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5 Comments Written by Robert on May 5, 2008 – 4:02 am

There are advantages and disadvantages in any choices we make. For instance, consider the purchase of a new vehicle. You want more seating capacity-the advantage-but find that a larger vehicle requires more fuel to operate-the disadvantage. Further, the advantage may even become a disadvantage. For instance, now that you have more seating capacity, you find that you have become the de facto chauffeur whenever you have those large group lunch outings.

You can come up with many reasons why or why not to divide your configuration into multiple server domains. In the following, we outline some advantages and disadvantages of using a single backup server or master and multiple backup servers or masters. The benefits of keeping a single master include having a single point of control, configuration, and backup image catalog repository. This doesn’t sound like much when you are only talking about two servers, one master and one media. However, if you have one master and 22 media servers, it clearly minimizes the complexity of the environment.

Single Point of Administration

There is one location to manage all of the servers within the domain. This includes all of the policy control, job control, device control, and media control. While additional server resources will add some complexity to your environment, having a single point of administrative control will minimize the management effort.

Central Catalog Repository

The image catalog for VERITAS NetBackup typically will be the largest of all the catalogs that it manages, and it is a very critical piece of the puzzle when recovering client data. Having only one master means there is only one location for the image catalog which means there is only one catalog to back up.

Central Configuration Control

Backup policy changes or global configuration changes are made at one server for all of the backup servers within the domain. Again, if we are speaking of two or three servers, this might not sound that terrible, but when the number reaches 22, you then start to see the benefit of a single primary or master server.

Storage Access

With the additional device servers or media servers, there exist more storage devices to be used during the backup process and a sharing of the backup workload across all backup servers. If the reason for the expansion was performance related, this might help to increase the aggregate throughput of the backup jobs.

Minimize Complexity

Simpler is better. You are less likely to have a misunderstanding with some of the more junior members of the administration staff, or even the more senior members. A single-master approach also minimizes the site documentation that needs to be developed and maintained, which we know can be tedious work.

Scalability

At least with NetBackup, its strength is in its scalability; it can transition from a small to medium-size site with one server acting as both master and media server to an environment with multiple media servers protecting the enterprise and all being controlled by one master server.

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