Traffic going over LAN between SAN clients

Question

Hi, I have a new Clariion CX3-40f with several hosts (file server, Networker backup Server etc) attached via Brocade 5000 switches.
I also have a CDL and an ADIC library attached to the fabric as well. I am using Networker 7.4.2 to backup the file server to the CDL and tape.

Here's the problem, when I start the backups the Gigabit NIC on the file server and the backup server go to 100% and stay there until its done.

Shouldn't the data just be moving over fiber within the SAN fabric instead of going out over the LAN? And why isn't it?

**I will post this in the Networker forum as well**

Allen Ward · Accepted Answer

I think this is more a NetWorker question than a CLARiiON question, but the first obvious thing I would ask is... Have you configured your hosts as Dedicated Storage Nodes? If you haven't done that then you will just be backing up over the IP network through the NetWorker server.

If you configure the hosts as DSNs (this includes buying a DSN license and zoning the host to drives in the libraries as well as some configuration on the NetWorker server), you can have the hosts backup over fiber directly to the libraries.

Forgive me if the details are not exactly correct as I am not a NetWorker specialist. But we do use it extensively in our environment and I have a good understanding of the overall architecture since I support it when I'm on-call.

RRR · Answer

Not sure... I'm not a Networker guy, but doesn't Networker use client agents ? IMHO the backupped data is transported over eth from the client to the backup server and from there on to the CDL over FC.

So I guess what you're seeing is exactly what I would be expecting.

Allen Ward · Answer

You are correct Rob,Each NetWorker client has either a host agent (in which case it gets backed up by the NetWorker server over IP or a Dedicated Storage Node where it backs itself up over FC (or iSCSI or whatever you configure) and just transmits the meta data to the NetWorker server.

dynamox · Answer

Allen is exactly correct ...your file server will need to be configured as storage node for lan-free backup ..data will be flowing through your SAN while meta data will be flowing through IP network but that should be trivial.

CLARiiON

Traffic going over LAN between SAN clients

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