About NetBackup failover server data protection in a cluster

NetBackup protects the data in a cluster environment in several ways.

When NetBackup is installed as a failover server, a NetBackup server is installed on the cluster as a virtual server application. Then the server can fail over from one of the nodes to the other. The server is assigned a network name resource (the virtual server name), an IP address resource, and a disk resource. The NetBackup server fails over from one node to another if a failure occurs on the active node. This failover provides high availability of the NetBackup server itself.

For failover primary servers, the virtual server name is used as the name of the primary server. This virtual name is used for all media servers and clients that use this primary server.

When a failover occurs, the backup jobs that were running are rescheduled with the normal NetBackup retry logic for a failed backup. The NetBackup services are started on another node and the backup processing resumes.

The NetBackup failover primary servers operate in an active-passive failover configuration. The active node and the passive (or failover node) must be the same version of the primary server.

The use of stand-alone media servers and NetBackup clients in a cluster is also briefly described later in this document.