Protecting NAS file servers

You can configure and manage a backup environment that protects a network-attached storage (NAS) file server.

You can use the IBM Spectrum® Protect server, the IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client, or IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot to back up and restore a NAS file server as described in the following table.

Product	Description
IBM Spectrum Protect server	To back up and restore NAS file server data by using the IBM Spectrum Protect server, you must have IBM Spectrum Protect Extended Edition installed. You can configure the IBM Spectrum Protect server to use the network data management protocol (NDMP) to back up and restore data as described in the following topics in this section. To protect large NetApp file systems, you can alternatively configure IBM Spectrum Protect to use NetApp SnapMirror to Tape (also known as SMTape). SnapMirror to Tape uses a block-level copy of data for backup, which is faster than a traditional NDMP full backup and can be used when NDMP full backups are impractical. For information about using SnapMirror to Tape to back up and restore data, see Backup and restore operations by using the NetApp SnapMirror to Tape feature.
IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client	You can configure the backup-archive client to back up and restore file server data by using the Network File System (NFS) or Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocol. For information about using the backup-archive client to back up and restore data, see Back up and restore data with backup-archive clients.
IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot	You can use IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot to back up and restore file server data by using the advanced snapshot technologies of storage systems. For information about using IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot to back up and restore data, see IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot Overview or Tivoli® Storage FlashCopy® Manager for VMware.

Product

Description

IBM Spectrum Protect server

To back up and restore NAS file server data by using the IBM Spectrum Protect server, you must have IBM Spectrum Protect Extended Edition installed.

You can configure the IBM Spectrum Protect server to use the network data management protocol (NDMP) to back up and restore data as described in the following topics in this section.

To protect large NetApp file systems, you can alternatively configure IBM Spectrum Protect to use NetApp SnapMirror to Tape (also known as SMTape). SnapMirror to Tape uses a block-level copy of data for backup, which is faster than a traditional NDMP full backup and can be used when NDMP full backups are impractical.

For information about using SnapMirror to Tape to back up and restore data, see Backup and restore operations by using the NetApp SnapMirror to Tape feature.

IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client

You can configure the backup-archive client to back up and restore file server data by using the Network File System (NFS) or Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocol.

For information about using the backup-archive client to back up and restore data, see Back up and restore data with backup-archive clients.

IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot

You can use IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot to back up and restore file server data by using the advanced snapshot technologies of storage systems.

For information about using IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot to back up and restore data, see IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot Overview or Tivoli® Storage FlashCopy® Manager for VMware.