HP D7171A - NetServer - LPr Manual page 10

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adapter (HBA) facilitates point-to-point connections. The addition of a hub changes the
Fibre Channel topology from point-to-point to arbitrated loop (FC-AL) and increases
configuration flexibility. Multiple servers and storage units can be interconnected using
HBAs and one or more Fibre Channel hubs. The availability of individual and clustered
servers can also be enhanced when hubs are used to build redundancy into configurations.
Fibre Channel switches support a third topology, fabric, and are becoming widely available
now. The word fabric is meant to convey the image that multiple connections can be
interwoven through the switch, in contrast to the loop orientation of a hub. Unlike hubs,
switches also scale bandwidth upward with each connection made and have the
intelligence to handle certain processes and organize ports into exclusive groups called
zones. Fibre Channel HBAs, hubs, and switches make it possible to build storage networks
that can be managed much like IP networks. Over the next few years, new software will
make it possible to treat storage as a utility that is shared between servers.
Backup Solutions
HP offers a full range of hardware and software products used to back up data on the
server system. For the entry-level servers, QIC/Travan offers cost-effective data protection.
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) provides high performance, high capacity, low cost of ownership,
industry-standard compatibility, and a well-established upgrade path. Digital Linear Tape
(DLT) offers high-end performance for business-critical applications, especially for those
systems where the total disk capacity is greater than
40 GB. High capacity disks require rapid backup solutions. HP offers a rack-mountable,
high availability, tape backup product and TapeRAID backup application software that
stripes backup data across several tape drives. With this configuration, it is possible to
back up almost 1 GB of data per minute.
In the Field of Disaster Recovery solutions, HP offers the world's first hardware based One
Button Disaster Recovery process (OBDR) for Intel Servers, with its HP SureStore DAT
drives. When used with OBDR compatible software this feature saves the DR "boot image"
onto tape as part of your daily backup. Thus the configuration data pertaining to your
system is always kept current and stored with the backup on tape. Even if a total system
failure should occur, the system can still be easily recovered by pressing just one button on
the DAT drive, whereupon the DAT drive emulates a CDROM to recover your total system
from the latest backup tape(s).
Automated backup solutions are strongly recommended. HP SureStore Autoloaders and
DLT Libraries add reliability to the backup process, since the backup is always performed
as scheduled onto the correct cartridge. Automation also frees the IT staff for more
demanding duties and, in remote locations where IT support may not be available, ensures
that the backup is performed.
Clustered server systems increase backup complexity, since the data is actually shared by
2 or more "nodes" in the cluster. The ideal solution to back up Windows NT clusters is to
have the backup devices shared by the nodes of the cluster. The best medium for sharing
devices is Fibre Channel. In this domain, tape libraries become the dominant solution,
offering high capacity, automation and flexibility in backup scheduling. HP currently offers a
HP SureStore Fibre Channel SCSI Bridge that allows multiple servers to be backed up to a
single device via FC. The bridge also enables the connection from SCSI DLT Libraries to
FC storage area networks.
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