Storage NodeAcronis Backup & Recovery 10 Storage Node is a server aimed to optimize usage of various resources (such as the corporate storage capacity, the network bandwidth, or the managed machines’ CPU load) required for the enterprise data protection. This goal is achieved through organizing and managing the locations that serve as dedicated storages of the enterprise backup archives (managed vaults). The storage nodes enable creating highly scalable and flexible, in terms of the hardware support, storage infrastructure. Up to 20 storage nodes can be set up, each being able to manage up to 20 vaults. The administrator controls the storage nodes centrally from the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server. Direct console connection to a storage node is not possible. Setting up the storage infrastructure Install the storage nodes, add them to the management server (the procedure is similar to the managed machine registration) and create centralized vaults. When creating a centralized vault, specify the path to the vault, the storage node that will manage the vault, and the management operations to be performed on the vault. A managed vault can be organized:
The management operations are as follows. Storage node-side cleanup and validation Archives, stored in unmanaged vaults, are maintained by the agents that create the archives. This means that each agent not only backs up data to the archive, but also executes service tasks that apply to the archive, the retention rules and validation rules specified by the backup plan. To relieve the managed machines of unnecessary CPU load, execution of the service tasks can be delegated to the storage node. Since the tasks’ schedule exists on the machine the agent resides on, and therefore uses that machine’s time and events, the agent has to initiate the storage node-side cleanup and the storage node-side validation according to the schedule. To do so, the agent must be online. Further processing is performed by the storage node. This functionality cannot be disabled in a managed vault. The next two operations are optional. Deduplication A managed vault can be configured as a deduplicating vault. This means that identical data will be backed up to this vault only once to minimize the network usage during backup and storage space taken by the archives. For more information, please see the “Deduplication” section in the User Guide. Encryption A managed vault can be configured so that anything written to it is encrypted and anything read from it is decrypted transparently by the storage node, using a vault-specific encryption key stored on the node server. In case the storage medium is stolen or accessed by an unauthorized person, the malefactor will not be able to decrypt the vault contents without access to this specific storage node. If the archive is already encrypted by the agent, the storage node-side encryption is applied over the encryption performed by the agent. |