Planning Storage Environments › Data Transfer Requirements › Alternate Data Path Considerations › Segment Your Network

Segment Your Network

In many cases, you can make better use of your existing network bandwidth by placing Arcserve Backup servers on different subnets.

• In the absence of subnets, all backup data has to cross a single network to reach the Arcserve Backup servers. In effect, every piece of data travels sequentially to every node on the network.
• When you subnet your network, in effect you create two or more networks of equal speed, each of which handles a fraction of the backup data. Data travels in parallel.

In our example, if we backed up 500 GB on two subnets instead of 1 Terabyte on the entire network, we could back up twice as fast. Each subnet could transfer its 500 GB at 36 GB per hour for a total elapsed time of 14 hours (versus 28 hours). In our 5-hour backup window, we could transfer 360 GB, which, though not enough, is still far better than the 180 GB we could attain over a network that is not subnetted.