDMP device support. NDMP for NAS backup works with either a SCSI-attached tape device local to the NAS appliance, or with a SAN-attached SCSI or ACSLS device that can be shared with the Storage Manager server. Drives must be supported by both the NAS appliance and the NAS operating system. Drives can be dedicated to NDMP operations from a single NAS file server or can be shared. Multiple NAS appliances can share tape resources if they have FC access to the drive and if backups are performed via the same Storage Manager server. Depending on the configuration, drives can be shared with LAN-free backup/restore operations.

For more information on hardware and software requirements.