[Veritas-bu] SAN media vs "regular" media & SSO

Two points here.

You said in 1. "looks like a SAN media server can back only itself up and
not clients".  This is legally true, but I don't believe there's any real
different code between it and a regular media server, so I believe you can
physically use it to back up clients.

As for 4., you can configure all your drives, but if they're all busy, your
jobs will error out instead of queueing (although this can be fixed with
"queue on error" and the others).  But again, this is really violating what
you're supposed to do with the product.  It'd be the same as having only two
media servers, and leaving one drive out of the total storage unit drive
count so jobs would automatically queue.

Thanks,
Gregg Yurchak
VERITAS Professional Services
Biloxi, MS
Cell:    228.324.6939
Office: 228.822.9810


-----Original Message-----
From: Charlie . [mailto:maver3640 AT hotmail DOT com] 
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2001 7:30 AM
To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Cc: DAllen AT axa.com DOT au; morms AT es DOT com; Kevin_Trotman AT afcc DOT com
Subject: [Veritas-bu] SAN media vs "regular" media & SSO

Hello,
     Thanks very much to all those who replied. Please let me know if my 
summary is wrong:

1. Could someone please explain the difference between a SAN media license 
and a "regular" media license. My understanding is that a media server, by 
default, can run backups (of itself or other clients) using a SCSI or FC 
interface to the tape drive. So what does a SAN media server license give 
me? Is it just saying it is "SAN compatible"?

Though I am still not sure if the terminology has changed from 3.4 & above -

looks like a SAN media server can back only itself up and not clients, while

a regular media server can back itself up and also clients. So, in a SAN, 
you would need your [(SAN) Master server}]license, and [ SAN Unix/NT media 
server licenses = # of Unix/NT clients that need to be directly backed up 
over SAN ], plus [ Unix/NT client licenses = # of clients that are backed up

over the network ].
Phwew! Does that make sense?

2. If it is different, what do I have to do different in configuring a SAN 
media server as opposed to a regular media server?

I understand you would configure just as a normal media server, saying 
robotic control is on a different host (let's say Master) and volume 
database is also Master. Vanilla master/media environment.

3. 3. SSO gives me the option to use all any of my drives in my SAN with any

of my media servers - right? Would I still need an SSO license with a SAN 
media server license?

As I understand, SAN media servers do not replace SSO. I think the fact that

I also received SSO licenses justifies this statement. So, to quote Melinda 
- "the shared storage option is not included with the SAN media server 
license and needs to be purchased separately, neither is the library-based 
tape drive license or the client license to back itself up.

Without SSO, you would only be able to configure a specific drive for
use by only one media server, rather than letting any of them use it if
it was free.  With the SSO license, you configure the drives once for
all the media servers and they share them."

Cool!

4. If I don't use SSO, how many drives would I be able to see and
use from my media servers?

Sorry, I am still not clear on this. Being in a SAN, I would imagine all 
machines (media and regular clients) would be able to see all the drives (if

they are zoned to do so). So I guess by default, I get the license to use 
ONE tape drive to backup my media server locally. Right?

And if I need to not just SEE but USE more than one tape drive, I need the 
SSO.


Thanks everyone.
Charlie.



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