On 02 25, 2010, at 9:41 AM, Matthew Powell wrote:

> We have an environment set up that has just one physical backup server right 
> now. We are in the planning stages of setting up a storage node to help with 
> the load. I have a question about the storage node. If for some reason the 
> primary server went down could the storage node take the primary servers 
> place and if so is this something that would be an easy switch or alot of 
> work? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time. 

Your storage node will stop working if the NetWorker server that controls it 
fails. Since a storage node lacks the NetWorker server binaries and the 
contents of /nsr/indexes as well as the configuration for all your backup 
devices, your only option for using your storage node to do backups in the 
absence of your NetWorker server would be to promote your storage node to a 
server, then treat it as a DR situation where you would use mmrecov on the 
storage node in order to bring back the most recent media index, then take the 
usual steps to restore the client file index. To do this, it is best of the 
storage node and the NetWorker server run the same Operating System and of 
course, have access to the same type of backup media hardware as does your 
server.

By the time you do all of this, it might be easier to simply fix the problem 
with your server and bring it back online. If you do end up using your 
NetWorker storage node as a server, you will need to reverse the DR process on 
the original server once it is fixed in order to keep the media and client file 
indexes current.

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