On 9/14/2006 3:26 AM, J K wrote:
> Hi,  I just joined the list so I'm a newcomer, both in the list and in
> the NetBackup world in general.
> I've all of a sudden taken over the management of a Windows server having
> NetBackup ver 4.5 installed. There's a tape drive in the machine.
> 
> Now, the server pointed to have been shut down since a long time ago and
> noone has been taking care of making backups since then. Someone said that
> he was sure it was possible to make a backup to the tape drive in the
> machine using NetBackup. But, from what I've understood, you can't do
> anything unless there's a NetBackup server somewhere that, in turn,
> connects to the tape drive. Is this true?

NetBackup has 3 major components - a master server (which holds the 
catalog), a media server (which writes to backup storage units like disk 
or tape), and clients.  All 3 are required although they can all be on 
the same system.

If you do not have a master server, then you're probably not going to 
want to install it just to back up one client - you'd be far cheaper off 
going with some like BackupExec.  If you do have a master server, you 
could make your client a media server so that it can drive the tape 
drive.  Those licenses aren't cheap either and you don't typically make 
a server a media server unless it's writing data to tape for multiple 
clients.  A SAN media server license is cheaper and is typically used to 
backup just yourself directly to a tape drive.  Again, you need to 
review the price of it versus another product completely especially for 
a small computer club.

All that said, NetBackup 4.5 is old.  You should upgrade to the latest 
maintenance pak in the 5.1 version.

        .../Ed


-- 
Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts at ewilts.org