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Protecting Your Cluster with Arcserve Backup

For mission-critical applications deployed into a cluster environment, the data is the most valuable investment and protection of this data is essential. A cluster environment always involves multiple physical nodes, a virtual name/IP address, and cluster-specific applications, all of which bring additional complexities for the backup and restore application. To address these complexities, Arcserve Backup provides multiple backup and restore capabilities for servers operating in a cluster environment.

Note: Arcserve Backup supports cluster environments for Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) and NEC Cluster Server (CLUSTERPRO/ExpressCluster).

The following diagram shows a typical active/passive cluster environment. The active node in this cluster is associated with two names and IP addresses: one for the physical name of the machine and the other for the virtual name created by the cluster itself or the cluster-aware application. The passive node is associated with only one name, the physical name of the machine. To fully protect the cluster, you need to install the Arcserve Backup agent into both of these physical nodes. In each of these instances, depending on the protected target, Arcserve Backup will be deployed to protect your cluster and back up your data using either the physical node or the virtual node.

Archictecture diagram: Backing up clusters.