LAN-free data movement

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IBM Storage Protect provides the capability for a client, through a storage agent, to directly back up and restore data to a tape library on a SAN. This type of data movement is also known as LAN-free data movement.

Restriction: Centera storage devices cannot be targets for LAN-free operations.

Figure 1 shows a SAN configuration in which a client directly accesses a tape to read or write data.

Figure 1. LAN-free data movement
Client and server communicate over the LAN. The server controls the device on the SAN. Client data moves over the SAN to the device.

LAN-free data movement requires the installation of a storage agent on the client system. The server maintains the database and recovery log, and acts as the library manager to control device operations. The storage agent on the client handles the data transfer to the device on the SAN. This implementation frees up bandwidth on the LAN that would otherwise be used for client data movement.